9-3-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

What To Do With All Those Thompson T-Shirts?

NYC Educator wants your ideas.He wants to know what all those Unity chapter leaders should do with their Thompson t-shirts after Thompson loses the nomination.I thought the UFTsters could put them with their Alan Hevesi, Fernando Ferrer and Mark Green shirts and sell them on Ebay.Might fetch as much as five bucks for that impressive lot of collectors items.Go on over to NYC Educator and leave your

by reality-based edu... / 1h 

The Final Mayoral Debate

The other candidates tried to beat up on Bill de Blasio, but I don't think they were very successful at seriously damaging him.Harry Enten's take:The thing that happened today that will have gr8 impact on next Tuesday is Q-Pac poll, not this debate.— Harry Enten (@ForecasterEnten) September 3, 2013 Simply put, there's nothing in this debate that changes the trajectory of anything.— Harry Enten (@F

by reality-based edu... / 9min 

AFT, NYSUT Criticize Cuomo For Saying Schools Deserve "Death Penalty"

I was wondering hoe long the leaderships at the various teachers unions were going to ignore Cuomo's statement that "failing" schools deserve the "death penalty."Some of them finally issued statements today: After not commenting throughout the holiday weekend, New York State United Teachers President Richard Iannuzzi joined with American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten Tuesday af

by reality-based edu... / 23min 

Why We Should Be Careful About The Quinnipiac Poll

I'm no pollster, but why has the Q-poll sample of black Dem likely voters dropped from 35% to 27% to 25% in last three polls?— Nick Confessore (@nickconfessore) September 3, 2013There's a lot of muttering around the Internets about that Quinnipiac poll out today showing de Blasio with a commanding lead in the Democratic primary for mayor. They're polling fewer black voters (you can see the traject

by reality-based edu... / 40min 

What De Blasio Is Really Saying In His Call For A Closure/Co-Location Moratorium

First, in case you were working all day and missed the press release, here's the important stuff:Brooklyn, NY – Public Advocate and Democratic candidate for mayor Bill de Blasio today criticized Mayor Bloomberg’s eleventh-hour efforts to push through deeply divisive school co-location plans, and blasted Bloomberg’s chief ally Speaker Quinn for refusing to call for a moratorium on school co-locatio

by reality-based edu... / 5min 

De Blasio Tops 40% In New Quinnipiac Poll

No wonder the tabloids and his opponents are attacking him so fiercely:New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio has opened up a commanding lead in the race for New York City mayor, capturing 43 percent of those surveyed in a Quinnipiac Poll released this afternoon. The poll found former city Comptroller Bill Thompson receives 20 percent and Council Speaker Christine Quinn has 18 percent of the

by reality-based edu... / 2min 

More Predictions Of Doom If Municipal Unions Are Given Raises

It seems being a municipal union worker with an expired contract who expects to have a raise makes you a bad person.In fact, the NY Times editorial board says you just might cause the apocalypse with that kind of attitude.You know, Mayor Bloomberg, the self-described fiscal genius,was the guy who let every municipal union contract expire so that all of them now have to be negotiated at the same ti

by reality-based edu... / 1h 

Great Video From The MORE Caucus On Testing

by reality-based edu... / 1min 

Quinn, Thompson Say They Will Focus Attacks On De Blasio In Last Debate

Seven days to go, the last debate before Primary Day - Quinn and Thompson say they will aim their fire at de Blasio:Christine Quinn and Bill Thompson, fighting for second place in the race for the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor, are expected to train their fire on frontrunner Bill de Blasio on Tuesday night in the campaign's final televised debate. Ms. Quinn, the City Council speake

by reality-based edu... / 21min 

You Can Have A Raise, But Only If You Pay For Your Health Care

That's the message from the plutocracy for NYC municipal union workers:A mayor who signs costly contracts would face the politically fraught prospect of raising taxes, budget experts say. Pushing for big concessions risks a continued stalemate, which isn't a palatable alternative for the Democratic candidates—one of whom is likely to be the next mayor in the overwhelmingly Democratic city—who depe

by reality-based edu... / 2h 

9-2-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:  Andrew Cuomo Worries His Own Corruption Commission Will Investigate Him For CorruptionApparently Little Andy picked two people to head his Moreland Commission to investigate corruption who are just as hungry for career advancement and media attention as he is and now it's coming back to haunt him:Senior aides to Gov. Cuomo are increasingly worried that the Moreland Act Comm

by mike simpson / 7h 

9-3-13 Wait What?

Wait What?:

You want the truth, read the Real Hartford blog

Blogger and policy advocate, Kerri Provost, writes a powerful, insightful and extremely interesting blog which can be found at: http://www.realhartford.org/. Today’s post, which is entitled Hartford Board of Ed: Out of Order is a must read for anyone interested in how education reform policy, charter schools and Hartford politics are all intertwined. Kerri Provost writes, […]The post You want the

10 by jonpelto / 22min 

Add Public School Shakedown to your bookmarks

A new resource to fight the Education Reform Industry has arrived. Progressive Magazine, the historic publication dedicated to promoting a liberal voice in America has created a new website called Public School Shakedown (www.publicschoolshakedown.org). As its founders explain, “Public School Shakedown will be dedicated to EXPOSING the behind-the-scenes effort to privatize our public schools, and

5 by jonpelto / 12min 

3,400+ visit Wait, What? on busy holiday weekend

Despite the fact that many people were away or busy with Labor Day activities, more than 3,400 visitors stopped by Wait, What? to read or weigh in on the latest posts. In case you missed it, weekend posts included; Special Master Adamowski’s Failing Grade in Windham  (Saturday) As if the term “Special Master” wasn’t bad […]The post 3,400+ visit Wait, What? on busy holiday weekend appeared first on

3 by jonpelto / 9min 

9-2-13 Wait What?

Wait What?: Less time on standardized testing, more attention on bullying and safe school climates!The recent suicide of a Greenwich student is a sad reminder of the failed priorities and lack of leadership coming out of Malloy’s State Department of Education. Connecticut state law required Commissioner Pryor to issue its report on Bullying and Safe School Climate Plans no later than February 2012

by mike simpson / 5h 

The Educated Reporter: Chicago Study: Preschool Absences Predict Student Learning Struggles in Later Grades

The Educated Reporter: Chicago Study: Preschool Absences Predict Student Learning Struggles in Later Grades:

Chicago Study: Preschool Absences Predict Student Learning Struggles in Later Grades

Students who were chronically absent as preschoolers lagged in academic and social-emotional development, and were five times more likely to be chronically absent in second grade, according to a new study from the University of ChicagoConsortium on Chicago School Research.

The study has implications for schools and communities beyond the Windy City, said Hedy Chang, director of Attendance Works, a national advocacy group.

"People tend to think of attendance as a middle and high school problem, but this study demonstrates conclusively that attendance matters as early as pre-kindergarten,” Chang said in a statement. “We keep talking about the value of early education, but it’s only valuable if children show up regularly so they get the most out of the enriched learning experience.”  

Chronic absenteeism is defined by researchers as missing at least 10 percent of the academic year's instructional days. The consortium's study covered the 2008-2012 academic years in the nation's third-largest school district. Four different programs 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Obama's Labor Day photo op. Philly teachers may strike.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Obama's Labor Day photo op. Philly teachers may strike.:

Obama's Labor Day photo op. Philly teachers may strike.

Obama Labor Day Photo Op

If you Google Obama's Labor Day Speech, the first news articles that come up will be about his intentions to lob missiles into Damascus. His actual Labor Day speech was little more than empty rhetoric and a hard-hat-wearing photo op with a few real factory workers. None of the pro-labor initiatives promised back in 2008 have even been mentioned again and unions are in the weakest position in decades with right-wing governors successfully pushing so-called  "right-to-work" legislation in dozens of states.

The New York Times reports that there have been virtually no net full-time jobs added in the U.S. over the past three years — since the depth of the recession. A key reason the unemployment rate has declined is because so many people have stopped looking for work; adult work-force participation is near historic lows. The vast majority of jobs being created are part time, often without benefits. The U.S. Labor Department reports the average workweek is now less than 33 hours in several huge industries: leisure/hospitality, education, health services and retail trade.

In the classical terminology of Marx, a large reserve army of labor reduces both the individual and the collective bargaining power of workers, enabling capital to 

9-3-13 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:

Infographic: “What’s a Toilet Worth?”

I’m adding this infographic to The Best Resources For Learning About World Toilet Day & The Issue Of Public Sanitation In The Third World: by worldbank.Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

3 by Larry Ferlazzo / 2min 

The “Broken Picture Telephone” Online Game Is Back!

Broken Picture Telephone is an online “take-off” on the old game of “Telephone” (where one person whispers to another and so on — a favorite game of ESL teachers to promote speaking practice. It had been taken off-line three years ago, but just came back. I’m just going to quote from Jay is Games to describe how the online game works: Someone writes out a phrase (essentially an idea for a drawing

3 by Larry Ferlazzo / 5min 

Interview: “Self-Driven Learning and Student Motivation”

School Leadership Briefing just posted a fifteen minute audio interview they did with me over the summer. Here’s how they describe it: Efforts to improve our schools are typically focused on teaching, curriculum, and testing, but ignore a critical piece of the puzzle—the students. In this segment, Larry Ferlazzo, author of the book, Self-Driven Learning: Teaching Strategies for Student Motivation,

3 by Larry Ferlazzo / 6min

Special NY Times Section On Science Education

The New York Times just published a special section on science education called Science Times Special Section: Learning What Works. It seems surprisingly ambitious. Here are just a few of the articles it includes: Sesame Street Widens Its Focus Young Students Against Bad Science Standard-Bearer in Evolution Fight: Eugenie C. Scott Fights the Teaching of Creationism in Schools Guesses and Hype Giv

3 by Larry Ferlazzo / 43min 

9-2-13 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: Extremely Positive Review Of Our ESL/ELL BookThe Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language — August, 2013 has just published a very positive review of our book, The ESL/ELL Teacher’s Survival Guide. Look for it under “Reviews” on the right side of the page. It’s a pretty lengthy review by Grace Christino at the Un

by mike simpson / 10h m

Recapturing How I Taught U.S. History a Half-century Ago: Doing Current Events | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Recapturing How I Taught U.S. History a Half-century Ago: Doing Current Events | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Recapturing How I Taught U.S. History a Half-century Ago: Doing Current Events

My memory of teaching over a half-century ago is filled with holes. In thinking back to the time when I began teaching at Glenville High School in Cleveland (OH) in 1956 as a 21 year-old novice, I can recall some events, some students, some teachers, but there is much I forgot. I do remember well, however, that the students were nearly all Negro—the words “black” and “African American” were not in general use then.

As for what I did daily in my five U.S. and world history classes that year and the next six that I taught there, only slivers of memory come to mind. And even those fragments are disconnected. I do have students’ reminiscences of lessons I taught, a few actual “study guides” that I prepared weekly for my U.S. history classes, student papers with my comments on them, occasional articles about one or more classes of mine in the student newspaper, and photos of me teaching in the annual yearbook. That’s it.

In assembling those shards of memory and documents from more than a half-century ago knowing what I know about teaching history to teenagers, I find it hard to sort out what I actually did in my classroom from what I would have liked to have done.

Consider current events in history courses. I do remember that I set aside Fridays to teach current events. Either in my first or second year of teaching, I 

Common Core Criticized at Defending the American Dream Summit | Truth in American Education

Common Core Criticized at Defending the American Dream Summit | Truth in American Education:

Common Core Criticized at Defending the American Dream Summit

Filed in Common Core State Standards by Shane Vander Hart on September 3, 2013 • 0 Comments

• 1

Americans for Prosperity Foundation held their annual Defending the American Dream Summit in Orlando, FL last Friday and Sunday.  The Common Core State Standards were discussed by a number of the speakers (and by the crowd on occasion).

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) reemphasized his opposition to the Common Core State Standards which you can see in a video taken by The Shark Tank where he received overwhelming praise from the activists gathered.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) in his comments during the ending session of the summit said, ““There is a grass-roots uprising that is sweeping this nation.  The American people are standing up and saying we want our freedom back. And I’m going to give the simplest and best advice for President Obama and for Republicans and Democrats in Congress: Listen to the people… Listen to the people on Common Core.”

Cruz received loud applause mentioning the Common Core.

Florida Governor Rick Scott was heckled by the audience due to his support of the Common Core State Standards.

Conservative syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin poked at the Common Core during her speech on Friday night and during a Saturday morning workshop at the companion conference held by 

Should teachers be parents first?:

Should teachers be parents first?

By Valerie Strauss, Published: September 3 at 7:00 amE-mail the writer

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(By Mark Burrier for The Washington Post)

Should people who want to be teachers become parents first?

The idea is raised in this Slate article by Sara Mosle, who writes that she joined Teach For America some 20 years ago and when she was “single, childless, and clueless about even the most basic aspects of child-rearing.” Now a mother, she has two decades later returned to school as a teacher and has found that she is “acutely aware of how being a parent has made me a better teacher.”

While I still have a reformer’s high expectations for my students, I am more flexible about discipline, in part because I’d never want my daughter to be so docile she wouldn’t rock the boat. Now when parents approach me with worries or high hopes for the future, I have greater respect for their commingled love and fears. I also have a far stronger sense than I did at 25 that children’s lives are not static but instead endlessly fluid. They flow in waves of achievements and setbacks, with their own peculiar weather systems and mysterious currents that can change from week to week and month to year and, in the storms of adolescence, from hour to minute.

It would be ludicrous to suggest that all teachers should be parents first. (How many family people do you know that are such poor parents you wish they were childless?) But that isn’t her point. Rather, Mosle says that no school should have a teaching corps 

 

Back to school — by the numbers

It’s the traditional beginning of the new school year, and here, courtesy of the National Center of Education Statistics, a department of the U.S. Education Department, are facts and figures about the return to the classroom. The bottom line: America’s … Continue reading →    

6 by Valerie Strauss / 3h m

State Ed Board considers key questions surrounding LCFF regs SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources

SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources:

State Ed Board considers key questions surrounding LCFF regs
By Tom Chorneau
Tuesday, September 03, 2013

This week school administrators anxious over the lack of regulations governing use of more than $2 billion in new state formula funding should get some new insight over how much interim guidance the state board intends to provide.

Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders adopted a sweeping restructuring of the state’s K-12 education funding formula giving local school boards far more control over spending decisions. But the Local Control Funding Formula also mandates new accountability measures that include requirements for districts to get input from parents and the community before money is spent, and for school managers to use new indicators for tracking student performance.

Although the budget act called out the legislative priorities and goals, the difficult work of putting the intent into functional regulations has been left to the California State Board of Education. The first batch of the LCFF money has already been distributed to schools, but the state board is still months away from promulgating the new regulations.

In a report to the board from the California Department of Education, staff noted that members will be asked this week to give direction on a variety of issues aimed at getting spending regulations completed by Jan. 31, 2014.

There is some expectation that the board’s collective response at this month’s meeting as well as those through the 

New (cool) education website | Seattle Education

New (cool) education website | Seattle Education:

New (cool) education website

I’m not saying this new website is cool because I’m a featured writer (yeah right), but it is part of The Progressive Magazine so that in itself gives it creds.

To follow is the press release:

The Progressive Magazine announces a major new online resource to EXPOSE the behind-the-scenes effort to privatize our public schools, and CONNECT pro-public school activists nationwide.

Official launch date: September 3, 2013 (that’s today).

Special Features:

• Live chats with major national figures in the pro-public school
movement
• Original reporting telling the whole story of the behind-the-
scenes effort to privatize our public schools
• Breaking news updates by a national network of bloggers
• A hub to connect parents, teachers, and concerned citizens
who want to defend our public schools
• An interactive map tracking privatization legislation in the
States

August 2013:

Who’s Behind the Attack on Public Schools?
By Ruth Conniff, Brendan Fischer, and Rebecca Kemble

The attack on public education is an attack on the very heart of our democracy.

Yet the “school choice” movement has succeeded in setting the terms of the conversation. To the layperson, “school choice” and “education reform” sound like benign policy goals that aim to improve children’s access to high-quality education.

Too few lay people understand that behind these buzzwords there is a coordinated, well financed ideological attack on the very idea of free, excellent public schools that are open to every child.

Local organizations of parents, teachers, and activists lack the network and organization that the school-choice movement has built so effectively. This site will help fill that gap.

In straightforward, vivid, and comprehensible prose, we intend to lay out the threat to public education and help the ordinary citizens who are not education experts