Thursday, October 31, 2013

New Endorsements for Sue Peters, Seattle school board candidate | Seattle Education

New Endorsements for Sue Peters, Seattle school board candidate | Seattle Education:

New Endorsements for Sue Peters, Seattle school board candidate

NEW ENDORSEMENTS:
The Seattle Medium newspaper
American Postal Workers Union Seattle Local
The Green Party
Sarah Sense-Wilson, Native American leader

Larry Gossett & Sue Peters at MAP Bridging the Gap breakfast

“Sue will come up with creative ideas to close the
learning gap. Please join me and vote for Sue Peters!”
-Larry Gossett, King County Councilmember

A letter from Sue Peters:

Dear Supporters of Seattle Public Schools,

Less than a week to go before Election Day! Please remember to VOTE! And pass it on!
Ballots must be mailed no later than Tuesday, Nov 5. Please forward this e-mail on to all your friends, family and colleagues!

According to Seattle Weekly (Oct 15), School Board District 4 is The Hottest Race in Town!

Here are links to more local and national news:

The Stranger announces its General Election Endorsements & and Cheat Sheet! – Oct. 16

Seattle School Board Candidates Clash on Testing, State Standards- KUOW 94.9 FM – Oct. 17

Could a Wealthy Few Decide Seattle’s School Board Races?- Oct. KUOW 94.9 FM – Oct.18

Who Raised Over a Quarter Million Dollars for Local School Board Races?- Diane Ravitch’s Blog – Oct 18

Please help support Sue’s campaign.

GIFTS FOR YOU!

If you donate $500 or more to Sue Peter’s campaign, an autographed copy of Reign of Error, by Diane Ravitch is your special gift! Be sure to read the New York Times review.

Meteorologist Cliff Mass is offering a custom weather forecast to anyone who donates $500 or more. Cliff says, “That means I will do a forecast just for them for an outing, wedding, hike, you name it.”

For a donation of $250 or more Cliff will give you an autographed copy of his fantastic book, The Weather of the Pacific Northwest. To find out why he’s such an avid supporter read his blog, Wealthy Folks Try to Take Over the Seattle School Board, Again.

You may donate up to $900, and any amount is welcome. Help Sue reach the goal of $35,000.

Marty McLaren, Garfield High School students & Sue Peters at MAP Bridging the Gap breakfast.

ENDORSED BY:
Seattle Education Association,
Seattle Councilmember Nick Licata,
Diane Ravitch,
The Stranger

The Seattle Medium
King County Democrats
Senators Maralyn Chase &
Bob Hasegawa,
Reps. Gerry Pollet & Cindy Ryu,
Sharon Tomiko Santos
King County Councilmember
Larry Gossett
National Women’s Political Caucus
M. L. King County Labor Council, Local 609

Teamsters 28

American Postal Workers- Seattle local
Metropolitan Democrats
11th, 32nd, 34th, 36th, 37th and
43rd Legislative District Democrats
Seattle School Board Directors Marty McLaren,
Betty Patu, Sharon Peaslee, Kay Smith-Blum;
former School Board Director Mary Bass,
Estela Ortega, Kay Bullitt, Frank Irigon, Cliff Mass, Sarah Sense-Wilson,
The Green Party

Ratings:
Highest rating in the race from
SEAMEC (Exceeds Expectations)

Municipal League: Very good.

I’m proud of the fiscally responsible, smart, community-based campaign we’ve been running. Our investment is in outreach, not overhead. My volunteers are priceless.

Sue Peters for Seattle School Board Election Night Celebration:

November 5th at the MarQueen Hotel in the Tin Lizzie Lounge

600 N. Queen Anne Ave – (between Roy & Mercer) from 6:30-9:30pm, Nov 5.

Join us to celebrate our historic grass roots campaign!

What Sue Peters supports:

* Sound fiscal and academic decisions that direct resources to the classroom and our students;

* Rich, engaging curricula that help all students fulfill their potential and enjoy learning;

* Giving teachers the professional respect and support they need to do their jobs well.

* Less testing, more teaching.
To endorse Sue, send an email to suepeters4sps@yahoo.com and note how you want to be identified.

Let’s Keep Public Education Public!

suepeters4schoolboard.org suepeters4sps@yahoo.com

Keep It Simple for Our Youngest Learners — Whole Child Education

Keep It Simple for Our Youngest Learners — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

Keep It Simple for Our Youngest Learners

October 31, 2013 by Kevin Scott

As we wrap up the month looking at education for our youngest learners, there are many pieces of the equation to grapple with. Like most of you reading this, I cringe at the politicization of education issues that we often see online, on TV, or in other media formats. After all, there is no magic wand to wave for our systematic education woes. On the other hand, there is overwhelming research that shows early education and intervention work wonders on preventing bigger issues down the road.

As a dad to two boys, there seems to be an abundance of attention about boys in schools, and there's added pressure for them to do well. A recent post on Time Magazine's education blog focuses on how to help boys succeed. Yet, as my boys reach the age where standardized testing is the norm (3rd and 5th grades), I remember fondly the days before they were focused on end-of-year tests. I think back to math manipulative chains in preschool, learning independently in a Montessori setting, and having a blast giggling in music and movement classes when they were toddlers. When I ask my boys what their favorite memories are from their early days in preschool, they say "the nice teachers and the friends I made." I know those teachers and friends and the relationships they've created are going to carry beyond the years in school. Through my own Facebook page we keep in touch with the teachers, and they love to get updates and see photos of my boys as they watch them grow up. Keeping in touch in the 21st century is as simple as posting a Halloween or back-to-school photo with a simple caption.

At every step of the way, my wife and I have tried to teach our boys empathy and the value of being mindful of

Empathy and Racism

Post written by Madeleine Rogin for Ashoka's Start Empathy Initiative, a whole child partner organization. Leading education theorists, such as Howard Gardner and Tony Wagner, have written about the importance of cultivating our students' abilities to communicate across "networks"—skills that are crucial to success in our new global reality. And indeed, there's already been a popular a

by Start Empathy / 37min mark as read // save

Putting Early Childhood Education into Action

A whole child approach to education ensures that each child, in each school, and in each community is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. With our interactive Whole Child Examples Map tool, you can find examples of schools and communities worldwide that are implementing a whole child approach to education, including these early childhood education programs. Each example highlights

by ASCD Whole Child ... / 37min

National panel of state school chiefs callsfor teacher prep update SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources

SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources:

National panel of state school chiefs callsfor teacher prep update
By Tom Chorneau
Thursday, October 31, 2013

Just as common national curriculum standards are transforming instruction inside the K-12 classroom, a new report from the Council of Chief State School Officers is calling for a similar refocusing of teacher preparation programs.

Strategies that states are being urged to adopt include new visions surrounding licensing that account not only for what new teachers and principals should know about the Common Core standards but also changes in pedagogy such as cross- or inter-disciplinary perspectives; teaming and collaborative problem solving; assessment literacy to define, collect and interpret data.

Members of a national task force on educator preparation also called for a move away from testing as the only means for defining competency to an actual showing of a candidates’ knowledge and skill.

The panel, led by Tom Luna, state schools chief in Idaho, also called for a tiered system of employment that offers

NYC Public School Parents: Southold Superintendent demands right to opt out of data sharing, citing state's contract with inBloom

NYC Public School Parents: Southold Superintendent demands right to opt out of data sharing, citing state's contract with inBloom:

Southold Superintendent demands right to opt out of data sharing, citing state's contract with inBloom

Superintendent David Gamberg credit: Suffolk Times

As more and more districts give back their Race to the Top funds to protect student privacy, so they don't have to sign up for data dashboards that will be populated with personal data from the inBloom cloud, they also realize that this does not spare their student data from being uploaded by NYSED anyway.

Commissioner King has been adamant that personal and highly sensitive data from the entire state's public school population will be shared with inBloom whether districts sign up for dashboards or not.
See this comment from the School board President in Spackenkill NY, Arij Kurzum, upon returning these funds and turning down the dashboards, because it "was what people in the community wanted and the reaction seems favorable.

“I think our job is not done by just pulling out of Race to the Top,” she said. “The state is still going to get that information ... and they’re still going to put it in inBloom.”

But see the letter written to inBloom by Superintendent, David Gamberg of Southhold LI, below. He identified a

Racing to the Bottom through School Choice and Privatization | janresseger

Racing to the Bottom through School Choice and Privatization | janresseger:

Racing to the Bottom through School Choice and Privatization

Posted on October 31, 2013 by janresseger

Here is a third and final reflection stimulated by my trip last weekend to Fort Wayne, Indiana. (The first two pieces are here and here.) At an afternoon forum last Sunday on public education—during panel discussions and in informal conversations—I heard people trying to parse out the impact on their lives of Indiana’s rapidly accelerating privatization of public schools.

Indiana has a three-year-old, rapidly growing voucher program that has, according to the Associated Press, doubled in size since last year. And Indiana hosts a thriving charter school sector. While the sponsors of charter schools persistently refer to them as public charter schools, these schools are public only in the sense that they receive public funding. They are almost always privately managed and often privately owned.

In this post, I will compare comments I heard by individuals last Sunday afternoon with reflections by experts writing from a broader, philosophical point of view. The experts’

FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Thursday, October 31, 2013

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

U.S. threatens to take $3.52 billion from California schools in testing dispute

Education Headlines

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Schwarzenegger: 'My eye is on the ball'

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has formed an alliance with top Senate Democrats to protect federal funding for after-school programs that may be in danger of losing money.

First food allergy guidelines for schools posted by government

The federal government is issuing its first guidelines to schools on how to protect children with food allergies.

Appeal revives school yoga lawsuit

The law firm that unsuccessfully sued to end a yoga program in the Encinitas Union School District earlier this year is appealing the court decision that allowed the practice to continue.

Leaders call for Deasy, LAUSD board to work together

A day after the Los Angeles Unified school board and Superintendent John Deasy held a discussion that led to him remaining on the job, district, city and civic leaders encouraged the adversaries to put aside hard feelings and move ahead for the sake of the kids.

Baron Oakland Unified launches push to expand linked learning academies

Superintendents usually have a pat answer when asked to assess the quality of their schools – they’re all equally good, is the typical response. But Gary Yee, the new superintendent of Oakland Unified School District, had a radical answer when parent Maria Zaragoza asked why her child’s high school does not have any of the innovative educational programs available at some of the district’s top-performing high schools.

Federal complaint spurs change for non-English speakers in Oakland schools

A Vietnamese-speaking parent whose high school-age son was suspended, expelled and denied evaluation for special education because his school didn't provide adequate interpretation or translation services has won new rules requiring the services as part of a civil-rights complaint brought in 2009.

U.S. threatens to take $3.52 billion from California schools in testing dispute

Reinforcing its threat to punish California for dumping its old standardized state tests next spring, the U.S. Department of Education said that decision could cost the state at least $3.5 billion.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Pacific Grove school bond offers a new approach

Monterey County voters in two districts will be asked to approve bonds to improve the educational experience for their students. One bond could be described as conventional, the other bond as innovative.

Fensterwald: Feds set price of defiance on standardized tests: at least $15 million

The state now knows how much federal funding it stands to lose by declining to give state standardized tests in math and English language arts next spring to all students: at least $15 million – and potentially tens of millions of dollars more.

LAUSD head John Deasy to stay through 2016

After a 4½ hour closed session, the Los Angeles Unified board gave Superintendent John Deasy a “satisfactory” performance evaluation on Tuesday and extended his $330,000-a-year contract for another year.

Shanker Blog » The Word Gap

Shanker Blog » The Word Gap:

The Word Gap

Posted by Esther Quintero on October 31, 2013

It is now well established that children’s oral language development is crucial to their academic success, with the documentation of profound differences in word learning and the acquisition of content knowledge between children living in poverty and those from more economically advantaged homes. By the time they enter school, children from advantaged backgrounds may know as many as 15,000 more words than their less affluent peers. This early language gap sets children up to be at risk for other all too familiar gaps, such as the gaps in high school graduation, arrest and incarceration, post-secondary education, and lifetime earnings. So, what can we do to prevent this “early catastrophe”?

If a child suffers from malnutrition, simply giving him/her more food might not be sufficient to alleviate the problem. A better approach would be to figure out which specific foods and supplements best provide the vitamins and nutrients that are needed, and then deliver these to the child. Recent press coverage on the “word gap,” spurred by initiatives such as Too Small to Fail and Thirty Million Words, suffers from a similar failing.

Don’t get me wrong, the initiatives themselves are hugely important and have done a truly commendable job of focusing public attention on a chronic and chronically overlooked problem. It’s just that the messages that have, thus far, made their way forward are predominantly about quantity – i.e., exposing children to more words and more talk – paying comparatively less attention to qualitative aspects, such as the nature and especially the content of adult-

A Rash of Studies | Taking Note

A Rash of Studies | Taking Note:

A Rash of Studies

by JOHN MERROW on 31. OCT, 2013 in 2013 BLOGS

Facilitated by Linda Darling-Hammond

Watch this webinar.

Fall brings the World Series, lots of football games, and–it would seem–almost as many reports on education. Here’s my summary of four recent studies, with close analysis of the most controversial, a study of Michelle Rhee’s IMPACT program in Washington, DC.

These reports claim 1) The teaching force is more qualified than it was 20 years ago; 2) The nation is getting tough on teachers and teacher education; 3) The skill levels of many American adults leaves a lot to be desired; and 4) Getting tough on teachers works. With your permission, I will attempt to unravel these threads and, hopefully, find a common meaning.

1. The teaching force seems to be more qualified academically. The average SAT score of new teachers climbed 8 percentage points between 1993 and 2008. That’s the takeaway from a new study from researchers Daniel Goldhaber and Joe Walch of the University of Washington, published in the magazine Education Next. This is surprising[1] news, given the rash of criticism of teachers and teacher training, including the slam from the National Council on Teacher Quality (controversial rankings) and a toughop-ed by Bill Keller in New York Times. He called teacher training programs “an industry of mediocrity,” a fairly typical example of the lack of respect shown schools of education.

2. Consistent with the rash of criticism of teachers, a public policy has emerged. 35 states now tie teacher evaluations and tenure decisions to student test scores. That’s the big takeaway from the

Slideshow: NEA Members Speak Out for Quality and Equity in Higher Education | NEA Today

Slideshow: NEA Members Speak Out for Quality and Equity in Higher Education | NEA Today:

Slideshow: NEA Members Speak Out for Quality and Equity in Higher Education

October 30, 2013 by twalker
Filed under Featured News, Higher Education, Top Stories

1 Comment

By Mary Ellen Flannery

This week is Campus Equity Week and NEA called on all of its members to speak up, organize, and work together to change the working conditions for the benefit of faculty and students across the country. Here are just a few of the activities educators participated in to show their support.

Thursday, October 31, 2013