Friday, January 21, 2011

Balancing the Scorecard with Student Voices and other Measures of Teaching Effectiveness | Connected Principals

Balancing the Scorecard with Student Voices and other Measures of Teaching Effectiveness Here’s news that seems to be surprising some people: what students think about their teachers’ teaching is accurate and relevant. Any and all efforts to improve schooling for our fast-changing era must, I believe, respect, honor and care about ...

Who’s In Your Starting Five? “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” – Jim Rohn * * I read this quote recently and begin to think about the people I spend the most time with as a leader. I believe that you should always surround yourself with ...

Jose vs. Mr. Vilson, Part 2 – Do You Think Segregation Is A Good Thing For Minorities? — The Jose Vilson

Jose vs. Mr. Vilson, Part 2 – Do You Think Segregation Is A Good Thing For Minorities?

by Jose

Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., The First Meeting (Melvin Hale)

Jose: First off, you and I both know I don’t even like the word “minority” because, in the words of Piri Thomas, there’s nothing minor about me.

Mr. Vilson: Whoa, buddy! HAHA!

Jose: You know what I mean. There’s just no way we’re ever going to get respect in this country if we keep

‘Parent trigger’ organizers need protection from harassment, intimidation | Thoughts on Public Education

LAO: Charge perpetual students more - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office is recommending that the Legislature determine priority students for course registration at the state’s 112 community colleges and stop subsidizing courses of perennial students and repeat takers of ...

‘Parent trigger’ organizers need protection from harassment, intimidation - by Ben Austin John Fensterwald’s post last week on the “parent trigger” and its implementing regulations missed the mark in one or two spots. First and foremost, we completely agree with John and others who argue that more open dialogue and debate as part of the ...

The Answer Sheet - Are Common Core Standards really so different?

Are Common Core Standards really so different?

This was written by Todd S. Farley, who worked for years in the standardized testing industry and authored the book “Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry.” He previously wrote about his experiences on this blog, and, now, looks at the link between testing and the Common Core standards. (The company to which he refers to in this post will remain anonymous; he would not disclose it, and no, he did not actually "hack" in. Read on to find out what I'm talking about.) By Todd S. Farley If there’s one thing the uber-confident if minimally experienced education reformers can agree on, it’s that this country’s students need “high standards.” The thought is that the high expectations of “high standards” in our schools will allow the United States to overcome any educational deficiencies we face (even the huge hurdle of our terrible teachers). This clamoring to raise

Rhee moving organization to Sacramento

Michelle Rhee is moving the headquarters of her new national organization, Students First, to Sacramento, the city run by her fiance, Mayor Kevin Johnson. Johnson made the announcement during his annual State of the City address.

NYC Educator: Snow Picnic Out There

Snow Picnic Out There

by NYC Educator

I always go in on snow days. My wife speculates it's because I'm out of my mind, and some days it's tough to maintain otherwise. It gives me something to consider while navigating the icy roads to Fun City.

I remember once driving west on the Long Island Expressway, cars crashing to my right, cars crashing to my left, and hearing then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani advising me not to come in via my AM radio. I wrote his words on the board, for the amusement of the handful of kids as crazy as me.

There is a delayed opening procedure, introduced by

Rise & Shine: Cathie Black launches assault on ‘last in, first out’ | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Cathie Black launches assault on ‘last in, first out’ - Appearing on “Inside City Hall,” Cathie Black said she also favors ending “last in, first out” rules. (NY1) - Black explains her opposition to “last in, first out” by appealing to the mind and the heart. (Post) - The Post says ...

Remainders: Mothers group wants to make it harder to graduate - A group of moms wants to do something about too-freely-awarded credits. (Young Mothers’ Ed Policy) - Miss Eyre explains why she *won’t* be joining Educators 4 Excellence. (NYC Educator) - A reward is available to anyone who can ...

City awards bonuses to fewer schools after test scores drop The number of city schools whose teachers are taking home bonuses fell to just 26 this year, with many past winners falling victim to the citywide decline in test scores. About 200 schools with many high-needs students are eligible for annual ...

Jay Greene Should Expect More from Research

by Bill Tucker

Jay Greene, discussing the use of evidence to inform policy, manages to range from the Gates Foundation’s Measures of Effective Teaching project to the evils of communism in a single blog post. Here’s the crux of his argument before it drifts off course:

I am now more aware of the opposite failing — believing that we can resolve all policy disputes and identify the “right way” to educate all children solely by relying on science. Science has its limits. Science cannot adjudicate among the competing values that might attract us to one educational approach over another. Science usually tells us about outcomes for the typical or average student and cannot easily tell us about what is most effective for individual students with diverse needs. Science is slow and uncertain, while policy and practice decisions have to be

Forget the Graphic Organizers, Does Taking Tests Help You Learn? - Copy / Paste by Peter Pappas

Forget the Graphic Organizers, Does Taking Tests Help You Learn?

This should stir things up!

A New York Times story "Test-Taking Cements Knowledge Better Than Studying, Researchers Say" (January 21, 2011) reports...

Graph: NY Times

"Taking a test is not just a passive mechanism for assessing how much people know, according to new research. It actually helps people learn, and it works better than a number of other studying techniques.
The research, published online Thursday in the journal Science, found

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Texas' school-to-prison pipeline

Texas' school-to-prison pipeline

by Mike Klonsky

"...the single most important predictor [of incarceration] is a history ofdisciplinary referrals at school."

Mainly minority students in Dallas and other urban school districts in Texas are increasingly being charged with Class C misdemeanors for less-serious infractions that used to be handled with a trip to the principal's office, according to a new study.

The report from the nonprofit advocacy group Texas Appleseed, a nonprofit social justice advocacy group, is titled "Texas' School-to-Prison Pipeline."The report examined student disciplinary data on 22 of the largest school districts in the state. It found that most have sharply increased the number of campus police officers - resulting in far more misdemeanor tickets being handed out to students.

"Disrupting class, using profanity, misbehaving on a school bus, student fights and truancy once

Thursday, January 20, 2011

The Answer Sheet - Pensions for teachers vs. chancellors

Pensions for teachers vs. chancellors

It seems fair to note that after making a public stink about the awfulness of pensions for public school teachers, former New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein has himself accepted a $34,000 pension check. Klein recently penned an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal titled “Why Teacher Pensions Won’t Work,” in which he equates the pension system for New York City’s public teachers to a Ponzi scheme.

Huffington Post bans a post attacking white suremacy. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Huffington Post bans a post attacking white suremacy.

by Fred Klonsky

I don’t much like it when someone gets banned for writing something critical of those in power, or for peace, or against racism.

It’s happened to me. And when it happened, others published it instead.

That’s one reason I like the internet.

We’re all Wikileaks.

Here’s Rick Ayers banned column. And a brief intro by the author.

I have had 44 posts on Huffington Post. A few times they have insisted on edits for sensational reasons (when i wrote about “terrorism” they made a headline that said my brother is Bill Ayers). But this is the first blog piece i’ve written that they simply refused to run. Since it names “race” as central to the

Sacramento to be home for education-reform group, mayor says - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Sacramento to be home for education-reform group, mayor says

by rlillis@sacbee.com (Ryan Lillis and Melody Gutierrez)

The education-reform organization meant to bring substantial financial and political clout to the push for school improvement will be headquartered in Sacramento, Mayor Kevin Johnson announced today.

FILE - In this Jan. 6, 2011 file photo, Michelle Rhee, former D.C. public schools chief, speaks to staff and guests during a visit to a South Florida charter school in Opa-locka, Fla. Rhee is continuing her fight to improve the nation's classrooms through a new organization, Students First.

solidaridad: Gate's Yolie Flores displays an all new level of mendaciousness on ACLU settlement

Gate's Yolie Flores displays an all new level of mendaciousness on ACLU settlement

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

"Hedge funds are always looking for ways to turn a small amount of capital into a large amount of capital. A wealthy hedge fund manager can spend more than $1 million financing a charter school start-up. But once it is up and running, it qualifies for state funding, just like a public school... It is extremely leveraged philanthropy" — Predatory Hedge Fund Manager Whitney Tilson in bold, rest of quote is Joe Nocera

Support Parents and UTLA against LAUSD and corporate charter cash cows

Don't know if people caught the evil princess of privatization's latest fact free op-ed on the Daily News, but I had some choice words in response to her

Shanker Blog » No Comment

No Comment

by Burnie Bond

Yale University will soon end two prestigious teacher training programs due to lack of interest, according to theJanuary/February alumni magazine.

The first, a traditional teacher preparation program, offered education courses and teacher certification to undergraduates. The second, Yale’s five-year-old Urban Teaching Initiative, offered a tuition-free 14-month master’s in education program to those willing to commit to teaching in New Haven’s urban public school system.

“At the same time a record 18 percent of Yale seniors applied to Teach for America last year…”

A parent says her concerns with Black go beyond the jokes | GothamSchools

A parent says her concerns with Black go beyond the jokes

by Anna Phillips

A week after Chancellor Cathie Black made headlines by joking that more birth control would solve the problem of overcrowded schools, the furor is beginning to dissipate. But one parent who attended the meeting where Black made the controversial remark said it was blown out of proportion from the beginning.

Shino Tanikawa, a member of the Community Education Council for District 2, which is home to many of the city’s overcrowded schools, told GothamSchools that she’s no fan of Black. She sued the state for giving Black a waiver to become chancellor. But the chancellor’s birth control and Sophie’s Choice comments didn’t bother her. What she found disturbing, she said, was Black’s “total lack of vision or priorities” for the school system.

Tanikawa’s full response:

I think the remarks are diverting our attention away from more important issues. The birth control

Voucher bill lists eligible schools | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Voucher bill lists eligible schools

by Dale Mezzacappa on Jan 20 2011 Posted in Latest news

Tags:

Senate Bill 1, the voucher bill that is the top educational priority of the new administration in Harrisburg, lists 144 schools whose students will be eligible for vouchers if they meet certain income limits.

Of that total, 88 are in Philadelphia.

The list is interesting:

It includes every neighborhood high school in the city except for Northeast and Audenried, which didn't have an 11th grade to be tested.
It includes several discipline schools, including Learning Academy North, where students attend after being expelled, raising questions of whether those students would also be eligible.
It includes Renaissance Schools and Promise Academies, schools currently undergoing makeovers either by outside organizations or a District team. The ones now under outside managers are now charter schools, raising

Space the Final Frontier « My Island View

Space the Final Frontier

by tomwhitby

I recently involved myself in a discussion I have been engaging people in since the mid 1970’s. The Topic: Is it one space or two after a period when word-processing? The topic resurfaced after @smartinez, a highly respected educator and Tweeter, sent out a link to a post explaining the rule. http://www.slate.com/id/2281146/According to Farhad Manjoo, Old-fashioned typewriters used monospaced type, which produced a lot of white space between characters and words, so using two spaces after a period made the text easier to read, but as of the 1970s, monospaced type went out of style. Electric typewriters and computers now both use proportional fonts, eliminating the need for the extra space. This fact prompted this statement, “Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong.”

Now for what happened after I re-tweeted that link to the post that validated the very position I have taken since the 1970’s. A number of people stepped up questioning, if that was important, or if anybody really cared. Some

Recall against Nate Easley, and the campaign for northeast Denver kids, has begun | DeFENSE

Recall against Nate Easley, and the campaign for northeast Denver kids, has begun

by admin

The initial steps to put a recall of Nate Easley on the May ballot has started. A coalition of northeast Denver residents filed the following proposed language for the ballot:

We the qualified voters of Denver Public School District 4 demand the recall of current elected Denver Public Schools Board of Education member Dr. Nate Easley. Our demand is based on Mr. Easley’s activities related to conflicts of interest and allowing these to effect his representation of his District 4 constituency. Specifically, Dr. Easley’s roles as DPS Board of Education president and his job as Deputy Director of the Denver Scholarship Foundation make him subject to undue influence related to his votes as our representative. As a board member, Dr. Easley supervises the DPS superintendent, who also serves as on the DSF Board of Directors, thereby having direct influence over Dr. Easley’s employment. As Deputy Director of DSF, Dr. Easley receives a

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: It's 2011. Are we still OK with school segregation?

It's 2011. Are we still OK with school segregation?

by Mike Klonsky

Louisiana marker

"If we had a school that was, like, 80 percent high-poverty, the public would see the challenges, the need to make it successful. ... Right now, we have diluted the problem, so we can ignore it." -- John Tedesco, Wake County, N.C. school board

School choice is a mixed bag. On the progressive side, it has meant more options for parents, students and teachers--a building block for democratic education It's a way to give kids more reasons to come to school every day besides compulsory education laws. Choice was also a major component of the early small schools movement, which created smaller learning communities--schools of choice-- both within and outside of neighborhood schools as a way of tapping into students' interests, talents, and life possibilities.

But the language of school reform, including school reform itself, has always been contested territory. School

The Answer Sheet - Giving guns to teachers: A Nebraska legislator submits bill

Giving guns to teachers: A Nebraska legislator submits bill

It was inevitable that someone would push a plan to allow teachers to pack concealed guns, and now, someone has, that someone being Nebraska state Sen. Mark Christensen, who has even submitted legislation to that end. Here’s what he was quoted as saying by the Christian Science Monitor as he submitted his bill this week to the state legislature: “If you have a kid come in to shoot a teacher ... or other kids, it’s best to have somebody that can take care of the situation.”