Monday, September 8, 2014

9-8-14 Hemlock on the Rocks

Tomorrow Lausd Boe Needs To Step Up On Confront The Tech Project

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-lausd-ipad-20140903-story.html Debugging LAUSD's iPad deal Editorial There is no room for secrecy when it comes to the billion-dollar technology project undertaken by the Los Angeles Unified School District and its superintendent, John Deasy. Not after the release of emails that reveal early and extensive communication among Deasy, his to

by Rene Diedrich / 1h hide // save

Are Deasy's critics playing politics with iPads? - LA Times

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-deasy-ipad-20140908-story.html# 0Are Deasy's critics playing politics with iPads Opinion No one could blame John Deasy, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, for feeling under attack these days. The iPad program he trumpeted so enthusiastically, aiming to provide an iPad with related, interactive curriculum for every

by Rene Diedrich / 1h

Not everyone is rejoicing over halt to LAUSD's iPad program

http://laschoolreport.com/not-everyone-is-rejoicing-over-halt-to-lausds-ipad-program/ Not everyone is rejoicing over halt to LAUSD's iPad program Click to enlarge image Principal Steven Martinez of John Burroughs Middle School in Hancock Park figured the worst that could happen is that his school's new iPads wouldn't connect to the Apple TVs that staff bought to enhance lesson plans. He figured w

by Rene Diedrich / 14min

rene diedrich's invitation is awaiting your response

rene diedrich would like to connect on LinkedIn. How would you like to respond? rene diedrich writer/poet at Freelance Confirm you know rene

by Rene Diedrich / 5h

9-7-14 Hemlock on the Rocks

Hemlock on the Rocks: Fwd: Twelve Theses on Education's Future in the Age of Neoliberalism and TerrorismTwelve Theses on Education's Future in the Age of Neoliberalism and Terrorism Thursday, 04 September 2014 10:03 By Jeffrey R. Di Leo, Henry A. Giroux, Kenneth J. Saltman, and Sophia A. McClennen, Paradigm Publishers | Book Excerpt 101 font size Print Email (Image: Paradigm Publishers)This exce

by mike simpson / 9h

9-8-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

Randi Weingarten Robocalls For Andrew Cuomo's Pro-Gun, Anti-Immigrants' Rights Running Mate

From Daily Politcs:Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, has done a last-minute robocall for former Buffalo-area Rep. Kathleen Hochul, Gov. Cuomo's preferred lieutenant governor candidate.Weingarten's call comes a day before the primary between Hochul and insurgent liberal Democratic candidate Tim Wu, a Columbia law professor. Political insiders say Wu has a shot at p

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

Cuomo, Worried About Primary, Increases Campaign Ad Buys

Will Brunelle at Capital NY:Governor Andrew Cuomo has purchased a reminder to Democratic voters about Tuesday's primary, in the form of $850,000 in broadcast television ads, according to F.C.C. filings reviewed by Capital. The latest buy, running from Sept. 1 until the close of polls on Tuesday, September 9, is part of the most significant ad campaign Cuomo has run since late July, and is more tha

1 by reality-based edu... / 31min

Cuomo, De Blasio Threaten To Derail Pet Projects Of Any Democrats Who Endorse Teachout/Wu

Fred Dicker in today's Post:Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio used threats and intimidation in recent days to block prominent Democrats from backing leftist law professors Zephyr Teachout and her running mate, Tim Wu, in Tuesday’s primary, party insiders have told The Post. The largely successful pressure has been especially intense to stop endorsements for Wu, who is given a real chance of defeating

by reality-based edu... / 2h hide // save

Tell Your Colleagues: Vote Teachout/Wu On Tuesday September 9th

We have two more days to try and get as many Democrats to vote for Zephyr Teachout and Tim Wu in tomorrow's Democratic Primary.Try and talk to as many people at school today and tomorrow as you can about Teachout/Wu.Introduce those who don't know much about Teachout and Wu with this from the Teachout/Wu website:My name is Zephyr Teachout, and I am a constitutional law professor and organizer. I am

2 by reality-based edu... / 5h

9-7-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School: Andrew Cuomo Snub Of Opponent Zephyr Teachout At Parade Goes ViralAnd now the rest of America gets to see what an arrogant little man-child our governor is.Here's Politico's coverage of the Cuomo/De Blasio snub of Teachout New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo greeted participants in New York City’s Labor Day Parade on Saturday, but one person didn’t get a warm welcome: his primary opp

1 by mike simpson / 8h

10 Thoughts on the New AP U.S. History Framework :: Frederick M. Hess

10 Thoughts on the New AP U.S. History Framework :: Frederick M. Hess:

10 Thoughts on the New AP U.S. History Framework

by Frederick M. Hess • Sep 8, 2014 at 9:10 am
Cross-posted from Education Week

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The College Board's revision of the AP U.S. History curriculum framework has ignited a firestorm. The new framework was released in 2012, but it's only drawn notice in the past few months. It's been blasted as an ideological rewrite of U.S. history, with critics providing examples and raising questions that have given me cause for concern. As a former high school social studies teacher, this is an area that strikes close to home. I've been holding off on opining until I had a clearer grasp of things. Now I feel like I've got it, so please excuse the length of today's post--it's too long, just because I feel like there's a lot to say.

On Thursday, the College Board's Trevor Packer was kind enough to visit with me at length. (Packer is senior vice president for AP and instruction, which means he oversees the College Board's Advanced Placement program.) Packer explained that the new curriculum framework is the first rewrite for AP U.S. History in recent memory, with the new 80-odd page framework displacing the five-page topical framework that had been in place for decades. Packer says that the effort started in 2006 as a response to concerns that the U.S. History test was a grab bag of historical trivia, driven by the personal agendas of higher ed faculty who submitted the questions, and forced teachers to skim through so many topics that they couldn't teach deeply or well. The rewrite process was driven by a set of volunteer history professors and teachers. An initial committee generated a list of "must-teach" topics. The College Board sent these to fifty-odd professors for reaction. That cut the list down considerably. A second committee took that handiwork and revised it. The result was an extensive and reasonable process, but one that, I fear, was allowed to reflect the biases and blind spots of participants. Here are 10 thoughts I have on the new framework:

First, I see no evidence of conspiracy or untoward behavior on the part of the College Board. As I understand things, it seems that the College Board ran a responsible process. That said, I think Packer put it very fairly and very well. He noted, "It's very difficult, given the dominance of liberal perspectives in college and high school history departments, for faculty committees to avoid unintentionally muting, eliding, or obfuscating the perspectives of the right."

Second, given that reality, it seems to me that the College Board has not done enough to push for intellectual diversity. I believe the College Board is trying--but it needs to do better. Packer argues, convincingly, that the rewrite was intended, in part, to encourage teachers to make sure they are teaching a more balanced and robust history than many were reportedly doing. (For instance, he notes that AP U.S. History syllabus studies since 2007 show an extraordinary omnipresence of Howard Zinn.) Even so, for reasons I'll discuss 10 Thoughts on the New AP U.S. History Framework :: Frederick M. Hess:

Louisiana Educator: Holding Our Legislators Accountable

Louisiana Educator: Holding Our Legislators Accountable:

Holding Our Legislators Accountable

2014 LAE Legislative Report Card Now Available. Click Here.

There is no question that by far the most important decision makers affecting public education and the welfare of public school employees are our Louisiana state senators and representatives. The Louisiana legislature considers dozens of bills each year that impact our public education system so much that one could say that the future of public education is primarily controlled by our state legislators. In addition, the benefits of teachers and employment rights of teachers and other educators can change drastically in only one legislative session.

In only one legislative session in 2012, teachers and parents saw the introduction of vouchers and greatly expanded charter schools that siphon millions of dollars from public schools and damage the retirement system for public school teachers. Some of these expanded charter schools threaten to degrade public schools by competing for high performing students without having the constraint public schools have of serving all students. (Look at this article today about damage to the Baker school system.) Some of the charter schools simply dump out low performers and discipline problems right back to public schools in order to raise their performance scores at the expense of public schools.

In the same 2012 session, Governor Jindal pushed through changes in teacher benefits basically destroying teacher tenure, all seniority rights, and by firmly tying teacher employment decisions to the extremely unreliable VAM system. In just a few weeks teachers lost all job protections and often found themselves potential victims of conditions over which they had no control. Oh, and at the same time, the legislature removed all education credentials necessary for college graduates to teach any subject in any charter school. Our legislators voted on every one of these extremely damaging bills. Are we holding them accountable for damaging public education and destroying educator protections and benefits?

I have pointed out in this blog many times that teachers and other public educators could take control of their own destiny by becoming much more active in expressing their opinions to their local legislators about important education bills. Educators could have more influence on legislators because each educator can Louisiana Educator: Holding Our Legislators Accountable:

Diane Ravitch Responds to NY Times Magazine Profile of Eva Moskowitz | janresseger

Diane Ravitch Responds to NY Times Magazine Profile of Eva Moskowitz | janresseger:

Diane Ravitch Responds to NY Times Magazine Profile of Eva Moskowitz

Posted on September 8, 2014 by janresseger

Yesterday the Sunday New York Times Magazine published a laudatory profile of Eva Moskowitz and her Success Academy chain of charter schools in New York City. Moskowitz is a former member of the NYC city council. She is politically connected and has used those connections, particularly during the tenure of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to expand rapidly the number of her Success Academy schools. The schools have posted high test scores.

Diane Ravitch was interviewed by Daniel Bergner, the reporter who wrote yesterday’s profile of Moskowitz. Yesterday on her blog Ravitch published a significant response to Bergner’s piece. Ravitch’s response is also posted at Huffington Post. She believes that Bergner did not accurately represent her concerns about attrition of both students and teachers at Moskowitz’s schools. Neither did he report her concerns about the small number of English language learners and students with severe disabilities attending Success Academy schools.

Ravitch writes: “I have no personal grudge against Eva Moskowitz. On the few occasions when we have appeared together, we have had very cordial conversation. What I deeply oppose—and this is what I stressed to Bergner and he deliberately ignored—is that Success Academy is not a model for public education. No one expects that Bronx Science is a model because it does not have open doors; it admits only those who meet its standards, and they are high. Eva Moskowitz pretends that her schools get superior results with exactly the same population because of her superior methods, when in reality the success of her schools is built on a deliberate policy of winnowing out low-performing and non conformist students… Public schools can’t remove students with low scores. They can’t refuse to enroll students with severe disabilities and students who can’t read English. They can’t close their enrollment after a certain grade. Unless they have a stated policy of selective admissions, they must accept everyone who seeks to enroll, even if they arrive in February or March.”

Ravitch explains that one of Moskowitz’s schools has added grades so that it now serves students in grades 3-8. In that school, however, 116 third graders were tested, while only 32 eighth graders were tested. When students drop out, they are not replaced. She provides similar examples from Success Academy schools that have now expanded to sixth grade. She points out that the number of students dropping out increases at third grade, the year when No Child Left Behind requires Diane Ravitch Responds to NY Times Magazine Profile of Eva Moskowitz | janresseger:

Shanker Blog » The Great Teacher Evaluation Evaluation: New York Edition

Shanker Blog » The Great Teacher Evaluation Evaluation: New York Edition:

The Great Teacher Evaluation Evaluation: New York Edition

Posted by Matthew Di Carlo on September 8, 2014

A couple of weeks ago, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) released data from the first year of the state’s new teacher and principal evaluation system (called the “Annual Professional Performance Review,” or APPR). In what has become a familiar pattern, this prompted a wave of criticism from advocates, much of it focused on the proportion of teachers in the state to receive the lowest ratings.

To be clear, evaluation systems that produce non-credible results should be examined and improved, and that includes those that put implausible proportions of teachers in the highest and lowest categories. Much of the commentary surrounding this and other issues has been thoughtful and measured. As usual, though, there have been some oversimplified reactions, as exemplified by this piece on the APPR results from Students First NY (SFNY).

SFNY notes what it considers to be the low proportion of teachers rated “ineffective,” and points out that there was more differentiation across rating categories for the state growth measure (worth 20 percent of teachers’ final scores), compared with the local “student learning” measure (20 percent) and the classroom observation components (60 percent). Based on this, they conclude that New York’s “state test is the only reliable measure of teacher performance” (they are actually talking about validity, not reliability, but we’ll let that go). Again, this argument is not representative of the commentary surrounding the APPR results, but let’s use it as a springboard for making a few points (most of which are not particularly original).

First, and most basically, if estimates derived from the state tests are the “only reliable measure of teacher performance,” we’re in big trouble, since it means that most teachers simply cannot be evaluated (as they don’t teach in tested grades/subjects). In that case, it would seem that the only responsible recommendation would be to scrap the entire endeavor. I doubt that’s what SFNY is trying to argue here, and so it follows that they might want to be more careful with their rhetoric.

If, on the other hand, they had advocated for increasing the weight, or importance, assigned to the state growth model results, this at least is a defensible suggestion (approached crudely though it sometimes is). But weighting, even putting aside all the substantive issues (e.g., value judgments, reliability), is a lot more complicated in practice than in theory. In reality, the “true weight” of any given measure depends on how much it varies compared with the other measures. (It should also be pointed out that theShanker Blog » The Great Teacher Evaluation Evaluation: New York Edition:

In the NBA as well, "Racism in the United States is as virulent as ever" by teacherken

In the NBA as well, "Racism in the United States is as virulent as ever":

The occasion of my posting this is a column by William Rhoden in today's New York Times about yet another racist owner in the NBA, this time the man with the controlling interest in the Atlanta Hawks, Bruce Levenson. The column is titled Searching for a League’s True Scale of Bigotryand has the subtitle "Bruce Levenson's Email Reveals Depth of N.B.A.'s Racism Issues. You can read the column for the contents of the email, which Levenson self-reported to the NBA. An investigation was underway, when Levenson announced he was selling his interest in the team, which apparently ends the investigation. Rhoden posits things like this might have been why the NBA did not want the Sterling case to go to trial:

In light of this second embarrassing disclosure, N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver should conduct an investigation to find out how many other Donald Sterlings and Bruce Levensons are among the league’s owners and top executives. Who are the racists, the sexists, the homophobes? Throughout the Sterling ordeal, I maintained that the best thing that could have happened to the N.B.A. — to all of us — was for the case to go to trial. To push Sterling — who was forced to sell the Los Angeles Clippers several months after an audio recording in which he was heard making racist comments was released in April, — to acknowledge what he knew about the deeds and misdeeds of other owners and top executives in the league.

But of course it is more than the NBA.

Please keep reading.

Allow me to push fair use by offering several more snips from Rhoden's column:

Indeed, the vast majority of those who self-identify as white in the United States rarely find themselves continually in situations where they are outnumbered by blacks.
Whether it is where they live, where they work, where they worship or where they play, “whiteness” is the norm.
How do whites respond in a situation in which they are not the majority? Do they stay
In the NBA as well, "Racism in the United States is as virulent as ever":

The Courage of Their Convictions by teacherken

The Courage of Their Convictions: The Courage of Their ConvictionsbyteacherkenFollow 6 Comments / 6 Newis the title of this book by Peter Irons.One of those featured in the book was a woman who as a girl - along with her brother - refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. They were both Jehovah's Witnesses. They were both expelled, and the Supreme Court, in 1940, upheld their expulsion in M

1 by mike simpson / 19h

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES:

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mary Mitchell

The way Mayor Rahm Emanuel reacted publicly to misconduct allegations against Chicago Police Cmdr. Glenn Evans shows he doesn’t have a clue about what it will take to rebuild trust between cops and the black community. -- Sun-Times

Rep. Luis Gutierrez

"Well, first of all it's clear that playing it safe is what is going on at the White House and among Democratic circles. And playing it safe means walking away from our values and our principles." -- Lynn Sweet, Sun-Times

Bill Gates

“We didn’t know when the last time was that somebody introduced a new course into high school. How does one go about it?" -- So Bill Gates Has This Idea for a History Class ... NYT

Diane von Furstenberg

Clearly, there is work to be done. “I am sure we will seduce the new mayor, too.” -Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES:-

NYC Educator: A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven

NYC Educator: A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven:

A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven

I was pretty surprised to read a story in the NY Post with a picture of a few dozen white teachers wearing NYPD shirts. Apparently they'd triumphed over the insidious UFT, which had somehow advised them against wearing said apparel. There was talk of appropriate apparel, and vague threatened consequences for wearing things deemed inappropriate. I guess UFT was trying to be tactful.

I respect NYPD. My daughter aspires to be NYPD. I don't wear an NYPD t-shirt because I haven't got one, but I might if I did.

Still, I wouldn't have gotten together with 20 of my colleagues and worn one to make a statement the first day of school. Why not?

I'm gonna suppose that most of my readers are teachers. So imagine this. A teacher gets caught selling cigarettes on the street one day. One single policeman decides to stop this. The teacher decides to resist arrest and said policeman kills this teacher.

On the first day of school, after your colleague is killed on the street, you walk in to your place of work. You're greeted by the principal, and by all the APs, and they're all wearing NYPD shirts. They want to show support for NYPD on this particular day. How do you feel?

Imagine this, instead. You are not an adult. You are a student, a minority student. (In fact, that's an odd term, because minority students form the NYC Educator: A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven:

Lily's Blackboard - Just Because I’m NEA President, Doesn’t Mean…

Lily's Blackboard - Updates from NEA President Lily Eskelsen García:

NPR: New Teacher’s Union Leader Promises More Activism

“Equity is every kid getting what every kid needs,” she said. “We think every public school should look as good as your best public school. That’s the standard we want every state to meet.” At a Spanish restaurant in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, one of the most powerful women in education, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, pumps up union members by telling them where her career started – the cafeteria. Read

by Lily / 1h hide // save

Great Things Are Happening in Public Schools (all you have to do is visit)

NEA’s Back to School Tour (#NEAB2S) visited Florida and saw some amazing things happening in local public schools. Dedicated teachers, great support staff, innovative programs and engaged students. We even saw an endangered species! Here are some of the photos we (our photographer Kevin Locke) took along the way.

by Lily's Blackboard / 1h

Just Because I’m NEA President, Doesn’t Mean…

I can’t still do lunch duty. What a privilege to serve the students at Highlands Elementary in Kissimeme, Florida. Just because I'm @NEAToday president, doesn't mean I can't do lunch lady duty. @FloridaEA #neab2s @Osceolaschools pic.twitter.com/R7vO5CWAjI — Lily Eskelsen García (@Lily_NEA) September 5, 2014

by Lily / 2h

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