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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Big Education Ape: 4-11-12 PM Teachers’ Roles as Activists EDition #p2 #SOSCHAT

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

Published by Coopmike48 – 7 news spotters today

Teachers’ Roles as Activists :: Reclaiming Reform

reclaimingreform.org - I’m currently deep into Education and Capitalism: Struggles for Learning and Liberation, a highly recommended read for those committed to learning about struggles for social justice in public educa...
mikeklonsky

When Test Prep Requires Test Prep – SchoolBook

nytimes.com - April 10, 2012, 4:03 p.m. It’s that time of year again — time for students, and their teachers, to become anxious about the standardized tests they are about to take. I have been a parent in the pu...
leoniehaimson

Free tuition not such a radical idea

michaelklonsky.blogspot.com - Michael Hiltzik writes in today's L.A. Times: "...let's reinvigorate the notion of a free UC education.  The chief objection to this idea isn't hard to predict: "We can't afford it!" Yet it's odd ...
mikeklonsky

Responses So Far

buzzfeed.com - The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, under fire from the left for a grant to the American Legislative Exchange Council, said it won't pull its promised funding from the conservative group.The Gat...
leoniehaimson

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coopmike48 George Zimmerman faces second-degree murder charges for death of Trayvon Martin | The Raw Storybit.ly/HImVYs13 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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EducationSee all

No Obituary Needed for Arts Education, Study Reveals

edweek.org - Published Online: April 11, 2012Rumors of the death of arts education in public schools have been greatly exaggerated, new data suggest.Over the past decade, the availability of music and visual-ar...
DianeRavitch

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UC Davis Pepper-Spraying 'Should Have Been Prevented'

baycitizen.org - Screen shot from Aggie TV UC Davis police officer John Pike pepper-sprayed student protesters on Nov. 18, 2011. A pepper-spraying incident at the University of California, Davis, last November "cou...
coopmike48

HealthSee all

Flushing High School

flushinghighschool.org - The Joint Public Hearing for the closure and replacement of Flushing High School(25Q460) has been scheduled for Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 6:00 pm - A sign-up for public comment will take place 3...
DianeRavitch

Blog posts on this issue

whitehouse.gov - The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release April 11, 2012 Primary care providers are critical for ensuring better coordinated care and better health outcomes for all Americ...
coopmike48

PoliticsSee all

Santorum bows out, clearing the path for Romney

philly.com - Now it's Romney vs. Obama. With that in mind and a bruising primary fight finally behind him, Mitt Romney bathed in the praise Tuesday night of a cheering crowd of Chester County Republicans - fina...
mikeklonsky

Reagan Appeals For Buffet Rule Passage

ourfuture.org - There's a lot of discussion right now about the "Buffet Rule." This is the proposed tax rule that says people who make more than $1 million a year should at least pay as much of their income in tax...
coopmike48

LeisureSee all

A Green Makeover for Your Nursery « MomsRising Blog

momsrising.org - Getting ready to set up a nursery? Make it as safe and nontoxic as possible with a few important green swaps when it comes to decor, furniture, bedding, and toys! Photo credit: Photo by Flickr user...
coopmike48

#eduRead this paperSee all

Gates Won't Pull ALEC Grant

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Gates Won't Pull ALEC Grant: Gates Won't Pull ALEC GrantThe Microsoft founder's foundation promised not to give future grants after a campaign from the left. posted Apr 10, 2012 1:28pm EDTBuzzfeed ...
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Charter Schools No Cure-All for Black Students, Says Study | News

Charter Schools No Cure-All for Black Students, Says Study | News:

Charter Schools No Cure-All for Black Students, Says Study

April 11, 2012
AUSTIN, Texas — Despite being promoted as a viable alternative to traditional public schools, privately owned charter schools in Texas have higher attrition rates for black students than comparable urban public schools, says a University of Texas at Austin study.
Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig’s research shows that, although many privately operated charter schools claim that 90 percent or more of their students go on to college and many, such as the Houston-based KIPP chain of schools, spend 30-60 percent more per pupil than comparable urban school districts, more black students drop out and leave charter schools.
“Since the mid-’90s, charter schools have been heavily promoted as a panacea for minority students, a means of delivering to them the kind of high-quality education that public schools cannot,” says Vasquez Heilig.
An analysis of Texas Education Agency data of average black dropout rates in Texas secondary schools shows that Houston, Dallas and Austin public schools outperform privately operated charter districts, with charter districts having three times the dropout rate reported in the comparable urban districts (4 percent versus the charters’ 13 percent).
“Leavers” are included in a separate category from dropouts, and that category addresses students who depart a school for any number 
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Gates Won't Pull ALEC Grant

Gates Won't Pull ALEC Grant:


Gates Won't Pull ALEC Grant

The Microsoft founder's foundation promised not to give future grants after a campaign from the left. posted 
Gates at an Energy Department conference in February.
(Getty Images / PAUL J. RICHARDS)
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, under fire from the left for a grant to the American Legislative Exchange Council, said it won't pull its promised funding from the conservative group.
The Gates Foundation last fall awarded ALEC a grant of $376,635 "to educate and engage its membership on more efficient state budget approaches to drive greater student outcomes, as well as educate them on beneficial ways to recruit, retain, evaluate and compensate effective teaching based upon merit and achievement."
Gates Foundation press secretary Christopher Williams told BuzzFeed the foundation does not plan to withdraw that grant "for now."
"We have already paid out a significant portion of it," he said.
Williams told Roll Call yesterday that Gates does "not anticipate making another grant to ALEC," 
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Seattle Schools Community Forum: Audit&Finance Committee Meeting Round-Up

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Audit&Finance Committee Meeting Round-Up:


Audit&Finance Committee Meeting Round-Up

by Melissa Westbrook
As if to only reinforce the idea that the real action of the district is at committee meetings, there was the Audit&Finance committee meeting yesterday.

On the upside, I think this district has made tremendous strides in bringing in some bright and capable people as district staff.  Duggan Harmon, head of Finance, Richard Staudt, Risk Management, and Andrew Medina, Internal Auditor, and Ronic Lirio, also in Finance, all come across as quite knowledgeable about their area of expertise within the district.  I think they are all capable of laying out the facts clearly to the Board.  I do not hear the hedging that I used to with, say, Don Kennedy, the former COO/CFO.

There was an update of First AME and their compliance with the contract wording for the sale of MLK, Jr. building to them.  There were members of the First AME board on-hand to listen.  District staff went through

Ding-Dong

by Melissa Westbrook
The charter schools bill is dead.  

At least for this session as lawmakers finally got a budget passed early this morning (like 5 am). From the AP:

Sen. Ed Murray, Senate Democrats' lead budget writer, lauded the fact that lawmakers didn't make cuts to K-12 or higher education, as they have in past budgets.

"That's key," he said following the vote.

Good news for all of us. 

Now do I think that's the end of charter legislation?  Of course not.  There is money to be made and chits to be 
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Schools Matter: How Do You Shut Down the Most Brutal and Corrupt Charter School in U. S. History? We Don't Know Yet

Schools Matter: How Do You Shut Down the Most Brutal and Corrupt Charter School in U. S. History? We Don't Know Yet:


How Do You Shut Down the Most Brutal and Corrupt Charter School in U. S. History? We Don't Know Yet

by Jim Horn
If you follow our model, you'll be a winner. By the time these kids are in ninth grade, I don't have to call them idiots anymore.  --Ben Chavis, founder of AIPCS
Ben Chavis is the foul-mouthed right wing thug turned schoolmaster, founder, and overseer (think plantation) of the American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland (AIPCS). 

AIPCS openly disparagesmulticulturalism and openly advances the philosophy of Milton Friedman.Consider this 
teacher recruitment ad from the AIPCS website that became part ofa story in 2009 by Landsberg in the Los Angeles 
Times: 
“We are looking forhardworking people who believe in free market capitalism . . . Multicul­turalspecialists, ultra liberal zealots and college-tainted oppression libera­torsneed not apply.”
The history of abuse, brutality, and mistreatment goes back years.  Here is a clip from the 
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Advocate for the Right Tools in Teacher Evaluation « InterACT

Advocate for the Right Tools in Teacher Evaluation « InterACT:


Advocate for the Right Tools in Teacher Evaluation

by David B. Cohen
The blog post that follows is lifted (and slightly modified) from a lengthy comment I put on the Accomplished California Teachers Ning site, which is our members-only online platform.  A Los Angeles teacher asked me to elaborate on a prior comment I’d made suggesting that I think teachers need to fight against the use of value-added measures in teacher evaluation.
Okay – you asked for it!
It's important to have the right tools for the job.
Before I post the particulars, please note: standardized tests are well-designed diagnostic tools when applied to individual students, let alone teachers.  They are mainly designed to give an indication of school, district, or state level performance.  They may have some value at the individual student level, but even that breaks down if you get to the subtest level (see J. Cizik, 2007).  So, if I had my way, any debate on this issue would begin (and 
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