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Thursday, May 3, 2012

Big Education Ape: 5-3-12 AM A Conversation with Eli Broad EDition #soschat

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

Published by Coopmike48 – 6 news spotters today

A Conversation with Eli Broad - 92nd Street Y

92y.org - Interviewed by Charlie Rose Eli Broad is a businessman, philanthropist and founder of The Broad Foundations. After creating shareholder wealth by providing vital homebuilding and retirement savings...
leoniehaimson

Charter schools: public in form but private in essence

schoolingintheownershipsociety.blogspot.com -  "With these charter schools, people are trying to say, ‘I want a custom-tailored education for my children, and I want you, as my neighbor, to pay for it.’ ” -- Matthew Stewart, resident of up...
mikeklonsky

A testing culture out of control 

nydailynews.com - Dennis Clark A student in Queens takes a test. After months of studying, stressing and — yes — some crying, our kids are finally done with this year’s state English Language Arts and math exams. Th...
leoniehaimson

Free Internet lessons challenge textbook market

washingtonpost.com - For a modern take on Shakespeare, Montgomery County middle school teacher Amy Soldavini recently borrowed an online lesson comparing hip-hop artists to the Bard. Math teachers at Thomas Jefferson H...
arneduncan

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coopmike48 profile
coopmike48 How student debt became a focus of the presidential campaign | Inside Higher Ed: How student debt became a ... bit.ly/K1Gavc #edu13 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
coopmike48 profile
coopmike48 Jersey Jazzman: Perth Amboy Follies Continue: Jersey Jazzman: Perth Amboy Follies Continue: Perth Amboy Fol... bit.ly/K1G9HR #edu13 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
coopmike48 profile
coopmike48 More stories: The pension crisis in Chicago and Illinois -chicagotribune.com trib.in/JqDWTe13 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

EducationSee all

Brave Principals « Diane Ravitch's blog

dianeravitch.net - The principals of New York State are amazing. When the State Education Department began creating its “educator evaluation system,” it called together the principals and showed them what it was up t...
DianeRavitch

I guess the buck didn’t stop there. « Opine I will

rlratto.wordpress.com - NYS Education Commissioner King’s recent take on Pearson’s numerous errors, negligence, abuse, and pineapple fraud on this years assessments give us all a peak at  his unfortunate bias against NYS’...
DianeRavitch

Pearsongate? « Diane Ravitch's blog

dianeravitch.net - Teachers and principals discovered yet another error on one of New York state’s mandated tests. This one was on the fifth-grade math test and it required students to know mathematical processes tha...
DianeRavitch

SocietySee all

What You Need To Know About ALEC - Bridging Differences

blogs.edweek.org - Dear Deborah,Since the 2010 elections, when Republicans took control of many states, there has been an explosion of legislation advancing privatization of public schools and stripping teachers of j...
mikeklonsky

Idaho school reform foes hire outside consultant

necn.com - David Williams left his home in Bethesda, Md., last month to work on the Idaho campaign aimed at repealing new state laws that restrict teacher bargaining, eliminate tenure, phase in laptops and re...
leoniehaimson

PoliticsSee all

Arne Duncan, Al Sharpton, and Newt Gingrich Join Forces

usnews.com - In an effort to push cities to fix failing schools and highlight the Obama administration's programs to reform public education, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and civil rights leader Al Sharpt...
mikeklonsky

Does Mitt Romney Have an Education Platform? |

alternet.org - Beyond breaking the unions, what kind of education policy can we expect from a Romney presidency? April 26, 2012  |     Photo Credit: Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com     LIKE THIS ARTICLE ?...
mikeklonsky

StoriesSee all

the asian pacific american vagina monologues, may 17

blog.angryasianman.com - The National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum Bay Area and V-Day San Francisco are joining forces for the centerpiece presentation of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with the APA Vagina M...
coopmike48

Start a Walking Routine « MomsRising Blog

momsrising.org -   “I feel like I’ve been in the eye of a perfect storm of messages about the need to walk,” says Anita Jackson, Social Media Director at MomsRising. “From articles detailing how my sedentary, compu...
coopmike48

Tweeting is fun (and funny)

saveseattleschools.blogspot.com - So there's been this stream of tweets from the Times' Lynne Varner.  Here's what she's been saying since Banda was selected:I see shades of Susan Enfield in Sandy Husk. Both know their worth & ref...
coopmike48

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Progressive groups question CEO lobby for NY gov

businessweek.com - By MICHAEL GORMLEY ALBANY, N.Y. Two of New York's growing progressive groups said Monday that a committee of CEOs lobbying on behalf of Gov. Andrew Cuomo is really a "Super PAC" for wealthy interes...
leoniehaimson

Cuomo's Lone School Board Appointee to Education Reform Panel

nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.fr - Governor Cuomo's new blue-ribbon school reform commission has been criticized for its lack of parents, teachers and school board members.   But as Gotham Schools pointed out here, Cuomo did appoint...
leoniehaimson

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Should A School Change Start Time For Sleep? Later School Start Times Improve Student Performance: Study

Should A School Change Start Time For Sleep? Later School Start Times Improve Student Performance: Study:


Should A School Change Start Time For Sleep? Later School Start Times Improve Student Performance: Study

by Joy Resmovits

In high school, Melissa Edwards woke up at 6:30 a.m. to catch a bus. It was dark, she was tired and the school's 7:15 a.m. morning bell forced the St. Louis teen to eat lunch at 10:45.

Her brother was incredulous. "I thought that this couldn�t possibly be good," said Finley Edwards, a Colby College economist, of his sister's predawn start. But when Edwards sought data on the topic, he couldn�t find any. So he ran the numbers himself.

On Thursday, the Harvard journal Education Next will release Edwards' findings that show that later start times, which usually allow teens more sleep, boost test scores significantly. The Economics of Education Review will publish a longer version of the study.
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A state that just says ‘no’ to charters, other reforms - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

A state that just says ‘no’ to charters, other reforms - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:
Answer Sheet



A state that just says ‘no’ to charters, other reforms

by Valerie Strauss
This was written by Melissa Westbrook, a public education activist and co-writer of the Seattle Schools Community Forum blog, based in Seattle.

By Melissa Westbrook
Quietly marching to its own drummer, Washington State has mostly turned its back on the education reform movement that is sweeping much of the rest of the country.
Read full article >>

13 charged in hazing death of Florida A&M student

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 20 hours ago
*Updated, 4:25 p.m.: Prosecutor gives news conference* Thirteen people have been charged in the hazing death of a Florida A&M University band drum major last November, a prosecutor said on Wednesday. Eleven of the 13 face a third-degree felony charge of hazing resulting in death. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Teacher: Why computerized standardized testing is ‘frightening’

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 20 hours ago
This was written by Melissa Bollow Tempel, who teaches first grade in the Milwaukee Public Schools. Tempel co-edited “Pencils Down: Rethinking High-Stakes Testing and Accountability” with Wayne Au. Her 1st- and 3rd-grade daughters have been opted out of standardized tests. This was first published on the Rethinking Schools website. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Ravitch: A primer on the group driving school reform

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 1 day ago
This was *written by education historian Diane Ravitch for her Bridging Differences blog, which she co-authors with Deborah Meier on the Education Week website. The item was first published on May 1. In their blog, Ravitch and Meier exchange letters about what matters most in education. Ravitch, a research professor at New York University, is author of “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” a critique of the flaws in the modern school reform movement.* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to St... more »

Colbert hilarious on ‘don’t say gay’ in school bill

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 1 day ago
There is a bill now being considered by Missouri legislators that would come close to banning all conversations in public schools about sexual orientation as well as bar “gay-straight” alliances and other school-sponsored clubs that deal with sexual identity. And Stephen Colbert skewered it as only he can on The Colbert Report. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
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Jersey Jazzman: Perth Amboy Follies Continue

Jersey Jazzman: Perth Amboy Follies Continue:


Perth Amboy Follies Continue

by Duke
Oy, vey...
Derrick Kyriacou, district supervisor of language arts with principal certification, has been temporarily assigned as principal at the Dr. Herbert N. Richardson 21st Century School after five people were placed on leave, according to Acting Superintendent of Schools Dr. Vivian Rodriguez. 
The Home News Tribune has confirmed that Richardson School Principal Alvaro Cores, who is new to the district, and the school’s vice principal have been placed on leave, along with three support staff members who do not have direct contact with students. 
“We are unable to comment on personnel matters or the extent of any pending investigations at this time,” Rodriguez said.
The employment leaves come at the same time a police report about allegations at the Richardson 


The Kids Are Alright

by Duke
If our governor would just stop for a minute and listen to the real stakeholders in education, he might actually learn something [all emphases mine]:
Question: What’s your reaction to Christie’s announcement that the HSPA would be phased out as a high school test and replaced by end-of-year exams?
Jeffrey Yu, 18, senior, WWP South: “At West Windsor Plainsboro South, there hasn’t been a year when a kid didn’t pass the HSPA. It’s an easy test for our district. For myself, I definitely thought it was pretty easy.
“I wouldn’t say it’s eighth grade [level]. It had algebra, so I would say that is more 10th 
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How student debt became a focus of the presidential campaign | Inside Higher Ed

How student debt became a focus of the presidential campaign | Inside Higher Ed:


The New Politics of Student Debt
May 3, 2012 - 3:00am

By

Libby A. Nelson

These days, Robert Applebaum is feeling vindicated.
In January 2009, Applebaum, then a 35-year-old lawyer with more than $80,000 in student debt, created a petition calling for student loan forgiveness to stimulate the economy. It was greeted with a few weeks of buzz and plenty of scorn. Then, for more than two years, silence.
Then student loan balances passed $1 trillion, interest rates spent a week as the focus of the nascent 2012 presidential campaign, and suddenly everyone wanted to talk about student debt. Applebaum's solution may be as unrealistic as ever. But even President Obama has now signed onto the underlying thesis: that student debt isn't just a burden for debtors but a drag on the economy. In the de facto first week of the general election campaign, Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney sparred not over health care


Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/05/03/how-student-debt-became-focus-presidential-campaign#ixzz1to8HOHi5
Inside Higher Ed 
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Faltering in special education, LA Unified seeks answers | California Watch

Faltering in special education, LA Unified seeks answers | California Watch:


Faltering in special education, LA Unified seeks answers

May 3, 2012 | Joanna Lin
pixdeluxe/istockphoto.com
After failing for the eighth straight year to meet service delivery targets for special education, Los Angeles Unified School District has begun interviewing staff to understand why records indicate thousands of students with disabilities are not receiving their prescribed services.
The effort, led by the district's Office of the Independent Monitor, seeks to determine whether the shortcomings are due to documentation problems, actual failures to serve students or both. Jaime Hernandez, the office's research director, said the goal to show a student received any service was "really a very low bar to meet."
"We would have expected some more progress," said Hernandez, who believes the problem is likely both bad data and lack of services.
Attorneys who represent special education students and their families said many children with special needs receive few or no services and that the true service delivery rate in LA Unified, which enrolled more than 82,000 special education students in 2010-11, could be worse than records show.
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May Day | California Father

May Day | California Father:


May Day

by California Father
Popout
This is a note I wrote to a friend about the May Day parade, the vid above some raw footage of the Bus Rider Union Drum and Chant Corps.
I just had a FANTASTIC time is all and it went like this: After school I went to the May Day march downtown where I met, among thousands of other wonderful people, the Drum and Chant Corps of the Bus Riders Union, whose neighborhood groove made me think my head would explode. I mean, it was great, from the little son of a communist trying to hand me a leaflet when I had both arms full of equipment to the laid off teacher who offered 
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A NEW TEACHER BULLIED BY INEPT ADMINISTRATORS IN A BLOOMBERG CREATED SCHOOL southbronxschool.com

http://www.southbronxschool.com:


A New Teacher Bullied By Inept Administrators in a Bloomberg Created School

by noreply@blogger.com (Bronx Teacher)
The story below came across the desk of the SBSB newsroom late this afternoon. Our collective SBSB jaws dropped while reading of not only a school in disarray, but of a young teacher being tormented, and the lack of support, by the administration of this school.

We here at SBSB did find some irony that the author share, "seven years my small school has served our city." Apparently it seems to walk, talk, and quack like a school that Uncle Mike had opened so it must be.

Another bit of irony, the author shares that  she has had one formal observation and no feedback concerning her teaching. One might think that this shows that the new evaluation system and E4E's evaluation suggestions are what are needed to properly evaluate teachers. I say the opposite. That it is u
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STUDENTS EVALUATING TEACHERS, AND THE “ULTRA HAPPY SCHOOL” « Teachers Fight Back

STUDENTS EVALUATING TEACHERS, AND THE “ULTRA HAPPY SCHOOL” « Teachers Fight Back:


STUDENTS EVALUATING TEACHERS, AND THE “ULTRA HAPPY SCHOOL”

by alkleen
The latest suggestion from the geniuses behind “education reform” is to have students evaluate their teachers, and that score would then become part of a teachers overall evaluation by the administration.  Gee, can anyone see a potential problem with this ?  I can think of a few dozen problems with this idea, but I’ll leave it to your imagination to come up with a few of your own. Some of them should be quite obvious if you’ve been a teacher for any length of time. What adult wouldn’t want to be evaluated by an eight year old that has been a discipline problem for the entire year? Wouldn’t you want to be evaluated by that occasional “class from hell” that most teachers will experience if they’re in the profession for any length of time?
I’m not against a teacher hearing the OPINIONS of students from time to time as regards the teachers performance, but to be an actual part of the evaluation, I don’t think so. I valued student opinions and used an opinion form a few times during the year  to help me understand how to better relate to the students.  I had my students write unsigned opinion pieces about me and my teaching methods. I provided a form with questions 
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Florida School Board Member Mocks FCAT With Video | Scathing Purple Musings

Florida School Board Member Mocks FCAT With Video | Scathing Purple Musings:


Florida School Board Member Mocks FCAT With Video

by Bob Sikes
Florida’s republican legislators don’t like to be accused of ending local control of schools. But trying to end school board member salaries and giving final oversight of charter schools to Tallahassee political appointees is well, attempting to end local control of schools. It must really chap their behind when a clever school member from a big district mocks the anchor to their education philosophy. Leslie Postal of the Orlando Sentinelreports:
The pain and frustration of failing FCAT gets on-air attention in a new video that was produced by — and stars — local high school students.
“I took it, failed it,” says one student from Freedom High in Orange County. “My Mom loved me, still she had that look like, ‘ugh, I can’t believe you failed it.’ It was a hard time for me.”
The video produced in Freedom’s television production studio also features School Board member Rick Roach, who wants to “stop the madness” of Florida’s high-stakes testing program. He 
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Schooling in the Ownership Society: Princeton Review busted for fraud

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Princeton Review busted for fraud:


Princeton Review busted for fraud

by Mike Klonsky
No Child Left Behind has been a cash cow for test publishers and private tutoring companies.Now one of the biggest of this small group of powerful and politically-connected companies has been busted for fraud. 

On Tuesday, the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan announced the indictment of one of the largest and most well-known private test-prep and tutoring companies, the Princeton Review, for falsifying records and accepting millions of dollars in reimbursements for testing services it never provided to New York City schoolchildren. -- The New York Times.

Mary Ann Giordano, writes at the NYT School Book blog:
The public education system these days is rife with ways that private enterprises can make money. Under the federal No Child Left Behind law, student testing has increased, creating opportunities for test-making companies. New technology has opened the door to online 
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