#GoOpen Initiative and Collaboration - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education)

#GoOpen Initiative and Collaboration - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education):

State Schools Superintendent Tom Torlakson Announces Launch of #GoOpen Initiative and Collaboration in Common Professional Learning Community

SACRAMENTO—California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced the launch of both a new statewide #GoOpen initiative and Collaboration in Common, an online professional learning community and resource exchange platform for all California educators.

In joining the #GoOpen initiative, California becomes the sixteenth state recognized by the U.S. Department of Education for its commitment to support school districts and educators transitioning to the use of high-quality, openly licensed educational resources.

California was recognized for its commitment to a statewide technology strategy that includes the use of openly licensed resources as a central component, developing and maintaining a statewide repository, and participating in a community of practice with other #GoOpen states and districts to share learning and professional development resources. More information on #GoOpen can be found at the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology Web site .

Collaboration in Common resulted from a public-private partnership among the California Department of Education (CDE), the Californians Dedicated to Education Foundation, and the Palo Alto-based technology company Declara. Collaboration in Common runs on Declara's artificial intelligence engine to combine machine learning and crowd curation to allow teachers to find, consume, share resources, and gain insights from peer educators.

Torlakson urged all California teachers to visit Collaboration In Common  and sign up to become early adopters in the digital community. Early adopters will be among the first to gain access to Collaboration in Common's tools and resources as the Web site is developed.

"Collaboration in Common is a great example of how California looks for innovative ways to improve teaching and learning throughout our diverse state," Torlakson said. "We are leveraging technology and our talented teaching workforce to create a first-of-its-kind professional learning community and resource exchange that will offer professional development and access to new ideas and resources to benefit all of our schools."

Collaboration in Common builds upon the CDE's participation in the federal #GoOpen campaign, which encourages states and school districts to share educational resources and materials without cost and without violating copyright laws.

"We wholeheartedly embrace the #GoOpen spirit and initiative," Torlakson said. "This is a critical effort to provide schools with high-quality instructional resources and the ability to easily share these resources and ideas with teachers and schools across the state and the country."

Many California school districts have already joined the #GoOpen initiative, including Coachella Valley Unified, Coronado Unified, Fallbrook Union Elementary School District, Grossmont Union High School District, Huntington Beach Union High School District, Madera Unified, Mountain Empire Unified, Panama Buena Vista Unified, Riverside Unified, San Diego Unified, and Vista Unified.

"Vista Unified School District values collaboration at every level, and we have found that open educational resources are imperative to accelerate learning as we connect and work with one another across districts and across states," said Vista Unified Superintendent Devin Vodicka.

The Vista Unified School District, which serves northern San Diego County, will host California's first #GoOpen Regional Summit on October 7. The #GoOpen Regional Summit will provide an opportunity for teachers, librarians, instructional coaches, and district and state leaders to explore opportunities to expand the use of high-quality, openly licensed educational resources in classrooms. More information on the summit is available by contacting Erin English aterinenglish@vistausd.org.

# # # #

Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

 #GoOpen Initiative and Collaboration - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education):

Feds propose punishing high opt-out schools

Feds propose punishing high opt-out schools:

Feds propose punishing high opt-out schools

A looming deadline for public comment on proposed changes to federal education policy, including consequences to participation in opting out of testing, has sparked outcry from parents, legislators and education groups.

The new regulations, when adopted, would explain how states and school districts must implement the Every Student Succeeds Act, a federal law passed by Congress in December 2015 to replace the No Child Left Behind Law. The new law was aimed at relaxing federal control of education policy and giving more flexibility to the states.

The proposed amendment to ESSA, drafted by U.S. Secretary of Education John King, the former New York education commissioner, would punish schools with high opt-out rates by having school ratings lowered and require improvement strategies.

EDITORIAL: John King still loves those tests

2016 coverage: Opting out of Common Core, again

2015 coverage: Schools seeing high opt-out rates

Since May 31, when the proposals were made public and days ahead of the Monday deadline, more than 15,800 comments have been submitted for the U.S. Department of Education's consideration.

Rye City Councilwoman Julie Killian, a Republican who is running for state Senate, and Phil Oliva, a Republican who is running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, protested the amendment, which is proposed to start at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year, at a rally Friday in front of the Westchester County Center.

“This is the federal government and the Department of Education using local schools as sticks to bully parents away from exercising their legal rights,” said Oliva, who is an advisor to Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino.

About 20 percent of the area’s public school parents have opted their children out of the state’s grades 3-8 exams for math and English language arts over the last few years. The test refusal protest is largely against the exams’ alignment with the Feds propose punishing high opt-out schools:

 

How The Common Core Hurts Kids As Readers And Writers by Ann Policelli Cronin - Wait What?

How The Common Core Hurts Kids As Readers And Writers by Ann Policelli Cronin  - Wait What?:

How The Common Core Hurts Kids As Readers And Writers by Ann Policelli Cronin 

Educator, public education advocate and fellow education blogger takes on the notion that the Common Core is good for children in her blog entitled, P.S. How The Common Core Hurts Kids As Readers And Writers.  She writes;

The New York Times, whose writers have seemed to lack knowledge about the Common Core, has been a PR firm for those misbegotten and ill-conceived educational standards. But finally on Sunday, July 24th, the newspaper published, ”The Common Core Costs Billions and Hurts Students” by Diane Ravitch that is critical of the Common Core.

Diane Ravitch, Assistant Secretary of Education under George H. W. Bush and the author of The Life and Death of the Great American School System and Reign of Error, pointed out that the Common Core has accomplished nothing that it promised and does not meet the educational needs of children. Ravitch explained that, as a country, we have spent billions to implement the Common Core, to prepare students to take the Common Core aligned tests, and to buy the technology to administer those tests online. The results are that math scores on National Assessment of Educational Progress  declined for the first time since 1990 and reading scores are flat or decreased, the achievement gaps based on race and income persist, teachers are demoralized, causing teacher shortages, and, most tragically of all, children are receiving an education which harms them.

I would like to add a P.S.

Diane Ravitch writes about the damage that the Common Core does to children with disabilities, English language learners, and children in the early grades. I know that to be true. My Post Script focuses on the damage that 

How The Common Core Hurts Kids As Readers And Writers by Ann Policelli Cronin  - Wait What?:

VP Nominee Mike Pence Brags He Supported ALEC “Before It Was Cool” | janresseger

VP Nominee Mike Pence Brags He Supported ALEC “Before It Was Cool” | janresseger:

VP Nominee Mike Pence Brags He Supported ALEC “Before It Was Cool”

After the Republican convention in Cleveland, Mike Pence, the Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States, went home to Indiana, where he is governor, and made a speech to the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).  Here is a description from James Briggs, a reporter for the Indianapolis Star: “First, Gov. Mike Pence returned home to Indiana from the national campaign trail. Then, he came home to his base. Pence on Friday addressed a room full of kindred spirits at the American Legislative Exchange Council. The free-market policy group concluded its three-day annual meeting at the JS Marriott in Downtown Indianapolis.  ‘You are the model for Washington, D.C., after this election,’ Pence told the room….”

Pence’s description of ALEC as a model ought to terrify anyone who knows anything about the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC is a sort of dating service that pairs member corporate lobbyists with member state legislators. Too often the corporate lobbyists are the primary authors of ALEC’s model bills.

Here is how New York’s Common Cause describes ALEC in a recent report: “Through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), some of the nation’s largest companies invest millions of dollars each year to pass state laws putting corporate and private interests ahead of the interests of ordinary Americans. ALEC’s membership includes some 2,000 state legislators, corporate executives and lobbyists.  ALEC brings together corporate lobbyists and state legislators to vote as equals on model bills, behind closed doors and without any public input, that often benefit the corporations’ bottom line.  These model bills are then introduced in the state legislatures across the country….”  ALEC’s effort to undermine government and promote privatization through “model” laws that can be adopted by any state legislature is underwritten by corporations along with some of our nation’s wealthiest political investors, and it pairs state legislators with the corporations that stand to gain from legislation their lobbyists help design.

Briggs of the Indiana Star continues: “Pence’s speech… was light on references to Trump and heavy on ALEC’s bread and butter: state government.  ALEC is an influential policy group that drafts model legislation for statehouses across the country.  Pence joked that he was ‘for ALEC before it was cool.'”  Briggs quotes Pence “telling ALEC members he came to ‘say thank you for the work all of you have done in state legislatures.’ He urged those in attendance to use the November election to make the federal government reflect politically conservative states such as Indiana.”

Writing for PR Watch, Jessica Mason and Lisa Graves describe Pence’s record of pushing ALEC’s priorities in Indiana: “As Governor, Pence appointed an ALEC staffer to his cabinet, and pushed parts of the ALEC agenda into law, such as anti-worker bills like repealing the VP Nominee Mike Pence Brags He Supported ALEC “Before It Was Cool” | janresseger:

CURMUDGUCATION: Cyber Schools Slammed by Charters (Again)

CURMUDGUCATION: Cyber Schools Slammed by Charters (Again):

Cyber Schools Slammed by Charters (Again)

The Thomas Fordham Foundation releases a report today looking at cyber charters in Ohio, and the cover of the report signals pretty clearly where we're headed.

Ouchies! Stock Photo Lad is clearly not prepared to sing the joyous praises of his virtual school, and that bored and contemptuous face pretty much sets the tone for the report (presumably he is a cyber charter student, and not someone who has just tried to read the report).

We should note right up front that Fordham has skin in this game; they have several bricks-and-mortar charters of their own in Ohio. And the bricks-and-mortar wing of the charter school industryhas been getting pretty rough with their cyber-siblings lately. So, let's see how they made out this time.

The report strikes a pair of notes over and over again-- e-learning can be awesome, but cyber schools, not so much. Right off the bat, in the foreward, we get this:

To be certain, the Internet has opened a new frontier of possibilities for America’s K–12 students. Much less sure, however, is whether these new opportunities are actually improving achievement, especially for the types of students who enroll in virtual schools.

So what did Dr. Ahn find? We can cut to the chase, because although the report is fifty-five pages long, the actual meat is pretty short and sweet.

Dr. Ahn used Ohio education department data from 2009-2013 covering K-12 students. By breaking down the data, the following findings emerged.

* Cyber-schools are largely centered around the urban areas, where (the report notes) there are plenty of perfectly good bricks-and-mortar charters. That's an interesting data point; here in PA, cybers take advantage of areas where there is little brick-and-mortar competition, as well as CURMUDGUCATION: Cyber Schools Slammed by Charters (Again):

Between Little Rock and This Hard Place | The Jose Vilson

Between Little Rock and This Hard Place | The Jose Vilson:

Between Little Rock and This Hard Place

“She wasn’t with the rest of the other Black students. Can you imagine having all those harassers, reporters, and guards blocking her from letting her get into school?”

As I was listening to the ranger tell us the story of Elizabeth Eckford’s first day of school at Central High School in Little Rock, I found myself zoning out.

In a few hours, I’d be telling an audience of mostly white educators, business leaders, and students that they need to incorporate a sense of activism in their approach to loving and showing compassion for our kids. I had been nervous about this event because of the breakneck schedule I’d undertaken to get there.

Flight delays. Cancellations. Maintenance issues. Broken laptops. Snapped watches. Erased notes, remarks, and slides. Too many “first world” problems in a 48-hour window.

Our first morning in Little Rock, AR started with a casual breakfast and a visit to the Clinton Presidential Library, courtesy of Noble Impact and the Clinton School of Public Service. My poker face didn’t give much away in terms of my aforementioned issues or the critical thoughts triggered by different renditions of the 42nd president’s legacy in this country. Instead, I let the experience justBetween Little Rock and This Hard Place | The Jose Vilson:

Better Together Corporate Teacher’s Summit | tultican

Better Together Corporate Teacher’s Summit | tultican:

Better Together Corporate Teacher’s Summit

My wonderful friend, Dr. Larry Lawrence, sent me a message last March alerting me to a free teacher’s conference that he was going to attend. He had attended the first Better Together conference in 2015 and was sure I would love to see the common core love fest in action.

On Friday, July 29, National University hosted the San Diego “Better Together California Teacher’s Summit.” I like National University and have nothing but praise for the wonderful job Dr. Judy Mantel and her excellent staff did. However, the conference underwriter was the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. That gave the proceedings a darker hue.

During the 2016 NPE conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, Diane Ravitch mentioned how much easier it would be if we got a deep pocket sponsor for our movement, but she jokingly lamented that Anthony Cody would not stand for it. When I arrived at the Town and Country Convention Center in San Diego’s hotel circle, I saw what she meant. They had breakfast prepared for all 700 of us. The ballroom was plushly appointed and there appeared to be hotel staff everywhere. Twenty event staff were already on duty when I arrived.

Unfortunately, I had not read the agenda closely enough and had already eaten. I was only hoping for free coffee.

The following graphic was periodically displayed while we were awaiting the proceedings.

Video link connected us with a simultaneous event being held at California State University, Fullerton. Three massive screens projected keynote speaker, Ernie Hudson who was in Fullerton. Besides being a popular actor, Hudson is a wonderful speaker. His speech was moving and entertaining.

However, I wondered if an accomplished professional educator speaking would have been more appropriate. For example, I will never forget the address Professor Yong Zhao gave at NPE Chicago but then he didn’t blame teachers for his son’s problems and he doesn’t support standards based testing. Hard to imagine Gates’ money being spent on a speaker that does not support Gates’ ideology.

The Sponsors

The money came mainly from the Gates Foundation, however, the official Better Together Corporate Teacher’s Summit | tultican:

Are Teachers Writing Their Own Epitaph in Favor of Online Instruction?

Are Teachers Writing Their Own Epitaph in Favor of Online Instruction?:

Are Teachers Writing Their Own Epitaph in Favor of Online Instruction

In places like Louisiana, teachers are being enlisted to help write online curriculum. School officials have determined that Common Core hasn’t worked out well. So isn’t it nice that they asked teachers to supplant Common Core by coming up with their own unit ideas?

Shouldn’t that make teachers feel good—that finally school officials, and businesses, and people marketing educational content finally believe in their professional worth?

Or, will teacher ideas become the online curriculum that eventually ends teaching careers?

Are teachers writing their own demise?  A recent report by Emily Talmage, about the political future of online learning, promoted by both political parties, should give us pause.

In my book Losing America’s Schools, the last chapter is about conversion of brick-and-mortar schools to online learning. Everyone is waking up to the fact that teachers may Are Teachers Writing Their Own Epitaph in Favor of Online Instruction?:

California’s Ed Reform Wars

California’s Ed Reform Wars:
California’s Ed Reform Wars
How long before a teacher is tenured? The legislature mulls it over.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten says that extending the time it takes to get tenure in California is a legitimate idea, but that such changes should be done through the political process, not the judiciary.

his past April, the California Court of Appeals unanimously struck down the controversial Vergara v. California decision, in which a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled that five longstanding teacher protections—including a two-year probationary period for new teachers and a layoff system based on how many years one’s been teaching—violated students’ constitutional right to an equal education. The lower court judge had argued that these labor protections make it harder to fire bad teachers, and bad teachers significantly undermine a child’s education. In a 3-0 decision, the appellate judges concluded that the labor protections themselves are not responsible for harming students, even if school administrators sometimes implement them injudiciously.

Students Matter, a nonprofit backed by Silicon Valley entrepreneur David Welch that’s representing the Vergara plaintiffs, has filed an appeal to California’s Supreme Court. Their supporters argue that children pay the price for such job protections as teacher tenure and seniority. They also point toresearch that suggests making it easier to fire teachers has positive effects on student achievement. Critics counter that the real problems students face—particularly low-income students of color—are not teacher job protections, but their under-resourced, highly segregated schools that fail to attract and retain high-quality educators. At a time when states like California face realteacher shortages, they say, the focus on firing teachers is misplaced at best.

Since the lower court’s Vergara ruling two years ago, similar suits challenging teacher job protections have been filed in New York and Minnesota.

While David Welch and his allies remain committed to waging legal battles against tenure, seniority, and other job protections, they are also pushing for statutory changes via the California legislature. Following the original Vergaradecision, Republican lawmakers introduced apackage of three bills to extend the time it would take a teacher to earn tenure, to repeal the “last-in, first-out” statute that makes layoff decisions based on seniority, and to establish an annual teacher evaluation system. These bills, however, got nowhere in the Democratic-controlled statehouse.

“I think the Vergara decision helped increase public demand for improvements in our education system, but I always think it’s better when we can make policy changes through the legislature rather than the court system,” says Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen, the Republican who sponsored the teacher evaluation bill.

Back during the original Vergara trial, unions and some education expertsalso argued against making policy changes through the courts. A spokesperson for the California Teachers Association told The Wall Street Journal that legislators were already looking at ways to amend the contested laws, and Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said that extending the time it takes to get tenure in California is a legitimate idea, but that such changes should be done through the political process, not the judiciary.

Today, however, local unions are fighting back against attempts to change California’s Ed Reform Wars:

 

Dallas ISD Pulls Plug on South Dallas "Community Schools" Pilot | Dallas Observer

Dallas ISD Pulls Plug on South Dallas "Community Schools" Pilot | Dallas Observer:

Dallas ISD Pulls Plug on South Dallas "Community Schools" Pilot

On a sunny morning in early May, a wayward DART bus pulled to a stop in front of Paul Laurence Dunbar Learning Center in South Dallas. From the porches of tumbledown homes, neighbors glanced with mild curiosity as the school’s principal, Dionel Waters, stepped aboard. Waiting for him on the bus was an array of local dignitaries, including a city council member, a state representative, a U.S. Congressman, the Dallas County judge, and the guest of honor, Robert Kaplan, the president of the Dallas Fed. The riders hadaccepted an activist groups’ invitation to tour hardscrabble Dallas neighborhoods that remain untouched by the region’s booming economy.

Waters stood at the front of the idling bus with a microphone and described for Kaplan some of Dunbar’s challenges. The previous school year, all but two of the campus’s 594 students qualified as low-income. The median household income for the surrounding neighborhood, which borders the sprawling parking lots on Fair Park’s eastern edge, is around $10,000 per year. Broken families are the norm, as are parents with criminal records. Unemployment in the area is staggering, with only a third of working-age men and around 40 percent of working-age women with jobs, according to census data.

Then, Waters pivoted. Together with Hank Lawson, who works for the community development nonprofit Frazier Revitalization Inc., Waters described a vision for transformational change at Dunbar. With support from the Texas Organizing Project, which organized the bus tour, Dunbar would open the 2016-17 school year as Dallas ISD’s first ever “community school.”

Community schools are built on the idea that education doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Poverty levels, family structure, health and nutrition, emotional well-being, and all manner of other outside factors impact academic performance and school quality. Creating a better school, then, requires addressing not only what happens in the classroom but outside social and economic factors as well.

Exactly what a community school looks like depends on the specific needs of the individual school and the surrounding community. Generally speaking, though, the model emphasizes getting parents, community members and teachers greater input in campus decision-making; forging partnerships with local businesses and nonprofits to provide programming and services the school can’t; and finding non-punitive ways to address student behavior.

It is billed as a more humane alternative to No Child Left Behind-style school reform, which can punish poor and heavily minority schools for poor performance without doing much to address root causes.

Community schools are meant to be transformational. A report released in February by the Center for Popular Democracy profiled eight campuses and school districts across the country that have implemented the community schools model with tremendous success.

One of the more dramatic turnarounds took place in Austin. Webb Middle School, a perennially low-performing campus in a working class Hispanic neighborhood in northeast Austin, was on the brink of closure in 2007 when neighbors rallied and convinced the district to give them a final chance to save the school. They turned to the community schools model and crafted a detailed plan based on feedback from parents and neighbors.

The school restored music and art to the curriculum, adding band, orchestra and a dance troupe. The Boys and Girls Club began offering after-school Dallas ISD Pulls Plug on South Dallas "Community Schools" Pilot | Dallas Observer:

Teachers union leader says next president must completely reset education policy and oust current education secretary

Teachers union leader says next president must completely reset education policy and oust current education secretary:

Teachers union leader says next president must completely reset education policy and oust current education secretary

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), addresses delegates on the first day of the Democratic National Convention at Wells Fargo Center on July 25, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsyvania. Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

ter playing defense for the better part of two decades, the presidents of the nation’s two teachers unions took the stage at the Democratic National Convention along with other union leaders to speak to Hillary Clinton’s labor bone fides. The two union presidents were some of the earliest and fiercest supporters of Clinton’s presidential bid, and in a speech on the opening night of the convention, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten talked about what she hopes they’ll get in return.

“She’ll reset education policy to focus on skills like creativity and critical thinking, not more testing,” said Weingarten at the July convention in Philadelphia.

While teachers unions have long been a key pillar in Democratic Party, they’ve been on the outs with President Barack Obama’s education department. The administration doubled down on Republican President George W. Bush’s educational agenda of holding schools accountable for students’ test scores. For struggling schools, if test scores didn’t increase, they could be either closed or converted into charter schools, the vast majority of which employ non-unionized staff.

“If you look at the platform for the Democratic Party, it’s the most progressive in terms of education that we’ve seen for as long as I can remember.”

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers

These policies devastated some local teachers union, including Philadelphia’s, which lost 10,000 members during the Obama and Bush administrations. Weingarten expects Clinton to totally upend this agenda, and hopes that she’ll remove Education Secretary John King, who was just confirmed by the senate in March,

The Hechinger Report sat down with Weingarten during the last night of the convention to go deeper into what she expects from the next president.

Question: There seems to be a lot more talk about early education and higher education during this convention. Why do you think that is? What are the K-12 policies you would hope to see from a President Clinton?

Answer: She’s actually done four major speeches on K-12 education. It hasn’t been covered. I think it’s because it’s not controversial because it’s rooted in the evidence of what works for kids. She calls it TLC: teaching, learning and community. It’s about how do we ensure we have a great teaching force, and how do we nurture them and how do we lift them up? How do we have high standards, but also make sure we meet the needs of individual kids, including kids with special needs and kids who are limited English proficient?Teachers union leader says next president must completely reset education policy and oust current education secretary:

California Data Show Flaws in Federal Regulations - On California - Education Week

California Data Show Flaws in Federal Regulations - On California - Education Week:

California Data Show Flaws in Federal Regulations

When Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015, it was celebrated as relief from its predecessor, but as regulations emerge it's beginning to look like its evil sibling of the discredited No Child Left Behind Act's name-and-shame policy.  In a report released Monday two California organizations are pushing back with data.

A report issued by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), as a part of its research partnership with the state's CORE districts, argues that the summative single list of bottom 5 percent schools required in pending regulations would fail to indentify some of the schools that need comprehensive support.  The regulations would unjustly target some schools that were making good progress but whose overall scores were still low.

Data from CORE Districts

Authors Heather Hough, Emily Penner, and Joe Witte illustrate the issue with data from California's CORE districts, which include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fresno, Long Beach, Oakland, and Santa Ana.  Although only six districts, they contain 923 more high poverty (Title I) schools than do 26 states.

Both academic performance and academic growth are required elements in the federal guidelines for academic measurement.  But as the graphic below shows, only a few schools fall in the lowest 5 percent of both low achievement and low growth in achievement (red dots).  For the most part, the schools with low achievement (orange dots) are different from the schools with low academic growth (blue dots).

Under pending federal regulations, achievement and growth, along with graduation rates and chronic absence, must be combined into a single indicator to pick the bottom 5 percent of schools for comprehensive assistance by an external body.  But analysis shows that each of the four operate independently.  For example, only 4 percent of the schools that were in the bottom tier of academic achievement were also in the bottom tier of results for English learners.

Seeking A 'Flashlight Not A Hammer'

This report is not just picking at nits with the feds.  The question of what schools are labeledCalifornia Data Show Flaws in Federal Regulations - On California - Education Week: as 

 Big Education Ape: CORE districts want state waiver to continue their work | EdSource - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/08/core-districts-want-state-waiver-to.html

A Little Ditty About Donald and Diane

A Little Ditty About Donald and Diane:

A Little Ditty About Donald and Diane

Donald Trump thinks the Common Core State Standards are a disaster and so does education historian turned anti-education reform advocate Diane Ravitch. This puts Ravitch and Trump in opposition to millions of parents, classroom teachers, national teachers unions, the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton.

In a July 24 essay in the New York Times renouncing the standards, Ravitch wrote:

Six years after the release of our first national standards, the Common Core, and the new federal tests that accompanied them, it seems clear that the pursuit of a national curriculum is yet another excuse to avoid making serious efforts to reduce the main causes of low student achievement: poverty and racial segregation.

First of all, as Ravitch knows very well, the Common Core are not a set of “national” standards. They were created by governors and chief state school officers and adopted voluntarily by states. States can repeal them or amend them whenever they want and several already have. In fact, the federal government is prohibited by law from creating or mandating standards.

Second, there is not now and never has been a “pursuit of a national curriculum.” Conflating standards and curriculum is a cynical, coded appeal to the local control zealots on both sides who reflexively oppose anything with the word “national” attached and insist against all evidence that public education will magically improve without oversight and accountability.

Fighting Poverty and Segregation

As for fighting poverty and segregation, America has been fighting on both fronts for decades while allowing schools to languish in mediocrity. Noble as both goals A Little Ditty About Donald and Diane:

 

Peter Cunningham 

Executive Director, Education Post; Former Assistant Secretary for Communications and Outreach, U.S. Department of Education (Arne's Mouth)

Turkish president blasts foreign countries over coup reaction - World - CBC News

Turkish president blasts foreign countries over coup reaction - World - CBC News:

Turkish president blasts foreign countries over coup reaction

Erdogan seeking extradition of Muslim cleric and alleged mastermind from U.S.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday once more blasted unnamed Western countries for what he said was support for the attempted coup on July 15 which left more than 270 people dead.

"The West is supporting terrorism and taking sides with coups," Erdogan said.

• Erdogan overhauls military after failed coup attempt
• Turkey kills 35 Kurdish militants who attempted to storm army base

Speaking at an event for foreign investors in Ankara, Erdogan singled out Germany for criticism, after a German court ruled against allowing him to appear on a video link to address a crowd of about 30,000 supporters and anti-coup demonstrators Cologne over the weekend.

'We did not request documents for terrorists that you wanted returned.'- Recep Erodgan, on U.S. extradition procedures

Turkey had sent Germany more than 4,000 files on what he said were wanted terrorists, but Germany did nothing, Erdogan said. However, he said, courts quickly decided against him speaking at the rally.

Erdogan repeated a complaint that no foreign leader had visited Turkey after the failed coup, while France and Belgium received visits in solidarity after terror attacks there.

"Those we considered friends are siding with coup-plotters and terrorists," the president said.

Sweeping crackdown

The government says the coup was instigated by U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally who has been living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. Turkey has demanded his extradition, but Washington has asked for evidence of the cleric's involvement, saying the extradition process must take its course.

Erdogan complained about the request for evidence, saying: "We did not request documents for terrorists that you wanted returned."

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag sent a second document to the United States Tuesday seeking Gulen's arrest, the state-run Anadolu news agency said. The minister said the second letter explained why there was an urgent need for the arrest.

U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose followers Turkey blames for a failed coup, speaks to journalists at his home in Saylorsburg, Penn., on July 16. Turkey has asked the U.S. to arrest and extradite Gulen. (Greg Savoy/Reuters)

The government has launched a sweeping crackdown on Gulen's movement, which it characterizes as a terrorist organization and which runs schools, charities and businesses internationally. In Turkey, nearly 70,000 people have been suspended from their jobs on suspicion of being involved in the movement.

• Who is Fethullah Gulen?
• Why is Turkey blaming Gulen for the coup attempt?

"They requested certain information following our first letter; we provided answers to the question 'why is it urgent,"' Anadolu quoted Bozdag as telling reporters in parliament, adding that Turkey had intelligence indicating Gulen might leave for a third country.

"I hope that the United States decides in Turkey's favour, in line with democracy and the rule of law, and returns this leader of a terror organization to Turkey," he said.

The minister said that if Gulen leaves the U.S., it would be with the full knowledge of U.S. authorities.

Part of the crackdown against Gulen's network has focused on reforming the military, bringing it increasingly under civilian command. About 18,000 people have been detained or arrested, most of them from the military, and authorities have said the purge of those suspected of links to Gulen in the military will continue.

Calgary's Davud Hanci has also been detained in Turkey on allegations he worked for Gulen. His friends and family say he is innocent. 

Turkish soldiers detain Staff Sergeant Erkan Cikat, one of the missing military personnel suspected of being involved in the coup attempt, in Marmaris, Turkey, on July 25. (Kenan Gurbuz/Reuters)

Changes to military courts

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced plans to shut down two military high courts — the administrative and appeals courts — and said military courts, which deal with disciplinary issues, would be placed under the Defence Ministry's supervision.

The government has already issued a decree introducing sweeping Turkish president blasts foreign countries over coup reaction - World - CBC News: