Latest News and Comment from Education

Show All

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Big Education Ape: 3-13-12 PM high-stakes testing vs. Parents Across America EDition #SOSCHAT

Big Education Ape: PARENTS CAN!:
Big Education Ape: PARENTS CAN!

Published by Coopmike48 – 5 news spotters today

No Funds Left Behind

prospect.org - Last spring, as the Texas Legislature debated massive cuts to public schools—one of many desperate measures to close a $27 billion biennial budget deficit—10,000 protesters massed in Austin for a “...
Diane Ravitch

It was the shot heard 'round the county

galvestondailynews.com - The Clear Creek and Dickinson school boards adopted a resolution asking the Texas Legislature to dump the state’s fatally flawed public school accountability system. The language in the resolution ...
Diane Ravitch

Live Twitter stream on

@coopmike48/big-edu-ape-news-11

coopmike48 profile
coopmike48 Blue Jersey:: Talk to The Women You Know About Scott Garrettbit.ly/woCMVS2 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
coopmike48 profile
coopmike48 Check Out Will Ferrell Singing in Spanish for 'Casa de Mi Padre' - Hispanically Speaking News bit.ly/xlA2mR50 seconds ago · reply · retweet · favorite
arneduncan profile
arneduncan Rumors are true. @Harvardover Vanderbilt in my bracket. Both are great teams but I have faith in the Crimson.37 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

EducationSee all

Why I Hate Teach for America

feministe.us - Like many English majors who have reached their senior year of college and are unsure of what kind of job they can get with that specialized B.A. in interwar period lesbian literature, five years a...
leonie haimson

SocietySee all

DOJ Blocks Discriminatory Texas Voter ID Law

thenation.com - The Justice Department today blocked Texas’s new voter ID law, which is among the toughest in the country, under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, noting that “over 600,000 registered voters do n...
Mike Klonsky

BusinessSee all

Big Education Ape: The Lion Sleeps Tonight

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - The Lion Sleeps Tonight | The Jose Vilson The Lion Sleeps Tonight | The Jose Vilson: The only way to shock my son out of his crying spurts is to sing the first big note in “The Lion Sleeps Tonight....
Coopmike48

Big Education Ape: Fred Klonsky Blog

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Fred Klonsky Blog Fred Klonsky: The in box: The other side speaks. Fred, As most true professionals know, you can not really be a professional if you are in a union…sorry. Please do everyone a favo...
fklonsky

Big Education Ape: Jersey Jazzman: B4K Ad Gets Tenure Wrong

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Jersey Jazzman: B4K Ad Gets Tenure Wrong Jersey Jazzman: B4K Ad Gets Tenure Wrong: You may have seen this ad on my blog: I don't control which ads come up, so maybe they can't control where their a...
Coopmike48

StoriesSee all

Uppity Radio Returns!

uppitywis.org - The Uppity Wisconsin BlogTalkRadio show returns tomorrow after a long hiatus.  For quite a while Blue Cheddar and I did a daily radio show about the "troubles" in Madison until we both wised up and...
Coopmike48

PoliticsSee all

PETITION: Stop the Republican War on Women

dccc.org - House Republicans have launched an all-out war on women since taking the Speaker's gavel. In the last year, Republicans have: Over the last week, we saw top Republican leaders squirm at denouncing ...
Coopmike48

Cheney deems Canada too dangerous for visit

stltoday.com - Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney canceled a Canadian speaking appearance because of security concerns sparked by demonstrations during a visit he made to Vancouver last fall. Cheney was sched...
Coopmike48

CrimeSee all

#eduSee all

Big Education Ape: The Lion Sleeps Tonight

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - The Lion Sleeps Tonight | The Jose Vilson The Lion Sleeps Tonight | The Jose Vilson: The only way to shock my son out of his crying spurts is to sing the first big note in “The Lion Sleeps Tonight....
Coopmike48

Big Education Ape: Jersey Jazzman: B4K Ad Gets Tenure Wrong

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Jersey Jazzman: B4K Ad Gets Tenure Wrong Jersey Jazzman: B4K Ad Gets Tenure Wrong: You may have seen this ad on my blog: I don't control which ads come up, so maybe they can't control where their a...
Coopmike48

#soschatSee all

 VideosSee all

 PhotosSee all


Posted by at

'Occupy Education' Debates the Gates Foundation (and Wins) | Common Dreams

'Occupy Education' Debates the Gates Foundation (and Wins) | Common Dreams:


Published on Tuesday, March 13, 2012 by Common Dreams

'Occupy Education' Debates the Gates Foundation (and Wins)

by Jesse Hagopian
“Gates Foundation you will fail / Education is not for sale!”
The chants of some 150 teachers, students, parents and Occupy Seattle activists reverberated off the windows of the global headquarters of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – a leading promoter of a corporate brand of education reform—announcing we were ready for our scheduled debate about the schools as part of a national call to "Occupy Education" on March 1st.Advocates of public education outside the Gates Foundation headquarters in Seattle, Washington this month. (Photo: Kristin Hutchinson)
From Oscar Grant Plaza in Oakland, California, to the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., Occupy activists schooled the nation with experiential learning demonstrations with the instructional objective of making education a right for the 99 percent, not a privilege for the 1 percent. In Seattle, when our spirited march for education arrived at the Gates Foundation, many of the event organizers were as nervous as kids before a high-stakes test--not because they
Posted by at

Give Students the Opportunity to Take the Lead — Whole Child Education

Give Students the Opportunity to Take the Lead — Whole Child Education:


Give Students the Opportunity to Take the Lead

by ASCD Whole Child Bloggers
Paula Mirk
Post submitted by Paula Mirk, MEd. Mirk has worked at whole child partner the Institute for Global Ethics (IGE) since 1996 and currently oversees the IGE education department's many initiatives, including the Ethical Literacy expanding community of schools.
We call it Ethical Fitness®: an approach and process to help young people and adults internalize ethical values and frameworks for critical thinking about ethics. Like physical fitness, we believe Ethical Fitness comes about through discovery and constructing knowledge. We discourage a didactic approach to ethics because it risks reducing a deeply meaningful topic to one that is dry, passive, and boring. It's also ineffective.
A visit to the Ethical Literacy website confirms the creative, energetic ways that students naturally engage in the "study of what's right and what's good." In an effort to educate their entire school community about this dimension to preparing for the future, students have
  • Engaged peers in a discovery process to determine their core ethical values.
Posted by at

John Thompson: New York Reformers Show Their True Colors - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

John Thompson: New York Reformers Show Their True Colors - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:


John Thompson: New York Reformers Show Their True Colors

by Anthony Cody
Guest post by John Thompson.
If nothing else, the controversy over publicizing New York City teachers' value-added scores has revealed the essence of test-driven school "reform." The contemporary data-driven accountability experiment was begun by idealists, who sincerely sought a "civil rights movement of the 21st century," but who were clueless about the realities of urban education, and now it is in shambles. Some honest reformers, like the Washington Post''s Jay's Mathews, seem to ruefully acknowledge that the bubble-in mania produced "sand castles carefully constructed on the beach."

Other accountability hawks, such as Stanford's Eric Hanushek, admit that New York's latest anti-teaching spasm is not about improving teacher quality and that, "nobody would ever advocate making personnel decisions through public posting of evaluations in the newspaper." He openly proclaims that it is a part of an "intense, broader battle underway throughout the nation." Hanushek then exemplifies the truism about war's first casualty by misrepresenting his enemies' positions. For instance, he ignores the substance of teachers' positions and claims, "the fight is between those who want to improve the schools and those who like the system as it exists 
Posted by at

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » Tribune: “Off with their heads!” Fire school board for saying no to charter school

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » Tribune: “Off with their heads!” Fire school board for saying no to charter school:


Tribune: School board should be “fired” for saying no to charter school

by admin
Today’s Chicago Tribune editorial board fronts an attack on corporate reform’s next target: elected school boards.
Yep. The privatizers have decided that democratically-elected school boards just get in the way of “real reform” like privatization, expanding charter schools, and replacing experienced teachers with deer-in-the-headlights Teach for America kids.
PAA co-founder Leonie Haimson wrote about this in a recent Parents Across America blog post, referencing an article by Matt Miller called “First Kill All the School Boards” that argued that “local control has become a disaster for our schools.”
The Tribune calls for a “game change” in North Chicago, and wants the Illinois State Board of Education to “fire” 
Posted by at

What do Eva Longoria, Emilio Estefan and Wilmer Valderrama have in common with Lily? - Lily's Blackboard – Lily's Blackboard

What do Eva Longoria, Emilio Estefan and Wilmer Valderrama have in common with Lily? - Lily's Blackboard – Lily's Blackboard:
Lily's Blackboard Rotating Header Image



What do Eva Longoria, Emilio Estefan and Wilmer Valderrama have in common with Lily?

by LilysBlackboard


Our very own Lily Eskelsen was honored today by the Latino Leaders Network with their Eagle Leadership Award. She was recognized for her  “outstanding contributions to the Latino community” and her dedication as an educator.
Juan Sepúlveda, former director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, introduced Lily as someone  who serves as  “a voice for teachers across the country,” who is not afraid to be honest, and who has a personal story that represents the American Dream.Lily Eskelsen
Who are some of the other famous Latinos who have received this prestigious award?  You may recognize the names…
Astronaut José Henández, music producer Emilio Estefan, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solís, actor Eva Longoria, Omar Minaya, general manager of the New York 
Posted by at

PURE: More nasty stuff from Stand for Children in Chicago #soschat

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » More nasty stuff from Stand for Children in Chicago:


More nasty stuff from Stand for Children in Chicago

by admin
Chicago Public Schools and Stand for Children staffers sharing a car? How cozy… (read about it below).
I didn’t name him, but the same Stand for Children creep I wrote about last month has been skulking around other Chicago parent group meetings, and some believe he and SFC should be exposed for the tactics they are using. I was asked to post this signed message which was originally posted on the Facebook page for the Grimes-Fleming (School) Child Advocates: 
On Friday, 3/9/2012, our organization, Grimes-Fleming Child Advocates had an informational meeting at Lawler Park in the Midway area. Our guest speakers were Christine McGovern and Maureen Cullnan of 19th Ward Parents, we invited our alderman Marty Quinn who was unable to attend, but sent a representative. CPS was contacted several times for two weeks prior and had confirmed two days before and as recently as 4:00pm, but did not show up. Interestingly, they had pressed to find out numbers in attendance. A CPS F.A.C.E. (Family And Community Engagement) representative did show up. Our meeting went great, 19th Ward Parents came with 


PSAT for 3-13-12: Support a QUALITY school day

by admin
Parents across Chicago are ramping up their opposition to Mayor Emanuel’s 7.5 hour school day. 
For example, a group of parents from Chicago’s 19th Ward, along with their alderman, Matt O’Shea, organized a community forum last Thursday which attracted over 350 people and was written up by most major news outlets, including a column by the Chicago Sun-Times’ Mark Brown.
The group prepared their own power point presentation which apparently blew CPS’s typical dog-and-pony show out of the water by raising and then debunking most of CPS’s public statements about why the 7.5 hour day is 
Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)