Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top Mid Day Posts 4-9 #edreform #soschat

Court challenges are brewing across US over the use of public dollars for private education - The Washington Post

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 17 minutes ago

Court challenges are brewing across US over the use of public dollars for private education - The Washington Post: Court challenges are brewing across US over the use of public dollars for private educationText SizePrintE-mailReprintsByAssociated Press,Updated: Monday, April9,12:04AMWASHINGTON — Students like Delano Coffy are at the heart of brewing political fights and court battles over whether public dollars should go to school vouchers to help make private schools more affordable.He was failing in his neighborhood public elementary school in Indianapolis ... more »

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

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 17 minutes ago

Deepening the Debate over Teach For America: Responses to Heather Harding - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher: Anthony CodyAnthony 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 ... more »

Daily Kos: Important piece critical of Teach for America

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 17 minutes ago

Daily Kos: Important piece critical of Teach for America: Important piece critical of Teach for Americabyrss@dailykos.com (teacherken)was posted this morning by my good friend Anthony Cody. TitledDeepening 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 ... more »

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

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 17 minutes ago

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 takebyValerie StraussThis 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 ...more »

NYC Educator: Trash Journalism

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 17 minutes ago

NYC Educator: Trash Journalism: Trash JournalismbyNYC EducatorThe 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 ... more »

For-Profit Schools Under Fire For Targeting Veterans : NPR

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 17 minutes ago

For-Profit Schools Under Fire For Targeting Veterans : NPR: For-Profit Schools Under Fire For Targeting Veterans 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 ... more »

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

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 17 minutes ago

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 JeopardyALA releases Top Ten List of Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2011CHICAGO,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 ... more »

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

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 17 minutes ago

Editorial: New compact offers a truce in charter wars - Editorials - The Sacramento Bee: Editorial: New compact offers a truce in charter warsSharePublished: Monday, Apr. 9, 2012 - 12:00 am | Page 13AThe 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 ... more »

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

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 17 minutes ago

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?byEmily RichmondA 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'srecommendations for fixing schools have no shortage of detractors, including some of the experts who were asked to serve on ... more »

NJ Spotlight | NJ's First Virtual Charter School a Screen Test for Online Learning

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 5 hours ago

NJ Spotlight | NJ's First Virtual Charter School a Screen Test for Online Learning: NJ's First Virtual Charter School a Screen Test for Online LearningDespite questions over funding, enrollments pour in for K-10 virtual classroomsprint|email|shareByJohn Mooney,April 9, 2012inEducation|Post a CommentNew Jersey’s first comprehensive charter school to hold all of its classes online is beginning to enroll students from across the state for next fall, even as questions persist to how exactly the new breed of schools will operate and be ... more »

All Education Matters: Student Loan Debt Crisis: How much student loan debt do you have?

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 5 hours ago

All Education Matters: Student Loan Debt Crisis: How much student loan debt do you have?: Student Loan Debt Crisis: How much student loan debt do you have?byCryn JohannsenHow much do you owe in student loans?Plus, here are a few more questions, that I hope you'll answer:1) how many degrees you do you have?2) what school(s) did you attend (non-profit, for-profit, both)?3) what did you study?4) are you in default?5) if you're in a relationship, is

The Real Reason for the Arts « Cooperative Catalyst

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 5 hours ago

The Real Reason for the Arts « Cooperative Catalyst: The Real Reason for the ArtsfromCooperative Catalyst » 5 questions about everythingbyJohn T. SpencerI watched a mediocre, meandering speech by Kurt Vonnegut. The video quality was lousy enough for him to look like he was an intellectual ninja, his mouth struggling to catch up with his voice. And then, he said what I’ve been feeling about education.“The computer said ‘I’m going to do all the becoming from now on.’ You become ... more »

When Keeping It Real Goes Awry | The Jose Vilson

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 5 hours ago

When Keeping It Real Goes Awry | The Jose Vilson: When Keeping It Real Goes AwryfromThe Jose VilsonbyJoseMitch Mitchellrecently asked me on my 900th post:Just asking, but what’s stopped you from publishing posts you said you’ve written and held back on? How many posts would you be up to if you hadn’t done that?I honestly don’t know. I tend to have three general guidelines that keep me in my lane: don’t venture too much into love, don’t discuss my principal ... more »

School Tech Connect: Again With the Constitution

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 5 hours ago

School Tech Connect: Again With the Constitution: Again With the Constitutionbynoreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)While it is absurd for anyone to think that Article XIII, Section 5 contains an invisible contains an invisible phrase at the end, visible in red only to very serious people,it is even more absurd and cynical to think that this same invisible phrase does not appear in Article IX, Section 3.I've read the entire Constitution, and nowhere is there a statement about one section being less important ... more »

Project 10,000 « Cooperative Catalyst

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 10 hours ago

Project 10,000 « Cooperative Catalyst: Project 10,000byalanthefriesenLast night I read the incredible manifesto “Stop Stealing Dreams: What Is School For?” by Seth Godin. Pat Farenga discussed (http://coopcatalyst.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/why-homeschooling-should-be-part-of-rethinking-education) the article from a homeschooling perspective back in March, but I’ve been thinking all day about how we could put into practice the ideas that Godin discusses in the manifesto.Over the last year I’ve been exploring ideas of student choice in my own English classroom. Students are able to pick... more »

Constructive Generational Conflict Between Boomers & Millennials | Lefty Parent

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 10 hours ago

Constructive Generational Conflict Between Boomers Millennials | Lefty Parent: Constructive Generational Conflict Between Boomers MillennialsbyCooper ZaleFollowing up on my last piece,“Shot Across my Boomer Bow”, and the provocativeEsquirearticle “The War Against Youth”that inspired it, I am still (as a member of the Baby Boom generation myself) wrestling with what is the best path forward for us regarding these important generational issues. With any conflict that needs to be resolved and involves strong feelings and difficult issues, I believe we do ... more »

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top Early Evening Posts 4-8 #SOSchat #p2 #edreform

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 10 hours ago

Will an Oakland school district initiative slow teacher turnover, or make it worse? - ContraCostaTimes.comBig Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All)-54 minutes agoWill an Oakland school district initiative slow teacher turnover, or make it worse? - ContraCostaTimes.com: Will an Oakland school district initiative slow teacher turnover, or make it worse?ByKaty MurphyOakland TribunePosted: 04/08/2012 12:00:00 AM PDTUpdated: 04/08/2012 05:10:03 AM PDTClick photo to enlargeOakland School District Superintendent Tony Smith speaks during an Oakland Unified School...OAKLAND -- Ask student... more »

Sunday links. « Fred Klonsky

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 10 hours ago

Sunday links. « Fred Klonsky: Sunday links.byFred KlonskyChicago Springpreparesfor NATO in May.Critic of corporate reform Marion Brady.His blog has gone viral.Scott Walkersigns repeal ofequal pay provisionsin Wisconsin’s front in the War on Women.Fox Snooze’s Mike Flannery.His one-sided reporting on pensions.What else is new?Chicago Teachers UnionPresident Karen Lewis.“I’ve called you here today to tell you that Chicago teachers and para-professionals are fed up.”US Bank closes UC Davis branch.“We’re prisoners of Occupy.” They are circled by protesters every day.On SaturdayNReditor ... more »

We're All in this Together - Arlington, VA, United States, ASCD EDge Blog post - A Professional Networking Community for Educators

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 10 hours ago

We're All in this Together - Arlington, VA, United States, ASCD EDge Blog post - A Professional Networking Community for Educators: We're All in this TogetherThe Public Schools of Northborough and Southborough, Massachusettsform a regional school system where the two towns each fund their own K-8 programs and then jointly finance the cost of Algonquin Regional High School. Imagine the possibilities for conflicts of interest as each town provides public education at taxpayer expense. During my tenure there as Director ...more »

Debate over private school vouchers heats up again, shifts to low-income students | OregonLive.com

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 10 hours ago

Debate over private school vouchers heats up again, shifts to low-income students | OregonLive.com: Debate over private school vouchers heats up again, shifts to low-income studentsPublished: Sunday, April 08, 2012, 2:31 PM Updated:Sunday, April 08, 2012, 2:49 PMByThe Associated PressView full sizeAPHeather Coffy, right center, leaves the St. Monica School with her children, left to right, Delano Coffy, 15, Alanna Marshall, 8, and Darius Coffy, 11, in Indianapolis. Students like Delano are at the heart of brewing political fights and ... more »

SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL: The Hypocrisy of Sock Puppet Dennis Walcott and the Daily News

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 10 hours ago

SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL: The Hypocrisy of Sock Puppet Dennis Walcott and the Daily News: The Hypocrisy of Sock Puppet Dennis Walcott and the Daily Newsbynoreply@blogger.com (Bronx Teacher)TheDaily Newswith seemingly nothing better to do, has taken a course over the last several days to do Uncle Mike's bidding and besmirch teachers who have been accused of inappropriate contact with students. The News whines that these teachers, when afforded their rights under the United States Constitution were either found not guilty, had ... more »

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Easy money without govt. regs for ed start-up companies

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 10 hours ago

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Easy money without govt. regs for ed start-up companies: Easy money without govt. regs for ed start-up companiesbyMike KlonskyCongress 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, orJOBS Actwould allow companies to raise up to $1 million, The bill establishes a new form of company financing called “crowd funding” and allows school entrepreneurs to raise money ... more »

Even in retirement, teachers bring warmth to their former Oakland school - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools

Even in retirement, teachers bring warmth to their former Oakland school - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools:

Even in retirement, teachers bring warmth to their former Oakland school

Monday, April 9th, 2012 at 8:00 am in elementary schoolsNo Comments

Carrie Johnston, a teacher at Oakland’s Bella Vista Elementary School, wrote this reflection about a group of retired teachers. 

Photo courtesy of Carrie Johnston. Left to right: Karen Chin, Louise Broome, and Carolyn Matson
Bella Vista School teachers gathered on this last morning before spring break for a treat — breakfast prepared by three retired teachers. The delicious repast included home fries, grits, donuts, and cheesy scrambled eggs. Tired staff, looking forward to the coming break almost as much as their students, took time to gather, enjoy the food, and spend some time together before the last day.
Carolyn Matson, Louise Broome, and Karen Chin have always been generous when it comes to sharing their cooking gifts with the staff at Bella Vista; ask any member of the staff from the past four decades and she will remember a potluck (or several) featuring one of Mrs. Broome’s tasty cooked treats, and for the past several 

Digital | How machine-based tutoring could disrupt human tutors

Digital | How machine-based tutoring could disrupt human tutors:

How machine-based tutoring could disrupt human tutors

by Michael Horn

Back in January, my friend Bror Saxberg, chief learning officer of Kaplan, published an eye-popping blog about a meta-analysisthat Kurt VanLehn published recently about nearly 100 well-constructed papers about computers used to tutor learners.
A couple of headlines from the meta-analysis are worth spotlighting here.
First, the work shines some questions on Benjamin Bloom’s analysis from a couple decades ago that suggested that well-designed human tutoring could deliver around a whopping 2 standard deviations worth of learning performance. VanLehn’s paper suggests that the effect size seems to be more around 0.79 than 2 standard deviations—still, nothing at which to scoff.
Second, as Saxberg details, VanLehn does some important work in splitting up the types of tutoring research by “grain size”: answer-based tutors, step-based tutors, substep-based tutors, and human tutoring, as well as by the type of student behavior, which ranges from passive to active to constructive and finally interactive. 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: USC prez lets loose with reformy cliches. Not much else.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: USC prez lets loose with reformy cliches. Not much else.:

USC prez lets loose with reformy cliches. Not much else.

by Mike Klonsky

Looking through the April 4th issue of EdWeek, I found this back page commentary piece, "Reaching Beyond the Ivory Tower Into the Classroom" co-written by C.L. Max Nikias, the president of USC and USC prof William Tierney. I guess the very idea of the head of one of the world's most expensive and least accessible universities telling public schools what they need, kind of pissed me off. So I forced myself to read it all the way through.

Why it took two such highly-esteemed academics to rehash this corporate reform drivel is beyond me. They start out reminding us once again of the failures of our so-called "dropout factories." Don't they have to pay Arne Ducan a buck or two for using this patented, degrading cliche? Talk about the Ivory Tower! What an encouraging 

This Week In Education: Updates: A Giant Value-Added Waste Of Two Years

This Week In Education: Updates: A Giant Value-Added Waste Of Two Years:

Updates: A Giant Value-Added Waste Of Two Years

by Alexander Russo

Now, even Bill Gates thinks sharing teachers' value-added ratings publicly doesn't make sense (see NPR Weekend Edition segment here).  And that's a good thing, a walking back to a more reasonable position.  But let's not forget that it wasn't always this way (my one quibble with Joy Resmovits' story Friday here).  This is actually a big shift.  Two years ago when the issue first started gaining attention the reform crowd generally sat on its hands.  I remember calling around when the LA Times first said it was going to publish teacher ratings and trying to get comments, and not getting much response.  Perhaps reformers weren't sure what they thought, or thought that they'd let the newspapers do the job for them, softening up the landscape (funded by Hechinger in one case, goaded by Joel Klein in another). Or perhaps reformers thought it 

Hechinger Report | Questions abound as districts shift to merit pay for teachers

Hechinger Report | Questions abound as districts shift to merit pay for teachers:

Questions abound as districts shift to merit pay for teachers

by Scott Elliott

Raymond Park Intermediate Academy Principal Ryan Russell sits in on the fifth-grade classroom of Jen Hess for a three- to five-minute "walk through" evaluation of her class.

If your child’s teacher seems a little bit on edge this year, it might not be your imagination.
Education reforms now going into effect in Indiana, and similar ones sweeping the nation, are targeting something many Americans consider to be strictly off-limits: their paychecks.
The laws passed in 2011 and being implemented over the next two or three years were partly based on the 

Dear Abby... - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

Dear Abby... - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

Dear Abby...

by Nancy Flanagan

So--I'm out for breakfast on a sunny Saturday morning, reading the paper while waiting for my omelet to arrive. In the Body & Soul section, Dear Abby is providing sensible, mainstream advice for regular Americans, as she does every Saturday in the Traverse City Record-Eagle.
Letter #1) A teenager discovers that her father is having "sexually explicit conversations" online--and knows this has been going on for years. She is crushed, feels that he's betrayed her mother and her siblings--and thinks her father cares more about his fantasy life than his real family. She also thinks she should talk to someone about this, but isn't sure how to do it without raising her parents' suspicions. She is "Conflicted in New York."
So Abby sends her to the school counselor, who will help this poor kid sort out her options.
My first thought was that Abby is making the assumption that there actually is a counselor in Conflicted's school, and that the counselor could schedule the time necessary to help with a delicate, multi-layered family issue that, on the face of it, has little to do with education. Many school counselors are buried under the master 

Happy Birthday Paul Robeson, the New York Times’s Favorite Giant Negro « Student Activism

Happy Birthday Paul Robeson, the New York Times’s Favorite Giant Negro « Student Activism:

Happy Birthday Paul Robeson, the New York Times’s Favorite Giant Negro

by Angus Johnston

A couple of decades ago, Spy magazine pioneered the Nexis search as journalism — they’d gin up a query and publish the results as a chart in the front of the book, telling you (for instance) which dozen outlets had recently described vaguely blond public figures as Robert Redford look-alikes. (The LA Times said it of Cary Elwes andFortune of Dick Gephardt in mid-1989.)
Nowadays, full-text newspaper archive searches let you take the game a step further, going beyond Nexis as journalism into the realm of Nexis as history. So when the late David Mills of Undercover Black Man went digging a few years ago, he discovered that between 1897 and 1968 The New York Times deployed the phrase giant negro on more than a hundred occasions.

Q&A: Schools Services of California chief on education financing issues - Education - The Sacramento Bee

Q&A: Schools Services of California chief on education financing issues - Education - The Sacramento Bee:

Q&A: Schools Services of California chief on education financing issues

by dlambert@sacbee.com (Diana Lambert)

Hundreds of school administrators and finance officers will crowd into conference rooms around the state in May to hear School Services of California staff explain what the state budget revisions mean to their school districts.

Ron Bennett of Schools Services of California works with educators on budgeting, contract negotiations and other services.

In Chicago, it’s not how many votes you get. It’s who counts them. « Fred Klonsky

In Chicago, it’s not how many votes you get. It’s who counts them. « Fred Klonsky:

In Chicago, it’s not how many votes you get. It’s who counts them.

by Fred Klonsky

Chicago Machine Boss Berrios.
Chicago politics ain’t mumbly peg Mayor Washington used to say.
If you’re taking on the powerful Chicago Democratic Machine, that goes double.
Cook County Democratic Chair Joe Berrios is the very embodiment of The Machine.
That is what Will Guzzardi decided to take on when he announced he would run for state house of 

Missouri Education Watchdog: Trangressive Journalism at University of Missouri?

Missouri Education Watchdog: Trangressive Journalism at University of Missouri?:

Trangressive Journalism at University of Missouri?

by stlgretchen

Have you heard of the word "trangressive"?  Here's a definition:

Transgressive may mean:

• Transgressive art, a name given art forms that violate perceived boundaries
• Transgressive fiction, a modern style in literature
• Transgressive Records, a United Kingdom-based independent record label
• Transgressive (morphology), a form of verb in some languages
• Transgressive phenotype, a phenotype that is more extreme than the phenotypes displayed by either of the parents
• Transgressive segregation
• Cinema of Transgression, film movement using shock value and humor

Journalism was not listed in these descriptions of trangressive practices, probably because journalism was originally taught and centered on 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES:

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

by Mike Klonsky

In Sanford, Fl  the police chief threatened to stop the game if Robinson did not leave the field

Chris Lamb

"A specter of Jackie Robinson" haunts the city of 53,000 people to this day. People want to forget it and it shouldn't be forgotten." -- Racist past haunts Florida town where Trayvon died

Judy Rabin

"Like Pharoah, Duncan's heart is hardened and although members of United Opt Out met with him 

Cognitive And Affective Variables That Should Rule Education | Miguel Angel Escotet

Cognitive And Affective Variables That Should Rule Education | Miguel Angel Escotet:

Cognitive And Affective Variables That Should Rule Education

by Miguel Angel Escotet

Education must focus on the quality of formation and learning. The quality of the results, as a concept borrowed from the business sector which is much less complex and interactive than the education sector, is difficult to define with precision, since it combines values, attitudes and achievements which form a part of the most complex areas of study in psy­chology, such as the cognitive, affective and psychomotor areas. However, scientific evi­dence exists which makes it easier to understand many factors of this nature, as well as improving the criteria for the measurement of quality and thus substitute them for the ex­clusively quantitative ones and the inadequate standardized testing mania. 

But the primary condition for the defini­tion and achievement of quality resides precisely in both the diversification of formation and the acceptance of the existence of learning variables which play a part in the evalu­ation of excellence: quality, in relation to certain general policies and specific aims of the program or area of education; total quality, measured in terms of results of effective­ness, efficiency and relevance, through the all-round evaluation of the system and the 

Court challenges are brewing across US over the use of public dollars for private education - The Washington Post

Court challenges are brewing across US over the use of public dollars for private education - The Washington Post:

Court challenges are brewing across US over the use of public dollars for private education

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By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, April 9, 12:04 AM

WASHINGTON — Students like Delano Coffy are at the heart of brewing political fights and court battles over whether public dollars should go to school vouchers to help make private schools more affordable.

He was failing in his neighborhood public elementary school in Indianapolis until his mother enrolled him in a Roman Catholic school. Heather Coffy has scraped by for years to pay the tuition for Delano, now 16 and in a Catholic high school, and his two younger siblings, who attend the same Catholic elementary school as their brother did. She’s getting help today from a voucher program, passed last year at the urging of GOP Gov. Mitch