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Monday, April 9, 2012

Big Education Ape: 4-9-12 am How to abuse standarized tests EDition #P2 #soschat

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

Published by Coopmike48 – 5 news spotters today

How to abuse standarized tests

danielwillingham.com - The insidious thing about tests is that they seem so straightforward. I write a bunch of questions. My students try to answer them. And so I find out who knows more and who knows less. But if you h...
DianeRavitch

Astonishing Education Ignorance From the Star-Ledger

jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com - I had promised myself (and Mrs. Jazzman) that I wouldn't blog on Easter. But then I picked up this morning's Star-Ledger, and read the most ignorant paragraph about education reform I have seen to ...
DianeRavitch

Parent trigger law hasn't improved schools

latimes.com - More than two years after California's "parent trigger" law was enacted, things haven't worked out the way school reformers had planned or opponents had feared. In those heady days, it was expected...
mikeklonsky

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coopmike48 Big Education Ape: Pitt Bars Transgender Students and Faculty from Gender-Appropriate Bathrooms « Student Activism bit.ly/Hqy3Kuabout 1 minute ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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coopmike48 Read Damn Good Education Daily ▸ today's top stories via@modschool @mikeklonsky ▸paper.li/coopmike48/bir…10 seconds ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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coopmike48 Big Education Ape: State legislatures reignite war over religion in schools - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post bit.ly/HqxUXw2 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

EducationSee all

The Sham of Teach for America: Part One

education-radio.blogspot.com - Neha SinghalYou can download mp3's of the program here:Audioport (mp3)Internet ArchiveIn this week's show (Part One of a two part series), Education Radio continues to disrupt the dominant narrat...
mikeklonsky

SocietySee all

How Expanding Student Rights Undermined Public Schooling

theatlantic.com - Paralyzed by the threat of litigation, educators are often unable to strictly enforce rules. Robert Adrian Hillman/Shutterstock There was a time not too long ago when well-intended reformers though...
leoniehaimson

The City of Sanford’s Racist Past

thedailybeast.com - The Florida town where Trayvon Martin met his death bears the name of its founder, a failed orange grower turned lobbyist who, in the 19th century, abetted a Belgian king’s bloody colonial adventur...
mikeklonsky

NEW RULES OPEN DOOR FOR BIG DONORS IN S.D. ELECTIONS

utsandiego.com - The chance for wealthy donors or special-interest groups to spend large sums of money to influence San Diego’s elections has never been greater after a January court ruling that struck down several...
coopmike48

StoriesSee all

Parting Ways - By Rich Lowry - The Corner

nationalreview.com - Anyone who has read Derb in our pages knows he’s a deeply literate, funny, and incisive writer. I direct anyone who doubts his talents to his delightful first novel, “Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dr...
mikeklonsky

Sunday Late Night: Break Time for This Bear

firedoglake.com - Tonight’s Sunday Late Night will be my last until the end of this month. I’m taking a break from the WWW to travel east to tend to my mom’s independence in her own home, meeting with nursing aide a...
coopmike48

The Real Reason for the Arts « Cooperative Catalyst

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - The Real Reason for the Arts « Cooperative Catalyst: The Real Reason for the Artsfrom Cooperative Catalyst » 5 questions about everything by John T. SpencerI watched a mediocre, meandering speech b...
coopmike48

BusinessSee all

Easy money without govt. regs for ed start-up companies

schoolingintheownershipsociety.blogspot.com - Congress has passed a bill making it easier for ed start-up companies to raise capital while at the same time, easing government regulation. The Jump-Start Our Business Start-Ups, or JOBS Act  woul...
mikeklonsky

HealthSee all

School Tech Connect: Again With the Constitution

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - School Tech Connect: Again With the Constitution: Again With the Constitutionby noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)While it is absurd for anyone to think that Article XIII, Section 5 contains an invis...
coopmike48

Demystifying math could ease anxiety

sfgate.com - Michael Macor / The Chronicle Dianna Trieu (left) and Tina Ye, sixth-graders at Roosevelt Middle School in San Francisco, work on geometry problems. Stanford researchers are studying math anxiety. ...
coopmike48

AdultSee all

Your Superintendent Focus Group Committee

saveseattleschools.blogspot.com -  There was this interesting tidbit at the bottom of the Superintendent Search page:Names of Candidates: The names of the candidates will be kept confidential until the second round of interviews f...
coopmike48

#eduRead this paperSee all

instaGrok | A new way to learn.

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - instaGrok | A new way to learn.:instaGrokfinds age-appropriate educational content on any topic presented with interactive multimedia interfaces generates quiz questions based on student's research...
coopmike48

The Real Reason for the Arts « Cooperative Catalyst

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - The Real Reason for the Arts « Cooperative Catalyst: The Real Reason for the Artsfrom Cooperative Catalyst » 5 questions about everything by John T. SpencerI watched a mediocre, meandering speech b...
coopmike48

#p2Read this paperSee all


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Deepening the Debate over Teach For America: Responses to Heather Harding - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Deepening the Debate over Teach For America: Responses to Heather Harding - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:
Living in Dialogue


Anthony Cody

Anthony Cody spent 24 years working in Oakland schools, 18 of them as a science teacher at a high needs middle school. He is National Board certified, and now leads workshops with teachers focused on Project Based Learning. With education at a crossroads, he invites you to join him in a dialogue on education reform and teaching for change and deep learning. For additional information on Cody's work, visit his Web site, Teachers Lead. Or follow him on Twitter.













Deepening the Debate over Teach For America: Responses to Heather Harding

by Anthony Cody
Follow me on Twitter at @AnthonyCody
A week ago I posted an interview with Teach For America's head of research, Heather Harding. Ms. Harding answered some tough questions that have been raised in recent months here on this blog. Today, I am sharing some responses to her answers.
By way of context, I have come to believe that addressing teacher turnover is one of the linchpins of real reform in our struggling schools. Turnover is a key indicator of unhealthy working conditions for teachers -- and that tells us conditions for learning are poor as well. Programs such as Teach For America allow school districts to ignore these poor conditions, by providing a steady supply of novice teachers. Unfortunately, these novices turn over at a very high rate, and the schools must invest a lot of resources in their training -- which is lost when they leave.
There are a number of facts in dispute regarding Teach For America, so we need to look closely at the evidence in order to make sensible conclusions. Here are some of the questions Ms. Harding answered where the facts are in question, followed by responses from myself, and several readers with some expertise in this domain.
Question 2: Given that many Corps Members report feeling underprepared, is there any interest in 
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Daily Kos: Important piece critical of Teach for America

Daily Kos: Important piece critical of Teach for America:


Important piece critical of Teach for America

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)
was posted this morning by my good friend Anthony Cody.  Titled Deepening the Debate over Teach For America: Responses to Heather Harding, it appears at his Living In Dialogue blog at Ed Week / Teachers.
A brief explanation.   Anthony has over the past few months put up guest posts by people who have been critical of Teach for America.  As a result, he psted exchange/interview with TFA's Director of Research, titled Tough Questions for Teach For America: Heather Harding Responds, at the end of which he asked
Readers, what do you think?
In today's post, Anthony features detailed responses from people knowledgeable about TFA and about the relevant research, to four of the 7 answers offered by Harding in the first piece.At the end of his piece, Anthony provides some background on  the respondents besides himself:
Barbara Torre Veltri, Ed. D. is ssistant professor in the College of Education at Northern Arizona University, and the author of Learning on Other People's Kids: Becoming a Teach For America Teacher (Information Age, 2010.)Jameson Brewer is a traditionally trained educator (B.S.Ed. from Valdosta State University) who struggled to find a job teaching due to the recession. He is now a 2010 Metro-Atlanta corps member teaching high school social studies in the Atlanta Public Schools. He wrote about his experience with TFA here.
Dr. Jason O'Brien is an assistant professor of education at the University of Alabama, Huntsville.
Gary Rubinstein is a former Teach For America corps member who now hosts the Teach For Us blog.
Please keep reading.
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Teacher: Dear students, I’m sorry about that test I made you take - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Teacher: Dear students, I’m sorry about that test I made you take - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:


Teacher: Dear students, I’m sorry about that test I made you take

by Valerie Strauss
This was written by Ruth Ann Dandrea, who has taught secondary English in upstate New York for 29 years. A freelance writer, she is co-author of “Women on Water,” about women’s kayaking, which will be available from North Country Press this spring. This appeared in “Pencils Down,” a new book from Rethinking Schools, a publisher of educational materials.


This is the letter from Ruth Ann Dandrea:
Dear 8th Graders,
I’m sorry.
I didn’t know.
I spent last night perusing the 150-plus pages of grading materials provided by the state in anticipation of reading and evaluating your English Language Arts Exams this morning. I knew the test was pointless—that it has never fulfilled its stated purpose as a predictor of who would succeed and who would fail the English Regents in 11th grade. Any thinking person would’ve ditched it years ago. Instead, rather than simply give a test in 8th grade that doesn’t get kids ready for the test in 11th grade, the state opted to also give a test in 7th grade to 
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NYC Educator: Trash Journalism

NYC Educator: Trash Journalism:


Trash Journalism

by NYC Educator
The New York Daily News, along with the other papers, has been covering a group of 16 teachers it's labeled as "pervs" because of their alleged sexual misconduct. The DOE removed all these teachers from their classes, and attempted to fire them, but failed. However, Chancellor Walcott has determined that he knows better than any damn arbitrator.

Naturally, this is not his fault, and it's not Mayor Bloomberg's fault. This is because nothing is ever their fault, and anyone who says otherwise, like the thousands of residents who fruitlessly protest at PEP meetings, is wrong. After all, if Mayor Bloomberg was wrong, why would he have all that money? This is why he was able to change a law twice affirmed by voters and buy himself a third term.

Mayor Bloomberg cannot be bothered with inconveniences like due process or anyone superseding his infallible judgment. That's why Walcott, whose job it is to say whatever Bloomberg tells him to, says these teachers need to be removed. Who cares if the procedures they agreed upon were followed? Mayor Bloomberg wants what he wants, 
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For-Profit Schools Under Fire For Targeting Veterans : NPR

For-Profit Schools Under Fire For Targeting Veterans : NPR:


For-Profit Schools Under Fire For Targeting Veterans



Iraq war veteran Paul Rieckhoff (right) with Sens. Mark Begich (D-Ala.), Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), introduces the GI benefit watchdog bill in Washington. Some lawmakers say for-profit schools are taking advantage of veterans and their educational benefits.

Hundreds of thousands of veterans have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years, eager to get an education under the new post-Sept. 11 G.I. Bill.
Many vets looking for a school find they are inundated by sales pitches from institutions hungry for their government benefits. Now, lawmakers are looking for ways to protect vets without narrowing their education choices.
Daniel Elkins, a legislative associate with the Veterans of Foreign Wars, recently did what a lot of vets do — he went to a site like gibill.com and answered a battery of questions about his 
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2012 State of America's Library Report Shows Free Access to Information in Jeopardy -- CHICAGO, April 9, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --

2012 State of America's Library Report Shows Free Access to Information in Jeopardy -- CHICAGO, April 9, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --:


2012 State of America's Library Report Shows Free Access to Information in Jeopardy

 
 
 
ALA releases Top Ten List of Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2011
CHICAGO, April 9, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Publishers limiting library ebook lending, budget cuts and book challenges are just a few library trends of the past year that are placing free access to information in jeopardy.  These trends as well as other are detailed in the 2012 State of America's Libraries Report released today by the American Library Association (ALA) in conjunction with National Library Week (April 8 – 14).
The rapid growth of ebooks has stimulated increasing demand for them in libraries, but libraries only have limited access to ebooks because of restrictions placed on their use by publishers. Macmillan Publishing, Simon and Schuster and Hachette Book Group refused to sell ebooks to libraries. HarperCollins imposed an arbitrary 26 loans per ebook license, and Penguin 
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Editorial: New compact offers a truce in charter wars - Editorials - The Sacramento Bee

Editorial: New compact offers a truce in charter wars - Editorials - The Sacramento Bee:


Editorial: New compact offers a truce in charter wars

Published: Monday, Apr. 9, 2012 - 12:00 am | Page 13A
The Sacramento City Unified School District is among 16 across the country that have signed a compact to work with charter schools. This initiative, supported with $100,000 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, aims to get beyond relationships of antagonism and isolation. It seeks to put contentious issues on the table, instead of sweeping them under the rug.
That's a much-needed new direction for Sac City Unified. Today, the district has six "dependent" 
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The Educated Reporter: Is the State of U.S. Public Schools a Threat to National Security?

The Educated Reporter: Is the State of U.S. Public Schools a Threat to National Security?:


Is the State of U.S. Public Schools a Threat to National Security?

by Emily Richmond
A Council on Foreign Relations task force, led by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, claims that the poor quality of America’s public education system represents a threat to national security. But the group's recommendations for fixing schools have no shortage of detractors, including some of the  experts who were asked to serve on the task force.

According to the task force, the nation’s education system is failing to turn out enough engineers or students competent in foreign languages. And as a whole, the nation’s youth doesn’t have a deep enough understanding of the wider world.

The solutions, as laid out in the final report released in March, are: more choice (in the form of vouchers and 
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Florida Policy Makers Continue to Ignore Charter School Failure and Corruption | Scathing Purple Musings

Florida Policy Makers Continue to Ignore Charter School Failure and Corruption | Scathing Purple Musings:


Florida Policy Makers Continue to Ignore Charter School Failure and Corruption

by Bob Sikes
Florida Times-Union columnist Tonyaa Weathersbee is onto the fact that Florida’s republican legislators are more worried about getting charter schools than holding them accountable. After noting a charter-school funded think-tank gave Florida a great grade for “operating freedom” and “flexibility” Weathersbee points to another study which shows that those charter schools aren’t doing so well:
It’s understandable that the center would grade states on how easy they make it for charter schools to proliferate.
That’s because the main promise behind those schools is that if they’re allowed some flexibility to teach students without being hamstrung by rules that other public schools have to abide by, they 
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