9-24-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum:

Seattle Schools Updates

It looks like the NWEA (the company that gives the MAP testing) had a "denial of service" attack today.  This was at about 11 am and they sent a message out about the attack saying, "MAP is currently unavailable.  We apologize for the inconvenience."   Don't know any SPS schools were giving MAP today.I was doing some research on FERPA and found this clause:A school must inform

by Melissa Westbrook / 18min 

Superintendent Nyland Meets the Public

If you haven't met Superintendent Nyland, here's your chance.  I think it worth your time especially as he is considering whether to apply to be the permanent superintendent.From SPS Communications:Dr. Larry Nyland, who was appointed by the School Board in June to serve as Interim Superintendent, has outlined several opportunities this fall to meet with community members.These informal gatherings

by Melissa Westbrook / 1h

Eckstein Building Meeting

That was interesting.  I'm going to flesh this out because I think a lot of these questions asked about Eckstein might ring true for your school building.I was a little confused at first as there were very few parents (even at 5:45 pm) and no handout.  It was in the Eckstein auditorium (about 1/3 ish full by the time it started.) The organizers were smart; Eckstein's curriculum night followed at 7

by Melissa Westbrook / 6min 

9-23-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Tuesday Open ThreadIs there no end to the number of people in government who suddenly want to invest in early childhood programs?  It's almost as if they all got a memo.  Or something.The latest one is KC Executive Dow Constantine who plans to ask voters for a new levy for early childhood programs by next fall.  The Times reports that he calls it "Best Starts

1 by mike simpson / 22h 

Schooling in the Ownership Society: The Chicago Way

Schooling in the Ownership Society: The Chicago Way:

The Chicago Way

Every day it's something.



Today there's two stories shining light on the Chicago way. The first is by Greg Hinzat Crain's. He writes about Rahm Emanuel's city council floor leader, Ald. Pat O'Connor and a woman who's "volunteered" to be the bookkeeper of his political campaign fund, even writing checks for him.

That would be Mary Ann Roti-Walz, the daughter of the late 1st Ward Ald. Fred Roti and — you knew this was coming — a $65,676-a-year aide to Mr. O'Connor's Committee on Workforce Development. 

O'Connor is also Rahm's education guy in the council. I don't see any contradiction there. Do you?



As old man Daley used to say, when asked about giving his nephew the city's insurance business, "If a man can't reach out and help his own family, what kind of society are we living in?"



BGA chief Andy Shaw says:

 "This is how things work in Chicago. People in government jobs think you have to thank the boss by doing political work."

Rahm at SXSW

WHERE'S RAHM? ...The second is by S-T's Dan Mihalopolous, who lays bare the connection between younger, Richie Daley and the C3 boys down in Texas (all my vexes live in TX) who have made a killing here in Chicago with Lollapalooza. What's wrong with that, you ask? Nothing except for an obvious error of omission. While DM ties all the right threads together connecting Daley and his nephew Mark Vanecko to the Austin Lollapalooza cabal, there's not a mention of Rahm in the whole full-page story.

As I (here and here) and others have pointed out on several occasions, it's Rahm, much more than Daley, who is benefiting directly from the Lollapalooza deal. Remember Schooling in the Ownership Society: The Chicago Way:

No Choice | EduShyster

No Choice | EduShyster:

No Choice

 If choice is the only choice is it still choice?

Today we turn to one of the most baffling conundrums of these fiercely urgent days. If school choice is indeed the civil rights issue of our time, why do its chosen beneficiaries so rarely get to exercise any choice about choosing it? Alas reader, we are left with no choice. To the choice mobile, and make it snappy! We’re headed to Camden, New Jersey, where school choice is on its way, whether people there choose to choose it or not.

The people’s choice
Our journey begins just over a year ago with the choice of a new leader to run the Camden Public Schools. Paymon Rouhanifard, nee Goldman Sachs, was the people’s choice. No silly, not the people of Camden themselves, who were given nochoice in the matter thanks to the choice-free combo of a state-appointed superintendent and an appointed school board. I’m talking about the other people—the unlikely coalition of elites, both near and far, who have decided that Camden’s children, long last by almost every conceivable measure of wellbeing, must at last be put first. Or something like that.

A divine choice
Still, the People’s Choice had his work cut out for him. With no formal way for Camden parents to express their choice for the future of the city’s schools, PR had no choice but to No Choice | EduShyster:

What Is the Diagnosis? | The Crucial Voice of the People

What Is the Diagnosis? | The Crucial Voice of the People:

What Is the Diagnosis?

As a veterinarian, when I’m presented with a sick animal my first step in problem solving is a good history. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule. For example, in a crisis I skip the history taking and go directly to doing what’s necessary to save a life.

The objective of a good history is to gain clarity as to what happened that may have contributed to or created the problem. A good history guides us in deciding the proper tests to run — always with the goal of making the correct diagnosis.

In education reform, we have been “reforming” at a steady clip for over 30 years. The patient —the public education system—has not been cured, has been given prescription after prescription all of which have made it appear clinically sicker, and the main diagnosis we are working off of is that the standards aren’t “high” enough plus we have now added that the tests aren’t good enough.

So let us go back to the time when a crisis was declared and the history of standardization of instruction, which had been tried in America in the early 1900’s and mid 1930’s, was skipped over in the process of making a diagnosis. Let’s pick up where we left off.

Ronald Reagan’s National Commission on Excellence in Education reported that we were “A Nation at Risk” and ever since, the general public has believed that standards were both the problem and the solution. So we set our course of reforms on standards and testing.

We misdiagnosed both the problem and what that famous report said.

It is important that we know this because when we look at the patient today, the initial problems still exist but our misdiagnosis and the wrong cocktail of prescriptions have made the system worse.

Now, the country is addicted to the treatment; dependent on tests to tell us how the What Is the Diagnosis? | The Crucial Voice of the People:

Common Core: An Education Datapalooza? | WagTheDog

Common Core: An Education Datapalooza? | WagTheDog:



Common Core: An Education Datapalooza?

 

David Coleman and other proponents of close reading claim that students become college and career ready as they independently struggle to understand complex informational text without relying on any context or prior knowledge.

Using this specialized literacy technique students must rely on the text itself to reveal meaning, as they engage in a rigorous process of deconstructing, dissecting, and deciphering the “rich and worthy” text.

I have previously commented that students should be acquiring transferable and broadly applicable work-based literacy skills like the National Institute for Literacy’s initiative called Equipped For the Future.

While David Coleman has suggested students must learn to read text “like a detective” it is far more important that students and employees learn to read with perspective.

In the world beyond Common Core close reading classrooms, context and “outside information” are critically important to fully comprehend the significance and importance of a given text.

Informational text derives it’s meaning not just not from the text itself, but how the ideas, information, and policies expressed in the reading will impact and shape our lives beyond  and outside the text.

In real life, people depend on context to fully comprehend a reading and they will often Common Core: An Education Datapalooza? | WagTheDog:

Philly Schools Score Small Funding Victory - But It's Not Enough | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity

Philly Schools Score Small Funding Victory - But It's Not Enough | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity:

Philly Schools Score Small Funding Victory - But It's Not Enough

Posted on: Wednesday September 24th, 2014

Photo via Ron Tarver | Philly.com

After months of turmoil and uncertainty, Philadelphia's resource-starved schools finally caught a break: a new, stable source of funding. The Pennsylvania state senate (which has to approve local taxes in the city) authorized a $2-per-pack cigarette tax that will raise $170 million for the city's schools each year. 

That said, the $170 million doesn't go very far in a city that has been chronically underfunded. In recent years, schools and students have gone without basic resources like text-books, paper and counselors. Two Philadelphia students died last year after falling ill at schools that, due to budget cuts, didn't have a school nurse on duty. 

From the Philadelphia Coalition Advocating for Public Schools: 

"The good news is that, assuming the Governor signs it quickly, the District will be able to avert laying off a thousand school employees, cuts that would have driven class size over forty and rendered the schools, in the words of [Superintendent] Dr. Hite, 'empty shells.'

The bad news is that this new revenue is woefully inadequate and does not even ensure last year’s 'bare bones' levels. Mayor Nutter’s characterization of the vote as 'a fantastic victory' will be a head scratcher for students, parents and school workers who know what 

Philly Schools Score Small Funding Victory - But It's Not Enough | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity:

How Participants Not Involved in the Delphi Movement Viewed HB1490 Deliberations | Missouri Education Watchdog

How Participants Not Involved in the Delphi Movement Viewed HB1490 Deliberations | Missouri Education Watchdog:

How Participants Not Involved in the Delphi Movement Viewed HB1490 Deliberations

inShare

If you read DESE’s press release about the last two days of work group deliberations pursuant to HB1490 directives, you would think they have been a smashing success and DESE is being helpful, rather than obstructive for a true exchange of ideas and thoughts on setting MISSOURI standards for MISSOURI kids:

(click on graphic to enlarge)

Let me share with you statements from some of the participants NOT selected by DESE and NOT associated with the MNEA, MSBA, DESE, the Governor, Higher Ed and Career Tech:

• We are badly outnumbered as slots had not been filled until the last minute.  Facilitator moving forward.
• DESE facilitator delivering powerpoint, has no idea who wrote it.
• Common Core proponent says we live in a democracy, not a republic.
• Our DESE-controlled group  decided to keep the  Oct. 2 & 3 dates and the Oct. 20 & 21. Three of us wanted different dates that were non-school days but we were shut down.
• The facilitator in Science 6-12 attempted to intimidate those who spoke out against Next Generation Science Standards.
• Several appointees made derogatory statements about a Speaker Jones’ appointee while the appointee was not in attendance.
• Legal counsel for DESE, Mark vanZandt, spoke to workgroups about DESE’s interpretation of what the licensing agreement of Common Core meant.  What legal counsel the other side appeared for a balanced opinion?  No other opinion was provided.
• Some pro CCSS appointees were insistent that participants were there solely to review Common Core standards rather than developing Missouri standards.
• Many participants were insistent that the group respect the sunk cost argument putting restrictions on the scope of what could be considered because districts had already invested in curriculum changes for common core.  (This restriction is not in the statute.)
• The Common Core proponents don’t care about the federal intrusion of Common Core, rule of law, and resist hearing about any other point of view and their only mission is to review and retain Common Core.

I hope the work group participants appointed by leadership will respond to this reader who left this How Participants Not Involved in the Delphi Movement Viewed HB1490 Deliberations | Missouri Education Watchdog:

Choosing Democracy: Ego, Money and False Promises: Michelle Rhee’s Big Secret and the Collapse of Education “Reform”

Choosing Democracy: Ego, Money and False Promises: Michelle Rhee’s Big Secret and the Collapse of Education “Reform”:

Ego, Money and False Promises: Michelle Rhee’s Big Secret and the Collapse of Education “Reform”

Jeff Bryant

Maybe it’s time to stick a fork in education reform, and get set for what the new ed-tech industrialists are going to bring us.

 |  

When Michelle Rhee left the center stage of the movement known as “education reform,” inquiring minds wanted to know why.

Was it because “she didn’t play well in the sandbox.” Was it to solidify her and her husband’s image as “the next Bill and Hillary Clinton?”

But here’s one theory that no one seemed to consider: It was a good business decision.

Regardless of how you feel about Michelle Rhee, you have to admit she has been an adroit business person – tapping into a growing market demand, using a clever publicity campaign to reach celebrity recognition, outmaneuver her competitors (such as teachers unions), and amassing significant amounts of capital to roll out a formidable new “product,” her organization StudentsFirst.

So it’s not beyond reasonable to wonder if Rhee got out of the business of “education reform” while the gettin’ was good and left StudentsFirst at a time when it has likely peaked in influence and may even be in decline.

If that’s indeed the case, is Rhee’s exit the first sign of a larger exodus from the reform movement soon to follow? Is the whole enterprise known as education reform starting to go south? And if so, where is all the big money behind it going to go to next?

Becoming the Bickersons

Perhaps Rhee realized, just in time, the reform venture was turning into a money pit, as forces and personalities dragged the effort down with inefficiency, contention and lack of productivity.

Take what’s going on in the saga of lawsuits against teacher labor contracts.

In their eagerness to lower the professional status of teachers and dilute their job protections, lead plaintiffs in two New York City lawsuits against teachers’ job protections are now squabbling with each other.

Read the entire article.

http://www.alternet.org/education/ego-money-and-false-promises-michelle-rhees-big-secret-and-collapse-education-reform?

As Chalkbeat New York reported, a judge recently consolidated the two lawsuits into one, but the plaintiff in the first suit, Mona Davids, “made it clear that she wasn’t interested in forging a unified effort” with the person leading the second, Campbell Brown.

Brown, a “news-anchor-turned-activist” with a history of attacking teachers unions and challenging the due process teachers get when their employment is threatened, leads the group Partnership for Educational Justice. Her group contends, Choosing Democracy: Ego, Money and False Promises: Michelle Rhee’s Big Secret and the Collapse of Education “Reform”:

Whom do we need to educate? | My Island View

Whom do we need to educate? | My Island View:

Whom do we need to educate?

September 24, 2014 by Tom Whitby @tomwhitby

At a recent Edcamp on Long Island we had a very interesting discussion. Sessions at Edcamps are discussions as opposed to actual power-point presentations. The question posed by someone in the session on relevance in education asked, why are so few Long Island educators connected? This set off a discussion leading to the point that the mindset of teachers successful in the present system, is a belief that they need not change because whatever it is that they are doing, seems to be getting the needed results. Therefore, the better the results for teachers based on students’ standardized test scores, the less teachers need to change their approach, methodology, or pedagogy. Of course that would mean that the most “successful teachers” would need to change the least at what they do, and how they do it.

Of course this is all based on the fact that the results that we are looking for in students, and results that “successful teachers” are obviously producing are actually results that are good. Will they benefit students in the life that they will be living in world in which they will live? Here is my question: should we be basing the results of a student’s lifelong endeavors in an education system by a score on standardized test? Is that test really measuring how much a student has learned for what will be required to thrive in the tech-driven world in which he/she will live?

Of course this applies to more teachers in America than just those living on Long Island. In this environment of test mania once any teacher is meeting the needs of students to succeed on a standardized test, what is his/her incentive to going beyond that shortsighted goal for education? If a teacher is unaware of the need for kids to be digitally literate in order to be prepared for the world in which those students will be forced to live, than how will that teacher meet the education Whom do we need to educate? | My Island View:

9-24-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness

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

Misguided Reading Policy Creates Wrong Lessons for Students as Writers

Having taught writing to teenagers and young adults at the high school and undergraduate levels for over thirty years now, I have a standard approach to the first few classes: We identify and then unpack and challenge the lessons the students have learned about writing. For these foundational lessons to work, however, I have to gain the trust of my students so that they are open and honest about t

6 by plthomasedd / 8min 

9-22-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University): Banned in the U.S.A.When students come to my university office for the first time, they typically utter, “You have a lot of books,” followed by noting the clutter. For those students, they cannot see the lineage I can now recognize: Go, Dog. Go!, Green Eggs and Ham, Stua

1 by mike simpson / 22h 

Russ on Reading: What History Should Kids Learn?

Russ on Reading: What History Should Kids Learn?:

What History Should Kids Learn?

Hundreds of high school students in Jefferson County, Colorado, walked out of class on Tuesday protesting what they saw as an attempt to censor what they were being taught in their AP U.S. History course (APUSH). The school board in Jefferson County has recently taken a turn for the conservative with the election of three new board members including Julie Williams who seeks to establish a board committee to revew curriculum to ensure that the APUSH curriculum "promote[s] citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights" and don't "encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law."

The irony of this statement seems to be lost on Ms. Williams, seeing how the country she so admires was founded on civil disobedience (The Boston Tea Party, Declaration of Independence) by individuals that I believe most of us would consider patriots by any standard (The Founding Fathers). But before we get into all that, first a little, well, history.

Advanced Placement U.S History (APUSH) is one of those courses developed by the College Board (yes, the test people) to provide interested and able high school students with a college level course. Many colleges accept AP courses for college credit, so it can give kids a leg up on college work. All AP courses are undergoing revision, and the College Board announced the revisions to the APUSH framework last year. According to the College Board the revisions were based on the input of college professors and high school teachers who teach the subject. The chief thrust of the changes was to give the course "a more coherent structure based on the relationships among ideas." Responding to years of criticism that the APUSH framework focused on too much content Russ on Reading: What History Should Kids Learn?:

Girls' Pathways to Leadership - The Action Network #GirlsLead.

Girls' Pathways to Leadership - The Action Network:

 Virtual Panel to Discuss New Research on Girls’ Leadership, Tips to Foster Girls’ Leadership in Schools

Webinar will feature new research on closing the leadership gap by NEA, AAUW and Tufts University

WHO:             Educators and community leaders will hold a virtual panel discussion and report release: Our Role as Educators-                              Girls’ Pathways to Leadership

• LILY ESKELSEN GARCÍA, President, National Education Association
• Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, Ph.D., Deputy Director, Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, Tisch College of Citizenship & Public Service at Tufts University
• Kori Hamilton, Senior Education Equity Specialist, Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium
• Jill Showman, English Teacher, Wasilla High School and Trainer, NEA Women’s Leadership Training Program
• Johanna Jaara Åstrand, Swedish and Social Sciences Teacher, and Executive Board Member of Lärarförbundet, the Swedish Education Union
• Noa Gur-Arie, Co-President of School Girls Unite and Senior at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Maryland.
• madeleine kennedy-macfoy, Ph.D. Programme Officer, Education International, Belgium 

WHAT:          This panel will be presenting and discussing new research on girls' leadership, insights about international                                     innovations and challenges, and share tips to facilitate learning environments that foster girls' leadership. This                               survey report was commissioned by the National Education Association and the American Association of University Women,                       and conducted by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement based at Tufts University’s Tisch                       College of Citizenship and Public Service.

WHEN:          Tuesday, September 30 at 7 p.m. EST.

WHERE:       Virtual Event (You will need to install Firefox or Chrome browser. After verifying you have either browser, you will need to install a Google Hangout Plugin. Attendees outside of the United States may have to change the extension (.com) to your standard country extension) Click here to RSVP.

WHY:             Women account for half of the U.S. population, yet are underrepresented in public leadership roles, holding only 24 percent of seats in state legislatures; 12 percent of mayoral seats in the 100 largest American cities; 10 percent of governorships; 20 percent of seats in the U.S. Senate; and 18 percent of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Schools provide a venue for addressing persistent gender leadership gaps by creating a pipeline of girls and young women who are interested in taking on future leadership roles.  Educators play an important role in supporting student leadership development and in shaping the perceptions of all students about girls’ and women’s suitability for leadership.

Please click here for NEA’s Girls’ Leadership and Equity Toolkit

To submit a question to NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia via Twitter before the event, visit: http://bit.ly/1mlaGb9

To download NEA’s Girls Leadership and Equity Toolkit, please click here or go to http://www.nea.org/women. Follow NEA at twitter.com/neamedia. Join the conversation and track events by following #GirlsLead.