Thursday, January 26, 2012
Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top 1-26 Early Evening Posts #ows #edreform
SACRAMENTO PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE: Demonstrators Protest Rhee and Corporate Agenda for Schools
Demonstrators Protest Rhee and Corporate Agenda for Schools
NYC Public School Parents: Concerns with the MRDC study on small schools released today
Concerns with the MRDC study on small schools released today
MDRC’s findings about SSCs are relevant to current federal policy on high school reform, particularly the U. S. Department of Education’s School Improvement Grants (SIGs) for failing schools. Reforms funded by SIGs include school transformation, school restart, school closing, and school turnaround. SSCs straddle several of these categories since they are typically replacements for schools that have closed and they operate as regular public schools.
No-Day Lobby Day. « Fred Klonsky
No-Day Lobby Day.
I don’t know why the leaders of the IEA decided not to mobilize teachers for Lobby Day in Springfield this year.
I know that their stated reason, that the Capitol building is under renovation, doesn’t make any sense. We have met with Park Ridge State Senator Dan Kotowski in his Capitol building office, in his office when it was in some
The Evolution of Bill Gates, Education Philanthropist - Dana Goldstein
The Evolution of Bill Gates, Education Philanthropist
One thing I admire about Bill Gates is that he isn't afraid to update his thinking when presented with new information. I've written in the past about Gates' annual letter on his philanthropic activities, which always includes a section on the nearly $400 million his foundation spends each year on American education reform. In these letters, Gates has been careful to praise teachers while simultaneously advocating for more rigorous, often data-based evaluation in order to weed out low performers. In his 2010 letter, for example, Gates controversially called student testing the model for teacher evaluation, noting: "It is amazing how little feedback teachers get to help them improve, especially when you think about how much feedback their students get. Students regularly have their skills measured with tests. The results show how they compare to other students."
The new 2012 letter, however, marks a significant shift in Gates' thinking, and shows he has learned a lot from more open dialogue with classroom teachers. The letter argues strongly in favor of teacher peer review, a more
Beneath the Veil of Inadequate Cost Analyses: What do Roland Fryer’s School Reform Studies Really Tell Us? (if anything) « School Finance 101
Beneath the Veil of Inadequate Cost Analyses: What do Roland Fryer’s School Reform Studies Really Tell Us? (if anything)
Here’s a short section from one of my papers currently in progress (part of the summary of existing literature on alternative models/strategies, and marginal expenditures).
A series of studies from Roland Fryer and colleagues have explored the effectiveness of specific charter school models and strategies, including Harlem Childrens’ Zone (Dobbie & Fryer, 2009), “no excuses” charter schools in New York City (Dobbie & Fryer, 2011), schools within the Houston public school district (Apollo 20) mimicking no excuses charter strategies (Fryer, 2011, Fryer, 2012), and an intensive urban residential schooling model in Baltimore, MD (Curto & Fryer, 2011). In each case, the models in question involve resource intensive strategies, including substantially lengthening school days and years, providing small group (2 or 3 on 1) intensive tutoring, providing extensive community based wrap around services (Harlem Childrens’ Zone) or providing student
Major Changes to School Meals - Year 2012 (CA Dept of Education)
State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Applauds
New Nutrition Standards for School Lunches
SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today congratulated First Lady Michelle Obama and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for making fresh fruits and vegetables the focus of the first major changes (Outside Source) to school meals in more than 15 years.
"These new standards will help put more fresh fruits and vegetables in school lunches, which means healthier children in our classrooms," Torlakson said. "Our Team California for Healthy Kids campaign is all about making the healthy choice the easy choice for students and families, and these new standards will help us achieve that goal.
"I applaud the First Lady for championing the cause of improving the health of our children. The California Department of Education will work closely with school districts as they make these improvements, and we’ll continue to urge that additional funds be provided to make these standards a reality in our schools."
More than 500 school sites in California already are well on their way to putting these new healthy choices into operation by improving both student nutrition and food quality.
Based on training that CDE began last year, many district child nutrition directors are working together to develop operational and financial management strategies that are crucial to support the new meal standards.
# # # #
Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction

Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100
Missouri Education Watchdog: Dick Morris and School Choice Week Presentation in St. Louis. Beam Me Up, Scotty
Dick Morris and School Choice Week Presentation in St. Louis. Beam Me Up, Scotty
APATHETIC PARENTS, PLEASE READ THIS BOOK « Teachers Fight Back
APATHETIC PARENTS, PLEASE READ THIS BOOK
I just finished another book about schools that except for too many questionable generalizations might actually be useful. The book is, “The Good School, How Smart Parents Get Their Kids the Education They Deserve”. The book talks about what parents should investigate about a school and or a particular classroom before enrolling their child. It also advises parents how to check on the progress that a child might be making while in school.
The author’s suggestions will be nothing new to many middle class parents and certainly nothing new to almost all affluent parents. Affluent parents have been investigating their neighborhood schools for years, and have often asked questions about teachers, principals, curriculum and teaching methods that are used. The book would be most useful to groups of parents who have traditionally accepted whatever has occurred at their local school, and
Dad gets restraining order against fourth-grade son's classmate - latimes.com
Dad gets restraining order against fourth-grade son's classmate
A Riverside County man says he has secured a restraining order against a fourth-grade boy who threatened his son with a knife.
Robert Casteel told the Riverside Press-Enterprise that earlier this month a student at Mission Bell Elementary School pulled a knife on his 10-year-old son, Christopher, and told him that he would "get you after school."
He said he pursued a restraining order to protect his son because the school has been lenient with the alleged aggressor.
"We've already got too many things happening in schools. Kids are getting shot and stabbed," Casteel told the
ALEC Reports on the War on Teachers - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher
ALEC Reports on the War on Teachers
Follow me on Twitter at @AnthonyCody
As state after state rewrites their education laws in line with the mandates from Race to the Top and the NCLB waiver process, the teaching profession is being redefined. Teachers will now pay the price - be declared successes or failures, depending on the rise or fall of their students' test scores. Under NCLB it was schools that were declared failures. In states being granted waivers to NCLB, it is teachers who will be subjected to this ignominy. Of course we will still be required to label the bottom 5% of our schools as failures, but if the Department of Education has its way, soon every single teacher in the profession will be at risk for the label.
This revelation came to me as I read the Score Card on Education prepared by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), authored by Dr. Matthew Ladner and Dan Lips. This is a remarkable document. It provides their report on where each of the states stands on the education "reform" that has become the hallmark
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: GOP salutes Obama's ed policies
GOP salutes Obama's ed policies
![]() |
| A GOP salute |
"Republicans tonight salute our President, for instance, for his aggressive pursuit of the murderers of 9/11, and for bravely backing long overdue changes in public education." -- Indiana's T-Party Gov. Mitch Daniels' in his response to SOTU.Daniels was only returning the favor. It was Arne Ducan's "salute" to Daniels last April, that boosted Daniels' stock as an education governor and
Seattle Schools Community Forum: A Question of Scale
A Question of Scale
Seattle Public Schools is on the cusp of adopting a policy on waivers for instructional materials. The proposed policy includes a lot of safeguards that the district staff wrote in to make sure that the alternative materials work well and that the students make acceptable progress. The driving concern here is that we absolutely do not want 400 students using materials that don't work well.
That certainly makes sense, but you may be astonished to learn that our basic materials adoption policy has no
Schools Matter: Wanted: Computer of Apple Quality Not Made in Poisonous Factory by Slave Labor
Wanted: Computer of Apple Quality Not Made in Poisonous Factory by Slave Labor
. . . . the workers assembling iPhones, iPads and other devices often labor in harsh conditions,
It's the Economy ... - Bridging Differences - Education Week
It's the Economy ...
Dear Diane,
I've had an epiphany so I'm tossing the piece I wrote for this week to "spread the word."
"Can America Make It?" is the headline on the cover of the December issue of The American Prospect. The lead article is written by an old friend, Harold Meyerson, who argues that, "with the right trade and industrial policies," we can be a nation with a strong middle-class majority.
It's a fascinating piece and makes me think that the debates we're having about school reform have so distracted us that we forget that a good education system depends on a strong society. There's no point in scaring 5-year-olds into thinking if you don't work hard, you won't get a good job—when in fact virtually no one (well-educated or
Teachers sue to stop ballot initiative from the non-profit Stand for Children
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB) — The state’s largest teacher union has filed a lawsuit to block a ballot question that would change the way teachers are evaluated.
Michael Flynn is one of seven plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office regarding a ballot initiative from the non-profit Stand for Children. The group sponsors the petition “An Act to Promote Excellence in the Public Schools,” which aims at recognizing teachers according to performance rather than seniority.
It’s something Flynn says a task force made up of teachers, administrators, parents and law makers have already worked on. It will be implemented over the next three years.
“The goal of it is to really improve education to support teachers and help them grow, but there is a
Part 2: Washington State Bill Proposals HB 2427/SB 6203 and HB 2451: Teacher evaluations based on test scores. | Seattle Education
Part 2: Washington State Bill Proposals HB 2427/SB 6203 and HB 2451: Teacher evaluations based on test scores.
Teacher evaluations based on test scores: Part 2
I received so much information in response to my query about teacher evaluations based on test scores that I decided to provide the information in three posts. The first post can be found at Washington State Bill Proposals HB 2427/SB 6203 and HB 2451: Teacher evaluations based on test scores. Parents around the country respond with their own experiences.
In this post, we will look at what researchers have to say on the subject.
Lisa-Darling Hammond at Stanford University responded to my query with a paper titled Getting Teacher










