Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 1/30/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Sacramento City Unified wants to cut benefits in exchange for higher raises | The Sacramento Bee

Sacramento City Unified wants to cut benefits in exchange for higher raises | The Sacramento Bee: Sacramento City Unified wants to cut benefits in exchange for higher raises The Sacramento City Unified School District and its teachers union generally agree that their teachers deserve higher salaries, considering that counterparts in nearby districts receive larger paychecks on average.But there is

by mike simpson / 12min 

In a first, New York’s state ed commissioner will attend charter rally | Chalkbeat

In a first, New York’s state ed commissioner will attend charter rally | Chalkbeat: In a first, New York’s state ed commissioner will attend charter rally In a first, State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia will attend a rally held by charter-school advocates next week, officials confirmed Friday.The annual rally is smaller than the massive events that another pro-charter group, Families for E

by mike simpson / 5h 

When Test Scores Are Meaningless Why Subject Your Child to the Test? Missouri Education Watchdog

When Test Scores Are Meaningless Why Subject Your Child to the Test? It’s the “Why are Fire Trucks Red” Illustration. – Missouri Education Watchdog: When Test Scores Are Meaningless Why Subject Your Child to the Test? It’s the “Why are Fire Trucks Red” Illustration. Common sense and the rule of law long ago flew out the window when the Common Core State Standards Initiative was adopted before the

by mike simpson / 6h 

Assigning Letter Grades to Schools? The Danger of a Single Performance Indicator – The Progressive Educator

Assigning Letter Grades to Schools? The Danger of a Single Performance Indicator – The Progressive Educator: Assigning Letter Grades to Schools? The Danger of a Single Performance IndicatorWe recently published a commentary in Teachers College Record that revisits a topic we took up in 2014 – the decision by the Arkansas legislature to require the “grading” of schools.   You can read the first por

by mike simpson / 7h 

The Sub-Prime Education Crisis Part 2: It’s All About The Bubble - Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association: The Sub-Prime Education Crisis Part 2: It’s All About The BubbleBy Terri Michal Many people are asking themselves, what is happening that would lead elected officials from all over the country to create, and/or vote for, such harmful and anti-public school legislation?To understand it, I feel we need to take a step back and look at the larger machine at work. For a mom

by mike simpson / 7h 

Who is Dr. Marzano? – Save Maine Schools

Who is Dr. Marzano? – Save Maine Schools: Who is Dr. Marzano? Meet Dr. Robert Marzano.Dr. Marzano calls himself an education expert.  His specialities include competency-based education and teacher observation. He was never a teacher, but he’s done enough “research” to know what it takes to transform your classroom.(Sign up for more information on his website to can get more information, and a rep

by mike simpson / 7h 

Unions Can’t Just Be About What We’re Allowed to Do: Social Justice Unionism | gadflyonthewallblog

Unions Can’t Just Be About What We’re Allowed to Do: Social Justice Unionism | gadflyonthewallblog: Unions Can’t Just Be About What We’re Allowed to Do: Social Justice UnionismIf labor unions were an animal, they’d be an old hound dog napping on the porch.They’re slow to get up and chase away burglars but they do like to howl at night.Most of the time you don’t even know they’re around until the d

by mike simpson / 7h 

A Poisonous Approach to Governing | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

A Poisonous Approach to Governing | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community: A Poisonous Approach to GoverningBand-Aid solutions such as the ones seen in Flint or the push to privatize advocated by ALEC and its corporate cronies stem from a larger crisis—inadequate federal fundingFlint resident Otis Powell, 56, sheds a tear as he stands in below-zero-degree temperat

by mike simpson / 7h 

An Epic Battle for Public Education: A Front Line View | LucidWitness.com

An Epic Battle for Public Education: A Front Line View | LucidWitness.com: An Epic Battle for Public Education: A Front Line View Governor Tom Wolf is battling for fair funding for Public Education. It’s an epic battle in Pennsylvania and part of the war on Public Education across America.  It involves us all.In spite of the facts that legislators have failed to propose an acceptable budget, and t

by mike simpson / 7h 

CURMUDGUCATION: CCSS: Safe and Secure

CURMUDGUCATION: CCSS: Safe and Secure: CCSS: Safe and Secure The Collaborative for Student Success is yet another Common Core shilling group, supported by folks like the Gates Foundation, the New Ventures Fund, and the Fordham. It has to be lonely over there, standing up for the Common Core when nobody will even mention its name unless they're paid to do so.Election Doesn't MatterLast week executi

by mike simpson / 8h 

New York City Rejects Federal Findings That Many Elementary Schools Defy Disabilities Law - The New York Times

New York City Rejects Federal Findings That Many Elementary Schools Defy Disabilities Law - The New York Times: New York City Rejects Federal Findings That Many Elementary Schools Defy Disabilities LawThe administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio, left, has taken issue with an investigation into access by disabled students at city schools by the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in

by mike simpson / 8h 

Portland Public Schools shortchanges low-income students in classes and class time: Editorial Agenda 2016 | OregonLive.com

Portland Public Schools shortchanges low-income students in classes and class time: Editorial Agenda 2016 | OregonLive.com: Portland Public Schools shortchanges low-income students in classes and class timeAll sixth graders in Portland Public Schools take a test to measure readiness for algebra. But even those who pass might not be able to access the class at some schools. (Oregonian/OregonLive fi

by mike simpson / 8h 

NYC Educator: Eva Doesn't Need No Stinking Rules

NYC Educator: Eva Doesn't Need No Stinking Rules:Eva Doesn't Need No Stinking RulesEva Moskowitz is pissed off that mean old NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is demanding she sign a contract over her pre-K classes. So what if 277 other pre-K programs have signed it? She's Eva Moskowitz, dammit, and rules don't apply to her. If you, a lowly public school teacher, made kids sit in chairs until they peed the

by mike simpson / 8h 

Kludge: A Metaphor for Technology Use in Schools | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Kludge: A Metaphor for Technology Use in Schools | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Kludge: A Metaphor for Technology Use in SchoolsKludge(electronics engineering) An improvised device, usually crudely constructed. Typically used to test the validity of a principle before doing a finished design.(general) Any construction or practice, typically inelegant, designed to solve a pr

by mike simpson / 8h 

The Retroactive Lowering of the GED Cut Score | deutsch29

The Retroactive Lowering of the GED Cut Score | deutsch29: The Retroactive Lowering of the GED Cut ScoreOn January 20, 2016, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution carried a story about the possibility that the GED Testing Service would retroactively lower the cut score for passage of its revised GED.  That same day, EdWeek picked up the story, and on January 26, 2016, GED Testing Service confirmed that

by mike simpson / 8h 

Michael J. Kennedy, Lawyer for Underdogs and Pariahs, Dies at 78 - The New York Times

Michael J. Kennedy, Lawyer for Underdogs and Pariahs, Dies at 78 - The New York Times: Michael J. Kennedy, Lawyer for Underdogs and Pariahs, Dies at 78Mr. Kennedy, right, at a news conference in 1982 with his client Bernadine Dohrn and her fellow former Weathermen member William C. Ayers, whom Ms. Dorhn married that year.CreditDavid Handschuh/Associated Press Michael J. Kennedy, who as a criminal

by mike simpson / 8h 

Detroit Teachers Explain Why They’re ‘Sicking-Out’ - Yahoo News

Detroit Teachers Explain Why They’re ‘Sicking-Out’ - Yahoo News: Detroit Teachers Explain Why They’re ‘Sicking-Out’Thousands of people have fled the Detroit public schools, but Alise Anaya decides every day to do the opposite, commuting from the suburbs to teach in one city school and drop her children off at another.It's a surprising choice. Anaya grew up in Southwest Detroit, but many of the fam

by mike simpson / 8h 

Alfie Kohn: ‘Hand’s not raised? Too bad. I’m calling on you anyway’ - The Washington Post

‘Hand’s not raised? Too bad. I’m calling on you anyway’ - The Washington Post: ‘Hand’s not raised? Too bad. I’m calling on you anyway’Do you remember sitting in class, trying to be inconspicuous so that the teacher wouldn’t call on to answer a question you couldn’t answer, or were too shy to express yourself well in front of the class? Here’s a piece about the practice of calling on students who a

by mike simpson / 9h 

Buffalo teachers union rejects School Board’s offer of 10 percent raise - City & Region - The Buffalo News

Buffalo teachers union rejects School Board’s offer of 10 percent raise - City & Region - The Buffalo News: Buffalo teachers union rejects School Board’s offer of 10 percent raise The Buffalo Teachers Federation unanimously rejected the Board of Education’s latest contract proposal, which called for a 10 percent increase in teacher salaries.The BTF called the district’s offer “insulting and de

by mike simpson / 9h 

The Narrative Of School Failure And Why We Must Pay Attention To Segregation In Educational Policy | Shanker Institute

The Narrative Of School Failure And Why We Must Pay Attention To Segregation In Educational Policy | Shanker Institute: The Narrative Of School Failure And Why We Must Pay Attention To Segregation In Educational PolicyOur guest authors today are Kara S. Finnigan, Associate Professor at the Warner School of Education of the University of Rochester, and Jennifer Jellison Holme, Associate Professor a

by mike simpson / 9h 

Should Charter Schools Be Held to Desegregation Standards? | The Range Tucson Weekly

Should Charter Schools Be Held to Desegregation Standards? | The Range: The Tucson Weekly's Daily Dispatch | Tucson Weekly:Should Charter Schools Be Held to Desegregation Standards? Today's post in honor of School Choice Week: State proposals and lawsuits in Minnesota look at charter schools and desegregation. In general, segregation has increased in our public schools over the last few decades ar

by mike simpson / 9h 

Teach for America director out-raises union leader

Teach for America director out-raises union leader: Teach for America director out-raises union leaderCOLUMBUS — A Teach for America leader out-raised presumptive frontrunner Brigid Kelly in the second half of 2015 in an expensive, six-way primary to replace term-limited Rep. Denise Driehaus.Ben Lindy, founding executive director of Teach for America of Southwest Ohio, raised nearly $103,000 from

by mike simpson / 9h 

‘What passes for acceptable school choice rhetoric is frightening’ - The Washington Post

‘What passes for acceptable school choice rhetoric is frightening’ - The Washington Post: ‘What passes for acceptable school choice rhetoric is frightening’Supporters of charter schools rally at the Legislative Office Building on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016, in Albany, N.Y. Speakers at the rally said they’ll push lawmakers to increase funding for charters. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)This past week was Scho

by mike simpson / 9h 

YESTERDAY

TBFURMAN: This Is How You Talk About The Gulen-Linked Charters

TBFURMAN: This Is How You Talk About The Gulen-Linked Charters: This Is How You Talk About The Gulen-Linked ChartersI'm trying to think of a place where he got it wrong, but I can't. He's basically right. We are now at a point where the conflict between Erdogan and Gulen is playing out in the board meetings of American public school districts. It seems pretty likely to me that when Gulenists move

by mike simpson / 22h hide  //  save

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 1/29/15

CORPORATE ED REFORMBlack Michigan lawmakers demand that Rick Snyder fire Detroit school system appointeeBlack Michigan lawmakers demand that Rick Snyder fire Detroit school system appointee: Black Michigan lawmakers demand that Rick Snyder fire Detroit school system appointeeThe Michigan legislative black caucus voted on Friday to ask Governor Rick Snyder to fire Darnell Earley, the controversial

by mike simpson / 23h 

Sacramento City Unified wants to cut benefits in exchange for higher raises | The Sacramento Bee

Sacramento City Unified wants to cut benefits in exchange for higher raises | The Sacramento Bee:

Sacramento City Unified wants to cut benefits in exchange for higher raises

 The Sacramento City Unified School District and its teachers union generally agree that their teachers deserve higher salaries, considering that counterparts in nearby districts receive larger paychecks on average.

But there is disagreement over whether increasing pay means the district should reduce the teachers’ health and welfare benefits, which are the most generous in the Sacramento region. The district in 2014-15 spent $20,638 on average for each of its more than 2,300 teachers, according to School Services of California, which advises school districts on budget matters.

The dispute comes as Sacramento City Unified administrators and the Sacramento City Teachers Association discuss the size of a retroactive raise for the current school year. The pay bump was triggered by an increase in state funding that enables the district to provide higher salaries to teachers.

The district offered a 2.5 percent retroactive raise. Teachers asked for 5 percent. Superintendent Jose Banda said in an interview that the district is willing to pay 5 percent – but only in exchange for limits on post-retirement health care benefits for future hires. The school district currently provides lifetime health care for employees who work enough years to qualify.

“They’re focused on pay increases,” Banda said Friday. “We’d love to give pay increases. Even though we’re not at the top in salary, we’re at the very top in terms of health benefits. It’s all cyclical.”

Teachers in Sacramento City Unified earn less in pay than teachers in most other comparable districts in the region, according to School Services data.

The district’s average teacher salary for 2014-15 was $67,009. That ranked Sacramento City Unified teachers fourth from the bottom out of 14 comparable districts in the region. It also fell below the statewide average of $73,687.

“The district’s finances are probably better than they have been in a generation,” said SCTA Executive Director John Borsos. “They are making these decisions that are crippling. The 5 percent (SCTA proposes) doesn’t put us at the top on wages. It’s modest compared to what others are making.”

Borsos said the salary disparity worsened since July 1, the start of the current school year. SCTA members received a 1 percent pay increase at the start of the fiscal year. Teachers in the San Juan district received 3.25 percent. And Folsom Cordova teachers received 4.5 percent.

Banda contends that the district’s generous benefits package makes up for the salary lag. In total compensation, School Services data show that Sacramento City Unified teachers ranked among the highest in the region in 2014-15.

“We totally agree we want our teachers to be well-compensated, and we want them to be inSacramento City Unified wants to cut benefits in exchange for higher raises | The Sacramento Bee:

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/investigations/the-public-eye/article57510648.html#storylink=cpy

In a first, New York’s state ed commissioner will attend charter rally | Chalkbeat

In a first, New York’s state ed commissioner will attend charter rally | Chalkbeat:

In a first, New York’s state ed commissioner will attend charter rally

 In a first, State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia will attend a rally held by charter-school advocates next week, officials confirmed Friday.

The annual rally is smaller than the massive events that another pro-charter group, Families for Excellent Schools, has held in years past. The event, hosted in part by the New York City Charter Center, typically attracts politicians who support charter schools, but not state education commissioners — which could turn Elia’s appearance into a political football.

“We invited her and she’s coming and we’re delighted,” said Charter Center CEO James Merriman, who said he expects next Tuesday’s event to draw about 1,000 parents, teachers and students. He noted that even the former state education commissioner John King, a steadfast charter school supporter, did not attend the event.

The choice drew quick criticism from the state teachers union.

“This signals misplaced priorities on the commissioner’s part,” said Carl Korn, the spokesperson for the state’s teachers union.

The focus of the rally will be to demonstrate public support for lifting the freeze on New York City’s charter-school funding. The city teachers union, a longtime foe of the charter sector, has already signaled that one of its own priorities is to push legislation that would sanction charter schools that do not serve enough high-needs students. Mayor Bill de Blasio, a close ally of the union, asked lawmakers Tuesday not to lift the freeze.

The education department did not clarify Elia’s position on the freeze on Friday.

Elia supported the development of magnet schools when she worked in Florida and was president of Magnet Schools of America. Charter advocates supported her appointment last year, calling it the start of a strong working relationship.

But Elia, who is in her first year as state education commissioner, has also been treading carefully. Facing a large and growing movement pushing families to opt out of state tests, she has promised to reduce their length and supported the temporary removal of the state tests from teacher evaluations, though she has long been a strong proponent of maintaining high academic standards.In a first, New York’s state ed commissioner will attend charter rally | Chalkbeat:

When Test Scores Are Meaningless Why Subject Your Child to the Test? Missouri Education Watchdog

When Test Scores Are Meaningless Why Subject Your Child to the Test? It’s the “Why are Fire Trucks Red” Illustration. – Missouri Education Watchdog:

When Test Scores Are Meaningless Why Subject Your Child to the Test? It’s the “Why are Fire Trucks Red” Illustration.

 Common sense and the rule of law long ago flew out the window when the Common Core State Standards Initiative was adopted before the standards were written and implemented in school districts without the knowledge of the taxpayers who paying were for these mandates.  The transformation of public education has been set to morph speed toward a centralization of learning, teaching and assessing for the sake of equity.  Increased academic excellence is not a goal of the Initiative.  Measuring academic assessments to determine increased equity on unvalidated assessments is the data dream of the reformers.  It doesn’t matter that the data is based on unvalidated assessments/research, it’s a financial bonanza for data mining companies/repositories and third party researchers.   It’s job security for local, state and federal bureaucrats compelled to gather the data under the threat of withholding of funding to continue meaningless data.

Not only do the data miners/bureaucrats gather meaningless data, if that data can be construed as problematic for the bureaucrats, then enact a law withholding poor results to minimize dissatisfaction and questions on why the test results are so dismal.  This data gathering of meaningless information and withholding of this data if it doesn’t fit into preconceived talking points is apparent in the latest published (or not) test results  coming from from Indiana.  From Only a small share of Indiana schools earned higher A-F grades in 2015 (updated):

…when the Indiana State Board of Education released grades for the 2014-15 school year this morning, it seemed clear that many schools benefitted from a “hold harmless” bill that Gov. Mike Pence signed into law Thursday. That law, prompted by tougher standards that triggered a dramatic drop in 2015 ISTEP test scores, barred the board from giving schools grades for 2015 that were lower than the ones they received the year before.

With that law in place, the grades released by the board today reflected new grades for a fraction of Indiana schools that took last year’s test. Since most schools’ test scores dropped between 2014 and 2015, just 120 of more than 2,000 schools that took ISTEP saw their When Test Scores Are Meaningless Why Subject Your Child to the Test? It’s the “Why are Fire Trucks Red” Illustration. – Missouri Education Watchdog:

Assigning Letter Grades to Schools? The Danger of a Single Performance Indicator – The Progressive Educator

Assigning Letter Grades to Schools? The Danger of a Single Performance Indicator – The Progressive Educator:

Assigning Letter Grades to Schools? The Danger of a Single Performance Indicator

We recently published a commentary in Teachers College Record that revisits a topic we took up in 2014 – the decision by the Arkansas legislature to require the “grading” of schools.   You can read the first portion of the commentary below and finish it up on the Teachers College Record website.  Free access is available for a limited time.

Assigning Letter Grades to Schools?  The Danger of a Single Performance Indicator

Sixteen states require their Departments of Education to assign a single performance indicator such as a “letter grade” to schools within those states. We take a look at the relationship between school grades and poverty in one of these states. Our analysis indicates that there is a moderate negative correlation between poverty and school performance indicators. We discuss the implications for communities and structural poverty and make a plea to reconsider the manner in which single performance indicators are determined. 

In 2013, the Arkansas legislature passed two pieces of legislation requiring the state Department of Education to assign a single indicator of performance to schools in the form of an A through F letter grade. This decision was met with consternation by those who argued that the system represented an unfair oversimplification of the process of schooling. Christian Z. Goering, Associate Professor of English Education at the University of Arkansas wrote,

“Grading schools based on achievement (or growth) will actually be Assigning Letter Grades to Schools? The Danger of a Single Performance Indicator – The Progressive Educator:

The Sub-Prime Education Crisis Part 2: It’s All About The Bubble - Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:

The Sub-Prime Education Crisis Part 2: It’s All About The Bubble

By Terri Michal

 Many people are asking themselves, what is happening that would lead elected officials from all over the country to create, and/or vote for, such harmful and anti-public school legislation?

To understand it, I feel we need to take a step back and look at the larger machine at work. For a moment we need to stop debating charters, vouchers, tenure, merit pay, test scores and data collection, and instead look at the current education reform movement as a whole.

In doing so I realized that the same ideals, methods, and hidden agendas that are driving the current education policies have already left a big ugly scar on the American people. We all know it as the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

Simply change a few of the player’s names, substitute the word education for housing, and everything becomes clear.

Let’s start with the housing bubble:

In 1977 Lewis Ranieri worked with members of the Federal Government to create a system that would make far more money available for home mortgages, hoping to give every American an opportunity to own a home.

For 30 years, through both Republican and Democrat leadership, the concept put in place by Ranieri and our Federal Government continued to morph. Under influence of the traders, mortgage companies, the banks and our Government, this program went from a well-intentioned thought to one of the worse financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Believing that the ‘housing bubble’ would never pop, these financial entities became increasingly bold in their efforts to amass wealth by granting riskier mortgages and eventually crossing the line into illegal activities. The Government was complicit in the finance world’s actions by creating policies to expand home ownership that had no regard for proper lending principles.

Under these risky loans, made possible by American businesses and our Federal Government, we, the American people, were being set up for failure. No one seemed too concerned however, fortunes were being made and the government looked great under the Badass Teachers Association:

TERRI MICHAL FIGHTING THE FIGHT FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS, EQUITY, AND EQUALITY IN ALABAMA

You can see Part 1 of this series here http://badassteachers.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-sub-prime-education-crisis-part-1.html

Who is Dr. Marzano? – Save Maine Schools

Who is Dr. Marzano? – Save Maine Schools:

Who is Dr. Marzano?

 Meet Dr. Robert Marzano.

Dr. Marzano calls himself an education expert.  His specialities include competency-based education and teacher observation. He was never a teacher, but he’s done enough “research” to know what it takes to transform your classroom.

(Sign up for more information on his website to can get more information, and a representative will get back to you right way with a cost estimate.)

Dr. Marzano, who has long been in the education reform business, recently acquired the Reinventing Schools Coalition.

According to the recently revamped Reinventing Schools website (they dropped the “Coalition” because “RISC” sounded too risky), their “story begins in the early 1990s in a rural Alaskan school district comprised of a native population as well as other groups.”

All sorts of miracles happened, “news about the dramatic success in a small Alaskan town traveled far and fast and Chugach received the Who is Dr. Marzano? – Save Maine Schools: