Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Schools Matter: Tennessee's Milken Plan for Teacher Evaluation Ready to Collapse:Tennessee's Milken Plan for Teacher Evaluation Ready to Collapseby Jim HornWhat does a corporate attorney with hundreds of millions of dirty money do when "banned for life from working in the securities industry?" These days he stops gambling in Wall Street casinos and puts his money on a sure thing: taxpayer dollars.And so goes the story (told by James Stewart) of Lowell Milken, whose more infamous business partner/brother, Michael, took ... more »

School Closures Curtailed, New Borrowing Idea Floated - voiceofsandiego.org: Pounding The Pavement

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 1 hour ago

School Closures Curtailed, New Borrowing Idea Floated - voiceofsandiego.org: Pounding The Pavement:School Closures Curtailed, New Borrowing Idea FloatedComments | 12:41 am Judging from numerous public comments and a smattering of interviews held afterwards, many of the parents and teachers who left Tuesday night's San Diego Unified school board meeting felt not relief, nor joy, at learning their schools would not be closing, but rather disgust and fatigue.After two weeks of angry protests, and after district staff had spent months studying ... more »

St. Louis PD follows the paper trail to investigate for-profit charter schools : BusinessJournalism.org Reynolds Center for Business Journalism

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St. Louis PD follows the paper trail to investigate for-profit charter schools : BusinessJournalism.org Reynolds Center for Business Journalism:St. Louis PD follows the paper trail to investigate for-profit charter schoolsBy Rosland Gammon on Nov 02, 2011 in Best Practices, Featured, Investigation, Rosland GammonElisa Crouch of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch looked into Imagine Schools Inc., the nation's largest charter school operator. This image is from Imagine Schools' website: http://www.imagineschools.com.Elisa Crouch of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch helped me understand why I see ... more »

Experts: Half of Foster Kids Quit High School | EQUAL VOICE

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Experts: Half of Foster Kids Quit High School | EQUAL VOICE:Experts: Half of Foster Kids Quit High SchoolNovember 1, 2011 | Filed under: Education,Midwest,Spotlight,West | Posted by: adminKelli Kennedy | Associated PressSACRAMENTO – When Carey Sommer entered foster care in California, he left his mom, his high school and his friends. Bounced from home to home, he changed high schools nine times until the disheartened teen finally dropped out.“I just started to not really care about high school because I ... more »

Educator not always voucher advocate - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

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Educator not always voucher advocate - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:Educator not always voucher advocateBy Jodi Weigand, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEWWednesday, November 2, 2011School voucher advocate Michelle Rhee says she doesn't buy claims that using tax money to send children to private schools will worsen the experience for students who remain in low-performing schools.Rhee once opposed vouchers but changed her stance she became chancellor of the Washington public school system in 2007."I'm not going to say to these parents, 'Just give me five years to ... more »

Turning to the Courts to Untangle Texas School Finance Mess | The Transformation Times

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Turning to the Courts to Untangle Texas School Finance Mess | The Transformation Times:Turning to the Courts to Untangle Texas School Finance Messby HMooreWhy Am I Here?Last week, the HISD joined a lawsuit against the State of Texas following the largest funding cuts to public education in the history of Texas. It’s the second time in ten years such a lawsuit has been filed: the last time, school districts prevailed when the Texas Supreme Court declared the school finance system ... more »

OCCUPY EDUCATION

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 1 hour ago

OCCUPY EDUCATION:I occupy education by cautioning parents about the dangers of a...I occupy education by cautioning parents about the dangers of a standardized, data, not passion, driven agenda in our schools.I do this by speaking and writing about ways to fix schools, not children as well as providing information about To whom it may concern,I, April Parent, have learned french as a...To whom it may concern,I, April Parent, have learned french as a second language, not in elementary nor secondary ... more »

An Unintended Consequence of Policy: Low-Quality Elementary Science Education | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights

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An Unintended Consequence of Policy: Low-Quality Elementary Science Education | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights:An Unintended Consequence of Policy: Low-Quality Elementary Science Educationby obrienaAccording to a recent report on science education in California, more than half of elementary school principals do NOT believe it is likely that a student receives high-quality science instruction at his or her school.If anything, I would expect principals to be optimistic about the strength of their schools, so this finding really drives ... more »

This Week In Education: Teaching: Resorting To Heavy-Handed Screening

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This Week In Education: Teaching: Resorting To Heavy-Handed Screening:Teaching: Resorting To Heavy-Handed Screeningby Alexander RussoNewark isn't the only place where things aren't going particularly smoothly these days. Come to think of it, most big city districts seem full of divisions and disputes. One of several challenges the teachers union in Chicago has made against Board of Education initiatives includes an attempt to block further use of an online survey called TeacherFit (Union files complaint over 'TeacherFit' survey Tribune, Union challenge ... more »

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Oakland's general strike -- Today's teachable moment

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Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Oakland's general strike -- Today's teachable moment:Oakland's general strike -- Today's teachable momentby Mike Klonsky"We as fellow occupiers of Oscar Grant Plaza propose that on Wednesday November 2, 2011, we liberate Oakland and shut down the 1%." -- Occupy Oakland General Assembly votes to shut it down.Teachers and students are playing a central role in today's general strike. Teachers are participating in teach-ins across the city and thousands of students are planning to take part in ... more »

Ravitch: A place where public education is working - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

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Ravitch: A place where public education is working - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:Ravitch: A place where public education is workingBy Valerie StraussThis was written by education historian Diane Ravitch for her Bridging Differences blog, which she co-authors with Deborah Meier on the Education Week website. Ravitch and Meier exchange letters about what matters most in education. Ravitch, a research professor at New York University, is the author of the bestselling “The Death and Life of the Great ... more »

Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Report from Fall CUE 2011

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Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Report from Fall CUE 2011:Report from Fall CUE 2011by alicemercerAndroid TabletsI can always count on Rushton Hurley to have a great presentation, this time he did not disappoint. It was a small workshop, but a nice mix of folks familiar with Android, folks who knew iOS, and a bunch who had experience with both. Everyone was excited by the possibilities, and we quickly dug into apps (which you can get to from the ... more »

Pre-results post-mortem | EdNewsColorado

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Pre-results post-mortem | EdNewsColorado:Pre-results post-mortemby Alexander OomsAlexander Ooms is a member of the board of the Charter School Institute, the West Denver Preparatory Charter School and the Colorado chapter of Stand for ChildrenAlan has asked bloggers for their thoughts on the election as part of a post-mortem. I find this rearview mirror perspective usually boringly obvious, as it’s far easier to ascribe cause once one knows the effect. So I’m sending in my quick thoughts in advance of the election ... more »

The Occupations Report: 11/01 | Occupy Together #ows

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The Occupations Report: 11/01 | Occupy Together:The Occupations Report: 11/01by EllaWe’ve recently seen this report posted and shared through social media, but we thought it might be helpful to have another place on the web it can be published and accessed daily. We’ll be posting the archives of this report soon. This Occupation Report is compiled by Rebuild the Dream. This report includes updates from Occupy sites and related efforts across the country and the globe. It includes big wins, ... more »

Boston's "Golden Era" 1995-2005 | The Forum for Education and Democracy

Boston's "Golden Era" 1995-2005 | The Forum for Education and Democracy:

Boston's "Golden Era" 1995-2005

November 2, 2011 - Larry Myatt

In the context of big-city school systems, beset as they are by the challenges of budget, leadership stability, struggling families, political in-fighting, union-management disaccord and the legacy of racism and poverty, Boston experienced what one might call a decade of unique opportunity and favorable circumstances. From 1995-2005 the city was home to a ground-breaking union contract, the schools had the support and attention of a new, “Education Mayor”, and perhaps most importantly, enjoyed a virtually unprecedented sense of continuity with the tenure of Thomas Payzant, a highly-respected superintendent and former Assistant Secretary of Education. A new School Committed, appointed by the Mayor, was anxious to bring the city’s policies in line with a recently-passed state Education Reform Act and to help counter any potential impact from the new Charter

Knowing Names

November 2, 2011 - Ayla Gavins

"Hello, I was wondering how my son is doing at school today. He had a really rough morning before leaving the house." A parent called to inquire about her child on the second day of school. I responded with "Let me take a peek in his classroom. Hold on." She didn’t tell me her child’s name, but I knew it and where to find him. What I love about Mission Hill School is that I know everyone's name. That was written by one of our teachers in a recent newsletter column. That’s something I love too about our school community.

It’s always been part of our school culture to know each other well. It’s important to recognize that knowing one another does not happen by chance. There is intention be

Sustainability Education Summit Report Released | ED.gov Blog

Sustainability Education Summit Report Released | ED.gov Blog:

Sustainability Education Summit Report Released

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Guest Blogger

According to Secretary Duncan, preparing students to be good environmental citizens “is some of the most important work that any of us can do. It’s for our children, it’s for our children’s children, and it’s for generations to come.” Duncan gave the keynote address at ED’s “Sustainability Education Summit: Citizenship and Pathways for a Green Economy,” held in September 2010. Today we are pleased to release the proceedings report from this summit. The report provides an overview of Summit activities and recommends ways to advance sustainability education throughout the country.

The report also summarizes Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter’s opening remarks and includes industry, academic and government representatives comments from the summit’s four panel sessions. The report concludes with a set of recommendations from the summit, including the suggestion for ED’s Green Ribbon Schools Program that was announced earlier this year. This program will recognize K-12 schools that save energy, reduce costs, feature environmentally sustainable learning spaces, protect health, foster wellness, and offer environmental education to boost academic achievement and community engagement.

To view the entire proceedings report please click here.

Brad Haas is a Management/Program Analyst in the Office of Postsecondary Education

Occupy Wall Street…NOW!!! « Bill Ayers #ows

Occupy Wall Street…NOW!!! « Bill Ayers:

Occupy Wall Street…NOW!!!

by billayers

Iraq war veterans, who had earlier marched along the sidewalks of Lower Manhattan to Zuccotti Park, have been addressing crowds at the Occupy Wall Street camp. Ryan Devereaux writes:

Gathered at the east end of the park a young man in an Iraq Veterans Against the War t-shirt and fatigues kicked off a press conference for the demonstrators occupying the plaza.

“My name is Joesph Carter,” he said through the human mic, “I am a two-time Iraq war veteran and this is the only occupation that I believe in.

“For too long our voices have been silenced, suppressed and ignored in favour of the voices of Wall Street and

Schools Matter: Hundreds of Oakland Teachers Support General Strike in Oakland Today #OWS

Schools Matter: Hundreds of Oakland Teachers Support General Strike in Oakland Today:

Hundreds of Oakland Teachers Support General Strike in Oakland Today

by Jim Horn

Teachers are joining the rest of the 99%ers who are demanding a return to democracy in the U. S. From the AP:

The Associated Press
Posted: 11/02/2011 11:31:21 AM PDT
Updated: 11/02/2011 11:31:23 AM PDT

OAKLAND, Calif.—Oakland school officials say about 360 teachers didn't show up for work, as thousands of people joined anti-Wall Street protests throughout the city.

Oakland Unified School District spokesman Troy Flint says roughly 18 percent of the district's 2,000 teachers were absent, as compared to the 1-percent rate on a typical Wednesday.

Several teachers' unions have expressed support for the Occupy Oakland movement, which made

School Tech Connect: This Is How You Run For Pension Board

School Tech Connect: This Is How You Run For Pension Board:

This Is How You Run For Pension Board

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim)

Here's Ray Wohl, running for the board of the Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund --- the election is Friday. Ray's a solid guy-- I'd vote for him for anything. I'm posting this here because he's telling it like it is--- we need more candidates like this, and not just for pension boards. All of those people who run for RA's and House of Delegates meetings should be held to this kind of standard.

Listen to Ray. Frankly, I don't blame Rahm and the 1% for trying to grab the pension boards. Guys like Ray aren't going to be bowled over, and if I were a plutocrat, I'd want them out of the way. It's just sickening that Toni

Protesting parent: Stark resource gap divides my kids’ schools | GothamSchools

Protesting parent: Stark resource gap divides my kids’ schools | GothamSchools:

Protesting parent: Stark resource gap divides my kids’ schools

by Philissa Cramer

For Natoshia Wheeler, the argument that schools do better when they have more resources is proven every night in her living room.

Wheeler has three children in Brownsville schools. Her youngest and oldest attend two low-performing schools that share a building, the General D. Chappie James Elementary and Middle School of Science, where she is PTA president. Her middle daughter attends I.S. 392, a selective middle school located just six blocks away.

Recently Wheeler’s middle daughter brought home a new laptop that her school provided, equipped with a tools for free online tutoring. The tools allowed her to complete complicated projects, such as building a model island with different biomes on it, that enthralled her siblings.

But at the Chappie schools, Wheeler said after-school programs have been cut, the art teacher was let go, and

School Tech Connect: From the Vault: Jonathan Kozol

School Tech Connect: From the Vault: Jonathan Kozol:

From the Vault: Jonathan Kozol

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim)

Popout

It's more of a soundtrack with pictures than a video--- but his speech was so great that day, I just started thinking about it again this morning. Prior to Diane Ravitch's Death and Life of the Great American School System, Kozol's Letters to a Young Teacher was the finest book on public education that I'd read in years. At

Save Seattle Schools Community Blog: Next Week, We'll Know

Save Seattle Schools Community Blog: Next Week, We'll Know:

Next Week, We'll Know

by Melissa Westbrook

By this time next week, we'll know the outcomes of the election. I'm sure all the candidates are tired - it's quite a long haul of campaigning. When the vote totals come up for City Council races versus Board races, check them out. The vote total drops considerably. Even though the Board is responsible to help make sure Seattle's children get educated and it's a considerable amount of public dollars, many citizens just don't make that vote. It's quite an interesting thing that for School Board elections because every vote really counts.

I can sense this desperation in the latest in Seattle Times' editorial board writer Lynne Varner's long, long series of editorials propping up the incumbents. Honestly, at this point, there's no other way to look at these things. And, in this one, she throws in everything but the kitchen sink.

She mentions an editorial cartoon from the Manhas era (I remember it) and references it as a reason to have "seasoned elected officials." Well, there were seasoned elected officials during the Manhas era. In fact, that Board is bookended by two Boards that both had financial scandals and exited superintendents and yet that's her example of a bad Board.

She does a funny thing - she tells people to check out websites. She says to check out any school's

CHRONICALLY TRUANT STUDENTS AND TESTS « Teachers Fight Back

CHRONICALLY TRUANT STUDENTS AND TESTS « Teachers Fight Back:

CHRONICALLY TRUANT STUDENTS AND TESTS

by alkleen

Recent headlines involving truancy:

“In Chicago Public Schools, 30,000 students, roughly 7.4 percent of the district’s population, were classified as chronically truant”.

“At least 20 percent of the student body in 33 CPS schools was marked chronically truant last year.”

“Across Illinois, the number of chronic truants has jumped nearly 60 percent since 2002.”

These students are probably among the ones that were not taking the Illinois Achievement Tests up until this year, when a “loophole” in the testing rules was closed. It is blatantly unfair to throw these students’ test scores in with all the others to determine a school or a district’s average. How in the world can these students possibly pass ANY test, much less the YEARLY achievement scores?

Illinois has spent $175 million over the last decade on the truancy problem. With all the recent budget cuts, the amount of spending on the truancy problem has dropped dramatically. I’m not sure any amount of money can

Teacher evaluation systems getting nutty - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Teacher evaluation systems getting nutty - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

Teacher evaluation systems getting nutty

by Valerie Strauss

How’s this for nutty? A teacher who has a chance encounter with a parent at a grocery store and chats about school can earn credit toward a financial bonus.

That is the way it is in the Challis School District in Idaho, a state where nearly 30 school systems have adopted teacher evaluation systems that include as one measure how well teachers get parents involved in their child’s education.

Read full article >>

Ravitch: A place where public education is working

by Valerie Strauss

This was written by education historian Diane Ravitch for her Bridging Differences blog, which she co-authors with Deborah Meier on the Education Week website. Ravitch and Meier exchange letters about what matters most in education. Ravitch, a research professor at New York University, is the author of the bestselling “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” an important critique of the flaws in the modern school reform movement that she just updated.

Read full article >>

Schools Matter: Tennessee's Milken Plan for Teacher Evaluation Ready to Collapse

Schools Matter: Tennessee's Milken Plan for Teacher Evaluation Ready to Collapse:

Tennessee's Milken Plan for Teacher Evaluation Ready to Collapse

by Jim Horn

What does a corporate attorney with hundreds of millions of dirty money do when "banned for life from working in the securities industry?" These days he stops gambling in Wall Street casinos and puts his money on a sure thing: taxpayer dollars.

And so goes the story (told by James Stewart) of Lowell Milken, whose more infamous business partner/brother, Michael, took the fall for the family, pleaded guilty to 6 felony counts, and was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

With philanthro-dollars spread as thin and wide as a roll of veneer for WalMart coffee tables, the Milkens have easily bought their way back to "respectability" in an era when CEOs who did what the Milken boys did in the 80s and 90s are now routinely shuttled to

School Closures Curtailed, New Borrowing Idea Floated - voiceofsandiego.org: Pounding The Pavement

School Closures Curtailed, New Borrowing Idea Floated - voiceofsandiego.org: Pounding The Pavement:

School Closures Curtailed, New Borrowing Idea FloatedComments | 12:41 am

Judging from numerous public comments and a smattering of interviews held afterwards, many of the parents and teachers who left Tuesday night's San Diego Unified school board meeting felt not relief, nor joy, at learning their schools would not be closing, but rather disgust and fatigue.

After two weeks of angry protests, and after district staff had spent months studying — at the board's direction — which schools to close, the trustees voted Tuesday to scrap a plan that would never have existed had they not come up with it in the first place.

"This has caused two weeks of good, lost instruction at our school, because everyone has been worried and stressed out," said E. Jay Derwae, principal of Marvin Elementary, one of the schools initially slated for closure. "It's unnecessary, totally totally unnecessary to have put any child through that. And it does filter down to them, and that's the saddest part."

Read the rest of this article

Fact Check: Bodyguards for the Schools OverseerComments | 5:53 pm

Image: MOSTLY TRUE Statement: "In Oakland, the trustee had two bodyguards following him around," school board member Scott Barnett during an Oct. 31 press conference announcing his financial recovery plan.

Determination: Mostly True

Analysis: Barnett this week unveiled a plan he said would save San Diego Unified from insolvency. Barnett wants to cancel scheduled employee pay raises, cut pay by another 10 percent across the district and put a tax increase on the November 2012 budget.

Read the rest of this article

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Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top Mid Day Posts #ows

Boston's "Golden Era" 1995-2005

Knowing Names

Sustainability Education Summit Report Released