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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Big Education Ape: 1-31-12 PM Does Obama understand Race to the Top? EDition #EDREFORM #ows

Big Education Ape: Ed News Now:
Big Education Ape: Ed News Now

Published by Coopmike48 – 8 news spotters today

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livestream.com - The mission of Teach Plus is to improve outcomes for urban children by ensuring that a greater proportion of students have access to effective, experienced teachers. It is founded on the premise th...

arneduncan

The test score hypothesis

edexcellence.net - yes Michael J. Petrilli / January 31, 2012 The entire school reform movement is predicated on a hypothesis: Boosting student achievement, as measured by standardized tests, will enable greater pr...

DianeRavitch

Hundreds protest Lehman High School turnaround plan

bronxpresspolitics.blogspot.com - By MIAWLING LAMFormer Bronx teacher and education activist Peter Lamphere speaks during a rally to save Lehman High School.THE odds are stacked against them, but more than 200 former and current st...

leoniehaimson

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leoniehaimson thnx also to AM Keith Wright introduce bill to eliminate mayoral control goo.gl/ghv0H Closing Wadleigh MS straw broke camel's back5 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

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coopmike48 Detroit: A City That Needs the Occupy Movement | The Dissenter -goo.gl/rcl7Q #ows2 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

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coopmike48 Lilly Ledbetter Did Not Alter Pay Equity Gap Whatsoever | FDL News Desk - goo.gl/MKIIY2 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

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leoniehaimson When Bush ignored NAS experts on environment roundly criticized; when Obama does same on education he gets off scot-free from major media17 seconds ago · reply · retweet · favorite

EducationSee all

IFF Study Released to Criticism of Research Methodology

realeducationreformdc.blogspot.com - Quality Schools, Every Child, Every Neighborhood Indeed A response by Teachers and Parents for Real Education Reform The Illinois Facilities Fund report titled: Quality Schools, Every School, E...

DianeRavitch

SocietySee all

Sherman Alexie | The Progressive

progressive.org - Let's get one thing out of the way: Mexican immigration is an oxymoron. Mexicans are indigenous. So, in a strange way, I'm pleased that the racist folks of Arizona have officially declared, in bann...

mikeklonsky

Letters of Note: To My Old Master

lettersofnote.com - In August of 1865, a Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee, wrote to his former slave, Jourdan Anderson, and requested that he come back to work on his farm. Jourdan — who, since being ema...

coopmike48

NH GOP: Lynch's ideas too expensive

boston.com - CONCORD, N.H.—Republican leaders say Gov. John Lynch's state of the state address is calling for too much spending.Lynch urged increasing higher education funding, restoring the tobacco tax reducti...

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StoriesSee all

Do I Still Have a Place Here? « Cooperative Catalyst

coopcatalyst.wordpress.com - I teach in the shell of a once-suburban enclave of Phoenix. We have pretty euphemisms for it. Low-SES. Title One. Poverty. Underprivileged. Diverse (in the deep-red state of Phoenix, it’s the new r...

tbfurman

Chicago is Number One in Hating -- According to New York

chicagonow.com - Something called the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, put their collective egg heads together and wrote a study about something they have no knowledge of: anything west of the Hudson River...

coopmike48

School Tech Connect: Um, No. He Has No Clue

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - School Tech Connect: Um, No. He Has No ClueUm, No. He Has No Clueby noreply@blogger.com (Tim) President Obama cannot possibly understand what is going on as a result of Race To Nowhere. He's simply...

coopmike48

PoliticsSee all

Bloomberg Defends 9/11 Memorial Salaries - Metropolis

blogs.wsj.com - By Michael Howard SaulAssociated Press Some of the first visitors to the National September 11 Memorial last year.New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended the nearly $300,000 in severance pai...

leoniehaimson

Civilian Deaths Due to Drones Are Not Many, Obama Says

nytimes.com - WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday defended the use of drones to strike suspected terrorists in Pakistan and elsewhere, saying the clandestine program was “kept on a very tight leash” and enabl...

fklonsky

Second Year In, Republican Governors Moderate Tone

nytimes.com - A year after a coterie of new Republican governors swept into the statehouses and put in place aggressive agendas to cut spending and curb union powers, sparking strong backlashes in many places, m...

fklonsky

BusinessSee all

Romney, Bain took over test giant Princeton Review

schoolingintheownershipsociety.blogspot.com - One of Bain's takeover targets while Gov. Romney ran the predator investment firm, was Princeton Review, one of the largest testing and test-prep operations in the country. In 2007, Bain and Prides...

mikeklonsky

Buyout Profits Keep Flowing to Romney

nytimes.com - Almost 13 years ago, Mitt Romney left Bain Capital, the successful private equity firm he had helped start, and moved to Utah to rescue the Salt Lake City Olympic Games and begin a second career in...

mikeklonsky

Blog posts on this issue

whitehouse.gov - The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release January 31, 2012 Administration Takes Immediate Steps to Accelerate Startup and Small Business GrowthToday, on the one-year anniv...

coopmike48

EnvironmentSee all

Illinois nuclear reactor shutdown probed

cbsnews.com - In this March 2011 photo, steam escapes from Exelon Corp.'s nuclear plant in Byron, Ill. (AP) (AP) CHICAGO - Officials are investigating the events surrounding a power failure at a nuclear reactor...

mikeklonsky

Officials investigating Illinois reactor shutdown

democraticunderground.com - http://apnews.excite.com/article/20120131/D9SJT4EO0.html Officials investigating Illinois reactor shutdown By TAMMY WEBBER CHICAGO (AP) - Officials are investigating the events surrounding a power ...

coopmike48

How our dues are being used. « Fred Klonsky

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - How our dues are being used. « Fred Klonsky:How our dues are being used.by Fred KlonskyIn preparation for the IEA RA in March, local Regions held budget hearings last night. The meeting I was at ha...

coopmike48

#eduRead this paperSee all

Schools Matter: New York Principal's Heroic Stand

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Schools Matter: New York Principal's Heroic Stand:New York Principal's Heroic Standby Judy RabinZeppie said Gov. Andrew Cuomo's recent implementation of standardized testing reviews is unhealthy an...

coopmike48

Peg with Pen: Awake in Indiana

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Peg with Pen: Awake in Indiana:Awake in Indianaby PeggyWhat does it mean to be awake? We hear that phrase a lot. When will they wake up? Whatwill it take to wake the 99%? Simply look at Indiana. ...

coopmike48

#edreformRead this paperSee all

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“Blame the School District, Blame the School, and Blame the Teacher” « City School Stories

“Blame the School District, Blame the School, and Blame the Teacher” « City School Stories:

“Blame the School District, Blame the School, and Blame the Teacher”

by fmurphy

Notes from the Field

Submitted by Frank Murphy, on January 31, 2012

I started the new year cautiously optimistic about the future of education in our city and state. My hopeful spirit was quickly dashed. Shortly after I posted “To a Better School Year in 2012”, a wave of bad news washed over area schools. First the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced plans to close forty-nine schools in the next school year. The Chester Upland School District, which is tottering on the verge of bankruptcy, scrambled to find additional monies in order to keep its schools open. And in Philadelphia, members of the School Reform Commission announced more bad news regarding the district’s budget. It was revealed that a $61 million budget gap still exists for this current school year. Even worse news was the possibility that a $269 million shortfall in next year’s budget could continue to hobble the district’s effort to provide educational services to the city’s public

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Modern School: Teachers Offer the Wealthy an Escape from Poverty

Modern School: Teachers Offer the Wealthy an Escape from Poverty:

Teachers Offer the Wealthy an Escape from Poverty

by Michael Dunn

The following is from Anthony Cody’s excellent critique of the education portion of Obama’s state of the union speech. In a nutshell, if a teacher really did increase the lifetime income of a classroom by $250,000, so what? Spread out over the 40 years of each student’s career, that would amount to only $250 per person per year, enough for a nice date, Sunday afternoon beers or some practical work clothes, but nowhere near enough to bring poor kids into the middle class. And if he really wanted us to not teach to the test, he wouldn’t tie our evaluations and salaries to students’ test scores.

Last night in President Obama's State of the Union address, he repeated a familiar refrain
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Geaux Teacher!: Senator Landrieu vs. Public Education?

Geaux Teacher!: Senator Landrieu vs. Public Education?:

Senator Landrieu vs. Public Education?

by noreply@blogger.com (Lee Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT)

"Mary Landrieu walks tightrope on Bobby Jindal's education plans"


My comment to the article linked above on NOLA.com:

Senator Landrieu does NOT represent, dare I say a majority, of Democrats on education issues. Her support of U.S.Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's destructive and intrusive education initiatives are just another example of POLITICS over PRINCIPLE that is so pervasive and destructive now. It is hoped that Obama will CANDuncan when he realizes that the privatization of public schools that is the aim of his reform agenda is dissolving a HUGE base of support that he previously enjoyed.

When I last visited Senator Landrieu's offices in Washington in August of 2011, she was, of course, not available
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New Resources Announced for Public Service Loan Forgiveness | ED.gov Blog

New Resources Announced for Public Service Loan Forgiveness | ED.gov Blog:

New Resources Announced for Public Service Loan Forgiveness

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Guest Blogger
Martha Kanter and John Sarbanes

Martha Kanter joined Congressman John Sarbanes (D-Md.) at the University of Maryland Baltimore. Photo by Ed Fishel courtesy of UofM Baltimore.

Earlier today Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter joined Congressman John Sarbanes (D-Md.) at the University of Maryland Baltimore to announce new efforts from the Department of Education to help public servants—including veterans, nurses, and teachers—take advantage of Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Public Service Loan Forgiveness cancels the balance of a borrower’s federal student loan debt after they have served full time in a public service role for at least 10 years, while making on-time qualifying loan payments each month.

The new materials from ED include an employment certification form that allows borrowers to keep track of eligible employment and payments. This form will help those borrowers who have made a service commitment to this country while honoring their responsibility to repay their federal student loans and allow them to more easily receive loan forgiveness when they are able. In addition, these new materials will allow borrowers to find out now if their job and loan payments will qualify them for loan forgiveness in the future as well as how many payments they have left to make – information that is not currently available.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness was established through the bipartisan College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007, and applies to careers such as active-duty military officers and veterans, public school teachers, law enforcement officials, firefighters, and many nonprofit employees. Borrowers must make 120 monthly payments on their eligible federal student loans after Oct. 1, 2007, before they qualify for the loan forgiveness.

More details about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, including a detailed Q&A and copy of the form, can be found at: www.studentaid.ed.gov/publicservice.

Sara Gast is a Press Aide at the U.S. Department of Education

Experts Convene for College Completion Symposium at ED

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Guest Blogger

How do we meet the diverse needs of the 21st century scholar and meet the President’s 2020 goal of once again leading the world in college graduation rates.

College Completion Symposium

Secretary Duncan speaks at the College Completion Symposium. Official Department of Education photo by Leslie Williams.

This is the challenge Secretary Duncan posed to researchers, policy experts, and practitioners from 30 postsecondary institutions from across the country who shared evidence-based best practices and ideas during a one-day symposium on college completion at the U.S. Department of Education on Monday.

“All the good ideas are out there with you guys,” Duncan said. “I urge you to be creative and thoughtful.”

If there was one important takeaway from the presentations and discussions, it was that one size does not fit all.

Tom Brock, Director of the Young Adults and Postsecondary Education Policy Area from the nonprofit MDRC, presented results from studies looking at student services programs to address the benefits of “increasing the amount of counseling and advising students receive and attaching students to tutoring services on campus.”

Regina Bain, Regional Vice President of the nonprofit organization Posse Foundation, said she learned a lot from the various institutions represented at the symposium.

“I appreciated the idea of online coaching tools. I really believe in one-on-one, intensive, multilayered coaching and advising for individuals,” she said.

The symposium is one more step in ED’s commitment to meeting the President’s 2020 goal, and ensuring that America’s graduates are prepared for the jobs of the 21st century.

Click here to read President Obama’s Blueprint for making college more affordable.

Natalie Torentinos is an intern in the Office of Communications and Outreach

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Free Teleseminar: Improving School Climate Through a Whole Child Approach « The Whole Child Blog « Whole Child Education

Free Teleseminar: Improving School Climate Through a Whole Child Approach « The Whole Child Blog « Whole Child Education:

Free Teleseminar: Improving School Climate Through a Whole Child Approach

by Klea Scharberg

Join ASCD Managing Director of the Whole Child Initiative Molly McCloskey in conversation with ASCD author and Rutgers University professor Maurice J. Elias. McCloskey will share information about specific initiatives and examples of how a whole child approach ensures that each child, in each community, is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.

Monday, February 27, 2012, 12:00 p.m. eastern time
Call in to 1-800-868-1123 and use code 70187505

The teleseminar is part of a series of monthly meetings of the Improving School Climate for Academic and Life Success (ISCALS) project at Rutgers, designed to support social-emotional character development (SECD) and anti-bullying initiatives in schools. The format allows you to call in and listen (only), though you can e-mail questions

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The Achievement Gap and Teacher Training | Mr. Teachbad

The Achievement Gap and Teacher Training | Mr. Teachbad:

The Achievement Gap and Teacher Training

Note: The tone of this post is a lit­tle more seri­ous and it has no very lit­tle swear­ing. I know that will turn some peo­ple off, and I apologize.

Under nor­mal cir­cum­stances, analo­gies between teach­ers and doc­tors trig­ger in me a pow­er­ful, irre­sistible gag reflex. I hate read­ing about how we both have a prac­tice, for exam­ple. How­ever, I have found a place where the anal­ogy between teach­ers and doc­tors makes sense, but only if we pro­ceed seri­ously and fol­low where it leads.

Be warned.

It leads us to a very expen­sive, incon­ve­nient and time-consuming place. It leads us to a dis­rup­tive place where the value of sloppy but lucra­tive teacher prepa­ra­tion pro­grams is sharply ques­tioned. It leads us to a place where teach­ers will be forced to invest more and be far more delib­er­ate as they decide to take up this job. It’s a place where pol­i­

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Schools Matter: Sherman Alexie "Arizona has made our books sacred documents now."

Schools Matter: Sherman Alexie "Arizona has made our books sacred documents now.":

Sherman Alexie "Arizona has made our books sacred documents now."

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene
"A deepened consciousness of their situation leads people to apprehend that situation as an historical reality susceptible to transformation." — Paulo Freire

Resist Arizona Book Burnings and Racist Attacks on Ethnic StudiesThe Progressive has been compiling the responses of authors whose books were banned by Arizona bigots and arch-reactionaries Tom Horne and John Huppenthal's racist HB 2281, which, among other things, banned Ethnic Studies in Arizona schools. Of course Huppenthal and Horne's vicious legislative colonization didn't actually ban ethnic studies, it just limited Arizona's curriculum to the oppressive historical narrative of "wealthy white male studies."

Today former Schools Matter contributor Kenneth Libbytweeted the response from author Sherman Alexie, which is
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NYC Public School Parents: City Hall rally today protesting the epidemic of school closings and DOE's broken promises to Jamaica HS

NYC Public School Parents: City Hall rally today protesting the epidemic of school closings and DOE's broken promises to Jamaica HS:

City Hall rally today protesting the epidemic of school closings and DOE's broken promises to Jamaica HS

by Leonie Haimson
There was a rally today, organized by the Coalition for Educational Justice, protesting against the mayor's wrecking ball policies and school closings. Speakers included NYC Comptroller Liu, Public Advocate De Blasio, Manhattan Borough President Stringer, former NYC Comptroller Thompson, parents and students from the closing schools, Advocates for Children, and many others... Here is my speech; video will be posted soon..

For more on why parents and community members throughout the country strongly oppose the epidemic of school closings, and distrust the top-down "solutions" imposed by them from above, this excellent Public Agenda survey "What's Trust Got to Do With It?"

Theodore Roosevelt, Adlai Stevenson, John Jay, Martin Luther King Jr.
John F. Kennedy, John Dewey, Paul Robeson, Louis Brandeis, Thomas Jefferson.
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