5-12-14 The Answer Sheet

The Answer Sheet:

7 charts: Why you shouldn’t confuse correlation with causation

One of the problems with research of any kind, including and especially in education, is the problem of confusing correlation with causation. This sounds technical, but it really goes to the heart of the problem with research that confuses the first for the second. For example, a study may report that test scores rose after […]

4 by Valerie Strauss / 49min

5 things you (probably) don’t know about the Washington Monument

The Washington Monument is reopening Monday for the first time in nearly three years, during which more than 150 cracks were fixed after being sustained during a rare earthquake. Everybody knows that the monument was built to honor George Washington, but probably not a lot more about the history of the obelisk. Here are five […]

by Valerie Strauss / 26min 

There’s no such thing as the ‘best’ teacher

How often do you hear people talk about wanting or having the “best” this or the “best” that and you have to try to stop yourself from rolling your eyes? Here’s a look at why the notion of “best” doesn’t make sense when it comes to teachers. This was written by Sarah Blaine, who wrote […]

3 by Valerie Strauss / 36min 

4 high school senior pranks that went wild

You’d think that after more than a dozen years in school, high school seniors would know what will get them into trouble and what won’t, but apparently some don’t.  It’s senior prank season, and while some have been innocuous, others have led to arrests and suspensions, with one school seeing nearly 20 percent of the […]

3 by Valerie Strauss / 5h 

All Week @ The Answer Sheet 5-10-14

The Answer Sheet:All Week @ The Answer SheetSidwell Friends School (where Obama girls attend) is getting new headWho runs any particular private school isn’t exactly news outside the school community, but the elite Sidwell Friends School in Northwest Washington draws attention because of its famous students, especially Sasha and Malia Obama ( as well as a few of Vice President Joe Biden’s grandchi

by mike simpson / 8h 

5-12-14 Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida ALL Week

Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida, red in Washington, dark sky-blue in Israel and public school in Education:

Vouchers and Charter Schools Have Cost One Florida District $70 Million

While the school choice crowd says that public school budgets aren’t affected – even a little bit – by Jeb Bush’s privatizations schemes. The superintendent of on the state’s sixth largest districts begs to differ. Writes Jacksonville Times-Union reporter Denise Smith Amos: Rebecca Couch, chairwoman of the Duval school board, said the new (voucher) bill introduces more uncertainty into the school

by Bob Sikes / 10min 

On Voucher Expansion, “Floridians Will Pay For the Legislature’s Sins For Years”

While the propaganda campaign is already underway by Step Up for Students to advance that narrative that more people are for voucher expansion than there really are, the editors of the Tampa Bay Times Extending private school tuition vouchers to the middle class should require a clear vote and thorough debate by the Florida Legislature. So should creating a significant new entitlement for disabled

by Bob Sikes / 2h 

5-11-14 Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida ALL Week

Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida, red in Washington, dark sky-blue in Israel and public school in Education: New Budget Leaves Florida 50th of 50 States in Per Pupil FundingLooks like all that back-slapping by republican legislators and happy talk about public schools being a “big winner” was poppycock. St. Augustine Record reporter Marcia Lane explains: When Superintendent Joe

by mike simpson / 9h 

5-12-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

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

#IRA14 — Useful Tweets From The International Reading Association Convention

I didn’t attend the International Reading Association convention this year, but there sure were some pretty interesting and useful tweets from those who did. Here are a few that caught my eye. I’m adding this collection to My Best Posts On Books: Why They’re Important & How To Help Students Select, Read, Write & Discuss Them. [View the story "#IRA14Useful Tweets From The Internation

by Larry Ferlazzo / 39min 

A Great New Way To Teach The Difference Between Correlation & Causation

via Spurious Correlations The Internet was awash today in discoveries made by Tyler Vigen, who wrote a computer program that discovers strange correlations and publishes them on his blog. I’m definitely adding this info to The Best Online Resources For Teaching The Difference Between Correlation & Causation, which is an important lesson to teacher, especially in IB Theory of Knowledge classe

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h 

“School Leaders Must Focus On ‘Authentic Learning,’ Not ‘Test Prep’”

School Leaders Must Focus On ‘Authentic Learning,’ Not ‘Test Prep’ is my latest post at Education Week Teacher. In Part One of this series, three educators — Anne Reeves, Justin Tarte, and PJ Caposey — shared their responses (I also contributed my own).  Today, Justin Baeder and Kelly Young (who I consider my mentor in education) contribute their answers.  I include comments from readers, too. Her

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h 

My Latest NY Times Post For ELLs is on Mexico, Travel & “Articles”

In my latest NY Times post for English Language Learners, learn about Mexico, words that are “articles,” and how students can create reports on what they would do if they could spend 36 hours in any country. A student interactive and links to models are included. You can see all my previous 50 NY Times posts here.

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h 

5-11-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: Four Good Links On Classroom InstructionHere are a number of relatively recent links on classroom instruction: Five Teaching Tips for Helping Students Become ‘Wild Readers’ is by Donalyn Miller, and appeared in Ed Week. What if we approached testing this way? appeared in The Washington Post. I’m adding it to The Best Resour

by mike simpson / 9h 

5-12-14 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:

Ken Previti. What kind of education do mothers want for their children?

Ken Previti is a retired Illinois teacher who now lives in Florida and blogs at Reclaim Reform.

by Fred Klonsky / 1h 

We Are One Illinois seeks injunction to halt implementation of pension theft legislation.

Press Statement on Injunction Filing – Final – For Immediate Release Today, the We Are One Illinois union coalition and plaintiffs filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in Sangamon County Circuit Court to seek a full stay of the implementation of Senate Bill 1 (Public Act 98-599), pending a resolution on the act’s merits. SB 1 slashes cost-of-living adjustmen

by Fred Klonsky / 6min 

William Murphy. I have a student that lives in a trailer with 14 other human-beings.

Responding to Karen Lewis on the Pension Heist: This was good, disheartening and disturbing. It is a shame that I so often have to remind myself why I got into this profession. Not for the money, pension or the thanks (which seems to be less and less), but the kids. They can hate us, degrade us, and one day they will probably try to steal what’s left of my already dwindling pension security. Howev

by Fred Klonsky / 35min 

Ten minute drawing. Common Core question.

1 by Fred Klonsky / 11min 

It’s a union movement.

In 2010 Karen Lewis was elected President of the Chicago Teachers Union. She headed the slate of candidates organized by the Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE). The CORE slate won 60% of the vote in a crushing defeat for the old guard leadership. Micah Uetricht tells the story in his excellent book, Strike for America. In 2011 Bob Peterson, fifth grade teacher and editor of Rethinking Schoo

by Fred Klonsky / 10min hide  //  save

Juan Rangel’s money quote: “Teachers being disgruntled ­— it’s like any other business.”

Juan Rangel and Rahm. I always look forward to my brothers Monday morning blog post of weekend quotables. I admire his ability to pick out some good ones. There’s so many to choose from. I would like to add one more from Chicago Sun-Times reporter Dan Mihalopoulos. Mihalopoulos has been covering the UNO charter school mess for a long time. UNO, the United Neighborhood Organization, has close ties

5 by Fred Klonsky / 1h 

5-11-14 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: Mother’s Day.Mom could not be ambivalent about anything. Her two favorite colors were black and white. Mom had little patience for shades of gray. She hated the things she hated. She loved the things she loved. She loved my father for reasons I still don’t entirely understand. She loved her women frie

by mike simpson / 9h 

5-12-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

Eva Moskowitz Says She May Run For Mayor

Not a surprise to anybody paying attention to the "charter wars" - Eva Moskowitz is creating her own little fiefdoms across the city to use as power bases for a future run for mayor: Charter school maven Eva Moskowitz may have a mayoral run in her future. “I might run for mayor some day,” she said on the John Gambling radio show. “But right now, I’m very, very focused on educating the 10

by reality-based edu... / 4min 

Why Won't UFT Leadership Debate The Teachers Contract Agreement?

It's not too difficult, really - if the agreement is so good, then the UFT leadership ought to send somebody out to debate the contract agreement at Francis Lewis High School this week.But apparently the UFT leadership are scared to do so, since they not only won't debate the contract, they won't even acknowledge that there is another side in the union that wants to debate the contract agreement.M

by reality-based edu... / 2h

5-11-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School: Daily News Goes After The Little Charter School Crooks But Leaves Big Ones Like Moskowitz And Kenny AloneOne of the lines you sometimes here from charter school proponents and supporters - charters must be free from the same regulations as public schools so they can do their magical "innovation" thing.Of course a lack of regulations also can lead to this: On a quie

by mike simpson / 9h 

The Toxic Culture of Education | Missouri Education Watchdog

The Toxic Culture of Education | Missouri Education Watchdog:

The Toxic Culture of Education

inShare

Joshua Katz is a high school math teacher in Orange County Florida. He gave a TEDx talk recently using the metaphor of the super villain archetype to describe the forces that have given us the toxic culture that currently exists in education. The super villain releases a doom onto the world that only a super power can stop, conveniently his super power.

Today’s super villains are private education companies who created a crisis in education that they are prepared to ride in and rescue us from. They did this once they realized they could use the public education system to create a nearly endless stream of taxpayer dollars headed directly to their bottom line.

It is a wonderful video, well worth the 16 minutes to watch. Katz talks about the two worst words in education today -  rigor and accountability.

Katz states they have successfully sold us rigor when what we really need is relevance. He gives the example of his request to his district to bring back Home Economics as a math credit. I know a woman who taught in a very poor school in the south. She was supposed to teach math to a group of students who were clearly behind their peers and disinterested in the learning process. So she decided to have them make cookies instead. She gave them a recipe that made two dozen chocolate chip cookies. Many of these kids had little food at home so chocolate chip cookies were exactly the kind of incentive they needed. The students had to figure out how many cookies they each wanted to have, how many they would have to make for each student in class to have that many cookies and then figure out how to adjust the recipe to provide that final count of chocolaty goodness. This involved multiplication, division and fractions. The students ate it up, literally. Relevance, not The Toxic Culture of Education | Missouri Education Watchdog:

How Organized Citizens Helped de Blasio Sieze Equity-Driven Public Education as Core Issue | janresseger

How Organized Citizens Helped de Blasio Sieze Equity-Driven Public Education as Core Issue | janresseger:

How Organized Citizens Helped de Blasio Sieze Equity-Driven Public Education as Core Issue

Posted on May 12, 2014 by janresseger

In the spring 2014 issue of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform’s VUE (Voices in Urban Education Reform), Oona Chaterjee, associate director for New York City organizing at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, introduces a set of articles about how it came to be that mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, “elevated a comprehensive vision for improving the city’s more than 1,800 public schools”… including “many of the signature reforms fought for by advocates throughout the twelve preceding years of the Bloomberg administration: the creation of 100 community schools in his first rerm; supports for struggling schools, rather than school closings; reduced reliance on disciplinary measures that remove students from classrooms; and an accountability system that relies on measures other than standardized tests.”

It is easy to imagine that de Blasio, who became mayor in January 2014 after a stunning victory last November, might have created his public education agenda as a response to his years as a parent in Brooklyn or to his experiences while serving as public advocate, but in fact Annenberg’s spring VUE is a collection of articles about strategic and extended community organizing that pressured New York City’s mayoral candidates to react to a community-driven platform and to embrace or reject it.  In the spring 2014 VUE, it is very much worth reading pieces by two of New York City’s best community organizers—Zakiyah Ansari of the Alliance for Quality Education and Ocynthia Williams of the Coalition for Educational Justice—and to read Oona Chateree’s interview with New York University sociologist Pedro Noguera.

But most fascinating is Billy Easton’s, Changing Course on School Reform: Strategic Organizing around the New York City Mayoral Election. Easton is the executive director of New York’s statewide Alliance for Quality Education, which, beginning in 2011, worked with the New York City Coalition for Educational Justice, Make the Road New York, New York Communities for Change, and the Urban Youth Collaborative, to develop a strategy to create momentum for the overwhelming rejection of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s educational How Organized Citizens Helped de Blasio Sieze Equity-Driven Public Education as Core Issue | janresseger: