4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit 9-5-14

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit:

Trials+Tribulations Of Opening School With Misis

from the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles Weekly Update for the Week of 8 Sept 2014 | http://bit.ly/YihifD AALA thanks a secondary administrator, who wishes to remain anonymous, for providing this article. 4 September, 2014   ::For years, we heard it was coming – an integrated student information system. And then, suddenly, almost without warning, we drop right into the middle of My

1 by smf / 4min 

Calif. Teachers’ Union Sets Sights On Charters

By Arianna Prothero, Education Week http://bit.ly/YieK0S National Education Association President Lily Eskelson Garcìa poses at the teachers' union's Washington headquarters. Her visit to two recently unionized charter schools in California highlighted charter-organizing efforts in that state. —Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post/Getty September 5, 2014  ::  A pair of small charter schools

1 by smf / 28min 

California Goes It Alone On Special Ed Testing

by Kimberly Beltran, SI&A Cabinet Report :: http://bit.ly/1pTytPK September 04, 2014 (Calif.)   ::  California is moving forward with a plan to develop and administer its own assessment for cognitively disabled students after learning barely a month ago that it would not be allowed to test drive a new national model being launched this spring. The California State Board of Education took no

by smf / 1min hide  //  save

WILL COMMON CORE DOUBLE THE HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT RATE? + smf’s 2¢

By Valerie Strauss - The Washington Post  | http://wapo.st/1qChqzG September 4 at 3:34 PM   ::  The nonprofit Carnegie Corporation of New York, which has supported the Common Core State Standards, published a report in 2013 with some startling information that was little noticed in the education world until recently: that the high school dropout rate could double as a result of the Core

by smf / 7min 

Teachers Union Submits Initial Contract Demands To La Unified + Utla’S Initial Bargaining Proposal

  by Vanessa Romo, LA School Report | http://bit.ly/1lLMJt3 September 4, 2014 2:12 pm :: After months of bargaining talks with LA Unified, the teachers union, UTLA, today submitted its first contract demand within the course of current negotiations. In a document submitted to the board this morning, the union called for discussions of various subjects, including salaries, teacher

by smf / 1min 

CELERITY EXA CHARTER SCHOOL SURRENDERS ITS CHARTER AFTER BEING CLOSED BY PASADENA FIRE MARSHAL + smf’s 2¢

By Sarah Favot, Pasadena Star-News | http://bit.ly/Zaq0ga ***STAFF FILE PHOTO***First graders work together in groups on an "Eradicate Hunger Project" at Celerity Exa Charter School in Pasadena Friday, September 28, 2012. The project based K-5 school, which opened this year in the former Hodges Childrens Center, includes dance in their curriculum. (SGVN/ Photo By Sarah Reingewirtz) 9/

by smf / 3min 

LUDICROUS³: The consensus of opinion of serving and retired LA County superintendents on John Deasy’s superintendency

smf writes for 4LAKidsNews 4 Sept 2014  ::  I spoke this afternoon separately to three different school superintendents from three distinct and different school districts in L.A. County - two retired and one still practicing the craft – about their impression of the current kerfuffle ongoing in LAUSD – and the three principal challenges of the moment. The matter of the iPads and the Apple/

9 by smf / 8h 

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit 9-4-14

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: LA Times: the story retold — SUPT. DEASY’S EARLY AND AVID SUPPORT OF iPADS UNDER INTENSE SCRUTINYCritics question Deasy video – and much more –  promoting iPads before bidding began By Howard Blume and James Rainey | http://lat.ms/1vS847t Supt. John Deasy appeared in a 2011 video for Apple promoting the iPad, saying it would "change the landscape o

by mike simpson / 8h 

9-5-14 Hemlock on the Rocks

Hemlock on the Rocks:

LA Schools: Restoring The SUPER In Tendent by Sara Roos

http://www.citywatchla.com/lead-stories-hidden/7465-la-schools-restoring-the-super-in-tendent -When my home town built a new school in the early '70′s, a whole era vanished in concert with the disappearance of gilded letters proclaiming the "Superintendent's Office" within. I never did figure out what a "Superintendent" was and I was always vaguely disappointed that that wing,

by Rene Diedrich / 3min 

Supt. Deasy's early and avid support of iPads under intense scrutiny - LA Times

http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-lausd-deasy-20140904-story.html# Supt. Deasy's early and avid support of iPads under intense scrutiny The pitch came from a smiling man in a jacket and tie, sitting at his desk and rhapsodizing about the wonders one product could bring to the sprawling Los Angeles Unified School District. The new item would lead to "huge leaps in what's pos

by Rene Diedrich / 1h 

OSI Rent-a-Cop Comes Calling on a Teacher

http://www.southbronxschool.com/2014/09/osi-rent-cop-comes-calling-on-teacher.html I have been transferred. For those that recall, last year I spent my Rubber Room time at 4360 Broadway. Worse, I was held captive alone for over 6 months until I was allowed compatriots. I shared with the readers of this blog my captivity, my friends, and how I acclimated myself to the whims of my captors. I am

by Rene Diedrich / 5h 

CAN YOU SEE WHERE THIS IS HEADED , TEACHERS? Controversial alternative teaching permit approved by Indiana State Board of Education

http://www.indystar.com/story/news/education/2014/09/03/state-board-vote-controversial-alternative-teaching-permit/15013745/ Controversial alternative teaching permit approved by Indiana State Board of EducationFORT WAYNE — The Indiana State Board of Education on Wednesday approved a controversial proposal to provide another way for people without a teaching degree to teach high school students,

by Rene Diedrich / 15min 

OH YOU! Mike Mulgrew's free-spending, party hearty attitude and disregard for due paying members win him new label of "knucklehead"

ED NOTES: White chalk criminal is more like it. Like Randi Weingarten, Warren Fletcher, Alex Caputo Pearl and others, his desire to lead an opulent, entitled life flies in the face of the labor union's philosophy's proletariate sensibilities and dues paying members' best interest. More and more I see the resistance gaining an advantage by thwarting teacher unions in a very public fashion. Dinner a

by Rene Diedrich / 4min 

Paying Teachers Less Will Make them MORE Effective

America's Schools Could Be More Efficient If Teachers Were Paid Less: Report Posted: 09/04/2014 7:19 pm EDT Updated: 29 minutes ago  When it comes to education, the United States isn't getting all the bang it could for its buck, according to a new report. GEMS Education, an education consulting firm, released its "Efficiency Index" and an accompanying report on Thursday, rankin

by Rene Diedrich / 6h 

YESTERDAY

DIY INVESTIGATIVE Journalism: How Bloggers Became Watchdogs in the LAUSD iPad Boondoggle | BlogHer

DIY Investigative Journalism: How Bloggers Became Watchdogs in the LAUSD iPad Boondoggle By cynematic on September 04, 2014  Syndicated 0 0 1 "If you don't like the news," an old saying goes, "make your own." Doubly so when you're an education news blogger and parent of a school-aged child. In 2010, my hometown newspaper the Los Angeles Times released a

by Rene Diedrich / 8h 

No Parlo Italiano But I Will Teach It - Educator Fights Back

No Parlo Italiano But I Will Teach It   SEPTEMBER 3, 2014 In case you missed it,  I won my 3020-a termination hearing and wasn't terminated.  Instead I was fined $10,000 that the DOE began taking out of my paycheck immediately.  About $300 a pay period. Arbitrator Felice Busto stated that I should be returned to my classroom.  Violating the contract,  the DOE had other plans.  They were goi

by Rene Diedrich / 8h hide  //  save

SUPERINTENDENT JOHN DEASY'S IPAD SCANDAL- JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG. ( We are in the Titanic )

SUPERINTENDENT JOHN DEASY'S IPAD SCANDAL- JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG(Mensaje se repite en Español)Given the present iPAD scandal that in reality is just the latest incarnation of a long list of corrupt practices at the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), one can only hope that finally the curtain will be opened on illegal practices to expose a long history of enumerable improper actions

1 by Rene Diedrich / 10h 

9-4-14 Hemlock on the Rocks

Hemlock on the Rocks: Accountability - ChangeTheLAUSDhttp://www.changethelausd.com/accountability.html Accountability - ChangeTheLAUSD"It was controversial?"- John Deasy (1)At the beginning of this month, Superintendent Deasy was mocking opponents of his plan "to provide an iPad to every Los Angeles student, teacher and school administrator." (2) Yesterday he cancelled the proj

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

9-5-14 Curmudgucation

CURMUDGUCATION:

Rick Hess Joins the Resistance

This week Rick Hess took to the National Review Online to punch Common Core in the nose.Hess has always been a well-connected reform advocate. He's the education guy at American Enterprise Institute, and an executive editor at Education Next, an outfit run by Paul Peterson and sponsored by the Thomas Fordham Institute, the Hoover Institution, and the Harvard Kennedy School. He's a conservative wri

1 by Peter Greene / 2min 

Prof. Pearson Goes To College

On Thursday, Gabriel Kahn at Slate reported news that is not actually news to anybody who pays attention to education these days, but it's still worth noting.Pearson has made it possible for colleges and universities to do away with those pesky professors entirely by providing a Course in a Box. Students who sign up for an Intro to Psychology course at Any University, USA, may very well find thems

1 by Peter Greene / 28min 

9-4-14 Curmudgucation

CURMUDGUCATION: The Broad Foundation Makes a ChangeLast week the folks at the Broad Academy (motto: "You're a superintendent because you say you are") dropped some new on the education world. If you need a refresher (or just a fresher) on what the Broad Academy is, just click over to this tutorial. In the meantime, just remember that a dream is a wish your heart makes, and if your heart

2 by mike simpson / 1h 

9-5-14 Perdido Street School Week

Perdido Street School:

Eva Moskowitz Public Relations Department In Overdrive These Days

An overall positive piece in the NY Times Magazine, now a shill piece from ed deform fanboy Jonathan Chait.Last week she was on NY1, talking how she might run for mayor in 2017. State of Politics tonight says "The charter school network CEO is getting a lot of media attention these days."But it's never an accident when Success Academies or Eva herself gets attention.With the amount of mo

1 by reality-based edu... / 2h 

De Blasio's Victory Lap

Eliza Shapiro at Capital NY:Mayor Bill de Blasio took a five-borough victory lap Thursday for his universal pre-kindergarten program, the signature initiative of his administration.De Blasio, accompanied by his wife Chirlane McCray, schools chancellor Carmen Fariña, and a group of council members, borough presidents and other elected officials, visited five schools, one in each borough—a first day

by reality-based edu... / 4min 

Cuomo In Hiding, Teachout Everywhere

Zephyr Teachout's schedule today:At 10 a.m., Democratic gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout participates in a Women’s Equality “Empty Chair Debate Stop”, 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, 23 Washington Pl., Manhattan.At 11:30 a.m., Teachout appears on “The Capital Pressroom” with Susan Arbetter, listen at 91.3 FM or http://www.wcny.org/radio/capitolpressroom/.At 2 p.m., Teachout makes an “Empt

by reality-based edu... / 1h hide  //  save

Let Kathy Hochul Know What You Think Of Her

State of Politics:At 3:30 p.m., Hochul does a Penn South walk through with NYC Council Member Corey Johnson, 26th Street and 8th Avenue, Manhattan.Stop by and let Hochul know you think she should be running as a Republican, along with her running mate, Andrew Cuomo:Hours after Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s pick for lieutenant governor published a video touting her liberal credentials, her challenger said he

by reality-based edu... / 2h 

UFT, De Blasio Back To Bargaining Table On Contract

Sally Goldenberg at Capital NY:The de Blasio administration and the United Federation of Teachers will return to the bargaining table in the coming weeks to hammer out an unresolved portion of the recently ratified contract, Capital has learned.The two sides need to agree on how to pay union members who retired before June 30, 2014, because more teachers left than the contract had accounted for, b

2 by reality-based edu... / 3h  

9-4-14 Perdido Street School Week

Perdido Street School: APPR Teacher Evaluation System Mess ThreadJames Eterno at ICEUFT blog describes how you can get the same score in the APPR teacher evaluation system and either be "developing" or "ineffective," depending upon, well, nobody's sure what it depends upon:We knew teachers at a phasing out school would be at a huge disadvantage in terms of the ratings in Advanc

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

Back to School with NEA president Lily Eskelsen Garcia in Florida

Back to School with NEA president Lily Eskelsen Garcia in Florida:

Back to School Tour in Florida

September 5, 2014 by Lily

Categories: Education, Events

Tags: back to school, florida, storify

There are great things happening in public schools in Florida. So honored to see the great work of dedicated educators:

Back to School with NEA president Lily Eskelsen Garcia in Florida:

Oregon Save Our Schools: Our press release: Parents Say No to Kindergarten Test

Oregon Save Our Schools: Our press release: Parents Say No to Kindergarten Test:

Our press release: Parents Say No to Kindergarten Test

For immediate release August 31, 2014

Parents, Teachers Say No to Kindergarten Test

“I have opted out both my Kindergartner and my Second Grader,” says Jennifer Lewis, a Portland Public School parent. Lewis is just one of many parents across Oregon opting their child out of a new Kindergarten Assessment.

The Oregon Kindergarten Assessment was instituted last year by Governor Kitzhaber. Many early childhood and educational experts disagree this test measures kindergarten readiness at all. Parent Child Preschools Organization, an organization of sixty preschools in Oregon and Washington, has sent out information to all parents at their member preschools.

Kathy Ems, PCPO Vice-President says, “PCPO is very concerned about the Oregon Kindergarten Assessment and its effects both on the very young children taking the test and on preschool curriculum. A substantial body of research supports play-based preschool, without formal academic instruction. Learning the names and sounds of letters in preschool may happen naturally (your name starts with J), but is not part of the curriculum of a play-based program. In fact, much of the research supports starting formal academics after kindergarten, when children's brains are ready for the task of reading.”

In the first days of kindergarten students are tested on letter recognition, math skills and behavior skills. Test results cannot be released to teachers or parents, and teachers are not allowed to use them to inform instruction. Teachers are strictly prohibited from coaching or helping students.  Teachers do their own evaluations of students for normal classroom instruction

Lewis’ 2nd grade son did take the kindergarten readiness test and she didn’t like what he went through. “No 5 year old should have to go through a testing regimen, where they are repeatedly asked the same question. My son noticed this in his kindergarten assessment and started rocking and stopped responding. They know inherently they got it wrong when asked twice.” says Lewis.  

In Oregon parents can ask to opt their children out of tests by contacting their school principal or school district or teacher.  Oregon schools allow two reasons for opting out, disability or religion.  Washington and California allow parents to opt out without providing reasons. Ems says “We encourage parents to share their concerns with their principal and other school officials.  It may be possible for parents to opt out of the testing for reasons of disability or religion, including philosophical beliefs."

“Parents should not feel pressured or bullied by their school to participate in standardized testing. The state shouldn’t be pressuring and bullying schools and teachers to participate in standardized testing,” says Kathleen Jeskey an Oregon SOS member and Canby teacher. Jeskey helped co-found Oregon Save Our Schools, a group of committed teachers, parents and retired educational researchers who are trying to get the word out about the dangers of high stakes testing.  Oregon SOS is holding opt out parties to encourage parents to learn more about the tests. Kindergarten tests will be administered all over Oregon with many being done the first week of September.  “Why diminish a child's self confidence at 5?” asks LewisOregon Save Our Schools: Our press release: Parents Say No to Kindergarten Test:

The Battle for New York Schools: Eva Moskowitz vs. Mayor Bill de Blasio - NYTimes.com

The Battle for New York Schools: Eva Moskowitz vs. Mayor Bill de Blasio - NYTimes.com:

The Battle for New York Schools: Eva Moskowitz vs. Mayor Bill de Blasio

By DANIEL BERGNERSEPT. 3, 2014

One afternoon this summer, Eva Moskowitz, who runs Success Academy Charter Schools, showed me her senior yearbook. “I was the editor,” she said. We sat in a half-furnished office at the construction site of her charter network’s first high school. A buzz saw shrieked in the background. She graduated in 1982 from Stuyvesant, the most selective of New York City’s public high schools. “I got completely engaged in how to take this sentimental book and make it a much bigger project.” She fought to publish photographs capturing the political protests of that time — against nuclear weapons, against American aid to the government in El Salvador. To go with the pictures, she wrote a manifesto, concluding: “We do not live in a vacuum.”



“It took will,” she said about her yearbook triumph, in a tone that was only somewhat self-mocking. Moskowitz recalled, as well, Stuyvesant’s intractable failings. With an outrage that seemed barely abated by time, she described an alcoholic physics teacher who dozed through class, ceding instruction to an especially talented student, and endemic cheating on exams, caught by the cameras of her yearbook staff. “I thought it was my moral duty to show” the evidence “to the administration,” she said. “They were very adamant that they would investigate. They didn’t.”



At 50, Moskowitz is petite and favors tailored suits and spiked heels. She founded her first Success Academy, a kindergarten and first grade in Harlem, in 2006 and has swiftly created the largest charter group in the city. It stretches from the South Bronx to Bedford-­Stuyvesant­, with nearly 9,500 students in 24 elementary schools, seven middle schools and the new high school, which opened in late August. Most students are black and Latino and poor enough to qualify for federally subsidized lunch — the kinds of children the city’s regular public-school system seems all but incapable of educating. Fewer than one-fifth of black students in the city can read or do math at grade level, to take just one grim statistic.



Stepping out of the high-school office, we stood on the freshly laid linoleum in a common area. The tiles, picked by Moskowitz, have a grassy motif. In her eyes, the painted lawn hints at a college quad. There, as she envisions it, her students will soon be lingering to chat about “Hamlet” and “King Lear.”



The granddaughter of a public-school typing instructor and the daughter of two university professors, Moskowitz grew up and lives in Harlem. Early on she was drawn to teaching — she recounted lecturing her stuffed animals on geography. After Stuyvesant, she went to the University of Pennsylvania and then earned a Ph.D. in history from Johns Hopkins. By 1997 she was teaching at Prep for Prep, a program in New York City for gifted minority students. She assigned her 11th graders to document the disparities between the city’s cleaning of parks on the wealthy Upper East Side and its non-upkeep of a park in the Harlem neighborhood where some of them lived. She told the students to take photos and complain to the sanitation and parks departments. “We created a little bit of a ruckus,” she said. “I think Prep for Prep was nervous about it. I was asked why I couldn’t just do simulations.” The park, she continued, got a cleaning.



During that period, Moskowitz grew consumed with the dismal performance of the city’s vast Department of Education, which is responsible for schooling 1.1 million children — and with the union-guarded contracts that continue to make it nearly impossible to fire teachers for incompetence or give raises for merit. “I remember reading,” she told me, turning to the protections for administrators, “that a principal had to demonstrate ‘persistent educational failure’ to be in jeopardy of losing his job. I remember thinking, that’s crazy! Persistent. Like a driver would have to persistently kill people before being taken off the road!”



Moskowitz’s zeal persists to this day. My first exposure to her was at an The Battle for New York Schools: Eva Moskowitz vs. Mayor Bill de Blasio - NYTimes.com:

NYC Educator: The Best Thing That Happened Yesterday

NYC Educator: The Best Thing That Happened Yesterday:

The Best Thing That Happened Yesterday

Yesterday was the first day of class. I was nervous, the kids were nervous, but we all did the best we can. First day programming is always problematic. I teach beginning ESL and several of my kids turned out to have been born here.

In my afternoon class, one girl got pretty upset about this. She asked me to send her to the dean. "Do you know the deans?" I asked. She said, "No. I'm just always friendly with the deans." "But I have no reason to send you there," I said. She said, "Just tell them I made a lot of trouble." "I don't do that,"  I told her.  I told her I would get her out, that it could take a few days, and that she didn't have to do the homework if she didn't want to.

I tried calling some people who weren't there, and I even tried sending her down to the overwhelmed guidance department, but no one could help her today. In my class we were doing interviews after I drilled them in the questions they would need. The girl was bored out of her mind as we modeled the questions. She tried to sit in the back and I dragged her back up front. She put her head down for a moment to see if I'd scream at her to pick it up.

But a while later, another girl came in, a girl who could barely squeak out a word of English. By then I was introducing the interviews. I asked if she could help the shy new girl and my sullen student smiled and said, "What a great way to make NYC Educator: The Best Thing That Happened Yesterday:

OSI Rent-a-Cop Comes Calling on a Teacher - southbronxschool

http://www.southbronxschool.com:

OSI Rent-a-Cop Comes Calling on a Teacher

I have been transferred.

For those that recall, last year I spent my Rubber Room time at 4360 Broadway. Worse, I was held captive alone for over 6 months until I was allowed compatriots. I shared with the readers of this blog mycaptivity, my friends, and how I acclimated myself to the whims of my captors.

I am now at 1230 Zerega Ave in the Bronx where there not only 3 district offices but about a gazillion networks and other support staff as well. Better, I am no longer imprisoned alone. But the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same.

There are about a dozen or so prisoners there and each and everyone one of us are above 40 years of age. Most are male as well as people of color. What does this tell you? A lot!

Today was a normal day as usual in the Rubber Room. People were counting the hairs on their arms, counting the ceiling tiles, and other assorted time wasting activities when a network HR director came into the cell block with a nerdy looking white guy no older than 27 years old.

They were both standing in the door jam when they motioned for Tito Landrum. Tito looking confused got up out of his seat and walked towards them.

Looking at the nerdy white guy, I notice something out of place. Well, yes...besides the fact he was nerdy.

He was wearing a dress shirt and tie, but more intriguing was the stenographers note pad and pen he was carrying in his right hand. I smelled the stench of OSI (Office of Special Investigation) and bolted up from my seat.

I whisked myself out of my chair and went out into the hallway where Tito was being led away as a http://www.southbronxschool.com: