#Parents United for Responsible Education: Crank up the pressure!

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » PSAT for 3-17-12: Crank up the pressure!:

PSAT for 3-17-12: Crank up the pressure!

by admin

Perhaps in response to Illinois having been named the third most corrupt state in the nation, and maybe also just having watched former governor Blagojevich head off to prison for 14 years, our state legislators have begun acting uncannily as though they are listening to us instead of the power elite.
First we heard about Sen. Delgado sponsoring an amendment to ban charter schools from charging fines for disciplinary infractions, in direct response to the efforts of PURE, VOYCE and the Advancement Project tochallenge the absurd and unfair policy of CPS’s pet charter company, Noble Network. AND the amendment passed out of the Senate Education Committee, which has yet to move on several other bills that we support.
That bill has more recently been amended again; instead of a flat ban on fees for disciplinary infractions, it now states that charter schools must waive all fees for low-income students as defined by the federal free lunch 

ASCD Inservice: Gaps Close When Whole Child Beliefs Are Matched with Actions

ASCD Inservice: Gaps Close When Whole Child Beliefs Are Matched with Actions:

Gaps Close When Whole Child Beliefs Are Matched with Actions

Wade Boykin of Howard University and Pedro Noguera of New York University presented a research-packed and passionate session titled, "Creating the Opportunity to Learn: Moving from Research to Practice to Close the Achievement Gap" at ASCD's Annual Conference on Saturday morning.

They wasted no time laying out their main issue: Achievement gaps are not sufficiently addressed in our work with schools.

Their Goals:

Challenge expectations: We have never before expected all children to achieve.

Change Beliefs: We have assumed that intelligence is an innate property. Schools must focus on cultivating talent in all children.

Strengthen Skills and Strategies: Many educators don't know how to serve ALL children.

While at first glance, this may sound like "schools are the problem" rhetoric that reduces education debates and dialogues to exercises in finger pointing; Boykin and Noguera made it clear that the responsibility for students is 

RheeFirst! » A poster child for ed reform’s moral disconnect

RheeFirst! » A poster child for ed reform’s moral disconnect:

A poster child for ed reform’s moral disconnect

by admin

Written by Joanne Barkan for Dissent Magazine.  Read the entire article here.
“The disconnect between what ed reformers claim to be doing for low-income children and what they actually bring about boggles the mind.
The poster child for this moral disconnect is former Washington, D.C. schools chancellor and ed reform celebrity Michelle Rhee. Rhee resigned her D.C. post in October 2010 after her boss, Mayor Adrian Fenty, failed in his reelection bid. Within weeks, Rhee had set up a 501(c)4 advocacy organization called StudentsFirst; she announced a five-year fundraising goal of $1 billion. Rhee explained the purpose of her project this way (Daily Beast/Newsweek, December 6, 2010):

When you think about how things happen in our country—how laws get passed or policies are made—they happen through the exertion of influence. From the National Rifle Association to the 

Several charter leaders blast Great Schools Compact | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Several charter leaders blast Great Schools Compact | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Several charter leaders blast Great Schools Compact

by Dale Mezzacappa

Testifying before the City Council Education Committee Tuesday, several charter school operators blasted the Philadelphia Great Schools Compact. The compact is working to help District and charter schools work together more productively and create more high-quality educational seats.
Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, called for an end to the Renaissance SchoolsInitiative, a program that has converted low-performing District schools into charters.

Featured Title: 

City council hears about education

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Anger with CPS over closings and turnarounds spreads in the Legislature | catalyst-chicago.org

Anger with CPS over closings and turnarounds spreads in the Legislature | catalyst-chicago.org:

Anger with CPS over closings and turnarounds spreads in the Legislature

By: Jim Broadway / March 26, 2012

Tags: school closings turnarounds

High level employees of Chicago Public Schools took an unprecedented scolding Monday on the subject of school closings and turnarounds in the city – and even more heat for CPS’ perceived “disrespect” for the Illinois Legislature by the absence of its leader, CEO Jean-Claude Brizard, at a hearing at the Capitol.

In the end, the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee decided to call for a joint hearing of four legislative committees – the education committees and appropriations committees of both the House and the Senate – and to force Brizard and Mayor Rahm Emanuel to attend even if they have to be subpoenaed to make that happen.

“We have been bamboozled again by CPS,” exclaimed Rep. Esther Golar (D-

Professors caution CPS on using tests to evaluate teachers

By: Sarah Karp / March 26, 2012

Tags: teacher evaluation

Behind closed doors, the Chicago Teachers Union and CPS officials are negotiating the details of a new teacher evaluation process scheduled to debut in at least 300 schools this fall. On Monday, a diverse group of university professors raised yellow flags.

The group, named CReATE, sent a letter to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard and the Board of Education signed by 88 faculty members from 15 local universities warning that using student test scores in teacher evaluation could do more harm than good. The universities included the University of Illinois Chicago, DePaul University and the University of Chicago. 

The warning comes as the School Board is scheduled to vote on Wednesday whether to spend $590,000 for teacher roster verification software. This softwar

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: My Gulen Movement charter school piece in WaPo

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: My Gulen Movement charter school piece in WaPo:

My Gulen Movement charter school piece in WaPo

by The Perimeter Primate

Today the Washington Post published my piece about the Gulen Movement’s US charter schools as a guest post for The Answer Sheet, Valerie Strauss’s excellent daily online column which covers education topics.

Largest charter network in U.S.: Schools tied to Turkey

The largest charter school network in the United States is operated by people in and associated with the Gulen Movement (GM), a secretive and controversial Turkish religious sect. With 135 schools enrolling more than 45,000 students, this network is substantially larger than KIPP, the well-known charter management organization with only 109 schools. A lack of awareness about this situation persists despite it being addressed in a national paper and in articles about Gulen charter schools in Utah (also here), Arizona, (also here), Illinois, Tennessee, Pennsylvania (alsohere), Indiana, Oklahoma (and here), Texas (also here), Arkansas, Louisiana (also here), New Jersey, Georgia, and North Carolina. It was also reported that the FBI and the Departments of 

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS WEBSITE

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

A compilation of news articles about charter schools which have been charged with, or are highly suspected of, tampering with admissions, grades, attendance and testing; misuse of funds and embezzlement; engaging in nepotism and conflicts of interest; engaging in complicated and shady real estate deals; and/or have been engaging in other questionable, unethical, borderline-legal, or illegal activities. This is also a record of charter school instability and other unsavory tidbits.

Couldn't Find Your Own Special Charter School Scandal

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CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

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CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

Be sure to check out two other Great blogs:

-THE BROAD REPORT (as in Eli) -THE PERIMETER PRIMATE

Schools Matter: Former KIPP Student Remembers Humiliation and Culturally Unresponsive Pedagogy

Schools Matter: Former KIPP Student Remembers Humiliation and Culturally Unresponsive Pedagogy:

Former KIPP Student Remembers Humiliation and Culturally Unresponsive Pedagogy

by Jim Horn

A clip from the Lindsay Gary's commentary at the Daily Cougar:

. . . Of my graduating class at KIPP, I was one of about 20 black students in a mostly Hispanic population. Being the minority wasn’t easy, and some of the teachers at KIPP didn’t make it any easier. There are a few incidents that vividly stand out to me.

I can still remember “judgment day” as I once called it. It was the day that students would learn their fate in attendance at the end-of-year trip. As an extremely well-behaved and straight-A student, I had no worries about my fate. But something was different in the teachers’ eyes when I met them at the judgment table. They told me that I was not on the list to go on the trip. I was 

TEACHERS WHO ARE READY TO FIGHT BACK – ROCKFORD SHOWS THE WAY « Teachers Fight Back

TEACHERS WHO ARE READY TO FIGHT BACK – ROCKFORD SHOWS THE WAY « Teachers Fight Back:

TEACHERS WHO ARE READY TO FIGHT BACK – ROCKFORD SHOWS THE WAY

by alkleen

A Golden Chalk Award goes out to the Rockford Education Association. Right here in my own community we might be seeing the start of a new era. A time when teachers finally become angry enough to fight for their dignity and the respect they deserve.
The Rockford teachers have set this Thursday as the beginning of a strike .  The REA voted 1,482 to 74 to go on strike. Negotiations between the teachers and the district have been going on since last April. The teachers have been working without a contract since July.
The teachers have stood up and shouted loud and clear, “we will not give back any of our benefits and bow down to insulting proposals from the board”. Let the new era of teacher courage and pride begin!
The local news media, much of the community, and civic leaders have been urging the teachers to accept the