Hear from PAA members how to fight back against corporate reform! « Parents Across America

Hear from PAA members how to fight back against corporate reform! « Parents Across America:

Hear from PAA members how to fight back against corporate reform!

by leoniehaimson

Dear Friends:
·
Feeling overwhelmed by all the negative legislation and education policies being imposed by corporate reformers on your school or district? Want to get advice from other parents fighting the same battles in their communities?

Next Monday night, Feb. 20 at 8 PM, Parents Across America will be sponsoring a conference call, open to all parents and concerned citizens, to brief you on strategies youcan use to fight back against the damaging tide of privatization wreaking havoc our public schools.

When: Monday, Feb. 20 at 8 PM EST.

Conference Dial-in Number: (424) 203-8075

Participant Access Code: 1037540#

First, hear from Karran Harper Royal, a PAA founding member, about what’s happening in New Orleans, where about 75% of the schools are charters and before too long, they may all be privatized. Rather than the idealized picture portrayed by Sec. Duncan and the corporate reform crowd, this has led to nightmarish experiences for many children, who no longer have the right to attend their neighborhood school, and are often forced to travel hours each day on buses which their parents have to pay for, especially if attending higher-performing schools.

Discrimination is especially fierce against students with disabilities. This is the future that children in many parts of the country may face if the privatizers get their way. Hear what Karran and other parents are doing to fight back, and about the lawsuit they have filed with the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Then, Dora Taylor and Sue Peters, founders of PAA- Seattle, will describe how the state of Washington is experiencing the fourth push in 15 years to authorize charter schools. Washington is one of only about ten states in which charter schools are still not legal. Though the research doesn’t support charters, the backers of this campaign have deep pockets — including the Gates Foundation and the operations they fund, including Stand for Children, Inc. DFER, and the League of Education Voters. Parents are also facing a barrage of potentially damaging “teacher evaluation” bills in the legislature.

The corporate reformers’ strategy is to bypass the voters and push these bills through, inundating the session with multiple bills in ‘whack a mole’ tactics. Sue and Dora will talk about how they are organizing other parents throughout the state, working with other stakeholder groups, and helping to disseminate the truth about charters and teacher evaluation to prevent these bills from being passed – in Bill Gates’ own backyard.

When: Monday, Feb. 20 at 8 PM EST.

Conference Dial-in Number: (424) 203-8075

Participant Access Code: 1037540#

If you have a question in advance, please send it to info@parentsacrossamerica.org

Thank you and Happy Valentine’s Day from Julie, Leonie and the rest of us at Parents Across America!

National Education Organizations Respond to the President’s FY2013 Budget Proposal | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights

National Education Organizations Respond to the President’s FY2013 Budget Proposal | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights:

National Education Organizations Respond to the President’s FY2013 Budget Proposal

By Anne O'Brien on February 15, 2012

On February 13, 2012, President Obama released hisFY2013 budget proposal. While many analysts believe the budget is dead on arrival in Congress, those in the education community are praising the president for recognizing the important role that education plays in our economy and our society.
In his budget, President Obama called for the U.S. Department of Education to receive a $1.7 billion (2.5 percent) increase in education spending over the current budget year – one of only two departments to receive an increase. Highlights from the budget impacting k-12 education include $30 billion for school modernization, $30 billion to help prevent teacher layoffs and improve teacher quality, money for competitive grant programs (including $850 million for Race to the Top, $150 million for Investing in Innovation [i3], and a new $5 billion competitive program aimed at attracting, preparing, and rewarding great

Chicago Teachers Union | Rally to support IL House Bill 4487: Moratorium on School Closings, Turnarounds and Phase-Outs:

Rally to support IL House Bill 4487: Moratorium on School Closings, Turnarounds and Phase-Outs

02/15/2012

Click here to download the flyer.

Shanker Blog » Guessing About NAEP Results

Shanker Blog » Guessing About NAEP Results:

Guessing About NAEP Results

by Matthew Di Carlo

Every two years, the release of data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) generates a wave of research and commentary trying to explain short- and long-term trends. For instance, there have been a bunch of recent attempts to “explain” an increase in aggregate NAEP scores during the late 1990s and 2000s. Some analyses postulate that the accountability provisions of NCLB were responsible, while more recentarguments have focused on the “effect” (or lack thereof) of newer market-based reforms – for example, looking to NAEP data to “prove” or “disprove” the idea that changes in teacher personnel and other policies have (or have not) generated “gains” in student test scores.

The basic idea here is that, for every increase or decrease in cross-sectional NAEP scores over a given period of time (both for all students and especially for subgroups such as minority and low-income students), there must

IEA: Put the active in activism. « Fred Klonsky

IEA: Put the active in activism. « Fred Klonsky:

IEA: Put the active in activism.

by Fred Klonsky

There will be no Lobby Day this year.

Some folks have pulled me aside and said, “Let’s just go down there.”

But that’s not really the point, is it?

We can go down to Springfield with a bus of 50. But then what?

What’s our state Association for?

A few days ago, IEA President Cinda Klickna responded to one our our local Association members, Jerry Mulvihill, with a long explanation of back-home lobbying.

Which is nothing that we don’t already do.

She even included a contact list in her response to Jerry of Grass Roots Political Activists. Those are the alleged

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Who Can You Trust?

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Who Can You Trust?:

Who Can You Trust?

by Melissa Westbrook

Anyone who has lived a couple of decades on this planet knows that life is full of nuance (even if we don't want to admit it). We know that life isn't always fair.
But in my years in advocacy, I have always puzzled over why some don't want to be entirely truthful when it comes to certain issues. They may have privately looked at an issue from all sides but publicly, what they say, that's a different question.

This is the case in the charter school bill. I am fine (truly) with anyone who wants charters. However, this bill is bad and it really is troubling that those who want charters would accept such a lousy bill just to get charters in Washington State.

I have repeatedly called out several big issues with the bill. Not one single person, at any blog, at any

Missouri Education Watchdog: We Could All Use A Little Perspective

Missouri Education Watchdog: We Could All Use A Little Perspective:

We Could All Use A Little Perspective

by Anngie

This map tool, which we all use frequently, should be a reminder to us that perspective is important. Using this zoom feature can tell you whether you got a great deal on a hotel in the middle of the action, or found a hotel in the second ring of suburbs outside the city you really wanted to visit.

Last week the news erupted with coverage of Catholic institutions fight against the Administration's edict that they cover contraceptive care in their health insurance plans. Many people got bogged down when they zoomed in tight on the merits of contraception. If they zoomed out a little and got some perspective (which many people thankfully did) they saw the larger implication of this action. Obama, or rather his HHS Director Kathleen Sebelius, was forced to offer a "fix" when 70 million potential voters seemed to line up on the side of the Catholic church. But the "fix" is actually worse than the disease IF you have some perspective on it.

Charles Krauthammer noted the duality of the Administration's position in his piece from last week in

NYC Public School Parents: Why the release of the Teacher data reports and adoption of a new statewide evaluation system will be bad for teachers and bad for kids

NYC Public School Parents: Why the release of the Teacher data reports and adoption of a new statewide evaluation system will be bad for teachers and bad for kids:

Why the release of the Teacher data reports and adoption of a new statewide evaluation system will be bad for teachers and bad for kids

by Leonie Haimson

The UFT has lost its lawsuit and the DOE says it will release the teacher data reports to the media within weeks, with all the major newspapers expected to print them. These reports, which rate 12,700 teachers by means of numerical ratings of 1 to 100, are based solely on the 2010 value-added test scores of their students, filtered through a complicated formula. They are widely seen by many experts as highly unreliable, based onfalse or incomplete data and with huge margins of error -- even if you believe that standardized test scores alone are all that matter.

The city will release this data despite the fact that Chris Cerf, then Deputy Chancellor and now Acting NJ Commissioner of Education, had promised the UFT in 2008 that the Department would do everything in its power

Rainier Beach Responds to the League of Education Voters Attack on Its’ School and Community | Seattle Education

Rainier Beach Responds to the League of Education Voters Attack on Its’ School and Community | Seattle Education:

Rainier Beach Responds to the League of Education Voters Attack on Its’ School and Community

from Seattle Education 2010 by seattleducation2011

In a race to promote charter schools and teacher performance evaluations based on test scores, it seems that the League of Education Voters (LEV) is hurting rather than helping the community that they purport they are trying to assist. With “friends” like these, who needs enemies?

LEV is a 501c organization with no membership but the financial backing of Nick Hanauer who at the moment is having a hissy fit because the Democrats that he has backed in Olympia are not doing his bidding, and Bill Gates who is all about charter schools. LEV has been pushing for charter schools for two years now. The organization is a cardboard cutout of “concerned citizens” trying to depict itself as an advocate for education. My question recently has been ” Who decides within the organization what is worthy of the staff’s time and effort?”

There is no fairness to Cullerton’s pension plan. « Fred Klonsky

There is no fairness to Cullerton’s pension plan. « Fred Klonsky:

There is no fairness to Cullerton’s pension plan.

by Fred Klonsky

Democrat and Senate President John Cullerton. His plan is unfair.

Senate Democratic President John Cullerton is still pushing hard on his plan to transfer the state’s pension obligations to local school districts.

The IEA leadership must strongly oppose this proposal, as it lacks fairness.

A fair solution to the pension issue is an IEA principal.

The good news is that Cullerton has broadened the movement for a fair solution. School districts around the state, many who are already on the financial watch list, are opposed to the plan to shift the obligation.

Had we been taking buses down to Springfield we could have filled one with local school board presidents.

The bad news is that this will

Going For The Gold | Taking Note

Going For The Gold | Taking Note:

Going For The Gold

by John Merrow

After 37 years with NPR and PBS, I’ve finally come to my senses. I have had it with the non-profit world. It’s my turn to make the big bucks.

Because education is what I know, that’s where I intend to set up shop. I am going into the business of remedial education, and I know it’s going to be a gold mine. All I need are failing kids, and I don’t see any signs that the supply is drying up.

What has prompted this 180-degree turn? This sudden change of heart?

It was a recent news report, the key paragraph quoted below:

Corrections Corporation of America, the nation’s largest operator of for-profit prisons, has sent letters recently to 48 states offering to buy up their prisons as a remedy for ‘challenging corrections budgets.’ In exchange, the company is asking for a 20-year management contract, plus an assurance that the prison would remain at least 90 percent full.

(The emphasis was added.)

You may be wondering what a report on prisons has to do with education, but this is deja vu all over again, in Yogi’s memorable phrase, because back in 1982 I spent six months in juvenile institutions in

NCLB Waiver Cheat Sheet: How to Win in the Second Round - Politics K-12 - Education Week

NCLB Waiver Cheat Sheet: How to Win in the Second Round - Politics K-12 - Education Week:

NCLB Waiver Cheat Sheet: How to Win in the Second Round

by Michele McNeil

With the clock ticking toward the Feb. 28 second-round deadline for states to apply for a waiver under No Child Left Behind, states are scrambling to glean insight from the first-round results so they can get their proposals in tip-top shape.

You can dig through the voluminous amount of documents that the Education Department posted online from each state, or read their cheat sheet for advice on how to make the outside peer reviewers, and federal officials, happy. (Thanks to the loyal Politics K-12 reader for flagging this document for us, which remains fairly hidden on the department's website. We always appreciate such tips!)

Here are the biggest flaws in state applications that peer reviewers had concerns about:

• A lack of consultation with relevant stakeholders in creating the waiver proposal. The department requires that states "meaningfully" engage with teachers, unions, parents, and community organizations,

"Operation Angry Badger": Pardon me, libertarian "think tank" but your leaks are showing |

"Operation Angry Badger": Pardon me, libertarian "think tank" but your leaks are showing |:

“Operation Angry Badger”: Pardon me, libertarian “think tank” but your leaks are showing

by bluecheddar

A plan to deliver astroturf support to Scott Walker is tucked into a lengthy fundraising plan that was just leaked from the Heartland Institute. DeSmogBlog released this document and focused on its an anti-climate science push – which was picked up by UK’s Guardian. But in reviewing its budget, I see that the libertarian group will throw about the same amount of financing at “Operation Angry Badger”. From page 13 of the Heartland Institute’s 2012 Fundraising Plan: We are contemplating five projects: 1. Recruit and promote superintendents who support Act 10* 2. Explain the benefits of Act 10 3. Document the shortcomings of public schools in Wisconsin 4. Expose teacher pay in key districts 5. Create blogs that shadow small town newspaper coverage of the controversy It’s quite telling that in its strategy to prop up Scott Walker, this group aims to slam public education. Well that certainly dovetails nicely with another plan exposed in this leaked document: to collect

Jersey Jazzman: Ed Reform: Its All About Politics

Jersey Jazzman: Ed Reform: Its All About Politics:

Ed Reform: Its All About Politics

by Duke

Just in case you had any doubts left:

Popout

That's the NJ Republican State Committee, going after a union official for saying something admittedly dumb. No, they aren't going after a Democrat; they're going after the head of a teachers union.

Right after the obnoxious echo chamber (life's not always fair... life's not always fair...) comes the true mendacity

Parent Trigger proposal would convert failing charters to neighborhood schools — Amazing report- The Answer Sheet

- The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

Parent Trigger proposal would convert failing charters to neighborhood schools — Amazing report

by Valerie Strauss

Here’s the lead “story” from the new spring edition of a satirical Onion-esque publication designed for those of us who religiously follow education policy and choose to laugh rather than cry about it. The publication is called Education Tweak and it’s anonymously authored and published. The latest issue is the 21st; this and all the back issues are available at edtweak.com.

Read full article >>

Principal forced out in Dallas and D.C. says she is innocent

by Valerie Strauss

A principal who was forced out of a Dallas school for “unethical” behavior and then hired and subsequently fired by D.C. school officials has now issued a statement (see below for text) saying she was unfairly accused in Dallas and should be allowed to work in the District.

Read full article >>

solidaridad: LAUSD board votes to postpone budget decision

solidaridad: LAUSD board votes to postpone budget decision:

LAUSD board votes to postpone budget decision

Our favorite Social Justice Educator, José Lara, is featured at the 1:39 mark. This isn't over, we have to keep fighting and keep pressuring officials to find solutions. Visit http://saveadulted.org/ for next steps.

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Through the Backdoor: Creative Approach Schools to be voted on Tomorrow

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Through the Backdoor: Creative Approach Schools to be voted on Tomorrow:

Through the Backdoor: Creative Approach Schools to be voted on Tomorrow

by Melissa Westbrook

Guess I'm confused because I thought it was Valentine's Day and not April Fool's Day.

My confusion is the sudden appearance of the Creative Approach MOU back on the agenda for tomorrow night's School Board meeting. This is action to vote on it. It has NOT been amended in any way. Director Peaslee is wisely offering an amendment to it to make sure there is Board (publicly elected) oversight.

The SEA refused to take it back to its membership. (I'm thinking it has something to do with Jonathan Knapp wanting to be SEA president and worried he would lose face if the MOU had to be reviewed by membership. There's some real courage of convictions for you.)

Here's the crux of the issue. I like this idea of school communities working with teachers and the district to find

Elk Grove schools scramble to staff classes during apparent teacher sickout Sacramento Bee

Elk Grove schools scramble to staff classes during apparent teacher sickout - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee:

Elk Grove schools scramble to staff classes during apparent teacher sickout

dlambert@sacbee.com

PUBLISHED WEDNESDAY, FEB. 15, 2012

Sheldon High School sophomore Brandon Galarpe watched movies most of the day Friday under the watchful eyes of substitutes. Only his Spanish teacher had showed up to work.

The school was the hardest hit in what appears to be a teacher sickout in protest of a proposal by Elk Grove Unified to cap its contribution to medical premiums at the 2010 level.

In all, 351 of the district's 3,400 teachers called in sick, said Elizabeth Graswich, district spokeswoman. Usually about 285 teachers are absent in the district on any given day.

Parent Jeannie Garlarpe says she wasn't aware of the unauthorized job action until she picked her son up after school Friday. She said he called it "a wasted day."

She isn't angry about the teacher sickout, saying she would be upset too if her employer proposed a health care cap. "I commend them for their job," Garlarpe said. "They go to school and get the educational background and work very hard. They prepare our kids for the future and, quite frankly, they don't get paid enough."

Graswich said the high number of absences could be explained by the three-day weekend, which usually raises the number. She said there were 330

NYC Educator: Bad Teacher Day

NYC Educator: Bad Teacher Day:

Bad Teacher Day

by NYC Educator

All week last week we kept hearing about spirit week. There was a Harry Potter Day, some other stuff, and a Bad Teacher Day. They announced them every day. I wondered what the hell Bad Teacher Day was, but I don't wear costumes to work, so I ignored it. Then some of my colleagues started asking me about it.

"What the hell is Bad Teacher Day? Isn't that a terrible idea?"

It occurred to me that it was indeed a bad idea, so we started asking various administrators, who were as mystified as we were. Finally we decided to go right to the top, almost, and asked the APO. She looked at us as though we were nuts, and said, "It's not Bad