Big Education Ape

Friday, August 19, 2011

Big Education Ape - PostRank Today's 9

Modern School: Politics and Capitalism Make Kids Stupid Modern School: Politics and Capitalism Make Kids Stupid Politics and Capitalism Make Kids Stupid by Michael Dunn While pundits, billionaires and politicians continue to scream that the educational sky is falling because of teachers’ selfishness, ...

solidaridad: Open Letter to DFER's Gloria Romero regarding her recent reactionary letter to the AFTsolidaridad: Open Letter to DFER's Gloria Romero regarding her recent reactionary letter to the AFT Open Letter to DFER's Gloria Romero regarding her recent reactionary letter to the AFT by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene *I think about former Senator ...

Hispanic Group, Spread the Word About the Need to Preserve the Colorado River - Hispanically Speaking News Hispanic Group, Spread the Word About the Need to Preserve the Colorado River - Hispanically Speaking News Hispanic Group Looking to Spread the Word About the Need to Preserve the Colorado River 0 Comments Published at 5:29 pm, August 18, 2011 [image: ...

SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL: Jackson Pollock Comes To The NYC DOE SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL: Jackson Pollock Comes To The NYC DOE Jackson Pollock Comes To The NYC DOE by noreply@blogger.com (Bronx Teacher) Years ago, I think around 1996, my wife and I were passing through Austerlitz NY on Labor Day weekend and came upon a ...

On The Future of Teaching: Evaluating the Evaluators, Part 1 | The Jose Vilson On The Future of Teaching: Evaluating the Evaluators, Part 1 | The Jose Vilson On The Future of Teaching: Evaluating the Evaluators, Part 1 by Jose Here’s an excerpt from The Future of Teaching: Your choice of Renee Moore speaks volumes of what you ...

Brill Book: Race to Top Scores Sparked 'Near-Panic' at Ed. Dept. - Politics K-12 - Education Week Brill Book: Race to Top Scores Sparked 'Near-Panic' at Ed. Dept. - Politics K-12 - Education Week Brill Book: Race to Top Scores Sparked 'Near-Panic' at Ed. Dept. by Michele McNeil Louisiana and Colorado take heart: Senior staff members at the U.S. ...

State Special Schools Director Named - Year 2011 (CA Dept of Education) State Special Schools Director Named - Year 2011 (CA Dept of Education) State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Announces New Director to Head Department's State Special Schools and Services Division SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom ...

Subverting The National Conversation: A lesson on how it is done! - Perdaily.com Subverting The National Conversation: A lesson on how it is done! by Susan lee Schwartz with thanks to Kevin Gosztola - Perdaily.com Subverting The National Conversation: A lesson on how it is done! by Susan lee Schwartz with thanks to Kevin Gosztola by ...

Duncan: States Don't Need to Join Common Core for Waiver - Politics K-12 - Education Week Duncan: States Don't Need to Join Common Core for Waiver - Politics K-12 - Education Week Duncan: States Don't Need to Join Common Core for Waiver By Alyson Klein on August 18, 2011 5:05 PM | No comments | No recommendations If you were worried that ...

Benefits of Merit Pay Unclear - Chicago News Cooperative

Benefits of Merit Pay Unclear

by REBECCA VEVEA

As Chicago Public Schools officials begin to shape a new system of merit pay for principals, experts say there are important lessons to be learned from cities that have experimented with similar initiatives.

As he had promised during the mayoral campaign, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Monday that CPS would implement a $10 million merit pay program for principals next year, which would be partially funded with private money.

Recent research suggests there is no clear link between bonuses and improved student performance, but politicians and administrators continue to push for merit pay in the nation’s school systems.

“It’s an idea that keeps coming back,” said Julie Marsh, the lead researcher for a study on New York City’s

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Obama should have walked over to the Whaling Church last night

Obama should have walked over to the Whaling Church last night

I wish I could have been there. I wish Pres. Obama and Michelle would have made it over to the 1787 Old Whaling Church in Martha's Vineyard last night as well. The Post's coverage makes last night's panel sound simply like a well-deserved verbal spanking of test-and-punish Michelle Rhee by Diane Ravitch. Rhee's singular focus on bad teachers always pales in comparison to Ravitch's broader social critique.

Harvard prof Lawrence Bobo

Unfortunately, you have to scan this morning's

Lobato 8/18: Sheridan’s story | EdNewsColorado

Lobato 8/18: Sheridan’s story

by Todd Engdahl

Sheridan on Thursday joined the long list of school districts whose leaders have voluntarily confessed their failings during testimony at the Lobato school funding trial.

During testimony that took all morning, lawyer David Hinojosa led Superintendent Michael Clough through lengthy testimony about the district’s demographics, achievement scores, budget, building needs and more.

Sheridan has about 1,600 students, 80 percent eligible for free and reduced lunch, nearly 80 percent Hispanic and more than a third English language learners, according to Clough’s testimony. Sheridan is accredited with a

DPS touts CSAP growth over time

by Charlie Brennan

Don’t focus only on the current ranking of Denver Public Schools. Look, too, at how far they have come.

DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg talked about the district's academic growth at Steck Elementary on Thursday, the first day of school for most students.

That’s the message Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg delivered to school board members Thursday night, discussing district results released Aug. 3 for the final year of testing under the Colorado

Video: DPS goes back to class

by Nancy Mitchell

Popout

Steck Elementary students in Denver prepare for their first day of class in 2011-12.

Enrollment in Denver Public Schools is projected to hit 80,956 this fall, the first time the district has surpassed 80,000 since 1974 when the U.S. Supreme Court mandated busing to integrate city schools.

State Auditor calls CalSTRS a high risk | Thoughts on Public Education

State Auditor calls CalSTRS a high risk
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Anti-spiking bill will be test of Legislature's resolve

Posted on 8/19/11 • Categorized as Pensions, Uncategorized

By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

State Auditor Elaine Howle has added the teachers’ pension fund, CalSTRS, to the state’shigh-risk list, adding urgency to the imperative to reduce taxpayers’ liability for the nation’s largest education pension fund. The release of Howle’s periodic update of financial worries comes on the eve of the final showdown on a significant pension reform before the Legislature, an anti-spiking bill sponsored by Sen. Joe Simitian, a Palo Alto Democrat.

Passage of SB 27 by itself won’t make a huge dent in the problem. But the bill deals with

Parents Across America, Seattle Part of Protest at Apple Store | Seattle Education

Parents Across America, Seattle Part of Protest at Apple Store

by seattleducation2011

The Battle for Seattle continues.

Steve Jobs with Apple has gotten on the ed reform bandwagon and is offering free iPads to Teach for America recruits but of course none to real teachers who have teaching experience, degrees in education and have devoted their lives to their school communities. Nope, this is for the TFA, Inc. recruits with five weeks of training to teach to the test and nothing more. I guess they need some sort of way to track all of those test scores.

Check out this great video titled An Apple a Day for TFA.

The protest happened on August 13, 2011.

Dora

Part 1

Support growing for school finance reform | California Watch

Support growing for school finance reform

by Denise Zapata

Eleanor Yang Su

Flickr/woodleywonderworks

A recent effort to reform California public school financing has stalled, but key players say there’s a growing consensus that the system needs to be simplified and made more equitable.

A bill by Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, sailed through the state Assembly but faced problems in the Senate last month. Amid concerns about opposition from teachers unions and questions about a lack of specificity, Brownley pulled her legislation and converted it into a two-year bill, meaning it will be revisited in January. The bill would place fewer restrictions on how school districts can spend state money.

“I have commitments from all the stakeholder groups that they will work with me on it,” Brownley said. “I think everyone agrees that we need to reform the system. Where the concerns lie is ensuring that this is a system

Plastics industry edited environmental textbook

by Suzanne Yada

Susanne Rust

José Luis Girarte/istockphoto.com

Under pressure from the American Chemistry Council, a lobbying group for the plastics industry, schools officials in California edited a new environmental curriculum to include positive messages about plastic shopping bags, interviews and documents show.

The rewritten textbooks and teachers’ guides coincided with a public relations and lobbying effort by the chemistry council to fight proposed plastic bag bans throughout the country. But despite the positive message, activists say there is no debate: Plastic bags kill marine animals, leech toxic chemicals and take an estimated 1,000 years to decompose in landfills.

In 2009, a private consultant hired by California school officials added a new section to the 11th-grade teachers’

React & Act: How to join the environmental curriculum debate

by La Toya Tooles

California Watch

In “Plastics industry edited environmental textbook,” California Watch reporter Susanne Rust details how, under pressure from a lobbying group for plastics manufacturers, state public school officials have edited a new environmental curriculum to include positive messages about plastic shopping bags. We’ve created a list of key players you can reach out to ifyou would like to weigh in on the issue.

Gov. Jerry Brow
Phone: 916-445-2841
Write: State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814

Today's Big Idea To Get America Working: Invest In Public Education | California Progress Report

Today's Big Idea To Get America Working: Invest In Public Education

by megan

By Jeff Bryant

I don't think anyone has ever even tried to make the argument that education and jobs are not in any way linked. But the economic argument for education is not well understood even by those -- politicians especially -- who are most apt to make the connection. So before we demand that political and civic leaders at all levels turn around our troubled economy by increasing investment in public education, we need to get the framing right.

You Can't Blame The Bad Economy On Education

A truly specious argument about education and its relationship to the economy is that economic failures are "caused" by inadequate public schools. Both conservatives and "liberals" are often guilty of making this charge.

Children Are Invisible Victims of California's Tanking Economy

by megan

By Ngoc Nguyen

The dual problems of housing instability and joblessness are negatively affecting the well-being of California’s children, according to a new report released Wednesday.

One million children in the state -- or 7 percent -- have been impacted by foreclosure since 2007, according to figures taken from the 2011 Kids Count Data Book, a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Only three states have higher rates than California, including Nevada (13 percent), Florida (10 percent) and Arizona (8 percent). The figures exclude children living in rental units, whose families may have been affected.

The report also found that children in California are paying a price due to a grim job market. About 1.2 million children in the state now have at least one unemployed parent, and about one-third of all children statewide have no parent with a full time, year-round job.

Landmark Health Care Reform Legislation Introduced by Senate President Steinberg

by megan

By Marty Omoto

Potential sweeping landmark health care insurance reform legislation was introduced Tuesday by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg that would require health managed care plans and health insurance plans to provide as a covered benefit behavioral health treatment for persons with autism spectrum disorders. The legislation would take effect, if passed by the Legislature before it adjourns for the year on September 9th and signed by the Governor on or before October 9th, on January 1, 2012.

The bill, which Steinberg said he was committed to see passed before the Legislature adjourns for the year on September 9th, will likely meet fierce opposition from health managed care plans and strong support from advocates for children and adults with autism spectrum disorders and their families. Health plans who have opposed previous efforts, have said that behavioral health treatments for persons with autism are more appropriately provided by school districts and other entities.

D.C.’s move toward charter-centric school system - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

D.C.’s move toward charter-centric school system

by Valerie Strauss

Are we seeing the beginnings of the “New Orleanization” of the D.C. public school system?

There is new evidence suggesting that D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray is taking the initial steps in a move toward molding the system into one that has a small core of traditional public schools and a larger collection of independently run charter schools. For a lot of reasons, D.C. residents should be concerned.

Remember when Michelle Rhee quit as D.C. schools chancellor last October, insisting that she had to leave because the soon-to-be-new-mayor, Gray, wasn’t committed to her brand of reform? Wrong again.

Read full article >>

The right way to lengthen the school year

by Valerie Strauss

This is the third part of a debate on time and learning that started with a a post I published Tuesday by Mark Phillips, professor emeritus of secondary education at San Francisco State University, about what he called an “absurd” debate on the appropriate length of the school year. He noted that there is no compelling evidence that a longer school year improves student learning. Then yesterday I published a response by Jennifer Davis, co-founder and president of the National Center on Time & Learning, and Emily McCann, president of Citizen Schools. Here is Phillips, once again, responding to the Davis-McCann piece.

Read full article >>

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: More Shame of a Nation

More Shame of a Nation

On the heels of the Annie E. Casey report (below) comes another devastating report from the Children's Defense Fund on the State of America's Children. Here's the ~~high~~ lowlights

How America Ranks Among Industrialized Countries in
Investing in and Protecting Children

1st in gross domestic product
1st in number of billionaires
1st in number of persons incarcerated
1st in health expenditures
1st in military technology
1st in defense

NYC Public School Parents: Karen Sprowal talks about class size at last night's PEP and Verizon vote followed by audience yelling "Shame!"

Karen Sprowal talks about class size at last night's PEP and Verizon vote followed by audience yelling "Shame!"

by Leonie Haimson

Karen Sprowal,whose son, Matthew, was kicked out of Harlem Success charter school in Kindergarten, speaks for Class Size Matters about the devastating school budget cuts and the harsh effect on class size at last night's Panel for Educational Policy meeting.

Below this video is another of the audience shouting "Shame" after the Panel vote to approve the $120 million contract with Verizon.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Modern School: Politics and Capitalism Make Kids Stupid

Politics and Capitalism Make Kids Stupid

by Michael Dunn

While pundits, billionaires and politicians continue to scream that the educational sky is falling because of teachers’ selfishness, laziness, poor training and lack of accountability, they simultaneously erode the chances that our students will believe anything they learn at school by bombarding them with pseudoscience and other absurdities.

In one of the latest instances, Gov. Rick Perry, of Texas, has called climate change a hoax, according to theGuardian. This is a man who is considered a serious contender for president, despite the fact that he unabashedly pronounces his stupidity, gullibility and superstition. Then again, he has also suggested that Fed Chair Ben Bernacke could come to great physical harm should he step foot in Texas, a threat that would land most other people in prison, or least earn them a visit from the FBI. So perhaps public displays of stupidity and

Childhood Poverty Hits 20% in California

by Michael Dunn

Today John Fensterwald - Educated Guess published data on poverty rates among California’s youth. While not surprising, considering the state of the economy and the high rates of childhood poverty that already existed prior to the start of the Great Recession, an appalling one in five California children is now living in poverty, an increase of 2% from last year. For African-American and Hispanic kids, the numbers are higher, 29% and 28%, respectively.

As high as these numbers are, the situation could be (and probably will become) much worse, as 34% of children of California children are living in families where no parent has full-time employment. 51% African-American children live in families with no full-time bread-winners. Furthermore, the latest data do not take into account the effects of two straight years of state

solidaridad: Open Letter to DFER's Gloria Romero regarding her recent reactionary letter to the AFT

Open Letter to DFER's Gloria Romero regarding her recent reactionary letter to the AFT

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

I think about former Senator Gloria Romero comparing Compton educators to "batterers" and wondered whether the writers of those words ever stop to think about the consequences of their prose. — Martha Infante

Gloria J. Romero, Queen of California School Privatization, head of reactionary DFER, darling of the CCSA.

Photo by Mark Warner (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Sen. Romero:

Here are some questions I'd like to ask you for an upcoming Schools Matterarticle I'm writing regarding your recent letter to the AFT:

Why did you find the AFT slide show offensive?

Why does the Parent Empowerment Act only contain the punitive portions of NCLB? Why nothing to help existing schools improve? Why nothing that

Hispanic Group, Spread the Word About the Need to Preserve the Colorado River - Hispanically Speaking News

Hispanic Group Looking to Spread the Word About the Need to Preserve the Colorado River

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Published at 5:29 pm, August 18, 2011

Photo Credits: Hispanic Group Looking to Spread the Word About the Need to Preserve the Colorado River

A number of Hispanic leaders from Western states have come together in a group called Nuestro Rio to ensure the preservation of the Colorado River, as it is being threatened by climate change, chronic drought, and the ever-increasing surrounding population.

The Colorado River in the feeder for a number of water sources in 7 western states, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming. It runs into Lake Mead in Nevada, and in the last decade, the lake’s water level has dropped enough that a ring is clearly visible around its walls.

The Gila River, which once flowed into the Colorado River, no longer does due to heavy water

Friday, August 19, 2011