LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 6-20-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

Connecticut: Charter School CEO Does Not Have Doctorate, As Claimed

Yesterday, it was revealed by the media that the CEO of one of Connecticut’s charter chains, Michael Sharpe, has a criminal background. Today the story emerged that he does not have a doctorate, although the chain’s website refers to him as “Dr. Sharpe.” Perhaps of greater significance is that his charter school in Hartford did not enroll a single bilingual student in six years. Sharpe says he nev

5 by dianeravitch / 1h 

D.C. Suspends Use of Test Scores in Teacher Evaluations

The District of Columbia has suspended the use of test scores as part of teacher evaluations, a practice which was the hallmark of Michelle Rhee’s tenure as chancellor of that district and which led to the firing of hundreds of teachers. Chancellor Kaya Henderson said the district needs time to phase in new Common Core tests. “Chancellor Kaya Henderson announced the decision, saying officials ar

31 by dianeravitch / 38min hide  //  save

Poll: Nearly Half of Public Never Heard of CCSS

You know those national standards that were “developed by the governors” and “state-led”? A new poll shows that nearly half the public never heard of them. When asked whether they like the idea of standards that are globally competitive and the same everywhere, 27% said they “strongly support” the idea. Problems arise with implementation and testing. Also with early childhood education. And fla

2 by dianeravitch / 48min 

Breaking News: Florida Governor Scott Signs Voucher Expansion Bill

Governor Rick Scott signed legislation to expand the state’s voucher program, despite the opposition of the state’s PTA associations, the NAACP, the teachers’ unions, and the League of United Latin American Citizens. Critics said the vouchers would drain resources from public schools. The voucher expansion was a high priority for former Governor Jeb Bush, who is a power in the state. Rita Solnet,

3 by dianeravitch / 21min 

What Is a College Degree?

Eduardo Porter, a business columnist for the Nee York Times, writes enthusiastically about a new and inexpensive way to “skip college.” He writes: “This week, AT&T and Udacity, the online education company founded by the Stanford professor and former Google engineering whiz Sebastian Thrun, announced something meant to be very small: the “NanoDegree.” “At first blush, it doesn’t appear like

3 by dianeravitch / 1h 

Pedro Noguera Defends Teacher Tenure in Wall Street Journal

Pedro Noguera went to the lions’ den, the Wall Street Journal, to explain why the corporate reformers’ crusade to eliminate teacher tenure is wrong-headed (the article is unfortunately behind a paywall). The WSJ, owned by Rupert Murdoch, is a bastion of anti-teacher, anti-public education thinking, whose writers consistently support vouchers, Teach for America, and anything else that disrupts publ

2 by dianeravitch / 8min hide  //  save

David Sirota: The Big Money and Profits Behind the Charter Movement

Investigative journalist David Sirota asks why so many of the super-rich love charter schools. The answer, with exceptions: profits and money and union-busting, all rolled in one. Take Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 million gift to Newark. At least $20 million went to consultants. Consultants! Sirota writes: “But, of course, a lot of corporate execs working for the firms who got Zuckerberg’s money did

10 by dianeravitch / 1h 

Alan Singer Responds to Supporters of edTPA

Alan Singer of Hostra University in New York wrote a critique of edTPA, a new assessment of student teachers, which was posted here. He called it “The Big Lie Behind High Stakes Testing of Student Teachers.” A group of faculty at the City University of New York wrote to explain why they support edTPA, and it was posted here. In a new article, Alan Singer writes that “edTPA is currently being imp

3 by dianeravitch / 2h 

President Obama: We Must Strengthen Unions

This is one of the strangest stories of the week or month or year. President Obama spoke in Pittsburgh about the importance of strengthening unions. Unions are under siege and have been for several years, but I can’t remember when the President stepped up to defend them.

9 by dianeravitch / 3h 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 6-19-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Why Privatization of Public Services Harms SocietyYou will find this publication of great interest at this time. It is titled “Race to the Bottom: How Outsourcing Public Services Rewards Corporations and Punishes the Middle Class.” It was written by a group called “In the Public Interest.” The full PDF file is available for free. H

by mike simpson / 8h 

6-20-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

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

Today Is World Refugee Day — Here Are More Resources

Today is World Refugee Day and here are new additions to The Best Sites For Learning About World Refugee Day: The Refugee Project “is an interactive map of refugee migrations around the world in each year since 1975. UN data is complemented by original histories of the major refugee crises of the last four decades, situated in their individual contexts.” There Are More Displaced People In the Wor

by Larry Ferlazzo / 4min 

Design A Transit System For…Anyplace

Transitmix lets you easily create a mass transit system for any city or town in the world, including how much it would cost to run. No registration is required, and you’re given a link to your creation. You can read more about it at Gizmodo. Thanks to Grant Wiggins for the tip. You might also be interested in The “All-Time” Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly.

by Larry Ferlazzo / 21min 

Video: “Iraq Explained — ISIS, Syria and War”

I’m adding this video to The Best Web Resources On The Iraq War:

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1min hide  //  save

More Good Resources On Race

Here are new additions to A Collection Of Useful Posts, Articles & Videos On Race & Racism: If Affirmative Action Is Doomed, What’s Next? is from The New York Times. Here’s a commentary on that piece: It's also not clear to me that those who oppose "race-based affirmative action" won't oppose a proxy for "race-based affirmative action." — Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoa

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1min 

Friday’s New World Cup Resources

Here are today’s additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The 2014 World Cup In Brazil: The 2014 World Cup, Part I is a photo gallery from The Atlantic. These 8 works of Anti-FIFA Graffiti are Covering The Streets Of Brazil is from Fascinating Pics. World Cup 2014 Toolkit: Get in the Rhythm! is from VIF Learning Center. World Cups from Past To Present show video highlights of the past eight

by Larry Ferlazzo / 10min 

Teaching Complex Texts Requires ‘Getting To Know Your Students’

Teaching Complex Texts Requires ‘Getting To Know Your Students’ is my latest Education Week Teacher post. Today’s post features responses from three educators: Wendi Pillars, Amy Benjamin, and Christopher Lehman. I’ll be posting Part Two in a few days, and will have plenty of space for comments from readers. Here are some excerpts:

by Larry Ferlazzo / 26min

6-19-14 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 Infographics & Interactives Galore – Part ThreeThere are just so many good infographics and interactives out there that I’ve begun a new semi-regular feature called “Infographics & Interactives Galore.” You can see others at A Collection Of “The Best…” Lists On Infographics and by searching “infographics” on

by mike simpson / 8h 

6-20-14 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.:

Jonathan Pelto. Beware of the “don’t let us become Wisconsin” phony pro-labor candidates.

- Jonathan Pelto is running for Governor of Connecticut. To the unions, public employees, and the voters of Connecticut – Let’s take a moment to set the record straight… While preventing me from even speaking to the union members responsible for endorsing candidates, the leadership of the Connecticut AFL-CIO and AFT-CT were among those claiming that voters must choose Governor Dannel “Dan” Malloy

by Fred Klonsky / 22min 

Ten minute drawing. Rahm and Hillary on immigration.

by Fred Klonsky / 1min 

Is the Mayor running scared. Or is enough never enough?

Becky Carroll of Chicago Forward Super-PAC and former CPS lying liar. So far Rahm Emanuel’s main mayoral opposition is a progressive woman with good ideas and little money in the bank. That would be Amara Enyia. While others with more traditional clout have hinted at a run, nobody else is stepping up. Yet Rahm appears to be running scared. He has 7 million dollars in his campaign coffers. And he

by Fred Klonsky / 52min 

Secret Rahm memo to Clinton: Step up attack on immigrants. Be Nixon on crime.

The twelve-year limit on secrecy in the Clinton White House is over. Now we get to see what Rahm told Clinton in the privacy of the Oval Office. It’s not the image he probably wants to have out there leading up to the 2015 election for Chicago Mayor. But here it is. In a Nov. 20, 1996, memo from Emanuel to Clinton after he won his second term. “This is great,” Clinton wrote on the memo Emanuel ca

26 by Fred Klonsky / 1h hide  //  save

1.9 million visitors.

Last night we received our 1.9 millionth site visitor. We should hit two million by the middle of August. I’m glad this blog is helpful to those who are teaching, organizing and making things change for the better.

by Fred Klonsky / 2h 

6-19-14 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.: My suggestion is to call Dyett High School an “incubator.”The three-day community vigil at Dyett High School. For the past couple of days parents and members of the Bronzeville community have been holding a vigil at the neighborhood’s last open admission public high school. That would be Walter H. Dye

by mike simpson / 8h 

6-20-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University)

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University):

My Open Letter to Journalists: A Critical Free Press, pt. 2

Dear Journalists (especially those who write about education): After posting my U.S. and Education Reform Need a Critical Free Press, which represents a recurring effort in my public work to address the problems with journalism about education and education research/reports, I continued to interact with Juana Summers (NPR) and Stephen Sawchuk (Education Week) on Twitter. Those exchanges have sugge

by plthomasedd / 8min 

6-18-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University)

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University): U.S. and Education Reform Need a Critical Free PressFew things are worse than mainstream media coverage of education. Except for that sentence above, which stretches hyperbole beyond credibility. But that is exactly where the mainstream media finds itself when covering e

by mike simpson / 8h 

6-20-14 Wait What? - Jonathan Pelto: Gubernatorial Candidate and A Really Nice Guy

Wait What?:

Wait What? 

The downfall of another Charter School Management Company

Michael Sharpe is the CEO of Jumoke Academy and the FUSE charter school management company. Over the past twenty months, thanks to Stefan Pryor, Governor Malloy’s Commissioner of Education and Malloy’s political appointees to the State Board of Education, Sharpe and his charter management company has gone from having one small charter school in Hartford […] The post The downfall of another Charter

by jonpelto / 28min 

Hashtag – #ConnecticutisnotWisconsin

To the  unions, public employees, and the voters of Connecticut – Let’s take a moment to set the record straight… While preventing me from even speaking to the union members responsible for endorsing candidates, the leadership of the Connecticut AFL-CIO and AFT-CT were among those claiming that voters must choose Governor Dannel “Dan” Malloy or […] The post Hashtag – #ConnecticutisnotWisconsin  ap

by jonpelto / 44min 

The Power of Truth (from a Concerned Parent in Windham)

“In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” George Orwell 1984 This blog, like others that have been sent in from parents, shines the light of truth on the corporate education reform industry. Read it and know that the time has come to either fight back or give up.  […] The post The Power of Truth (from a Concerned Parent in Windham) appeared first on Wait What?.

2 by jonpelto / 1h 

6-19-14 Wait What? - Jonathan Pelto: Gubernatorial Candidate and A Really Nice Guy

Wait What?: Wait What? Malloy fails to make a real difference with home foreclosure crisisSearch the state database of the hundreds of press releases that Governor Malloy has over the past three and a half years and you’ll find numerous PR documents bragging that the Malloy administration was successfully fighting to protect Connecticut families from the predatory foreclosure practices of banks an

by mike simpson / 3h