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Tuesday, September 27, 2011

For or Against Children The problematic history of stand for children

For or Against Children:






For or Against Children?

The problematic history of stand for children
SUBSCRIBE ONLINE & SAVECurrent issue pdf just $4.95. Subscribe
CONTENTS
Vol. 26, No.1
COVER STORIES • Still Fighting for All Our Children

Blowin' in the Wind
By the editors ofRethinking Schools
FEATURES
For or Against Children?
The Problematic History of Stand for Children
By Ken Libby and Adam Sanchez
Patterns and Punctuation
Learning to Question Language
By Elizabeth Schlessman
‘Before Today, I Was Afraid of Trees’
Rethinking Nature Deficit Disorder
By Doug Larkin
What Do You Mean When You SayUrban?
Speaking Honestly About Race and Students
By Dyan Watson
It’s OK to Be Neither
Teaching That Supports Gender-Variant Children
By Melissa Bollow Tempel
COLUMNS and DEPARTMENTS
ACTION EDUCATION
SOS March Builds Pushback to Corporate Reform
By Stan Karp
GOOD STUFF
Keywords
By Herb Kohl
Got an idea for an article? Got an idea for a letter? Contact Jody Sokolower, policy and publications editor:
jody@rethinkingschools.org
Fall 2011

Illustration: David McLimans
By Ken Libby and Adam Sanchez
Last October, a friend called with a question: “What do you know about Stand for Children?” The advocacy organization, based in our hometown of Portland, Ore., was expanding into his state of Illinois, and he hoped to glean some insight into the kinds of reforms the group would support. Just two months later, Stand’s Illinois branch had amassed more than $3 million in a political action committee and unveiled an aggressive teacher evaluation bill.
“Have they always been like this?” he asked.
The short answer: no.
Stand for Children was founded in the late 1990s as a way to advocate for the welfare of children. It grew out of a 1996 march by more than 250,000 people in Washington, D.C. The aim of the march was to highlight child poverty at a time when Congress and the Clinton administration were preparing to “end welfare as we know it.” Jonah Edelman, son of children’s and civil rights activist Marian Wright Edelman, co-founded the group and continues to serve as CEO.
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Complete College America

Complete College America:

By the Numbers

TK

How is Your State Doing?

In just ten years, more than 60% of all new jobs will require a college education. Will your state be ready? Good family incomes and the health of state economies depend on more of our young people succeeding in college. See where your state stands currently, and then commit to making college completion a priority.

Current percentage of young adults (ages 25-34) with a college degree:
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Student Test Scores Should Be Used To Rate Teachers In Teams: Study

Student Test Scores Should Be Used To Rate Teachers In Teams: Study:


Joy Resmovits
Joy.resmovits@huffingtonpost.comBecome a fan of this reporter





Student Test Scores Should Be Used To Rate Teachers In Teams: Study


WASHINGTON -- Standardized tests should rank students by percentile and rate teachers in teams, according to a new policy brief by Derek Neal, an economics professor at the University of Chicago.
"I'm very opposed to ever using this [data] to give individual scores for teachers," said Neal, speaking at a Tuesday conference hosted by the Brookings Institution's Hamilton Project.
Educational research like Neal's is appearing as standardized tests have become more important to school funding decisions and play a larger role in the evaluation, hiring and firing of teachers. At least 26 states now mandate teacher reviews that take standardized testing into account. Many education reformers stress the use of data to rate teachers -- but, as Neal noted, these exams are often imperfect. Critics of this development argue that increased focus on tests won't improve student learning if the tests aren’t measuring the right things.
Neal's dissatisfaction with standardized exams derives from their dual use. "You have a test that's being used to measure how the students are
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Parent Revolution: Straight Outta Compton? | Re:education in Baltimore

Parent Revolution: Straight Outta Compton? | Re:education in Baltimore:

Parent Revolution: Straight Outta Compton?

You can buy an N.W.A.-inspired Straight Outta Compton cap today from Zazzle.com. Word.

Two stories of class ventriloquism jumped out at me last week. You probably heard about Mitt Romney’s delusions of middle class brotherhood. Romney, who has a net worth of at least $190 million, called himself one of “us.” (Which was, if you think about it, a nice acknowledgment that you ought to be if you’re going to attempt to represent “us.”)

Then there’s a story of political inauthenticity you may not have heard. It’s about an experiment in Compton, California, with a piece of legislation called the parent trigger. Here’s the story: ‘Parent Trigger’ Law to Reform Schools Faces Challenges.

Here’s some background, organized as a sort of Q & A.

What’s the “parent trigger”?

It’s a California law that “empowers” public school parents to do one of

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Michelle Rhee: first year teacher

Michelle Rhee: first year teacher:

Written by Bill Turque of the Washington Post. Read the entire article here.
“The worst and in many ways definitely the toughest year of my entire life,” she said.

Rhee had poor class management skills, she said, recalling that her class “was very well known in the school because you could hear them traveling anywhere because they were so out of control.” On one particularly rowdy day, she said she decided to place little pieces of masking

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