Arne Duncan's Twitter Town Hall: #AskArne - Orwell would be Proud - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Arne Duncan's Twitter Town Hall: Orwell would be Proud - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Arne Duncan's Twitter Town Hall: Orwell would be Proud

by Anthony Cody

George Orwell might well be proud to see how Arne Duncan has risen to the challenge of using language to disguise government actions. Watching the Twitter Town Hall yesterday was an exercise in frustration. Unfortunately, the Department of Education has released only tweets that digest his responses down into little nuggets, so to hear what he really said requires careful listening. I took some time to take down some of what was said in the first five minutes, when interviewer John Merrow focused on No Child Left Behind and the process Duncan is setting up to grant waivers.

Merrow: Why is (NCLB) still the law of the land? It expired in 2007!

It should have been reauthorized a while ago. I desperately hoped Congress would reauthorize and fix it in a bipartisan way.

It is too punitive, too prescriptive, dummied down standards, narrowed the curriculum. Congress

Now is the time for an Integrated Metro-Wide School District | BAMN

Now is the time for an Integrated Metro-Wide School District | BAMN:

Home / Civil Rights / Build an Integrated Metro-Wide School District for Detroit

Nicole Conaway | 31, July 2011 | Civil Rights, Public Education | No Comments

Reflecting on “The Ferndale Document” (The Truth About Segregation in Ferndale Public Schools) and this passage really spoke to me.

” all but the very wealthiest suburban school districts are experiencing financial hardships. Unable to rely on either the state or private contributions to keep their districts afloat, and with few new residents or even a declining population, these districts must turn to Detroit students. The per-pupil funding that Detroiters can bring to the suburban districts puts dollar signs in the eyes of district administrations…

the fact that Detroit students regularly cross district lines and attend suburban schools is an historic breakthrough, in and of itself. From their very inception, the white suburbs have existed for no other reason than to exclude black

Shanker Blog » What Americans Think About Teachers Versus What They're Hearing

Shanker Blog » What Americans Think About Teachers Versus What They're Hearing:

What Americans Think About Teachers Versus What They’re Hearing

by Matthew Di Carlo

The results from the recent Gallup/PDK education survey found that 71 percent of surveyed Americans “have trust and confidence in the men and women who are teaching children in public schools.” Although this finding received a fair amount of media attention, it is not at all surprising. Polls have long indicated that teachers are among the most trusted professions in the U.S., up there with doctors, nurses and firefighters.

(Side note: The teaching profession also ranks among the most prestigious U.S. occupations – in both analyses of survey data as well as in polls [though see here for an argument that occupational prestige scores are obsolete].)

What was rather surprising, on the other hand, was the Gallup/PDK results for the question about what people are hearing about teachers in the news media. Respondents were asked, “Generally speaking, do you hear more good stories or bad stories about teachers in the news media?”

Over two-thirds (68 percent) said they heard more bad stories than good ones. A little over a quarter (28 percent)

OXO Good Cookies - 25% of children diagnosed with cancer will not survive

OXO Good Cookies - Home:

Cookies for Kids' Cancer | OXO

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Support Our Cause

Today, 25% of children diagnosed with cancer will not survive. There is a direct correlation between increasing research dollars and decreasing mortality rates. Progress has been made, but we are not there yet.

This year, OXO will donate up to $100,000 to support research for new and improved therapies. You can help. Bake a difference and join OXO in the movement to find a cure for pediatric cancer.

A Sweet Idea Cookies for Kids' Cancer was founded by two OXOnians (OXO employees) inspired by their 2-year old son's battle with cancer. It provides inspiration, ideas and support for people everywhere to help fight pediatric cancer - through the simple concept of local bake sales.

Baking a Difference Since the beginning, OXOnians have pledged their time and energy by baking cookies and hosting bake sales, with proceeds matched by our parent company. This year, OXO will donate up to $100,000 to support this cause so close to our hearts.

Spread the Word Send virtual cookies to friends, colleagues and loved ones! Share via: Be a Good Cookie Buy a limited edition "Good Cookie" Spatula. Your purchase helps OXO support this worthy cause. Share via:

Is a School Just a “Place”? | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights

Is a School Just a “Place”? | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights:

Is a School Just a “Place”?

by obriena

Last week WAMU ran a segment on charter school closings in Washington, DC, that bothered me. Not because poorly performing (in terms of academics or finances) charter schools were closed (I firmly believe that low-performing charter schools should close), and not only because of the process by which the schools were closed (too late in the year for students to get into either the DCPS lottery for out of neighborhood schools or the lotteries of many other charters, and with little communication with the families of students attending the schools), but because of some of the language used to talk about the situation, specifically the word “placement.”

As the result of three charter schools closing and two eliminating their high school programs, nearly 750 students needed to find new schools. Several have had a great deal of difficulty in doing so. According to reporter Kavitha Cardoza, about 50% of students were without “placements” just ten days before the start of the school year. 64 of the 128 students impacted by the

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Archived Wednesday speeches from Democracy Convention: Ben Manski, Tom Hayden, Paul Soglin, Cheri Honkala |:

Archived Wednesday speeches from Democracy Convention: Ben Manski, Tom Hayden, Paul Soglin, Cheri Honkala

August 25, 2011

By bluecheddar

Thanks to the MacGyver-like skills of Glen Mitroff of WORT-FM, cables laptop and camera were connected and better footage and audio than mine were obtained of last night’s speeches. (It looked touch-and-go there for a minute so I did my own Ustream version anyway)

The event opened with an amazing performance from dancers with the

Think You’re Covered? Think Again. « MomsRising Blog

Think You’re Covered? Think Again. « MomsRising Blog:

HERvotes Blog Carnival On the anniversaries of the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment and the 1963 March on Washington, which are this week, MomsRising joins our colleagues in working to mobilize women voters around preserving women’s Health and Economic Rights (HERrights) ...

Think You’re Covered? Think Again. by Alicia Gay, ACLU Liberty Center If you were faced with the decision of having an abortion, would your health insurance cover it? This is a question that many women have probably never considered. It’s a health care procedure that most people just ...

Lending Programs Give Struggling Small Businesses a Helping Hand Heidi Kallet had to sign away her life, so to speak, to achieve the American Dream. Despite the dismal economy, the Virginia small business owner was ready to open her second stationery store and hire some new staff. Although Heidi’s business was ...

Black Women Speak Up! Tell Congress To Stay Out Of Our Wombs Make no mistake about it: Planned Parenthood is under attack. With not even two months under its belt, the new Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed legislation that would eliminate federal funding, including Medicaid, for the ...

Have You Had Enough? I Know I Have! The passage of health reform brought many wonderful new protections and benefits for Americans. Unfortunately, for women, these protections and benefits came with a price tag. States now have the choice to either allow abortion coverage to be ...

Equal Pay for Moms Now She’d called me into her office, this lady boss of mine, newly charged with running what was then the 6th-largest newspaper in the country. Honestly, I thought I was in trouble—somebody always had a problem with the black girl who insisted on writing ...

Brooklyn Grandmother Takes a Stand *You know Mary Ward* She is in all of our families. She is in every community. She’s that neighborhood matriarch who knows everyone and everything about the community from way back when. Mary Ward has a lot in common with so many mothers and ...

Economic Policy: It’s Personal The economic meltdown battered many Americans, but women and communities of color have long sustained the impact of an imbalanced financial market. Hard working women are deeply familiar with the enormous racial and gender wealth gap in America. ...

Discrimination Against Pregnant Women and New Mothers Is Not a Work-Life Balance Issue Last week, Judge Loretta Preska of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed a class action suit alleging that Bloomberg L.P. discriminated against pregnant women and mothers returning from maternity leave. In her ...

Stop the War on Women: Elect Women The GOP is at it again. After their wins in the 2010 midterm elections, John Boehner and the Tea Party took over the U.S. House on a pledge to repair the economy and jumpstart job growth. But instead of keeping their word, they seized every ...

This Week In Education: Update: Damon, Duncan, & Obama

This Week In Education: Update: Damon, Duncan, & Obama:

Update: Damon, Duncan, & Obama [image: ScreenHunter_09 Aug. 25 09.32] Duncan was desperate to talk to Damon before the SOS event earlier this summer, according to the Washington Post's Valerie Strauss (citing unnamed sources). The USDE doesn't deny extending an invitation. Obama ...

Thompson: A Realistic Reformer Acknowledges Reality [image: The-man_t600]New Schools for New Orleans CSO Neerav Kingsland is on the cutting edge of reformers who are acknowledging the existence of reality. Poverty exists, scaling up new social experiments may or may not be possible, and "the Man" is ...

AM News: Duncan Eases Turnaround Timeline [image: News2] ED offers SIG schools extra time for teacher evaluation systems Politics K-12: The USDE has quietly invited states and schools to apply for some extra time to figure out the trickiest—and, arguably, the most crucial—component of the ...

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » Duncan on testing: twitterdum?

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » Duncan on testing: twitterdum?:

Duncan on testing: twitterdum?

by admin

I had to leave in the middle of the Arne Duncan Twitter Town Hall to do an interview about Rahm’s Trojan Horse (watch it on CBS-2 this evening and read more here) but I did hear our Fed Ed Head talk out of both sides of his mouth (as usual) about testing.

Here’s a brief report from talkradionews.com about Fed Ed Head Duncan’s interchange with host John Merrow on the subject:

While Duncan was adamant that testing is critical to measure reading levels and annual improvements, he did admit that “the law is too punitive” and schools need to be granted “more

Rahm’s Trojan Horse

by admin

I’ll be talking tonight on CBS-2 news about the CPS proposal to lengthen the school day by 90 minutes. My quote in this morning’s Sun-Times was

“Any citizen of Chicago needs to ask how it’s going to be paid for. I don’t see how they can do it without raising class sizes to 45 kids. This is not a real plan. This is a politically motivated plan. It’s a plan to back the teachers union in a corner” and “make the teachers look like the bad guys for bursting the bubble.”

Let’s look at the numbers. According to Catalyst magazine, the CPS Office of Management and Budget

Schools Matter: KIPP Indianapolis: Dropout and Pushout Factory

Schools Matter: KIPP Indianapolis: Dropout and Pushout Factory:

KIPP Indianapolis: Dropout and Pushout Factory

by Jim Horn

Johns Hopkins researcher, Bob Balfanz, defined a "dropout factory" as a school that graduates fewer than 60 percent of its 9th grader four years later. Wonder what Balfanz would call a middle school that loses over 60 percent of its new students in one year! And yet that is exactly what is happening at the KIPP testing chain gangs that are billed as the future schooling model to emulate for urban America.

Swimming pools of ink have been spilled in the corporate media to press the message that the abusive and segregated corporate eugenics camps known as KIPP, Inc. are the answer to schooling the poor and brown of urban America. KIPP's total compliance regimes and psychological sterilization techniques have had influence far beyond the 100 schools that now serve as model lockdowns for other charters and public schools, alike, all trying to keep up the race to indoctrinate, contain, and culturally neuter black and brown children who are regularly abused through screaming, ostracizing, name calling, and public embarrassment, all in the name of

NYC Educator: Walcott's First Draft

NYC Educator: Walcott's First Draft:

Walcott's First Draft

by NYC Educator

It's absurd to suggest that cheating is prevalent in New York City. Here in NY, we take test scores very seriously. In fact, we close schools and dismiss principals based solely on test results. So what possible motivation would anyone in the system have to cheat? We encourage all episodes of cheating to be reported fully, and I've invited anyone who knows of any cheating to contact me personally. What more can people ask?

As for this nonsense about expensive erasure analysis, it's important to note we have limited funds. In these tough times, we need to pick and choose how we spend our money. Since we already know we have

Legal to Send Students to Court Instead of Detention? - School Law - Law and Daily Life

Legal to Send Students to Court Instead of Detention? - School Law - Law and Daily Life:

Legal to Send Students to Court Instead of Detention?

By Stephanie Rabiner on August 24, 2011 8:46 AM | No TrackBacks

It used to be detention and a trip to the principal's office. Maybe suspension. But these days, school ticketing seems to have taken over traditional disciplinary measures in many of the nation's educational institutions, throwing children as young as 5 in front of a judge.

Citations, which can lead to hundreds of dollars in fines and community service, are given for running in the hallway, classroom disruption, and bringing soda to school.

How is this even legal?

And is it even right?

One of the larger proponents of school ticketing is Texas, where the state legislature granted school officers the power to hand out Class C Misdemeanor citations for even the smallest of disciplinary infractions.

Ticketed students must make mandatory appearances in front of a judge, reports theWashington Post, where they are given the option of paying a fine or paying for more