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Thursday, September 8, 2011

Big Education Ape: 9-8-11 AM $500 Million for Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge EDition

Big Education Ape: Ed News Now:

Published by Coopmike48 – 6 news spotters today

Supersized Buyouts for School Chiefs Scrutinized

edweek.org - Published Online: September 7, 2011Arlene Ackerman’s $905,000 settlement with the Philadelphia district grabbed headlines, but she isn’t the only Pennsylvania superintendent who has been shown the ...

DianeRavitch

Okla. reviews contracts after test score errors

chron.com - OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Errors reported with school test scores are the latest example of trouble Oklahoma has had with making sure its examinations of students are accurate and reliable.Pearson Educa...

DianeRavitch

New York City Ronin Teacher

huffingtonpost.com - About six weeks ago I received a letter informing me that I was now a member of the Absent Teacher Reserve pool of the New York City Department of Education. That meant that because my school was b...

DianeRavitch

Education Resources People's Choice Awards: Vote Now!

education-portal.com - Getting a degree is no easy task. That's why Education-Portal.com is honoring the Best Education Resources for Students. Learn about the nominees and vote for your favorite! Voting ends October 21s...

DianeRavitch

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coopmike48 Read Damn Good Education Daily on http://t.co/gpb4k5P #EDREFORM· reply · retweet · favorite

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coopmike48 NJ Spotlight | School Improvement Program Needs What Money Can't Buy -- Time - http://t.co/sMNT4sR3 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

EducationSee all

Values, Attitudes and Capacities for Democratic Citizenship

liberationacademy.blogspot.com - As we prepare to begin our first school year at New Orleans Liberation Academy we wonder what this journey will bring. We are also spending time reflecting a lot on what it means to learn and grow ...

mikeklonsky

'Not a point-counterpoint' – SchoolBook

nytimes.com - Sept. 7, 2011, 7:23 p.m. It is one of many annual back-to-school rituals: an interview with the chancellor about his priorities for the coming year. Fernanda Santos and Anna M. Phillips sat down wi...

leoniehaimson

SocietySee all

Chicago Shopping

chicagotribune.com - Mundelein High School students obliged when U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh encouraged them to ask him questions during a visit to their Advanced Placement government class Tuesday.Why, Emily Colon asked, did ...

fklonsky

Modern School: Students Face Up To 2 Years For Heckling

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Modern School: Students Face Up To 2 Years For Heckling:Students Face Up To 2 Years For Hecklingby Michael DunnThe Irvine 11 trial began this week in Southern California (for background, see here, ...

coopmike48

PoliticsSee all

Romney unveils his jobs plan with a dig at Obama

articles.cnn.com - He promised to bring the corporate tax rate down from the current level of 35% to 25%, in line with much of the rest of the world, saying, "I will do that on day one." He also pledged to immediatel...

mikeklonsky

StoriesSee all

Let’s End the Social Media Debate!

edupln.com - As an educational blogger I would love to think, that once I reflected on an issue in education, and addressed it in my blog, everyone would clearly understand the error of their ways and fall in l...

coopmike48

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Dispatches from the Creation Wars

scienceblogs.com - Here's a list of companies, released by Sen. Bernie Sanders, who made extraordinary profits over the last few years -- some of them after receiving billions, even hundreds of billions, in governmen...

mikeklonsky

FHFA Lawsuits: Price Tag Could Reach as High as $60 Billion

news.firedoglake.com - It’s been very hard to determine how much the FHFA is seeking in their lawsuit against leading banks in the mortgage bond scandal. We knew the total value of the mortgage backed securities in the s...

coopmike48

#eduRead this paperSee all

Modern School: Students Face Up To 2 Years For Heckling

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Modern School: Students Face Up To 2 Years For Heckling:Students Face Up To 2 Years For Hecklingby Michael DunnThe Irvine 11 trial began this week in Southern California (for background, see here, ...

coopmike48

Face to Face: Real Accountability « InterACT

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Face to Face: Real Accountability « InterACT:Face to Face: Real Accountabilityby David B. CohenIn my last post, I was considering how ineffective it is to rely on numbers, scores, policies, sanctio...

coopmike48

The Whole Child Blog « Whole Child Education

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - The Whole Child Blog « Whole Child Education:THE WHOLE CHILD BLOGThroughout September: Parent and Family EngagementSeptember 7th, 2011 by Klea ScharbergLearning does not begin or end in school. In ...

coopmike48

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Democurmudgeon: New Walking Curriculum in Elementary School brings Prison Camp Discipline to Fond Du Lac.

Democurmudgeon: New Walking Curriculum in Elementary School brings Prison Camp Discipline to Fond Du Lac.:

New Walking Curriculum in Elementary School brings Prison Camp Discipline to Fond Du Lac.

by Democurmudgeon

It’s hard to know why or how something so outlandish as the "walking regimen" could have happened in the U.S.. At a time when school boards and principals have taken away teacher control with their dreaded new “handbooks,” is it just a coincidence that the North Korean marching torture has suddenly become a solution to playground mischief?

As a parent of an elementary student, I would have seriously gone berserk confronting the dictatorial principal who came up with her “walking regimen.”
Some parents aren’t pleased with the start of the new school year at Waters Elementary School. A new walking regimen has raised the ire of several moms and dads who liken the mandatory 10-
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Modern School: Poor Mom Gets Drug Testing For Sending Kid To Affluent School

Modern School: Poor Mom Gets Drug Testing For Sending Kid To Affluent School:

Poor Mom Gets Drug Testing For Sending Kid To Affluent School

by Michael Dunn

Ohio governor John Kasich has reduced the charges against Kelly Williams-Bolar, of Akron, who had been jailed for using her father's address to enroll her children in a neighboring school district (See Black Mom Jailed For Sending Kids to White School).

Williams-Bolar had served 9 days in jail and risked being denied a teaching credential, for which she had been studying at the time of the conviction. Kasich reduced the convictions to two misdemeanors, saying the original penalty was excessive, in spite of a unanimous parole board ruling against leniency (from the Cleveland Plain Dealer).

Williams-Bolar’s attorney is hailing the move has a victory, suggesting that it will allow her to

We Want Jobs! (Regardless of Pay and Safety)

by Michael Dunn

As Obama gets ready to give his jobs speech, unemployment remains stagnant at 9.1% officially, according to Democracy Now, with unemployment for African Americans having jumped 1% over the last year to 18%. The rate for African American teens, however, leaped a staggering 7.3% to 46.5%. Meanwhile, the White House budget office is saying that unemployment will not drop below 6% until 2017 (if even then), which should be no surprise at all when it is cutting spending and investing almost nowhere except in warfare.

Obama has been channeling FDR in a desperate attempt to save his presidency: "We’ve got roads and bridges across this country that need rebuilding.” In other words, there is plenty to invest in the petroleum-automotive industrial complex, perpetuation of oil dependency and the
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LAUSD, UTLA, & California Education Code Section 44939 - How to Get Rid of "Bad Teachers" - Perdaily.com

LAUSD, UTLA, & California Education Code Section 44939 - How to Get Rid of "Bad Teachers" (LAUSD, UTLA, y Código de Educación Sección 44939 - ¿Cómo deshacerse de los "malos maestros") - Perdaily.com:

LAUSD, UTLA, & California Education Code Section 44939 - How to Get Rid of "Bad Teachers" (LAUSD, UTLA, y Código de Educación Sección 44939 - ¿Cómo deshacerse de los "malos maestros")

by Leonard Isenberg
Scam Alert.jpeg
(Mensaje se repite en Español)

(For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post)

If you were a school district like the Los Angeles Unified School District that had a $408 million budget shortfall for the academic year 2011-2012 and $15 billion in unfunded and already vested lifetime medical benefits, what would you do?

Here's a little gambit that would make Bernie Madoff or John Gotti proud. The scintillating intellects at LAUSD and their new Superintendent John Deasy straight from the Gates Foundation with his mandate to privatize public education, tells his underlings to target teachers with the following characteristics:

1. Older and higher salaried teachers teachers at the top of the salary scale, since the District can hire two
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School Reform: A Failing Grade by Diane Ravitch | Seattle Education

School Reform: A Failing Grade by Diane Ravitch | Seattle Education:

School Reform: A Failing Grade by Diane Ravitch

by seattleducation2011

Dr. Diane Ravitch

Diane Ravitch, who was the Assistant Secretary of Education during the Bush Administration, the administration that developed the atrocity called No Child Left Behind, made a heroic and very public u-turn when she realized that the policy that she helped configure was not the answer to the opportunity/achievement gap that was apparent at that time. The ed reform movement, titled Race to the Top, that now flourishes thanks to billionaires

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Schools Matter: A match made in privatization purgatory? Capricious Young and A.J. Duffy!

Schools Matter: A match made in privatization purgatory? Capricious Young and A.J. Duffy!:

School libraries with adequate book budgets that are staffed by teacher-librarians are no longer the norm in Oregon Libraries and literacy: Public, school libraries hook new readers for life Published: Tuesday, September 06, 2011, in the Oregonian By Jim Scheppke The Oregonian has done a good job of calling our attention to the fact that thousands of members ...

Naked Hypocrisy of Ed Reform is Shocking David Sirota at Salon.com highlights another example of the blatant hypocrisy characteristic of education reform in the United States as billions of dollars are being spent on more useless, questionable technology in and out of the classroom with no ...

A match made in privatization purgatory? Capricious Young and A.J. Duffy! *"Improving education is not the goal. Privatization is the goal... Private interests are just that – private." — Bruce A. Dixon (Managing Editor, "Black Agenda Report")* [image: Caprice "Capricious" Young, Privatization Princess, CORO Fellow, CCSA ...
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Its Time for the Media Mouthpieces of Democrats for Education Reform to Come Out of the Closet | Scathing Purple Musings

Its Time for the Media Mouthpieces of Democrats for Education Reform to Come Out of the Closet | Scathing Purple Musings:

Its Time for the Media Mouthpieces of Democrats for Education Reform to Come Out of the Closet

by Bob Sikes

In her blog space at Education Week, Democrats for Education Reform board member Sara Mead, took the opportunity to respond to a Dana Goldstein piece critical of charter-public co-location schools. It was the second such response in two days from a Democrat for Education Reform leader in two days. Tom Vander Arkresponded earlier this week to a similarly cautious tail in the New York Times about sketchy test outcomes from technology based schools.

So what of this Democrats for Education Reform. A frequent target of their penned ire is education historian, Diane Ravitch, who traces the groups origin to “billionaire equity investors and hedge fund managers,” Whitney Tillson, , Ravenel Boykin Curry IV, John Petry, and Joel Greenblatt. Writes Ravitch:

In 2005, the financiers formed an organization called Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) to

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Vallas vs. Ackerman « City School Stories

Vallas vs. Ackerman « City School Stories:

Vallas vs. Ackerman

by fmurphy

You’ve Got to be Kidding

Submitted by Frank Murphy on September 8, 2011

On September 6, 2011, Kristen Graham, education reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, posted an e-mail that she received from Paul Vallas on her blog at Philly School Files. His email was an attempt to set the record straight regarding his accomplishments during his time as the chief executive officer of the Philadelphia School District.

Through this communication, Vallas was responding to the accusation that the city’s schools were in terrible shape when Arlene Ackerman succeeded him as the District’s leader. You can read Paul Vallas’ email here.

This negative claim against Vallas was made in a video tribute to Arlene Ackerman. In the video,
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Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Modern School: Students Face Up To 2 Years For Heckling

Modern School: Students Face Up To 2 Years For Heckling:

Students Face Up To 2 Years For Heckling

by Michael Dunn

The Irvine 11 trial began this week in Southern California (for background, see here, here and here). The Irvine 11, Muslim students from the University of California Irvine and Riverside, face up to two years in prison (according to the Electronic Intifada), for heckling the ambassador from Israel, Michael Oren, when he spoke at UC Irvine last year. Interestingly, both the prosecution and defense are arguing free speech.

The prosecution is arguing that the protestors prevented Oren from exercising his free speech rights, while the defense is arguing that they the defendants were exercising their free speech rights by heckling him. The
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Face to Face: Real Accountability « InterACT

Face to Face: Real Accountability « InterACT:

Face to Face: Real Accountability

by David B. Cohen

In my last post, I was considering how ineffective it is to rely on numbers, scores, policies, sanctions, or rewards to bring about the results we want in education. At my most optimistic, I believe that education stakeholders all want the same things – though some people have a hard time articulating what they want without relying on test scores as a proxy for achievement or learning. Still, for the sake of argument, let’s leave motives out of this discussion.

hoops

photo by the author

For many politicians and outside experts, it’s axiomatic that high standards and accountability will improve public education. They can always come up with more hoops for teachers and schools to jump through. Still,

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The Whole Child Blog « Whole Child Education

The Whole Child Blog « Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

Throughout September: Parent and Family Engagement

September 7th, 2011 by

Learning does not begin or end in school. In fact, the learning and development that does—or does not—happen outside of school is often as much or more important than formal learning. Families are a central source of children’s learning and development and their influence cannot be ignored. Engaging with families can inform, complement, reinforce, and accelerate educators’ efforts to educate the whole child. Without strategic and continuous connections between families and educators, we cannot ensure that students are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.

Join us throughout September as we examine research that overwhelmingly reinforces the need for family

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CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION SLAPPED IN THE FACE « Teachers Fight Back

CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION SLAPPED IN THE FACE « Teachers Fight Back:

CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION SLAPPED IN THE FACE

by alkleen

Teachers at three elementary schools in Chicago accepted a roughly 2% raise in exchange for agreeing to a longer school day. The mayor and the school superintendent apparently went behind the union’s back and worked out the deal with the three schools. The teachers at those three schools will work an additional ninety minutes. The faculty vote at those three schools was not unanimous in accepting the deal.

This was done despite the union and the school district being in the middle of talks about the 4% raise that was guaranteed in the contract but rescinded by the board. The union officials were said to be outraged by what happened at the three schools.

What happened is basically an attempt by the superintendent and the mayor to subvert the union and pressur
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Lawsuits target charters in Brooklyn

Lawsuits target charters in Brooklyn:

Lawsuits target charters in Brooklyn

BY MARK MORALES
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Wednesday, September 7th 2011, 7:54 PM

RELATED NEWS

A last ditch effort to stop a charter school from squeezing into the same building as two other Coney Island schools is going before a judge next week.

A lawsuit filed by parents at Intermediate School 303 is the last chance they have to keep Coney Island Preparatory Public Charter School out of the building on West Ave.

"This (building) has two schools in it already," said Chris Owens, executive director of Advocates for Justice. "That's a very big deal"

The suit is one of two co-location cases that are on the court calendar for next Thursday. Parents for Parkside Preparatory Academy are also trying to keep Explore



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2011/09/06/2011-09-06_lawsuits_target_charters.html#ixzz1XJhfSRoF
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Introducing SchoolBook - NYTimes.com

Introducing SchoolBook - NYTimes.com:

September 7, 2011, 6:22 PM

Introducing SchoolBook

By JACQUES STEINBERG

This week, a collection of my Times colleagues, in association with the New York City public radio station WNYC, have launched a new Web site calledSchoolBook.

What is SchoolBook?

As the introductory message from its editor, Mary Ann Giordano, makes clear, the site aspires to provide “news, data and conversation” for — and by — a broad audience of New York City parents, teachers, principals, policy makers and researchers. “SchoolBook,” she adds, “is above all a navigational tool, a compass of sorts — not to tell you where to go, or what to do, but to provide resources.”

And it’s free. “All you have to do,” Ms. Giordano writes, “is log in through Facebook to participate.”

Those readers of The Choice living in New York City — and even outside it — may find the site worth a look. And if, as my colleagues build the site, you’ve got some suggestions about what they might include going forward, you can e-mail them at schoolbook@nytimes.com.
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All Education Matters: Don't you love this headline?!? - "Are college loans the new mortgages?"

All Education Matters: Don't you love this headline?!? - "Are college loans the new mortgages?":

Don't you love this headline?!? - "Are college loans the new mortgages?"

by C. Cryn Johannsen
Uh, yeah, college loans are the new mortgages. What's the difference? Oh, gee, just a couple of things, like . . . You can't get rid of them in bankruptcy! You can't live in them or in your diploma (last time I checked)! The degree they pay for has no "market value." Need I say more?

Soooooooo, please explain to me how college loans are the NEW f%$*!!ing mortgages?!? The newsman said that student loans "have become a defacto mortgage that could take decades to pay off." Uh, decades, dude?!? Do your research, honeypie. Hundreds of thousands of us will never pay off our debt. That's a good thing for the housing market and the economy in general, right?!? But who cares? We're not elites, and as David Sirota recently wrote those are apparently the only people who matter in the U.S., at least when it comes to the powerful in D.C.

This particular clip features a young woman who went to Drexel and graduated from a 3-year program in fashion
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