8-19-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:

Apartheid Schooling in New Jersey

Bob Braun's Ledger: on One NewarkI remember standing in line at the career fair at the New Jersey university where I received my Master of Arts in Teaching and certification to teach secondary history and social studies. The line at the Newark table was vacant. No one, not one person, was interested in starting a career in Newark New Jersey public schools. Despite financial incentives, jobs in New

by freetoteach / 10min 

Fox News Viewers at Socialist Health Clubs

I work out at a city-owned health club, where old men who hate government come in their white tennis shoes and walk on the new municipally-owned treadmills, while watching the babes on FoxNews hand out to them their morning doses of hate.  They walk, glower, and sour without apparent purpose other than to make their hearts harder as hard as their arteries. But yesterday I figured out how to get ol

by Jim Horn / 7min hide  //  save

More Bogus Research from UofArkansas's Walmart School of Ed Reform

What a shame that a great state university like Arkansas would allow billionaire bullshit "research" to sully its good name!NEPC has reviewed the recent charter school "research" study by Jay Greene and his team and found it severely lacking in most everything that research requires to be legitimate:BOULDER, CO (August 19, 2014) –A recent report from the University of Arkansas

by Jim Horn / 47min 

Workforce Investment Act Becomes $3 Billion Handout to Predatory "Colleges"

No bills get through Congress these days without an overwhelming amount of money to be made by both sides of the corporate aisle.  Such a bill sailed through last month without so much as racial slur at the President, something quite unheard of in the age of an ostensibly-black Commander in Chief.  The legislation is called the Workforce Investment Act, and it's worth $3.1 billion to corporate hig

by Jim Horn / 2min 

8-17-14 Schools Matter All Week

Schools Matter: Teaching is Not a Business!!!Teaching Is Not a BusinessBy DAVID L. KIRPAUG. 16, 2014PhotoCreditEleanor DavisContinue reading the main storyShare This PageTODAY’S education reformers believe that schools are broken and that business can supply the remedy. Some place their faith in the idea of competition. Others embrace disruptive innovation, mainly through online learning. Both cam

by mike simpson / 9h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Today's test question: Why do police wear camouflage?

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Today's test question: Why do police wear camouflage?:

Today's test question: Why do police wear camouflage?

WATCHING FROM CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Worst Media Coverage Ever Awardbelongs to CBS News for this morning's headline: Michael Brown Protests in Ferguson Hijacked by 'Criminals' : Cops. Unless by "criminals" the headline was meant to refer to the Ferguson PD.



As the violent and terrifying Ferguson siege by militarized police forces, heads into Day 10, I'm still awed by the courage, anger, and desperate resistance shown by the mostly-peaceful and disciplined community protests against overwhelming odds. More live (on MSNBC) late night images of courageous youngsters ducking and dancing their way past armored vehicles, through the barrage of rubber bullets and tear-gas canisters, even daring to pick them up and return them to their rightful owners, jar memories of Watts '65, Harlem '64, Prague '68, Chicago '68, Tienanmen '89, Tahrir Square '2013 and Gaza last month.



Yes, 10 days since the murder of Michael Brown by Officer Wilson and still no arrest. Still no charges filed. What we know for sure from the various autopsy reports is that Brown was shot 6 times (including once in the palm of his raised hand and one in the top of his skull) as he stood passively, hands in the air. How many more autopsy reports do we need to see and how many federal investigations do we need to take place before an arrest is even made and charges filed? The struggle continues. No justice, no peace!



CAUTION... Three of Ferguson's four public schools remain closed but that doesn't mean children aren't getting Civics lessons from street teachers after being Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Today's test question: Why do police wear camouflage?:

Water is to Cats As Common Core is to Moms. Opt Your Child Out. | Missouri Education Watchdog

Water is to Cats As Common Core is to Moms. Opt Your Child Out. | Missouri Education Watchdog:

Water is to Cats As Common Core is to Moms. Opt Your Child Out.

inShare

It took about four years before two dreaded words in the English language~Common Core~gained national attention by the media and politicians.  The reason?  Angry moms (and dads) started raising concern about the CCSSI at their school boards, with their legislators, state boards of education, state education agencies and were summarily ignored and/or ridiculed.  Questions were not answered and concerns were dismissed.

The education reformers/supporters  responded by attacking the citizens voicing their concern about the adoption and implementation of the standards.  Adults (who are compelled to pay for this reform) have been told by pro Common Coreites they are:

• Misinformed
• Right Wing nut jobs
• Obama haters
• Racists
• Not teachers so they have no right to complain or make suggestions
• Hysterical
• Ignorant and/or confused
• Bullies
• Worried for nothing: we’ve always had standards
• Stuck in the past

The Fordham Institute mistakenly believes that the marketing ploy needed to make this illegal reform more palatable should focus on emotional statements to parents.  Don’t you think the reformers have slung enough emotional vitriol onto parents by calling them names and marginalizing them?  Parents don’t want or need the reformers to talk down to them or wrap their message in a ‘gentler, kinder’ campaign.  It’s condescending and shows again how the reformers won’t discuss the facts about the Initiative.

Citizens want the truth about the process, transparency, cost, data retrieval and storage.  It might be too late for the reformers to save the Common Core States Initiative.  They should have realized that trying to drown moms and dads concerns only make them angrier and more Water is to Cats As Common Core is to Moms. Opt Your Child Out. | Missouri Education Watchdog:

8-19-14 With A Brooklyn Accent: Ferguson Protests Highlight Link Between Growing Poverty and Militarized Policing

With A Brooklyn Accent:

Ferguson Protests Highlight Link Between Growing Poverty and Militarized Policing

The problems of America's poor have been "off the grid" for some time. Politicians of both parties reserve their concern for the middle class, fearing that any reference to poverty will destroy their electoral appeal. The one mass movement against social inequality we have had, Occupy Wall Street was predominantly white and college educated. But in a society where a majority of people ar

by Mark Naison / 3h 

8-18-14 With A Brooklyn Accent: What A Difference A Year Makes: The Evolution of BATS

With A Brooklyn Accent: What A Difference A Year Makes: The Evolution of BATSBATs is not the same group as it was a year ago. It is far more urban and multiracial and has changed its focus. It is now as concerned with school closings and school privatization as it is with testing and common core and with fending off attacks on teacher tenure and due process. It is also much more explicitly concern

by mike simpson / 7h 

8-19-14 Hemlock on the Rocks

Hemlock on the Rocks:

Los Angeles schools decriminalize discipline

Los Angeles schools decriminalize discipline

by Rene Diedrich / 26min

some POINTED QUESTIONS about AFT Convention - Common Core Debate - UFT Leaders Vs Classroom Teachers

Check out this video on YouTube: http://youtu.be/ToNEs-C9HCU Zz

by Rene Diedrich / 1min 

AFTER FIVE YEARS OF RUIN AND ROT: Teachers union claims to be talking strategy for combatting teacher jail - LA School Report

http://laschoolreport.com/teachers-union-talking-strategy-for-combatting-teacher-jail/#comment-2386 While officials from the teachers union, UTLA, are contemplating salary demands in a new labor contract with the district, they have not lost sight of another key issue, how to deal with teachers housed

by Rene Diedrich / 20min 

To Amanda Ripley: A Second TIME Article on Rhee is Long Overdue | deutsch29

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by Rene Diedrich / 8min 

New York Students Inch Upward On Common Core Tests, But Most Are Still Failing

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/14/new-york-common-core-scores-2014_n_5679545.html New York Students Inch Upward On Common Core Tests, But Most Are Still Failing The New York State Education Department released the much-anticipated scores

by Rene Diedrich / 6h 

Washington State School Officials Criticize Federal 'Failing' Status

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/14/washington-state-failing-schools_n_5679941.html?utm_hp_ref=education&ir=Education                  (Updates with Department of Education statement) By Victoria Cavaliere SEATTLE, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Superintendents from 28 Washington

by Rene Diedrich / 6h 

Why Los Angeles Sends Failing Students On To The Next Grade

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/15/los-angeles-failing-students_n_5682751.html?utm_hp_ref=education When Alberto Cortes was held back in fourth grade because of low math skills, he thought his world had come to an end."The first day of

by Rene Diedrich / 6h 

YESTERDAY

LA’s Schools: When Is Accountability Good For The Gander?

http://citywatchla.com/8box-left/7383-la-s-schools-when-is-accountability-good-for-the-LA's Schools: When Is Accountability Good For The Gander? The BUCK NEVER STOPPED-This past week, the first back in school for LAUSD kids, has seen an absolutely ridiculous mess due to MiSiS, the court-mandated, "Integrated Student Information System" more honestly termed, simply: "CriSiS".  B

by Rene Diedrich / 8h hide  //  save

The Trouble With Tenure - NYTimes.com

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by Rene Diedrich / 9h 

8-18-14 Hemlock on the Rocks

Hemlock on the Rocks: The Corporate Hijacking of Public EducationThe Corporate Hijacking of Public Educationby Rene Diedrich / 3h Inside the multimillion-dollar essay-scoring business | City PagesMike Kooiman Dan DiMaggio was blown away the first time he heard his boss say it. The pensive, bespectacled 25-year-old had been comingby Rene Diedrich / 3h LAUSD's outrageous 'parent trigger' suspension

by mike simpson / 8h 

8-19-14 Curmudgucation

CURMUDGUCATION:

Why Did the Core Have a Bad Year?

Today's big headline from the new Education Next poll is "Teachers No Longer Love CCSS."Support for the Core among teachers dropped like a stone, from 76% in 2013 to 46% in 2014. That's a lot of love lost. Now, as we move from the "Holy schneikies!" phase into the "Got some splainin' to do" phase, we'll start to ask the big question.Why?Over at The Fordham, Mike Petri

by Peter Greene / 18min

Whatever Happened to Affordable College Education

I enjoy the blog Curmudgeon Central not just because the name makes us some sort of internet cousins, but because the writer, a college professor in Texas, makes me look like Little Mary Sunshine.Recently, he published a post that jumps off from this internet meme If you are of a Certain Age (say, mine) then you recognize this is more-or-less accurate. I graduated from college in 1979, but it was

13 by Peter Greene / 1h hide  //  save

Survey Shows CCSS Support Plummeting

Support for the Core among teachers has been cut almost in half. That is just one of the findings in a survey released today by Michael Henderson, Paul Peterson and Martin West in Education Next.  The survey, administered in May and June of this year to 5000 adults, provides info on several issues. With charts and graphs! All of this has to be viewed through a careful filter-- EdNext is a reformst

34 by Peter Greene / 2h

8-18-14 Curmudgucation

CURMUDGUCATION: Sanders's Charter School Not Ready for Prime TimeThe problem of athletic academies that push sports and ignore academics is not a new one.One recent growth industry has been the post-grad prep school, schools set up so that athletes who failed to make the necessary scores to qualify for NCAA play can take another year to make their numbers while still maintaining their sports edge.

by mike simpson / 8h 

8-19-14 Perdido Street School Week

Perdido Street School:

NYCDOE Finally Kicks Yuppie Sports League/Drinking Organization From DOE Property

Meant to post about this a few days ago:The city has once again revoked the Lower East Side permits for an adult sports league residents say was using school properties to run an “alcohol-driven” social league.ZogSports, a co-ed league for young professionals in cities across the U.S., had been hosting several kickball games each week at MO25 145 at Stanton St. and P.S.142, at 100 Attorney St. Not

by reality-based edu... / 35min 

One Crooked Politician Stumps For Another Crooked Politician

She's back from the political dead:Gov. Cuomo's Women's Equality Party rallied today at City Hall to tout its massive signature-gathering effort ahead of November's election, but it was one woman who ended up stealing the show.Former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, in her first visit to City Hall since leaving office last year, made a surprise appearance at the rally, where she had a starrin

by reality-based edu... / 37min 

NYSUT, Other Unions Already Endorsed Andrew Cuomo In Spring

Jimmy Vielkind at Capital NY:ALBANY—In one sense, the AFL-CIO's decision Monday not to endorse Andrew Cuomo's re-election is bigger than it looks. That's because the union's decision, sources say, was partially the result of heavy lobbying from other labor groups that are snubbing or actively opposing the governor.The union's decision is somewhat smaller in terms of the likelihood that it will hav

by reality-based edu... / 59min 

Support For Common Core Continues To Drop - Even In Reform-Friendly Polls

Who will UFT President Michael Mulgrew punch over this very disheartening news for Common Core supporters?Anybody watching the escalating battle across the country over the Common Core State Standards and aligned standardized testing will hardly be surprised by a new national poll which reveals a significant loss of support over the last year — especially among teachers, whose approval rating drop

by reality-based edu... / 2min 

8-18-14 Perdido Street School Week

Perdido Street School: Time For An Investigation Into New York State's Test Score Results, Data TrackingTwo stories from over the weekend show that the statistics and data issued by NYSED Commissioner John King and his merry men and women in reform at SED cannot be trusted.First, as I posted yesterday, the NY Post covered how NYSED lowered the cut score levels on this year's state Common Core exam

by mike simpson / 8h