1-8-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

Daily News: Chris Christie Presidential Ambitions All But Kaput

Daily News editorial tonight: In the best possible light, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie built a top staff of lying thugs who threatened lives and safety to serve his political ends. If not, Christie is a lying thug himself. Emails and text messages among his close aides made public Wednesday documented that in September they gleefully engineered George Washington Bridge lane closures to punish th

by reality-based edu... / 4min 

Cuomo Calls For Merit Pay For Teachers

Apparently Andrew Cuomo hasn't heard that students, parents, teachers and administrators all over New York State are up in arms over his teacher evaluation system that mandates so many extra tests so that teachers and administrators can be rated for the year, because he's doubling down on that issue with a proposal to reward so-called "highly effective" teachers based upon his APPR teach

by reality-based edu... / 1h 

Assessing Chris Christie's Performance

A commenter at the NY Times on news that at least one Chris Christie aide was aware of the plan to close GWB traffic lanes to retaliate against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee and reveled in the pain it caused Fort Lee residents:Governor Christie makes sure that teachers have a very strict guidelines for performance assessment. How do we performance assess our governor?An NJ.com editorial assesse

by reality-based edu... / 14min 

Christie Steals Cuomo's Spotlight

Governor Cuomo is giving his State of the State speech today, but a lot of attention is being paid to this:A series of newly obtained emails and text messages shows that Gov. Chris Christie’s office was closely involved with lane closings on the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge in September, and that officials closed the lanes in what appeared to be retribution against the mayor who

by reality-based edu... / 26min 

Cuomo Has Protesters Penned Up For State Of The State Speech

Sheriff Andy brooking no dissent reports Capital NY's Scott Waldman:ALBANY—The state's biggest anti-fracking demonstration of the year on Wednesday has been supplanted by New York apple cider, bobsleds and engines made in New York. A wide array of tourist billboards and display booths are being set up in the concourse around the Empire State Convention Center, where Governor Andrew Cuomo will deli

by reality-based edu... / 1h 

How Will Cuomo Talk About Education In His State Of The State Speech?

Sheriff Andy is giving his State of the State speech today.We have heard through the grapevine that he will call for more CCSS PD for teachers and provide money in the budget for that.We heard yesterday that Shelly Silver is ready to walk back some CCSS implementation if the Regents don't do it themselves. So, what does Cuomo say about CCSS today?Does he mention it in his speech?I'm betting he dis

by reality-based edu... / 5h

1-7-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School: De Blasio Vs. CuomoInevitable that Sheriff Andy would want to make sure Bill de Blasio knows he's the boss.Cuomo says he can get an extra $250 million for full-day pre-k funding without raising taxes - a kind of one year windfall in the budget.De Blasio says the funding needs to be sustainable and over a period of years - in short, taxes need to be raised on individuals maki

by mike simpson / 8h 

Anti-Semitic Remarks at PS 154 in the Bronx southbronxschool.com

http://www.southbronxschool.com:

Anti-Semitic Remarks at PS 154 in the Bronx and DR Alison Coviello; Ed.D and Principal Does Nothing

I have had only two instances, maybe 1 1/2 instances, of anti-Semitism in my life. One, a few years ago I was called a Kike for the first and only time in my life. Considering who was uttering it, I laughed it off, which made the putz even more upset.

The other instance, and I just think it was out of pure ignorance, was back in 1981 when I was 17. I had obliterated my junior year in high school and my parents sent me to Maine to a summer school/camp. My bunk mate was from Bogota, Columbia and upon finding out I was Jewish, he asked me if I am a good businessman. I then asked him if being Colombian meant he was a cocaine dealer. We then laughed.

I shared this with The Crack Team when we learned today, from several reliable sources at PS 154, of an 11 year old student at PS 154 in the Bronx made several anti-Semitic comments in class and has had a history of making such comments.

His comments did not consist of any gassing Jews, or burning Jews, or throwing Jews down the well.No, it was just ranting about the stereotypical Jew.

The young man exclaimed several time in class, "The Jews have all the money!" to a teacher. Now 

A Fantastic Summative Comment on My Data Mining Post | deutsch29

A Fantastic Summative Comment on My Data Mining Post | deutsch29:

A Fantastic Summative Comment on My Data Mining Post

January 7, 2014

On January 3, 2014, I posted a piece entitled Beware of Data Sharing Cheerleaders Offering Webinars. On January 5, Diane Ravitch featured the post  on her blog due to the post’s active commentary on both sides of the issue, including that of an inBloom representative.

It is January 7, and the comments are still live (167 comments).

Here is a comment just posted by gitapik. It provides a fine summation of the comments section (well worth the read if one has time):

This is an important thread. I just read through it, again, and started to put some ideas down. It got pretty lengthy, which makes me self conscious. But I still have more to say, lol. I don’t pretend to be an expert, so I’m putting these ideas out for consideration. If I need to be corrected, I will gladly take the heat. I’m all about getting it right for all of us:
===============================================
“You can opt out of sharing your child’s data”.
“Parents have no rights to opt out in practice. I opted out, as did many parents, yet all data, including SSN’s were sent to inBloom, multiple times”.
“inBloom and Amplify doesn’t have student data”
“Both companies do have the data”
These two disparities, alone, display a need for transparent debate. They’re both very important points that require clarification.
================================================
“inBloom will never sell student information, nor will we share it with others unless directed to do so by a state or local customer”
What’s the definition of a “local customer”?
Regarding “…a state…”, please see below.
“Our customers (School Districts) have absolute control over who can access the 

U.S. Puts Schools On The Hook For Police Actions:

U.S. Puts Schools On The Hook For Police Actions

Posted: 01/08/2014 12:00 am EST

The Obama administration issued the first federal legal guidance on school discipline Wednesday, telling school administrators they must avoid discrimination when doling out punishments, and must reserve harsh punishments that pull kids out of class as a last resort.

Because of concerns that schools unfairly punish students differently based on race, the U.S. Education and Justice departments are setting legal standards for managing students' behavior while avoiding discrimination outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“Effective teaching and learning cannot take place unless students feel safe at school,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement. “Positive discipline policies can help create safer learning environments without relying heavily on suspensions and expulsions."

Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder will announce the new guidance at a high school in Baltimore Wednesday.

The announcement comes one year after the mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., as many schools continue struggling to increase security. In response to Newtown, many districts armed teachers, added private security officersprivate security officers, and increased the number of "school resource officers," police officers trained to work with students. Congress failed to change federal gun laws after the massacre, leaving schools to face heightened anxiety from 

[Insert Stock Messaging Here] | EduShyster

[Insert Stock Messaging Here] | EduShyster:

[Insert Stock Messaging Here]

 What kind of stock are New York education officials selling?

By Sue Altman, EduShyster Academy

I’m usually a big typo apologist—except when it comes to scripted agendas issued by the New York State Education Department.  I’ve CC’d the wrong people, attached the wrong drafts, and once, accidentally submitted a group paper in business school entitled, “Marketing Total BS, Group 21.doc.” So I’m willing to forgive mistakes, except when they offer priceless insight into what’s really going on at the New York State Education Department, the epicenter of BS marketing in New York. This week, EngageNY posted an agenda for a parent workshop. Embedded in a script designed for superintendents and districts to “educate” their communities about the Common Core implementation there is a very insightful line, an artifact from an earlier draft:

Education Reform Group Mobilizes for 2014 Elections | The Texas Tribune

Education Reform Group Mobilizes for 2014 Elections | The Texas Tribune:

Education Reform Group Mobilizes for 2014 Elections

• by Morgan Smith
• Jan. 8, 2014
• 6Comments

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Enlargegraphic by: Todd Wiseman

An education advocacy group that became a lobbying powerhouse during the 2013 legislative session with the backing of Texas tort reform heavyweights is now turning its sights to the upcoming election cycle. 

Texans for Education Reform, whose legislative package included measures to encourage the growth of online education and charter schools, has formed a political action committee, according to filings with the state ethics commission.

The new committee will allow the group, which spent at least $645,000 on a team of 16 lobbyists during its first legislative session, to put some of its resources toward political candidates.

“We advocate legislation that will transform our schools through proven, innovative strategies and provide parents with flexibility and choice," spokeswoman Sherry Sylvester wrote in a statement emailed to The Texas Tribune. "TER PAC will provide us with another tool, in the political realm, to draw attention to our agenda and help achieve that goal."

Sylvester declined to provide additional information about the group’s political objectives, noting that further details would be available when the Texas Ethics Commission releases campaign finance reports later this month.

TER PAC’s treasurer is listed as Doug Foshee, who is the former CEO of El Paso Corporation, which was among the largest producers of natural gas in North America until another energy company acquired it in 2011. Foshee is also a trustee of the Houston-based KIPP charter school network.

He is one of many Texas political and business leaders who sit on the group’s board, including homebuilder and tort reform champion Dick Weekley, Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC chairman Dick Trabulsi, former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige and former Senate Education Chairwoman Florence Shapiro, a Plano Republican who stepped down in 2011. El Paso businessman Woody Hunt and hedge fund manager Salem Abraham, who is a longtime 

SKrashen: Heritage Language Development: Exhortation or Good Stories?

SKrashen: Heritage Language Development: Exhortation or Good Stories?:

Heritage Language Development: Exhortation or Good Stories?

 Lao, C. and Krashen, S. 2008. Heritage language development: Exhortation or good stories? International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching 4 (2): 17-18.

Despite the well-researched advantages, not all young people are interested in continuing to develop their heritage language. Their apathy may be due to "ethnic avoidence," a preference for the new culture over the old (Tse, 1988), and/or it may be due to teasing by more advanced speakers in reaction to the young person's imperfect attempts to speak the language (Krashen, 1998). These barriers, plus a lack of input, have been hypothesized to be the cause of low heritage language proficiency.

We present here a case in which interest in the heritage language was stimulated in a 12-year-old boy, Daniel, who came to the United States at age eight from China. Daniel's Mandarin proficiency was clearly declining, despite his parents' efforts: They sent Daniel to a Chinese heritage language school for three hours each Saturday. Moreover, it was clear that Daniel was not interested in Mandarin.

Daniel was recently enrolled in a 4-week summer Mandarin program in San Francisco aimed at foreign language students of Mandarin who had had several years of Mandarin instruction in school and 

Experts Defend Children’s Right to Adequate and Equitable School Funding in Kansas | janresseger

Experts Defend Children’s Right to Adequate and Equitable School Funding in Kansas | janresseger:

Experts Defend Children’s Right to Adequate and Equitable School Funding in Kansas

Posted on January 8, 2014 by janresseger

David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center and Wade Henderson, the president and chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, have co-authored a chilling opinion piece in this morning’s NY Times.  In What’s the Matter with Kansas’ Schools?, Sciarra and Henderson describe Gannon v. State of Kansas, the school funding case awaiting a decision of the Kansas Supreme Court.

The Gannon case was brought by parents protesting a 16.5 percent cut  in Kansas’ education funding since 2008.  Sciarra and Henderson explain: “The cuts were accelerated by a $1.1 billion tax break, which benefited mostly upper-income Kansans, proposed by Governor Brownback and enacted in 2012.”  “A three-judge trial court ruled in January 2013 for the parents, finding that the cuts reduced per-pupil expenditures far below a level ‘suitable’ to educate all children under Kansas’ standards.”

Governor Sam Brownback and the legislature are unrepentant.  In the event that the Supreme Court upholds the decision of the lower court, law makers have threatened to amend the state constitution to remove the requirement for “suitable” funding, which would “strip Kansas 

Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: How blogging can give students a voice

Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator: How blogging can give students a voice:

How blogging can give students a voice

Guest post by Connor Wood

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog 1-4-14

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog:Obama and his “Deferred Action” ProgramIn the last fiscal year, according to statistics, deportations dropped 10 % . But this program that Obama had created only worked for some immigrants. Not all were guarenteed a citizenship. An article written by Ted Oberg believe that "The program President Obama created last June -- Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or D

by mike simpson / 11h 

Author’s note: Lisa Nielsen offered me the chance to do this guest post after I requested an interview from her for my blog Trismegistus Nab-tu-we. My blog is devoted to writing, politics, and philosophy of education. She was impressed with my blog and asked me if I would share information about my work. This post provides a student’s story about how I’ve used a blog and my personal learning network to share my ideas and give students a voice.

I run a blog called Trismegistus Nab-tu-we. I originally started the blog as a project for my high school English class. Unlike my classmates, who quit after the three posts required by my teacher, I kept going a while, trying to turn it into another type of blog. I talked about books, languages, liberal arts, programming, and internet culture. Then I got into politics, and occasionally, I still digress into copyright law and freedom of speech.I covered a whole mess of things. But it was not regular. I realized from my pageviews that without consistency and focus my blog did not seem to be worth anybody’s time.

Five months into my little foray into the blogging, I wrote a post on Standards. While I did not have any uniform agenda, it was a start. I cannot say that I agreed with everything I wrote then. My ideas were a product of the times, with the end of school, and a new superintendent looming, I just went where my mind was. Then, I let it rest.

Until summer came around.

Summer is a weird time. Students take this three month break from school. I did all sorts of things...and I still got bored. So I set out with a list of goals. I knew I would not complete all of them but they lead me to accomplish

Randi Weingarten: Unions are in there fighting for all children to succeed | Opinion - Rhode Islanders speak out on issues | Providence Journal

Randi Weingarten: Unions are in there fighting for all children to succeed | Opinion - Rhode Islanders speak out on issues | Providence Journal:

Randi Weingarten: Unions are in there fighting for all children to succeed

January 08, 2014 01:00 AM

Comments 0

 

Randi Wiengarten

BY RANDI WEINGARTEN

WASHINGTON

Regarding Richard Berman’s Dec. 27 Commentary piece (“Kids can’t read? Blame union clout”): A deeper look at the new Program for International Student Assessment data Berman cites makes it clear that the results are really a rebuke of the market-driven education reforms we’ve had over the past decade.

Not only hasn’t test-based accountability, combined with competition and sanctions, helped our children succeed, these policies have simply created winners and losers. The New York Times deconstructed these results by saying “the United States can either learn from its competitors abroad — and finally summon the will to make necessary policy changes — or fall further and further behind.”

These international results make clear that the nations that outperform us take an entirely different approach, an approach I’ve seen first-hand while visiting places like Finland, Singapore and Canada.

Instead of testing, imposing sanctions and letting the market sort it out, those countries fixate on valuing and preparing teachers and giving them the time, tools and support to help kids learn and grow. They mitigate the impact of poverty through prekindergarten and provide multiple pathways to graduation, as well as tutoring and other services to address social, emotional and health needs. They don’t test every student every year; instead, they focus on an enriching curriculum with art, music and the sciences. And many have strong teachers unions.

These are the same policies the American Federation of Teachers has long championed 

Government offers guidelines to end 'school-to-prison pipeline' | Al Jazeera America

Government offers guidelines to end 'school-to-prison pipeline' | Al Jazeera America:

Government offers guidelines to end 'school-to-prison pipeline'

January 8, 2014 3:30AM ET

Recommendations on discipline follow criticism of policies that send minority students into the court system

Topics:

 

Department of Justice

 

Department of Education

 

Civil Rights

Advocates of the new recommendations argue that some school discipline policies unfairly target black and Hispanic students.

Rogelio V. Solis/AP

The Obama administration on Wednesday issued new recommendations on classroom discipline that seek to end the apparent disparities in how students are punished for violating school rules after data found minorities were more likely to face disciplinary action or arrest.

The guidelines that came from the Justice and Education departments called for improving school environments by training staff, engaging families and teaching students how to resolve conflicts. They also urged schools to understand their obligations under civil-rights laws, and outlined a host of federal resources regarding school discipline.

Civil-rights advocates have long said that a "school-to-prison" pipeline stems from overly zealous school discipline policies targeting black and Hispanic students that pull them out of school and into the court system.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the problem is often the result of well-intentioned "zero-tolerance" policies that too often inject the criminal-justice system into the resolution of problems. Zero-