Latest News and Comment from Education

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

11-13-13 The Answer Sheet

The Answer Sheet:






Why a school district changed its name
The 12,000-student school district in the northwestern Pennsylvania city of Erie is no longer calling itself the Erie School District. Instead, officials are rebranding the district as Erie’s Public Schools, designed to promote the idea that the public owns the schools. Matthew Cummings, the district’s director of communications, was quoted by the Erie Times-News as saying: As […]    
‘On the Definition of Hope’: a student poem
Blessed Sheriff is a junior in the International Baccalaureate program at Richard Montgomery High School in Montgomery County, Md., who wants to be a writer and study psychology. She won second place in the 2013 Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest, in Washington, D.C., earlier this year. Here’s a poem, titled On the Definition of […]    


Four things on which nearly all teachers agree
Do educators agree on anything these days? A few things, it turns out. Here’s a post on what those are, from Roxanna Elden,  a National Board Certified Teacher, speaker, and author. Her book, “See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers“ is a funny, honest, practical guide widely used for teacher training and retention. By […]    
Playing the ‘Who Has It Worse?’ game
Who has not played the game “Who Has It Worse?” at one time or another? Here’s a column from the Harvard Crimson, the university’s student newspaper, about how this particular game is played to excess during midterm season. It was written by Brooke H. Kantor ’15,  a Near Eastern languages and civilizations concentrator in Dunster […]    
11-12-13 The Answer Sheet
The Answer Sheet: Fraternity pledge loses testicle in hazing stuntThe nauseating fraternity/sorority stories  – many of them involving hazing — just keep on coming. The latest is from Wilmington College in Ohio, where three pledges of Gamma Phi Gamma who were taken to the basement of the fraternity, called “Gobbler House,” and subjected to a series of miserable exercises, including being blindfold


11-13-13 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:



Regarding Goldhaber on VAM at AEI
My fellow blogger, John Thompson, just posted a piece that looks at the new Mathematica study on teacher transfer incentives, and he begins with this paragraph, to which I would to respond:Maybe I’m naĆÆve, but I found it hopeful when economist Dan Goldhaber told the conservative American Enterprise Institute that value-added models work at the elementary level, at least in comparison with other wa

Are STEM employment opportunities "tremendous"?
Sent to US News and World ReportIn "The Latest Tools for Teaching STEM: Video Games," (Nov. 11), Karen Cator of the Digital Promise company is quoted as saying that "We must engage many more Americans in developing their STEM expertise because the opportunity to find gainful employment is tremendous."  Articles are now appearing regularly in the popular and professional press r

CTU Launches Let Us Teach
BY BECKY SCHLIKERMANStaff ReporterThe Chicago Teachers Union Thursday urged its members and parents to take a stand against standardized tests.CTU President Karen Lewis announced the “Let us Teach” campaign in Chicago as similar measures were rolled out in cities across the country.“Why must our public school children be subjected to this battery of pointless standardized testing throughout the ye
Obama Has Lost the Catholics on Common Core: ". . .a recipe for standardized workforce preparation"
Ge r a r d V. Br a d l e y , Pr of e s s or of L a wc/o University of Notre Dame, The Law School3156 Eck Hall of Law, PO Box 780Notre Dame, IN  46556October 16, 2013This letter was sent individually to each Catholic bishop in the United States. 132 Catholic professors signed the letter.Your Excellency:We are Catholic scholars who have taught for years in America’s colleges and universities.  Most
Pearson's ReadyGen Common Core Texts Full of Errors
From the Daily News:It's a bungled effort to boost standards.Teachers across the city are reporting problems with the new reading and writing textbooks recommended by the Department of Education. Not only were books delivered more than a month into the school year in some cases, but the lessons from testing and publishing giant Pearson are poorly planned, too long and full of mistakes.“They a


NY Parents Mad as Hell and Not Going to Take It Anymore
Well it's about time. NY parents are finally raging against the Common Core and the  punitive high stakes testing that labels their children failures. Has this insanity finally reached a tipping point? Stay tuned.Watch the video coming out of this meeting last night and share it widely. "They also criticized the increased student testing and teacher evaluations associated with Common Core.&qu

11-12-13 Schools Matter
Schools Matter: DoDEA: What Can Happen without Corporate Education Reform, NCLB, RttT, etc.When NCLBA exempted Department of Defense schools, some whined that it was unfair: after all.  Rather than protesting the grandiose stupidity of the law to begin with, the National School Boards Association contended that DoDEA schools should be put into the same vice as the the rest of America's schools tha

11-13-13 teacherken at Daily Kos

teacherken at Daily Kos:






VA - AG all over but the recount
with everything else in the state reportedly in, Herring's lead over Obenshain had dropped from 117 to 106. Fairfax counted its provisionals 160-103, for a net pickup of 57. Added to 106, the margin is 163.   Fairfax has to certify by Midnight. Then the state has until November 25 to certify. Errors could in theory still be found. But by Virginia standards, that 163 is a huge margin to overcome. T
  
11-11-13 teacherken at Daily Kos
teacherken at Daily Kos: Update on VA-AG raceState Board of Elections website this evening changed from Obenshain by 55 to Obenshain by 17.  People have been digging through to account for the 38 vote change.  We knew that 11 was from Richmond City provisionals, H 15 O 4 = +11H The rest came from Precinct 606, which had corrections of Herring +30 and Obenshain +3 for a net of +27. 55 - 11- 38 = 17

11-13-13 @ THE CHALK FACE

@ THE CHALK FACE:




Will the Common Core improve knowledge of history?
On twitter recently I spotted a post from a Common Core supporter that implies that the new standards will solve our problems when it comes to history instruction in our schools. Here we have another CCLS advocate who ignores the reality in our schools: In this era of high-stakes testing what is tested will determine what is taught. […]

Guest Post by Adam Bessie. Resist the Feed, Feed the Resistance
School ™: Resist the Feed, Feed the Resistance “School ™ is not so bad now, like back when my grandparents were kids, when the schools were run by the government, which sounds completely like, Nazi, to have the government running the schools?” So proclaims what sounds like a Twitter tirade by angry, futuristic teenage reincarnation of Milton […]


Louisiana School Letter Grades: The Games Reformers Play
Let me begin this post by stating that I am against the use of letter grades as a measure of school performance. Assigning a single letter grade to a school in order to determine school worth bespeaks the disguised agenda of privatization– nothing more. And yet, the grading of public schools abounds. Reformers insist that […]
11-12-13 @ The Chalk Face
@ THE CHALK FACE: “Fahrenheit 451″ 60 Years Later: “Why do we need the things in books?”\”Fahrenheit 451\” 60 Years Later: \”Why do we need the things in books?\”. via “Fahrenheit 451″ 60 Years Later: “Why do we need the things in books?”.4 by plthomasedd / 2h YESTERDAYThe Data Quality Campaign: Encouraging States to Ramp Up Data CollectionIn April 2013, I wrote a post about the inBloom database a

11-13-13 With A Brooklyn Accent

With A Brooklyn Accent:





Regents Chair Tisch and Chancellor King give a Lesson on How Not to Be a Leader
Last night's forum at Ward Melville HS in Suffolk County once again revealed why Regents Chair Merryl Tisch and Chancellor John King are poorly equipped to lead the public schools of New York State and why their actions, as well as their policies, have triggered one of the largest parent revolts in modern American history.In the face of incredibly moving testimony from parents and teachers about t


11-12-13 With A Brooklyn Accent
With A Brooklyn Accent: On Today's Protest Against NY Ed Commissioner King at Ward Melville HSWOO HOO!!!!Woke up this morning in a GREAT MOOD, ready to join THOUSANDS of Long Island parents, teachers and students at 5:45 protesting another closed forum sponsored by NY Ed Commissioner John King at Ward Melville HS in East Setauket. Since Commissioner King seems constitutionally incapable of actuall

11-13-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:






NYSED Commissioner King Booed At Common Core Meeting In Mineola
Commissioner King continues to preach the Gospel of the Common Core but the people are having none of it: State Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. was greeted by a crowd of parents and demonstrators with signs that read "Down with King" and "It's freezing and we are here -- Just wait until Election Day" as he arrived Wednesday for an education forum at Mineola High School.
Looks Like Cuomo Is Paying Attention To The Parent Uprising
@BadassTeachersA @NYStateBATs @lacetothetop Got a pollster call about Cuomo,APPR,Charters,tonight.This Dem'll NEVER vote 4 @NYGovCuomo again— Gail Richmond (@gailDrich) November 13, 2013Leonie Haimson asks: .@gailDrich @BadassTeachersA @NYStateBATs @lacetothetop @NYGovCuomo Who was poll for? Hope Cuomo b/c means he's paying attention— leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) November 13, 2013Leonie asks if


NYC Educator Puts It All In Perspective
Great post this afternoon from NYC Educator - an important post. Read it all, but savor this part:But whatever they do, I will do everything in my power to get the truth out, and to make sure children and teachers who come after us don't have to suffer through such nonsense. King and Tisch can sit and pretend to listen today, tomorrow, or a hundred times more.But those of us who care about educati

Wonder What Tisch And King Will Do To Prepare For Tonight's Common Core Forum In Mineola?
After last night's Common Core forum in East Setauket turned ugly for Commissioner King and Chancellor Tisch, a commeter at Perdido Street School has an idea how they might be preparingfor tonight's Common Core forum in Mineola:Believe me...shes been on a conferance call today with "the best and brightest" to shape her rhetoric for the next time shes forced to slum with the folkdom...The

The New York State PTA Turns On Commissioner King
The NY State PTA takes a lot of money from the Gates Foundation, so it's generally a reform-friendly group.After Commissioner King got booed at a forum they sponsored in Poughkeepsie on the Common Core last month, they backed King when he announced he was canceling future forums because of the criticism.But yesterday, they launched an attack on the state's Common Core implementation that is really

Merryl Tisch Should Shut Up And Listen
Merryl Tisch at last night's Common Core forum at Ward Melville High School in East Setauket, where she and her NYSED Commissioner King were repeatedly booed by 1,500 people as they tried to preach the Gospel of the Common Core to the masses:Tisch observed that "rhetoric is very high," and said, "I would urge everyone on both sides to take a breath and listen."A commenter on th
1,500 Boo NYSED Commissioner King, Regents Chancellor Tisch At Common Core Forum In East Setauket
Last night's forum at Ward Melville High School in East Setauket did not go well for the King.The Newsday story is behind a pay wall, so I am putting the whole story up:An emotional crowd of about 1,500 parents and educators packed Ward Melville High School's auditorium and cafeteria last night for a forum with state Education Commissioner John B. King Jr., cheering speakers who assailed state tes

Good News From Tish James
Good to hear her get very specific about education and where she would like to see the de Blasio administration go:Over the course of the campaign, de Blasio made some of his own educational priorities clear: universal pre-K, a plan to charge well-financed charter school networks to operate in public space, a moratorium on school closures, and the elimination of the school letter-grade system. Mor
Occupy Activists Buy $15 Million In Debt For $400,000 As Part Of Rolling Jubilee Movement
This is doing God's work:A group of Occupy Wall Street activists has bought almost $15m of Americans' personal debt over the last year as part of the Rolling Jubilee project to help people pay off their outstanding credit. Rolling Jubilee, set up by Occupy's Strike Debt group following the street protests that swept the world in 2011, launched on 15 November 2012. The group purchases personal debt
11-12-13 Perdido Street School
Perdido Street School: Today's Protest Against Tisch And King At Ward Melville High SchoolMark Naison writes:Woke up this morning in a GREAT MOOD, ready to join THOUSANDS of Long Island parents, teachers and students at 5:45 protesting another closed forum sponsored by NY Ed Commissioner John King at Ward Melville HS in East Setauket. Since Commissioner King seems constitutionally incapable of act


Louisiana School Letter Grades: The Games Reformers Play | deutsch29

Louisiana School Letter Grades: The Games Reformers Play | deutsch29:

Louisiana School Letter Grades: The Games Reformers Play

November 12, 2013

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Let me begin this post by stating that I am against the use of letter grades as a measure of school performance. Assigning a single letter grade to a school in order to determine school worth bespeaks the disguised agenda of privatization– nothing more.
And yet, the grading of public schools abounds. Reformers insist that letter grades offer the public a quality identifier that is “intuitively understood” (straight from Jeb Bush’s Florida and officially introduced into the American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC] playbook of so-called model legislation in 2010).
School Letter Grades: “Intuitively” Fooling the Public
For privatizers, the beauty of letter grades rests in the fact that no matter how the calculations behind the grades change– and no matter how the instruments used to measure “achievement change– and no matter how the numeric scaling of the letters change– the letters themselves remain the same. A, B, C. D. F. And since the letters themselves do not change, the public assumes that these grades hold a constant (and comparable) meaning: An “A” this year is “the same” as an “A” next year. A “D” last year and a “C” this year means that the grade “went up,” and that automatically indicates “improvement.” A “B” this year from an “A” last year means that the school must not have “performed” as well this year when compared to last.
Not so by a long shot.
There is no way to compare one year’s school letter grades to those of another yearunless the instrumentation, the geading scale, and the formulas have all been held constant. No changes. No “tweeking.” Otherwise, comparisons from one year to the