Saturday, April 7, 2012

Disgusted with standardized tests, group of parents shunning them | Seattle Times Newspaper

Danny Westneat | Disgusted with standardized tests, group of parents shunning them | Seattle Times Newspaper:

Disgusted with standardized tests, group of parents shunning them

A rebellion over standardized school testing in the Seattle Hill neighborhood southeast of Everett echoes a larger uprising around the country.

Danny Westneat

Seattle Times staff columnist

Schools Matter: Dave Green: "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Teach for America and Its Inadequate Version of Teacher Training"

Schools Matter: Dave Green: "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Teach for America and Its Inadequate Version of Teacher Training":

Dave Green: "The Inconvenient Truth Behind Teach for America and Its Inadequate Version of Teacher Training

by Jim Horn

Continuing our teach-in from last weekend's Occupation at ED, next up is Dave Green, who does field supervision of teacher interns for Fordham U. in NYC. This is a really well-crafted presentation by someone who has seen TFA up close and personal. Please watch and learn.

The KIPP chain gangs and their emulators could not exist without the exploited naive white missionary types from TFA who believe they are on a moral mission (or at least earning service points to get into Harvard Law). And so were the white missionaries from earlier times who were used by economic interests to make native Americans compliant and, therefore, complicit in their own exploitation and extermination. Today the corporate colonialism of urban America is led by KIPP and TFA.

Watch live streaming video from califather at livestream.com

FEA Files Complaint Against State Board of Education on SB 736 | Scathing Purple Musings

FEA Files Complaint Against State Board of Education on SB 736 | Scathing Purple Musings:

FEA Files Complaint Against State Board of Education on SB 736

by Bob Sikes

From Jeff Solochek in Gradebook:

The Florida Education Association is contending that the state Board of Education hasn’t created appropriate rules to do the lawmakers’ will.
“We believe they’ve written it in such a way that no one really can figure out how to comply,” Tony Demma, the FEA’s lawyer, told the Gradebook.
The State Board rule, adopted in March, doesn’t define such key criteria as “primary factor” for setting merit pay, Demma said. It also includes items that were not part of the law imposing the evaluations, he said, and it places a great deal of discretion in the hands of bureaucrats when it comes to deciding whether teachers and districts are complying.
To seek relief, the FEA has filed a complaint with the state Division of Administrative Hearings,

How African Americans Have Been Ousted From the Middle Class | Loop21

How African Americans Have Been Ousted From the Middle Class | Loop21:

How African Americans Have Been Ousted From the Middle Class

The housing crisis and chronic high unemployment have taken their toll

There is no doubt that the global financial crisis, which began in the U.S. with the collapse of the housing market, had a tremendous affect upon upward social and economic mobility for African-Americans and other minorities. After decades of struggle for equality in this country, the setback for these communities will be felt for decades to come. There are four factors – the housing crisis, chronic high unemployment rates, lack of decent wages, and the higher education scam – that are creating a debilitating and severe economic divide between people of color and non-Hispanic whites in the United States.

A Ruined Middle Class: The Housing Crisis Hit African-Americans Hardest

In the wake of the worst economic downturn since the Great

The Assault on Public Education -- In These Times

The Assault on Public Education -- In These Times:

UCLA students occupy the hallway outside the university chancellor's office to protest funding cuts and rising tuition in March 2010. (David McNew/Getty Images)

WEB ONLY// VIEWS » APRIL 4, 2012

The Assault on Public Education

One of America’s greatest achievements is being defunded and degraded by the dictates of the marketplace.

BY NOAM CHOMSKY

Mass public education is one of the great achievements of American society.

Public education is under attack around the world, and in response, student protests have recently been held in Britain, Canada, Chile, Taiwan and elsewhere.

California is also a battleground. The Los Angeles Timesreports on another chapter in the campaign to destroy what had been the greatest public higher education system in the world: “California State University officials announced plans to freeze enrollment next spring at most campuses and to wait-list all applicants the following fall pending the outcome of a proposed tax initiative on the November ballot.”

Similar defunding is under way nationwide. “In most states,” The New York Times reports, “it is

Opinion | The long-lasting benefits of an educational ombudsman | Seattle Times Newspaper

Opinion | The long-lasting benefits of an educational ombudsman | Seattle Times Newspaper:

The long-lasting benefits of an educational ombudsman

The Seattle School District did the right thing in creating the position of an ombudsman who can listen, facilitate and negotiate solutions — so that educators and families become partners in education, writes guest columnist Adie Simmons.

By Adie Simmons

Special to The Times

In the News: CTU strike support 'overwhelming' | catalyst-chicago.org

In the News: CTU strike support 'overwhelming' | catalyst-chicago.org:

In the News: CTU strike support 'overwhelming'

By: Cassandra West / April 06, 2012

Tags: Chicago Teachers Union No Child Left Behind pink slime strike

Chicago public school teachers in 150 schools have voted overwhelmingly in mock ballots to support a strike should ongoing contract negotiations fail, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis revealed Thursday.

Contract negotiations between Chicago Public Schools and the teachers union are in their fourth month and union president Karen Lewis said Thursday that aninformal poll of members at 150 schools shows "overwhelming" support for a strike. Schools chief Jean-Claude Brizard, holding a separate news conference, rebuked the union for bringing up the possibility of a strike while talks are still underway. (Tribune)

Chicago teachers have not gone out on strike since 1987. CTU President Karen GJ Lewis, who said she was a first-year teacher during the last strike, said the climate

Daily Kos: From OJ to Trayvon

Daily Kos: From OJ to Trayvon:

From OJ to Trayvon

from Daily Kos by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

is the title of this NY Times column by Charles Blow, to which I would like to direct your attention. Blow begins his piece simply but bluntly:

The case of Trayvon Martin is producing another O.J. Simpson moment for America.

A recent Gallup poll shows a real difference in attitude: most Blacks believe Zimmerman is guilty of a crime and that racial bias was a major factor, while only 11% of non-Blacks definitely think Zimmerman is guilty and only 1/3 think Zimmerman was operating on racial bias or that he would have been arrested had his victim been white.Gallup itself makes the parallel with the OJ case:

"In one Gallup poll conducted Oct. 5-7, 1995, for example, 78 percent of blacks said the jury that found Simpson not guilty of murder made the right decision, while only 42 percent of whites agreed.”

Blow makes two points. OJ was charged with murder, and he as a Black man thinks OJ was guilty. As I noted last night on twitter when he asked for responses to his column, I am white, have no doubt that OJ did it, but thought his rights were totally violated when the police went over the fence without a warrant, thus thought it almost poetic justice when the bloody glove - which should never have been admitted into evidence - turned out to be the basis of his acquittal - remember Johnny Cochran repeating "If the glove does not fit, you must acquit."The point of Blow's column flows from the apparent parallel in attitudes between the two cases, something he puts simply:

But there is an important, if strained, commonality between them: the issue of equal treatment by the justice system.

Please keep reading.

Saturday, April 7, 2012