LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 6-5-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Pelto Plans Third Party Run in Connecticut

Blogger and former Democratic legislator Jonathan Pelto announced his plans to run as a third party candidate against Governor Dannell Malloy, largely on education issues. See here and here. His running mate is Hartford teacher Ebony Murphy.

2 by dianeravitch / 32min

Cambridge, MA, School Committee Votes to Delay PARCC Tests

Last night, the school board in Cambridge, Massachusetts, voted to delay the implementation of PARCC, one of the two federally-funded online Common Core assessments. This was something of a problem for Mitchell Chester, Commissioner of the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, because he is chair of the governing board of PARCC. The Cambridge School Committee acted in response t

8 by dianeravitch / 18min 

Parents and Educators Demand Release of Pearson Tests

Take Action and Click Here to Demand the Release of the 3-8 Grade NYS Tests, Only 30 Seconds of Your Time Dear Allies, New York parents and teachers are outraged that they are not allowed to see the NYS Standardized 3-8 grades tests. Before 2011, all tests were posted on the New York State Education Department (NYSED) website. That changed after the State Education Department signed a contract wit

2 by dianeravitch / 6min 

Ira Shor: When Do Kids Count?

Ira Shor describes our complex sustem, based on race, class, income: “Teachers count only if their students count. To count in this society, kids have to come from affluent families; the teachers of those affluent kids are paid more and generally treated better. The vast majority of students in k-12 pub schls don’t count b/c they are poor, working-class, or lower middle-class, many not white, man

9 by dianeravitch / 30min 

Michigan: A Very Curious Story of Charter Management Techniques

This is an astonishing story from Michigan. There, a persistent blogger named “Miss Fortune” discovered that a charter manager was indicted on multiple charges, including tax evasion and bank fraud. His wife and brother plus a local contractor and his wife diverted nearly $1 million of a $1.8 million construction loan to his personal bank accounts. Miss Fortune began digging, as persistent blogger

3 by dianeravitch / 21min 

Peter Greene: Why Are Common Core Standards Written in Stone?

Peter Greene asks a simple, logical question: why are the Common Core standards written in stone? “Not just stone, but stone mounted in cement crazy-glued to bedrock all sealed in amber.” The Common Core standards are copyrighted. “…if you want to use them, you must do so as is, with not a single change. States may add up to 15% on top of what’s there, but they may not rewrite the CCSS in any way,

10 by dianeravitch / 1h hide  //  save

What Is Likely to Happen if Some States Drop the Common Core

The problems with the Common Core are multiple. Many states are now experiencing a populist revolt against it, sometimes led by extremists parents, sometimes (as in New York) led by responsible veteran educators. Support is strong and includes the Obama administration, major corporations, Republicans like Jeb Bush, and educators who like the new standards. Opposition is strong and spans the ideol

27 by dianeravitch / 2h 

Ohio Virtual Charters Tailor Ad Campaigns to Lure Students

An article in the Akron Beacon Journal shows how virtual charters design advertising campaigns to appeal to students who are unhappy and feel bullied at school “With profits on the line, private charter school companies are advertising on television, radio, billboards, handbills and even automated telephone messages to entice students away from public schools. “And with words such as free, flexi

14 by dianeravitch / 3h 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 6-4-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Protest against PISA League Tables Goes InternationalA few weeks ago, educators Heinz-Dieter Meyer of the State University of New York and Katie Zahedi, principal of the Linden Avenue Middle School in Red Hook, New York, wrote a protest letter against the international horse race inspired by OECD’s PISA examinations. They gathered

by mike simpson / 8h 

6-5-14 Ed Notes Online Week

Ed Notes Online:

UFT Contract: Why Union Officials Owe Ellen Fox, Me and MORE

View from my deckOh, what I gave up to spend 2 days observing the vote count as a MORE rep. (I'm still redoing my ravaged garden from Sandy.)  The UFT owes Ellen and I bigtime. Here's why.A call came in last night (I'm paraphrasing): "Norm, if not for your ed notes piece on the count being honest the people in my school - almost 100% NO - would be ready to storm UFT HQ over what looks like a

by ed notes online / 1h 

Exposing the Charter School BS About Demographics

I saw this a few weeks ago and it reinforces the case that hook or crook, charters skim the cream despite claims all the kids in public and charters come from the same demographic and socio-economic status. Any teacher who works(ed) in public schools in certain neighborhoods, like I did in East Williamsburg (old-style) for 35 years saw how different kids from the same projects could be. Since clas

by ed notes online / 1h 

6-4-14 Ed Notes Online Week

Ed Notes Online: Ed Notes Online: SUPPORT LEONIE HAIMSON CLASS SIZE MATTERS BY ATTENDING SKINNY AWARDS DINNEREd Notes Online: SUPPORT LEONIE HAIMSON CLASS SIZE MATTERS BY ATTENDING SKINNY AWARDS DINNER: SUPPORT LEONIE HAIMSON CLASS SIZE MATTERS BY ATTENDING SKINNY AWARDS DINNERTime out from contract vote reporting for a word for a worthy cause.OK. It's time to ante up for Leonie and the great work

by mike simpson / 3h 

6-5-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

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

June’s Best Tweets — Part One

Every month I make a few short lists highlighting my choices of the best resources I through (and learned from) Twitter, but didn’t necessarily include them in posts here on my blog. I’ve already shared in earlier posts several new resources I found on Twitter — and where I gave credit to those from whom I learned about them. Those are not included again in post. If you don’t use Twitter, you can

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h

D-Day Resources

Tomorrow is the seventieth anniversary of D-Day. You can find a lot of related resources at The Best Online Resources For Teaching & Learning About World War II (Part Two). You might also be interested in The Best Online Resources For Teaching & Learning About World War II (Part One).

by Larry Ferlazzo / 29min 

New World Cup Resources: Fun Commercial & Very Useful Google Street View Expansion

Google has just announced a big expansion of Street View images from Brazil, and you can see all their highlights here. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Brazil. And here’s a fun World Cup commercial I’m adding to The Best Sites For Learning About The 2014 World Cup In Brazil:

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h 

6-4-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: “slidebean” Looks Like A Good Way For Creating Online Slideshowsslidebean is a new free tool for creating online slideshows. It provides multiple formats and the ability to search the Web, within the application, for images. I’m adding it to The Best Ways To Create Online Slideshows. Here’s a video that describes how it wor

by mike simpson / 6h 

6-5-14 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.:

New Jersey and Illinois have more in common than crooked politicians. Pension theft and a court fight.

Newark Mayor in the 60s, Hugh Addonizio. There was Frank Hague. The Mayor of Jersey City. From 1917 to 1947. Those who wanted favors from Hague would put cash in a special drawer in his desk that he would push open toward them. Despite being the subject of several investigations, Hague was never even charged for any corruption and is said to have retired a multi-millionaire. Then there were Sen.

by Fred Klonsky / 10min 

Governor Quinn. Veto Rahm’s pension theft bill.

by Fred Klonsky / 5min 

Ten minute drawing. Rahm wants Chicago to be a City of Lights.

4 by Fred Klonsky / 1h 

George Schmidt. SEIU members were told by their union they had to cross CTU picket lines.

- George Schmidt publishes Substance News. It’s actually worse about the 2012 strike. SEIU members were told by their union they had to cross CTU picket lines. As you remember, CPS opened more than 100 schools, claiming that the children would starve if the schools were not opened. After the first day of the strike, most of the kids refused to cross the picket lines, and instead joined their teac

by Fred Klonsky / 46min hide  //  save

Board member attacks Hinsdale teachers for being unionized. “They’re like Karen Lewis!”

Members of the IEA and NEA affiliated Hinsdale High School Teachers Association voted unanimously last week to authorize a strike, not wanting to leave for the summer without giving demonstrating their full support for their union leadership. Meanwhile the Hinsdale school board has beating the anti-union drums. Two recent letters to The Doings, a local Sun-Times publication: One year leading Hins

by Fred Klonsky / 1h 

6-4-14 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.: Dancing with Christian Mitchell.We headed over to the Hideout last night for Joravsky and Dumke Second Tuesdays. The panelists were my rep-elect Will Guzzardi, AFSCME lobbyist Adrienne Alexander and pension thief State Rep Christian Mitchell. Mitchell was why I wanted to go. I think we should confront

by mike simpson / 8h 

6-5-14 Answer Sheet

Answer Sheet:

Two more states pull out of Common Core

Two Republican governors, Mary Fallin of Oklahoma and Nikki Haley of South Carolina, have just signed laws pulling their states out of the Common Core State Standards initiative amid growing anti-Core sentiment around the country. Fallin signed the law on Thursday, while Haley did it last week, joining Indiana in officially rejecting the Core. A few […]

8 by Valerie Strauss / 1h 

U-Va. law school mistakenly sends out e-mail with private student data

Someone at the University of Virginia law school mistakenly sent an e-mail to lots of people containing private information about all of its clerkship applicants, with very detailed data about each one, including grade-point average and where their contacts live. The Above The Law Web site reported it this way: …Ruth Payne, UVA’s Director of […]

by Valerie Strauss / 13min

Judge puts hold on Common Core contract to Pearson

Last month I wrote about how the huge education company Pearson won a huge contract with one of the two multi-state consortia designing new Common Core-aligned tests. Pearson was the only bidder for the contract — to develop test items and forms, deliver paper and online versions, etc. — but as it turns out, an education corporation […]

by Valerie Strauss / 1h 

The education question we should be asking

One area of education that doesn’t get enough attention in the loud education reform debate is exactly what is worth learning. In the following post Alfie Kohn explores this problem. Kohn (www.alfiekohn.org) is the author of 13 books about education, parenting, and human behavior, including “The Myth of the Spoiled Child: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom […]

51 by Valerie Strauss / 4h hide  //  save

A clever way to get rid of teachers

When the North Carolina Senate late last month rolled out a new step salary schedule for teachers, it was reported in the state media as offering a big raise to educators while taking away job protections. But the new plan isn’t exactly what it seems. It  ”incentivizes”  teachers at specific experience levels to leave the […]

100+ by Valerie Strauss / 5h 

6-4-14 Answer Sheet

Answer Sheet: Parent: Why I can’t ‘in good conscience’ leave my kids in public schoolLynne Rigby and her husband Brad live outside of Orlando, Florida, with their five children who have attended a Seminole County public elementary school. Rigby, a former public school teacher and photographer, wrote a letter to state and local officials explaining why, with great sadness, she and her husband are p

by mike simpson / 8h 

6-5-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:

KIPP Links, Including Research and Commentary

A reader in California asked for some links, and here is the result I will share with you, too.  This is certainly not an exhaustive list, not even for SM.  A start, nonetheless.One thing you should note from this first link below is that non-profit charters schools are a myth, thanks to some handiwork by Clinton before he left office.http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2014/04/americas-top-corporate-ed

by Jim Horn / 4min 

Marshall Tuck's white male friend Dax Shepard 'splains that cultural sterilization isn't "real racism"

When I taught in the Los Angeles Unified Schools, I openly opposed the Vietnam War and was critical of the system’s race policies.  Fortunately, I was never threatened with dismissal, I belonged to a union. — Professor Rodolfo F. Acuña Students Protesting Marshall Tuck's racist decision to kill Ethnic Studies. Photo by Robert D. Skeels. Eli Broad's California State Superintendent of Public Instru

5 by Robert D. Skeels ... / 6h 

6-4-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter: The Pearson Teacher: From Sage on the Stage to Technician in the MechanismWhen Bill Gates came to Memphis in 2009 with $90 million to grease the hinges on every bureaucratic door within a hundred miles, the schools became the laboratory for every self-serving thought disorder that the aging crackpot could come up with.  The latest bad dream brings together Common Core, Pearson, Win

by mike simpson / 6h