Big Education Ape

Friday, December 31, 2010

OUR LEARNING COMMUNITY DAILY

stressfreekids.com - December 29th, 2010 | 0 Comments by Lori Lite When you have kids New Year’s Eve takes on a whole new meaning. How about this year trying something new and different? At the same time you can enjoy ...

StressFreeKids

The Capital Region Society for Technology in Education

crste.org - Tightly align K-12, higher education and the workforce Foster creativity and problem solving across the curriculum Model 21st century skills of global empathy, communication, collaboration, critica...

walterASCD

Policy Agenda | Children's Leadership Council

childrensleadershipcouncil.org - Children's Leadership Council: Invest in Children, Strengthen AmericaAn Agenda for Preparing Our Children and Youth for School, Work and Life The Children's Leadership Council is a coalition of chi...

TeacherReality

Danny Davis drops Chicago mayor bid - Meredith Shiner

politico.com - Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) dropped out of the race for mayor of Chicago on Friday, clearing the way for the city's black community to rally around former Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun. Davis, who was cho...

politico

Top 10 breakout stars of 2010 - Andy Barr

politico.com - Every year seems to see the rise of a talented new crop of pols and 2010 was no different. The midterm elections produced a fair number of newcomers who already boast widespread name recognition be...

polit

Eduflack: Some Resolutions for 2011

Some Resolutions for 2011

by Eduflack

Another year about to go down in the history books. Are we any closer to truly improving our public schools? For every likely step forward we may have taken in 2010, it seems to be met with a similar step back. For every rhetorical push ahead, we had a very real headwind blocking progress.

So as we head into 2011, your friendly neighborhood Eduflack offers up a few "resolutions" for all on the education reform boat to consider as we start a new year. We need to come to accept the following:

1. True reform does not happen at the federal level. The federal government is an important lever in the school improvement process, offering some necessary financial resources and some bully pulpit language to inspire reform. But true improvement happens at the state and local levels. It is about what our SEAs and LEAs do with those resources and whether they embrace the call from the bully pulpit. Just as all politics is local, so too is all education reform. Why do you think groups like DFER are so keen on launching new statewide efforts, like the new one in California?

2. ESEA reauthorization really doesn't matter. As much as we want to fret about when ESEA is going to be

Last Stand for Children First: Ryan Wilson wishes everybody a rip snorter of a New Year

Ryan Wilson wishes everybody a rip snorter of a New Year

by Last Stand for Children

This New Years Eve finds me about to leave for a B & S I'm having with some of my fellow expatriates and a few Sheepshaggers as well, but before I do I wanted to wish everybody an Ace New Year. I won't bore you by recapping all the news that Myron did yesterday, but needless to say 2010 was alright and 2011 will be even better.

You know, I know that teachers and their reunions are responsible for the bodgy schools in this country and sometimes I think they're about as useless as an ashtray on a

Education-Related Predictions For 2011 | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Education-Related Predictions For 2011

by Larry Ferlazzo

Earlier this week, I asked readers to contribute their education-related predictions for 2011. I received some great responses, and I’ll share them all in this post.

If you didn’t get a chance to contribute earlier, though, I’d encourage you to leave one-to-three of them in the comments section. At the end of the year, I’ll revisit them and we’ll all see who among us has good powers of prognostication.

And, if some of you wonder what the point is in making predictions, you can go to The New York Times which recently published a piece on Why Do We Need Predictions? Here are a few of the reasons commentators there gave: it’s fun, we need “positive illusions,” it helps us gain a “sense of control,” the human identity is based in

Afternoon Update: New Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools

New Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools

Parents 4 democratic Schools

NYC Public School Parents: The best and worst of 2010

The best and worst of 2010

by Leonie Haimson

Here are my choices for the best and worst education events of the past year; what are yours? Leave a comment!

Worst education events of 2010:

1. Class sizes increasing in NYC and many other areas of the country, due to budget cuts and wrong-headed priorities.

2. The rapid spread of credit recovery and substandard “virtual” instruction, with the goal of replacing real-life teachers with computers. Meanwhile, Joel Klein and Rupert Murdoch wait in the wings, eager to make a buck off online learning and the further degradation of public education.

3. The huge amount of money poured into the political campaigns of candidates who backed the agenda of the privateers, the funding of pseudo-documentaries like Waiting for Superman and The Lottery, the proliferation of fake grassroots groups like Stand for Children and Michelle Rhee’sStudents First, the week-long horror show that was NBC’s Education Nation, all singing the same demented tune of privatization and high stakes testing. These political action funds, organizations, and media extravaganzas were financed and promoted by the same small group of powerful

11 People to Watch in 2011: Tom Brady | Education | projo.com | The Providence Journal

11 People to Watch in 2011: Tom Brady

01:00 AM EST on Sunday, January 2, 2011

By Linda Borg

Journal Staff Writer

Steve Smith, left, president of the Providence Teachers’ Union, and Providence School Superintendent Tom Brady are embarking on a grand experiment to create a labor-management partnership to turn around low-performing schools.

The Providence Journal / Bill Murphy

While teachers and administrators duke it out in Central Falls, a very different relationship has emerged in Providence, where Supt. Tom Brady has forged a partnership with teachers’ union President Steve Smith to revamp four low-performing schools.

Brady, who arrived here 2½ years ago with a mandate to restore the district’s tarnished reputation, had a choice: he could unilaterally impose a new world order on the district’s struggling schools or he could collaborate with the union and jointly develop a plan to transform the schools.

Brady chose to work with the union. The labor-management partnership quickly garnered national attention, winning accolades from none other than Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.4-million-