Teach Like It’s 1895 – EduShyster

Teach Like It’s 1895 – EduShyster:

Teach Like It’s 1895

Teach Like a Champion’s pedagogical model is disturbingly similar to one that was established almost a century ago for the express purpose of maintaining racial hierarchy…

By Layla Treuhaft-Ali 
As an aspiring teacher and a history major, I’ve become fascinated by teacher education, past and present. Which is why I decided to embark on a close reading of Doug Lemov’s Teach Like A Champion. The book, and its teaching techniques, looms large for any teacher who works in an urban school. Not only has the TLC model of teaching become a fixture of most *high-performing* charter school networks, but it is increasingly making its way into urban school districts as well. And that’s just the start. Teach Like a Champion’s approach also underlies broad efforts to transform the way teachers are educated, forming the *backbone of instruction* at an expanding number of charter-school-owned teacher education centers like Relay Graduate School of Education and Match’s Sposato School of Education.

As I was reading Teach Like A Champion, I observed something that shocked me. The pedagogical model espoused by Lemov is disturbingly similar to one that was established almost a century ago for the express purpose of maintaining racial hierarchy.

Teach Like A Champion advertises 49 discrete techniques that teachers can master to raise student achievement and help increase their students’ college readiness, with a strong emphasis on classroom culture and shaping student behavior, down to the most minute actions. As I was reading Teach Like A Champion, I observed something that shocked me. The pedagogical model espoused by Lemov is disturbingly similar to one that was established almost a century ago for the express purpose of maintaining racial hierarchy. Like Teach Like a Champion, this initiative was implemented largely Teach Like It’s 1895 – EduShyster:

Donald Trump’s Love of School Choice

Donald Trump’s Love of School Choice:

Donald Trump’s Love of School Choice

It is no secret that when it comes to public schools and other facets of American life, many Republicans do not like the federal government. Donald Trump used to speak of local control of schools. This is very much the old Republican Party talking.

But last night, Donald Trump cheered school choice. He no longer mentions local control. I think he may now realize that school choice is the opposite of local control of schools. 

And the other night, Donald Trump, Jr. sniped at teachers and public schools and spouted the weary argument that America needs choice when it comes to public schools. Somewhere in that speech he praised vouchers in other countries. He failed to do his research. Here are the “disastrous” results in Sweden.

Local control is also an area that many value when it comes to the traditional idea of community schools. Many Democrats support community schools.

But local control and school choice don’t work together and you see this fight playing out in communities across the Donald Trump’s Love of School Choice:

School Closure: The Civil Rights Issue of Our Time | janresseger

School Closure: The Civil Rights Issue of Our Time | janresseger:

School Closure: The Civil Rights Issue of Our Time

This blog will take a week-long mid-summer break.  Look for a new post on Monday, August 1, 2016.

In an important piece published in The Hill, Judith Brown Dianis, Executive Director of Advancement Project, and Jitu Brown, National Director of the Journey for Justice Alliance, describe three complaints filed in 2014—on the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education—with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.  The complaints protest massive school closures in New Orleans, Newark, and Chicago, where 50 schools were shuttered at the end of the 2012-2013 school year.

One of the ways students in America’s cities are being deprived of basic opportunities is “through systematic and targeted school closures. We know this because we’ve been organizing against school closures, which are occurring in predominantly African American, Latino and low-income communities.  Across the country, these communities have watched as their schools, teachers, friendships and shared history are eliminated.  Many students are pushed out of one school only to be forced to attend another school that is further away, with less experienced teachers, similar resource inequities and instability.”

Here is the substance of the complaints: “The complaints challenged the disproportionate closures of traditional public schools in these cities. In New Orleans, the closures of the last five traditional public schools impacted over 1000 African-American students and only 5 White students. In Chicago, Black students were 26 times more likely to be impacted by school closures than White students.  In Newark, Black students were 51% of student enrollment, but 86% of students impacted by school closures.”

After a two year investigation, the Office of Civil Rights has reached an agreement with the Newark Public Schools that acknowledges the disproportionate impact of school closures on the city’s African American students and confirms that the school closures “did not appear to afford affected students any measurable, improved educational outcomes.” The agreement requires the Newark school district to investigate whether and how students from closed schools were affected academically and how their safe passage to school, and their access to special services (for disabled students) were impacted when schools were closed. Further, the district must evaluate and report on how the location of school facilities and the pupil School Closure: The Civil Rights Issue of Our Time | janresseger:

Russ on Reading: What Is the Best Way to Assess Early Literacy?

Russ on Reading: What Is the Best Way to Assess Early Literacy?:

What Is the Best Way to Assess Early Literacy?

Recently a teacher wrote to me about her school district's plans to scrap Running Records and use a combination of DIBELS and AIMSweb for assessing early literacy abilities. She asked for my help in fighting this ill-advised policy move and I provided some research based resources. I am pleased to say that this teacher, through her informed and impassioned action, was able to prevail and the elimination of Running Records was shelved.

This incident got me thinking and I decided to write this post to clarify some issues on early literacy assessment. As I travel to schools around the country, I have noted the proliferation of DIBELS and AIMSweb. Both DIBELS and AIMSweb are called "curriculum based measures" or CBMs. This term sounds good, of course, and may help administrators sell the product to school boards, but as literacy assessment expert, Peter Johnston points out, neither of these measures is curriculum based, unless we consider counting correctly pronounced words in a one-minute reading a part of the curriculum.

I would like to compare these assessments of early literacy to two assessments that I think are more enlightened and effective: Running Records and The Observational Survey, both devised by literacy researcher/educator Marie Clay.

Both DIBELS and AIMSweb take a "bits and pieces" approach to early literacy assessment. Children are asked to identify the letters of the alphabet, to read nonsense words, to segment the sounds in words, to perform a timed reading for fluency, and to use given vocabulary in a sentence all under Russ on Reading: What Is the Best Way to Assess Early Literacy?:

Apple Education Services Posts Its Privacy Policy… in Latin | deutsch29

Apple Education Services Posts Its Privacy Policy… in Latin | deutsch29:

Apple Education Services Posts Its Privacy Policy… in Latin

On its website, Apple Education Services offers the following information under the tag, “Who We Are”:

Apple Educational Services is a nonprofit organization focusing on improving the quality of education on in public and private schools. Apple Educational Services has been established in 2006 by a group of professional educators who have broad experience in charter school education. Apple Educational Services takes pride in a professional staff and a wide volunteer base to achieve its goals in helping the educators. Apple Educational Services works with schools and organizations every step of the way to make sure that they receive the needed support to meet their targets.

Though the above implies that Apple Education Services (AES) has been around as a nonprofit since 2006 (note: another link on the same website has AES as founded in 2005), the official ruling date for its nonprofit status was in September 2014. According to its 2014 990 tax form, AES is located in Moonachie, NJ; employs 12 people, and had end-of-year total assets of $36 million.

AES has four board members:

• Mesut Sahin, President
• Feruk Apaydin, Vice President
• Alper Anil, Treasurer
• Arthur Gallant, Director

AES is part of a greater Gulen network of school-related businesses/nonprofits.

On its 2014 tax form, the AES mission is as follows:

Apple Education Services (“Apple”) provides educational programs and technical support services consisting of student data base system, professional development for teachers and administrators, teacher evaluation, human resources, curriculum

Despite its listed mission, AES lists its three highest paid contractors as related toconstruction:

• AARK Interstate Contractors (Ramsey, NJ), $10.7 million
• Commerco Coppa Architects (Totowa, NJ), $120,520
• United Construction and Managements (Lyndhurst, NJ), $239,408

And as for its revenue: Only $542,081 came from “software and edu consult,” with a Apple Education Services Posts Its Privacy Policy… in Latin | deutsch29:

 

Irony Alert: The Founder of Trump University Is Selling School Choice | gadflyonthewallblog

Irony Alert: The Founder of Trump University Is Selling School Choice | gadflyonthewallblog:

Irony Alert: The Founder of Trump University Is Selling School Choice

Donald Trump is in favor of school choice.

Well of course he is! After all, he made a lot of money scamming poor suckers out of their hard-earned cash with Trump University.

He knows how privatized education benefits the corporations who run the schooland not the poor schmucks who want to learn.

If he gets his way, our national education motto will be caveat emptor.

He is betting the American public is so stupid they’ll give a man caught in a scandalfor cheating people out of an education the power to set all education policy for our nation’s children.

And it’s all right there before the public.

In fact, the parallels between Trump University and school choice policies are apparent to anyone who looks. Here are just a few of the similarities:

---

1) False advertising

First of all, Trump University was never an actual university!

The New York State Education Department warned administrators when the institution was founded in 2005 that it was operating without a license. So what did the “school” do? It changed its legal name to The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative.

See? We’re not saying it’s a university anymore. I mean we still call it Trump Irony Alert: The Founder of Trump University Is Selling School Choice | gadflyonthewallblog:

Donald Trump Promotes School Choice, Bashes 'Bureaucrats' in Speech - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Donald Trump Promotes School Choice, Bashes 'Bureaucrats' in Speech - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Donald Trump Promotes School Choice, Bashes 'Bureaucrats' in Speech

Cleveland

Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump gave a shout-out to a long-treasured GOP priority, school choice, in his nomination acceptance speech here Thursday, and in a section on education attacked a long-time party boogeyman, "bureaucrats."

"We will rescue kids from failing schools by helping their parents send them to a safe school of their choice," Trump told delegates on the final night of the Republican National Convention. "My opponent would rather protect bureaucrats than serve American children."

But anyone who wanted policy details about where Trump stood on education before the convention kicked off on Monday was just as in Donald Trump Promotes School Choice, Bashes 'Bureaucrats' in Speech - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

Top Donald Trump Quotes on K-12 Education Policy

By Andrew Ujifusa and Alyson Klein

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump hasn't talked that much about K-12 education, but when he has it's been ... colorful. Take a look at our favorite Trump quotes on education policy.

On the federal role in K-12:

"Education through Washington, D.C., I don't want that. I want local education. I want the parents, and I want all of the teachers, and I want everybody to get together around a school and to make education great." - GOP debate in Miami, March 2015

On our international test scores and how much we pay for K-12:

"We're number one in terms of cost per pupil by a factor of, worldwide, by a factor of many. Number two is so far behind, forget it."

"So we're number one in the world in terms of spending. We're number 28 in the world in terms of, where do we stand? We have Third World countries that are ahead of us, countries that you wouldn't believe, some countries that you've hardly heard of." - Speech in Tulsa, Okla., January 2016 

On the Common Core State Standards:

"Common core is out! The Second Amendment is in!" - Speech in Tulsa, Okla., January 2016                            

On who he listens to about education:

"I was with Dr. Ben Carson today [a one-time rival for the nomination] ... We spoke for over an hour on education. And he has such a great handle on it. He wants competitive schools. He wants a lot of different things that are terrific, including charter schools, by the way, that the unions are fighting like crazy. But charter schools work, and they work very well." - GOP debate in Miami, March 2016

On school choice:

"Education reformers calls this school choice, charter schools, vouchers, even opportunity scholarships. I call it competition—the American Way." - The America We Deserve, by Donald Trump

On school facilities:

"We can't get an f--ing school built in Brooklyn." - April speech in Las Vegas 

On school safety:

"You know what a gun-free zone is for a sicko? That's bait" - January speech in Vermont 

---

Don't miss another Politics K-12 post. Sign up here to get news alerts in your email inbox.

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2016/07/top_donald_trump_quotes_on_k12.html

California's baffling new approach to evaluating public schools - LA Times

California's baffling new approach to evaluating public schools - LA Times:

California's baffling new approach to evaluating public schools

A teacher compliments a student at Animo College Prep on the campus of Jordan High School in Watts in 2013. The students at the school achieved the highest gains in school performance in the state over the previous year's scores. (Los Angeles Times)

The Times Editorial Board

 I’s not easy to measure the performance of a school, because there are so many things that go into providing a good education. But neither should it be as hard as the State Board of Education is making it.

After three years of work, the board recently revealed a draft of its new annual accountability system for California schools. These are the report cards, in effect, that are to replace the old single-number Academic Performance Index by which schools have been judged for the last decade and a half. The API was based almost solely on the results of the annual standardized tests taken by students.

In the search for better graduation rates, schools are fudging the numbers

The board’s determination to measure schools by more than merely test scores is laudable and has led national thinking on the topic. But the new system is more than overly warm and fuzzy. Making sense of it is practically impossible.

There’s a series of colored boxes, with the colors designed to reflect both the school’s actual performance on a given measurement — such as how many students are suspended or what surveys say about the school’s atmosphere — and whether that performance is getting a little better or a lot better or … well, you get the picture.

Or more likely you don’t, because we’re sure having problems with it. There are nine different categories for measuring schools, with only one of those being how its students scored on the standards tests. Others include “basics” (such as having adequate textbooks and facilities) and “implementation of academic standards.” Each category is ranked by how high a priority it is for that particular school. And each category has two colored boxes. And there are six possible colors for each box. We’ve got this much: Green is good. Red is bad. Yellow is somewhere in between. Just like traffic lights. It’s hard to ascertain what the rest mean, but there’s a separate chart showing all the colors that is supposed to give you an idea of what they stand for. But it doesn’t, really.

Plus extra boxes for “equity reports,” which refer to how well subgroups such as Latino, black and low-income students are doing. But the numbers — also color-coded — confuse more than they inform.

If you’re a parent trying to figure out whether one school in your district is better than another, well, there’s no clear way to do it. If you’re a voter who wants to determine how much the local schools have improved over time, good luck.

The API was simplistic. It defined excellence too narrowly... But this new method swings way too far in the opposite direction.

The state board and its staff — educated and deeply immersed in the minutiae of school policy — have lost touch with those of us who aren’t experts in educational statistics. They would have seen the gap if they had taken these charts for a test drive, showing them to parents waiting outside schools to pick up their kids or to voters waiting in line at the supermarket. More than likely, these multicolored charts would have elicited a well-deserved “Huh?”

One reason the charts are so over-complicated is that they’re being larded with too many factors that don’t reveal how well students are learning. Among the elements being judged: parent involvement, suspension rates, graduation rates and the like. These may be important aspects of school life, but they are a means to an end — better-educated students. If a school doesn’t suspend any students, but also doesn’t improve academic outcomes, why should it get credit for hollow achievements?

Compare this with the API: one number, reflecting test performance, with a clear target number of 800 for academic proficiency. With a couple more numbers, parents could tell at a glance where that school stood in its efforts to improve.

Get your free weekly take on the most pertinent, discussed topics of the day >>

The API was simplistic. It defined excellence too narrowly, which in turn led to “teaching to the test.” But this new method swings way too far in the opposite direction.

Meanwhile, the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act requires states to identify the lowest performing 5% of schools and intervene to improve achievement. How will California ever identify those schools? How will parents identify them?

The board is scheduled to adopt its final plan in September, just two months away. But these charts are unadoptable. The board must start over and create a simpler, clearer, more rigorous way to measure achievement.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook

California's baffling new approach to evaluating public schools - LA Times:

Western media's twisted view of failed coup, aftermath

Western media's twisted view of failed coup, aftermath:

Western media's twisted view of failed coup, aftermath

Articles in Western media mischaracterize the state of emergency, ignore FETO's threat to democracy

 ANKARA

Several articles in Western media outlets appear to have mischaracterized the July 15 coup attempt as well as the measures since taken by the Turkish government.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Wednesday night a nationwide three-month state of emergency after the failed coup, which martyred hundreds of people and injured over 2,100 others.

In an article posted on the BBC website, reporter Mark Lowen reflected incorrect assumptions about the state of emergency, claiming that Erdogan and the Cabinet would be able to enact laws bypassing parliament.

In fact, according to the Turkish Constitution, in the event of a declaration of a state of emergency for a period of maximum 6 months under Articles 119 and 120, the decision is published in the Official Gazette and immediately submitted to parliament for approval.

The Cabinet chaired by the president can pass a decree law in areas where the state of emergency requires it. Those decree laws are also submitted for parliament's approval.

Parliament also has the power to alter the duration of the state of emergency, extend the period for a maximum of four months at a time at the Cabinet’s request, or simply lift it.

In another article posted on July 20 by Paul Kirby headlined "Turkey coup attempt: Who's the target of Erdogan's purge?" the BBC suggests that the mass suspension of civil servants following the failed putsch may be aimed at "weeding out opponents from Western media's twisted view of failed coup, aftermath:

What Would it Take for US to Extradite Muslim Cleric to Turkey?

What Would it Take for US to Extradite Muslim Cleric to Turkey?:

What Would it Take for US to Extradite Muslim Cleric to Turkey?

If Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is hoping the U.S. will quickly spirit his archnemesis Fethullah Gulen out of rural Pennsylvania to stand trial in Turkey for plotting last week's failed coup against his government, he'll be sorely disappointed.

Erdogan has accused Gulen, a Turkish cleric and former political ally with whom he had a falling out in 2013, of engineering Friday's coup attempt from his self-imposed exile in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, and trying to have Erdogan assassinated as part of the plot.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Tuesday that Turkey had given evidence of Gulen's involvement to the U.S. government after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that Washington wanted hard evidence, not allegations. 

But even if the U.S. agrees there is enough evidence to extradite Gulen, the extradition process could take months, if not years — roiling already strained relations between the two long-time NATO allies at a time they're waging a military campaign against the Islamic State in neighboring Syria and Iraq.

"I think what it will really do is to poison the overall atmosphere of the relationship even more than it already has been, and lead to anti-American sentiments about what they'd call in Turkey 'support for terrorism,'" said Aaron Stein, a senior resident fellow at the Atlantic Council who has closely monitored the situation in Turkey. 

1979 treaty

Gulen's extradition request will be adjudicated under a 1979 treaty between the U.S. and Turkey, one of more than 100 the U.S. has signed with other countries.

Among other requirements, the treaty spells out the content of the formal request and the channel through which it is communicated. In the case of Gulen — someone who has been accused of a crime but not convicted — it calls for an arrest warrant; a statement of facts of the case; evidence that the offense, though allegedly committed in Turkey, is prosecutable in the U.S.; and the text of the law under which the accused would be tried.

It remains unclear what documents Turkey has turned over to Washington. But it doesn't appear to be a "provisional arrest or detention" warrant, which would require the U.S. to arrest and detain Gulen for up to 60 days to give Turkey time to prepare a formal extradition request and to keep him in custody until a decision is handed down in his extradition case.

Regardless, once the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Justice formally receive the request and determine that it meets all treaty standards, it moves to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, where Gulen has lived as a permanent resident since 1999, according to two international extradition experts who spoke to VOA. 

In the U.S. district court, the case will likely be assigned to a magistrate judge, a relatively low-level member of the U.S. judiciary, with the government of Turkey effectively represented by an Assistant U.S. Attorney and Gulen defended by his own lawyers, said Douglas McNabb, an international criminal lawyer who has handled over three dozen extradition cases. This leg of the process alone could potentially take months.What Would it Take for US to Extradite Muslim Cleric to Turkey?:

Trump pledges to ‘rescue kids from failing schools’ in final night of Republican convention

Trump pledges to ‘rescue kids from failing schools’ in final night of Republican convention:

Trump pledges to ‘rescue kids from failing schools’ in final night of Republican convention

Education got only the briefest mention in Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican convention in Cleveland on Thursday.

“We will rescue kids from failing schools by helping their parents send them to a safe school of their choice,” he said.

He also blamed the current administration for failing the inner cities when it comes to education and warned that Hillary Clinton would allow in too many immigrants who would “overwhelm your schools and hospitals.”

Trump’s speech mirrored the rest of the convention in its focus more on foreign threats, the economy and the dangers of a Hillary Clinton presidency than anything else. Education policy was mentioned by only a handful of speakers.

Those who did talk about education either listed it as something Donald Trump would “fix” when he became president, called for more parental say in where children attend school or expressed disgust with the Common Core State Standards, a set of math and English learning targets currently used in 42 states.

The Trump sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, made the most substantial remarks on education. Eric Trump said his father finds the state of the American education system humiliating and told teachers “forced to walk through metal detectors” that his father was “running for you.” His brother had even stronger language to describe what he sees as the failure of the American public education system.

“Our schools used to be an elevator to the middle class,” Donald Trump Jr. said. “Now, they’re stalled on the ground floor. They’re like Soviet Era department stores that are run for the benefit of the clerks and not the customers; for the teachers and the administrators and not the students.”

All of Trump’s adult children attended private primary and Trump pledges to ‘rescue kids from failing schools’ in final night of Republican convention:

The Real Face of Fethullah Gülen - Robert Amsterdam

Robert Amsterdam:

 

The Real Face of Fethullah Gülen

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: July 20, 2016

It is widely known that Fethullah Gülen has invested millions of dollars into creating and sustaining a false public image (the story of how a Foreign Policy poll was rigged is but one example). For the most part, the investment has been successful – the majority of the media reports coming out this past week […]

» Read More

Share

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Statement on Events in Turkey

By Citizen M | Published: July 15, 2016

15 July 2016 – The following statement was issued by Robert Amsterdam of Amsterdam & Partners LLP. Amsterdam & Partners LLP acts on behalf of the Republic of Turkey. According to the latest information I am receiving from my contacts in Turkey, the attempted coup by elements of the armed forces is failing, thanks in […]

» Read More

Share

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Interview with Daily Sabah on the Threat of the Gülen Organization

By Citizen M | Published: July 12, 2016

Today a feature interview with Robert Amsterdam was published on the front page of Sabah newspaper in Turkey. A translated version of the interview is featured on the digital version of Daily Sabah, which can be read here.  Below, an excerpt: The mafia-like network created by the Gülen Movement is a threat to the U.S. […]

» Read More  Go to Robert Amsterdam: