Thursday, December 19, 2013

Nite Cap 12-19-13 #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2

NYC Public School Parents: My inBloom presentation at last night's Hudson Valley Community College Common Core forum

NYC Public School Parents: My inBloom presentation at last night's Hudson Valley Community College Common Core forum:

My inBloom presentation at last night's Hudson Valley Community College Common Core forum

credit: Meredith Gavin via Twitter

Last night, there was a terrific forum on privacy and the Common Core at Hudson Valley Community. It was a pleasure and a privilege for me to be able to have time to brief legislators and those in the audience on what I have learned about inBloom over the last year, and to answer their questions.

The forum was hosted by Assemblymember Steve McLaughlin, and the panel also included Assemblymembers Al Graf, Jim Tedesco, Pete Lopez, Ed Ra and Patricia Fahey; the event was also moderated by principal Tim Farley. The powerpoint I delivered is below; below that is a YouTube video of the entire event.

InBloom Presentation-12 18 13-Hudson Valley Community College

On theYouTube video below, the forum starts at 11 minutes in. My presentation starts at 22:50 minutes in, and I answer questions from legislators and the audience until 1 hour and 15 minutes in.

At about 1 hr 44 min, Dr. Sandra Stotsky speaks about the Common Core through Skype. Dr. Stotsky is the designer of the highly esteemed Massachusetts standards in English Language Arts; and was a member of the expert panel that reviewed the Common Core standards. She refused to sign onto them because of their poor quality. During the forum, she calls for civil disobedience for opting out of Common Core exams and field tests next spring, and asks the elected officials to pass legislation allowing parents to opt out.

At 1 hr: 55 min. Meredith Gavin, a parent of a a high-functioning autistic child, talks about how inappropriate and damaging the Common Core and its exams are for special education students. Unfortunately, a subsequent speaker, Paul Snyder, repeats a common myth that the Common Core was developed by left-wing radicals -- though this is completely untrue.

One of the best testimonies is from Katie Zahedi, a principal for 12 years, at 2 hr:30 min in, who explains many of the flaws with the policies of the State Education Department, including how the privately funded Regents Fellows are "running the show" even though many of them have never been educators.

Texas Shuttering Campuses at Six Charter Schools | The Texas Tribune

Texas Shuttering Campuses at Six Charter Schools | The Texas Tribune:

Texas Shuttering Campuses at Six Charter Schools

by Morgan Smith
Dec. 19, 2013
1Comment

graphic by: Todd Wiseman / Chris Cole / Paul Sounders

Texas will shut down campuses at six charter schools under a new law that includes heightened financial and academic performance rules for charter operators in the state.

During the 2013 legislative session, the strengthened closure rules were a selling point for lawmakers who had otherwise opposed legislation that expanded the number of charter contracts the state can award. A provision in the new law requires the Texas Education Agency to revoke a school's charter if it failed to meet state academic or financial accountability ratings for three years.

“Extraordinary charter schools greatly outnumber the struggling charter schools, but the strugglers receive more media attention," David Dunn, the executive director of the Texas Association of Charter Schools, said in a statement. "We are working hard to improve every charter school and will keep advocating for excellence and quality because students deserve it. Texas is, and will continue to be, a leader in public charter schools across the nation precisely because we insist upon quality.”

Dunn said his organization supported shuttering schools that "aren't meeting the needs of students, whether charter or traditional."

Identified for closure under the law are American Youthworks in Austin; Azleway Charter School in Tyler; Honors Academy in Farmers Branch; and Jamie's House Charter School, Koinonia Community Learning Academy, and the Richard Milburn Academy in Houston.

“The Nation” Calls “Reign of Error” the Best Book of 2013 | janresseger

“The Nation” Calls “Reign of Error” the Best Book of 2013 | janresseger:

“The Nation” Calls “Reign of Error” the Best Book of 2013

Posted on December 19, 2013 by janresseger

In its Progressive Honor Roll of 2013, The Nation magazine has named Diane Ravitch’s Reign of Error the “most valuable” book of the year.

Here is the brief review:

“Yes, she really did serve as an assistant education secretary for George H.W. Bush, and yes, she once supported George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind.” But Ravitch refuses to cling to failed strategies, as she explains in her groundbreaking new book, subtitled The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools. Driven by experience and data, she demolishes the argument that rigid requirements and punishments will make schools better. Indeed, she argues, these schemes too frequently serve the interests of misguided foundations, ideologically driven billionaires and Wall Street speculators more interested in privatizing public education—-with some of them profiting in the process-—than in helping children, parents and communities. Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis says, “Diane is a fierce warrior against the so-called reformers whose ideology exacerbates the problems of poverty and inequity.”

Math topics that need to be put out of their misery. Part 1: Writing algebraic expressions | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Math topics that need to be put out of their misery. Part 1: Writing algebraic expressions | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:

Last month I wrote a post called ‘The Death of math’ which got a lot of attention as I described how I’d improve math teaching in this country by significantly reducing the number of topics taught and by making math optional after 8th grade. A line that got quoted a lot when people tweeted about this post was “If I were made ‘Math Czar’ I would gleefully chop at least forty percent of the topics that are currently taught from K to 12.”

The fact is that the original intent of the common core, was to address this very concern. The problem, though, is that they didn’t actually cut anything, as far as I can tell. Why this happened is tough to say. One complaint that teachers have about the common core is that they were developed by a very small group of people without input from teachers. Perhaps that small group didn’t have the heart to cut any topics.

Or maybe the committee, even if it was small, was unable to come to agreement on which topics should be cut. You see, the issue isn’t so much the size of the group or whether or not they got input from teachers, the issue is that the ability of that group wasn’t up to the task. Perhaps it would have been better if the task were left up to one very clever individual who understood the

The Nation magazine names Seattle Eduction Association “Most Valuable Union” and credits Social Equality Educators for support of MAP test boycott | I AM AN EDUCATOR

The Nation magazine names Seattle Eduction Association “Most Valuable Union” and credits Social Equality Educators for support of MAP test boycott | I AM AN EDUCATOR:

The Nation magazine names Seattle Eduction Association “Most Valuable Union” and credits Social Equality Educators for support of MAP test boycott

By I AM AN EDUCATOR on December 19, 2013

The Nation magazine released its “Progressive Honor Roll of 2013″ where it names “heroes both for their accomplishments of the past year and their determination to do even more in 2014″–and they made some great picks!

Most valuable book went to Diane Ravitich for here masterpiece of truth-telling, Reign of Error. “Most Valuable Musical Partnership” went to Bruce Springsteen and Tom Morello for their relentless rocking for justice–including dedicating the song “American Skin (41 Shots)” to Trayvon Martin at their live shows. The Stranger received a well deserved “Most Valuable Newspaper” award for their support of Kshama Sawant, the Socialist Alternative candidate who defeated a corporate Democrat to win a seat on the Seattle City Council!

I am proud to say that The Nation picked the Seattle Education Association as “Most Valuable Union”, citing the importance of the MAP test boycott! As well, the organization I helped found, theSocial Equality Educators (SEE), received recognition for the critical role we played in helping to spread the MAP test boycott to schools around Seattle, which ultimately helped ignite a national movement in opposition to high-stakes standardized testing. And of course, it was the courageous actions of the teachers at Garfield High School–especially the math, reading, and language arts teachers–who launched the whole effort.

This great struggle of the MAP test boycott that erupted in January of 2013 has forever changed my life

Meet the new Boss | BCS in Context

Meet the new Boss | BCS in Context:

Meet the new Boss

Same as the old Boss

The Santa Clara County Board of Education has a new President: Leon Beauchman. Beauchman has been a member of SCCBOE for 13 years and previously served as SCCBOE President in 2002 and 2005. He was re-elected in Nov. 2012 in an uncontested race for the Area 3 seat—unfortunately, resembling a single-party election.*

Beauchman has been on SCCBOE continuously since it forged the BCS-LASD conflict in 2003. Prior to the county board’s approval of the Bullis charter, only one charter school operated in Santa Clara County. As of now, SCCBOE has approved 38 charters. Beauchman has been a driver of this aggressive pursuit of charters, an approach the county board calls “bold” and “courageous.” Others call it “reckless” and “privatization.”

I had an opportunity in May 2013 to speak in person with now-President Leon Beauchman and then-President Grace Mah after a public meeting on charter school issues in my community. The dialogue was intimate, including just Beauchman, Mah, one or two other people and myself.

Our conversation naturally, eventually turned to the BCS-LASD situation, and I mentioned the LASD community’s perception that SCCBOE didn’t perform proper oversight of BCS. I said the LASD

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Thursday, December 19, 2013

Nite Cap 12-19-13 #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2

James Baldwin said it best:

"For these are all our children, and we will profit by or pay for whatever they become."

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