Estimating Common Core costs | Thoughts on Public Education

Estimating Common Core costs | Thoughts on Public Education:

Estimating Common Core costs - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

The adoption of the Common Core standards comes at tough time for districts that have cut teacher training days and textbook purchases to stave off further layoffs. But a new study for the Fordham Institute co-authored by a University of San Francisco political science professor concludes that the transition to the new standards in the next few years need not be onerous.

“The bottom line is that successful (Common Core) implementation does not have to be wildly expensive – and could also support changes that have a permanent and positive impact on the quality and effectiveness of teaching and learning,” says 

School Tech Connect: An Argument About Opera

School Tech Connect: An Argument About Opera:

An Argument About Opera

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

Ken Previti, over at Illinois Teachers and Neighbors United, after I took a swipe at Stand For Children and opera in a single sentence.
 

"Stand for Children (or as CTU President Karen Lewis calls them, Stand On Children) is much more like the Hansel & Gretal Foundation dedicated to having witches living in candy houses (Edelman) devour children. Actually, this is an excellent comparison."

There Are Two Wisconsins

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

The one the people live in, as filmed by the great Matt Wisniewski:

Popout

And the one the Koch brothers own-- pretty much limited to the Capitol and the Governor's office:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Steering clear of the fight

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Steering clear of the fight:

Steering clear of the fight

by Mike Klonsky

After Romney laid out the Republican platform on eduction, including union busting, vouchers and larger class size, the Democrats, including Pres. Obama and Sec. Duncan, immediately went into hiding. The reason? Thus far, their own agenda on education has been essentially the same as the Republicans and their appears to be no change in sight. Even on the few issues where they supposedly disagree, for example on school vouchers, Obama won't take Romney head-on, for fear I suppose, of alienating his wealthy and powerful corporate "reform" backers in Democrats for Education Reform (DFER).

As a result, the fight to save and transform public education has been left to a growing and vibrant grassroots movement of independent voices. Here's Dan Archer and Adam Bessie, masters of graphic journalism, posting their hard-hitting comic strip at Truthout:

Welcome to other side of the looking glass, and into the Bizarro world of so-called "education reform" - an upside-down universe in which up is down, left is right and multimillionaire CEOs are civil rights heroes championing social justice, while public school teachers are corrupt fat cats, maintaining a status quo which oppresses students in poverty and racism. -- The Disaster Capitalism Curriculum

ConnCAN: Half a Million Dollars of CT Lobbying over 100 days, Nationally Recognized for their Misleading Propaganda - Wait, What?

ConnCAN: Half a Million Dollars of CT Lobbying over 100 days, Nationally Recognized for their Misleading Propaganda - Wait, What?:

ConnCAN: Half a Million Dollars of CT Lobbying over 100 days, Nationally Recognized for their Misleading Propaganda

by jonpelto

As Governor Malloy and the Connecticut General Assembly prepare for a June 12^thSpecial Session that will include adopting language to “clean up” this year’s “education reform” bill, the stench of inappropriate efforts to influence public policy hangs over the Capitol – and it doesn’t just have to do with license fees and tax increases on “roll-your-own” tobacco.

ConnCAN, the charter school advocacy group that was set up by Achievement First, Inc., the charter school management company, which was created by Connecticut education commissioner Stefan Pryor and his “education reform” colleagues, now reports that they actually spent half a million dollars in their recent effort to pass the “reform” legislation 

Alachua, Hernando School Boards to Take Up Resolution on High Stakes Testing | Scathing Purple Musings

Alachua, Hernando School Boards to Take Up Resolution on High Stakes Testing | Scathing Purple Musings:

Alachua, Hernando School Boards to Take Up Resolution on High Stakes Testing

by Bob Sikes

The Gainesville Sun and Tampa Bay Times reports that two more school boards, Alachua and Hernando, will be strongly considering resolutions against Florida’s suffocating high-stakes test regime. The Sun has this from Alachua board chairman:

To base everything on one high-stakes test is not in the best interest of our children,” said April Griffin, chair of the School Board.
….Griffin emphasized that districts want to be held accountable, but current state and federal testing mandates are not the answer.
“We want to encourage the state of Florida, the governor and the state Board of Education to come 

GO TO 

National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing

NYC Educator: The Zombie Apocalypse Comes to TMS2

NYC Educator: The Zombie Apocalypse Comes to TMS2:

The Zombie Apocalypse Comes to TMS2

by Miss Eyre

If you didn't pick up this brilliant post via GothamSchools' Remainders last night, you should go and read it now.  I LOL'd, especially because the"zombie apocalypse" definitely happened at TMS2 at lunch today.  I typically open up my classroom for lunch a couple of days a week so kids can get tutoring or make up work or just hang out, but today, I really needed those precious fifty (which became forty-three after a conference with a young woman who was trying my patience) duty-free minutes to regroup, for the safety of the children in my afternoon classes.

"Five more days," one of the zombies muttered.  "Five more days.  I can do five more days."

"If I have to write one more referral for one more kid 

Education Voter Guide, CA State Senate & Assembly Races, June 5, 2012: Who Are the Bullies of 2011? (UPDATE: Now With Assembly Races) | K-12 News Network

Education Voter Guide, CA State Senate & Assembly Races, June 5, 2012: Who Are the Bullies of 2011? (UPDATE: Now With Assembly Races) | K-12 News Network:

Education Voter Guide, CA State Senate & Assembly Races, June 5, 2012: Who Are the Bullies of 2011? (UPDATE: Now With Assembly Races)

by admin

Coming up on June 5, 2012: California’s first open primary election in which anyone can vote for any candidate for state legislative offices, so long as you live in the district. Among other things, you’ll be choosing new State Senators in odd-numbered districts, and new Assembly members in all districts this year.
Wondered who’s up for election in the newly redistricted state of California who also DID NOT ALLOW state voters to extend revenue that funded schools? Put briefly, most schools around the state had to cut their per-pupil spending by about $540 dollars when taxes expired last June 30, 2011. Here’s who’s responsible for budget cuts to your school. If you’re seeing and feeling the pain of the cuts at your child’s school, it’s because every vote counts.
We’ve gone ahead and compiled a map of new districts, along with information on the incumbent in the district, 

A forshadowing. « Fred Klonsky

A forshadowing. « Fred Klonsky:

A forshadowing.

by Fred Klonsky

H/T: Glen Brown
Here is the roll call vote for HB 1447.
This bill imposes pension reductions on the General Assembly Retirement System and the State Employee Retirement System. System participants would have to choose between (1) reduced COLA’s and having salary increases apply to their pensions along with access to retiree health insurance; or (2) existing COLA but no pensionable salary increases and no access to retiree health insurance.
Sound familiar?
This is the model for what Madigan and company want to do to TRS COLA.
30 YEAS  24 NAYS  1 PRESENT:
Y Althoff Y Haine N Lightford Y RadognoN Bivins Y Harmon Y Link Y RaoulN Bomke N Holmes N Luechtefeld Y Rezin
Y Brady NV Hunter Y Maloney N Righter
NV Clayborne N Hutchinson Y Martinez Y SandackN Collins, A. N Jacobs N McCann N Sandoval
N Collins, J. N Johnson, C. N McCarter Y SchmidtNV Crotty Y Johnson, T. Y McGuire Y Schoenberg
Y Cultra N Jones, E. Y Meeks N Silverstein
N Delgado N Jones, J. N Millner Y Steans
Y Dillard N Koehler Y Mulroe N Sullivan
Y Duffy Y Kotowski Y Muñoz Y SyversonN Forby Y LaHood Y Murphy NV Trotter
N Frerichs Y Landek P Noland Y Mr. President
Y Garrett N Lauzen Y Pankau
See a name in bold. You might want to give them a call today.

Today we are all cheese heads.

by Fred Klonsky

Some might argue that from a historical point of view Chicago has more in common with Wisconsin than it does with the rest of Illinois.
It is true that one of our greatest sports rivalries is the one between the Bears and the Packers.
But politically, the progressive traditions of Wisconsin have a lot in common with the working class history of Chicago.
From a personal point of view, both my kids went to college in Wisconsin.
Our dearest friends play Sheepshead.
It was no surprise then when Scott Walker went after teachers, public service workers and unions, I-90 between Chicago and Madison became crowded with car caravans headed for rallies at the Wisconsin state Capitol.
Many Chicagoans spent this past weekend working the recall.
Tonight we will be watching the returns.
Go Badgers!

Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee's Students First [sic] Uses Children to Attack Teachers « InterACT

Students First [sic] Uses Children to Attack Teachers « InterACT:

Students First [sic] Uses Children to Attack Teachers

by David B. Cohen

Here we go.  Michelle Rhee and her ironically named “Students First” organization will soon announce their firstbig political move in California.  Will it be about students, and putting their needs first?  Well, heads up, Los Angeles! They’re coming your way, and your students sure could use some help from this influential and well-funded crowd.
I know your students are dealing with shorter school years, class sizes over thirty, over forty in some cases, closed libraries, and a serious lack of all sorts of in-school supports that help children.  I know these supports are so desparately needed when we have record numbers of homeless students and students living in poverty, when obesity, diabetes, and asthma are on the rise.  Students first!  That sounds great!
Sorry to get your hopes up, however.  Their first big move in California will be to support a piece of legislation that will eliminate “last-in-first-out” (LIFO) policies applying to

Beware of AstroTurf Ed Reformers 

Just Like Michelle Rhee's Students first only BETTER

Astroturf lobbying refers to political organizations or campaigns that appear to be made up of grassroots activists but are actually organized and run by corporate interests seeking to further their own agendas. Such groups are often typified by innocent-sounding names that have been chosen specifically to disguise the group's true backers

Just Like Michelle Rhee's

 Students first Astroturf lobbying (only Better) 

NJ Spotlight | Facebook Founder and Broad Foundation to Pitch in More for NJ School Reforms

NJ Spotlight | Facebook Founder and Broad Foundation to Pitch in More for NJ School Reforms:

Facebook Founder and Broad Foundation to Pitch in More for NJ School Reforms

If approved, $600,000 from the high-profile private foundations to help with charters, school turnarounds

 print | email | share

By John Mooney, June 5, 2012 in Education |Post a Comment

The Christie administration is harnessing funds from two high-profile private foundations to press some of its statewide education reforms.

Related Links

Broad Foundation Resolution

StartUp: Education Resolution

The State Board of Education tomorrow will have two unusual resolutions before it to accept more than $600,000 in outside funds from two foundations:

• $200,000 from StartUp:Education, the national foundation created by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
• $430,000 from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, the California-based organization that has helped train and support three of the administration’s top education officials, including 
  
  
  
  
  

U.S. Department Of Education Tries To Put Lipstick On A Pig | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

U.S. Department Of Education Tries To Put Lipstick On A Pig | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…:

U.S. Department Of Education Tries To Put Lipstick On A Pig

by Larry Ferlazzo

The U.S. Department Of Education just released a report titled “Impact in Place: A Progress Report on the Department of Education’s Place-Based Strategy.”
Except for an incomprehensible and fairly useless section on the use of data, it’s actually a fairly decent report on how schools can connect with local neighborhoods and community groups to better serve students.
Unfortunately, apart from the Adminstration’s laudable, though limited, effort to replicate Harlem Children Zones (I 

An Urban Teacher's Education: Things Fall Apart

An Urban Teacher's Education: Things Fall Apart:

Things Fall Apart

by James Boutin

In the fall of 2005, the Academy for Citizenship and Empowerment (the school I teach at) was created out of Tyee (formerly a large comprehensive high school) along with two other small schools. From what I can gather, the conversion process was intense, and many of the staff members uninterested in working in a small school transferred to other large schools in the district.

Seven years later, staff members who were there when it happened tell stories of the immense effort and valuable payoffs that came out of the conversion. Advisory was the heart of the school, and getting students to a four-year university was paramount. It feels a little nostalgic. But whatever happened in its beginning years, ACE in 2012 is decidedly different.

In 2007, the on-time graduation rate was 88.8%. In 2010 (the last year OSPI reports data), it was 52.1%. The current seniors (whose last week of school began today) will graduate having worked with four different 

School funding formula clears Legislature in late, controversial vote | NOLA.com

School funding formula clears Legislature in late, controversial vote | NOLA.com:

School funding formula clears Legislature in late, controversial vote

Published: Monday, June 04, 2012, 6:56 PM     Updated: Monday, June 04, 2012, 6:57 PM

 By Bill Barrow, The Times-Picayune 

BATON ROUGE -- Lawmakers waited until the final hours of the legislative session Monday to adopt the resolution that allows $3.4 billion in spending for basic public education needs, in addition to the financing for Gov. Bobby Jindal's high-profile proposal to spend taxpayer money on private school tuition aid for certain low-income students.

Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune archiveThe state House of Representatives approved the public school funding formula with just 51 votes, two fewer than the majority normally required to pass legislation in the chamber.

Disputes over those grants, along with additional outlays for high school students to pay for college course work, created a rocky path for the Minimum Foundation Program resolution whose passage, in most years, is routine. Some lawmakers also raised concerns, which had surfaced in a more muted way earlier in the session, that the vouchers will result in giving taxpayer money to religious schools, including the Islamic School of Greater New Orleans.

The controversy intensified as House Speaker Charles Kleckley, R-Lake Charles, declared the resolution approved on a 51-49 tally, two votes shy of a majority in the 105-member chamber and well short of the majorities that Jindal's voucher proposals garnered in April. Kleckley ruled that because the school-funding formula is a resolution, as opposed to a bill, it requires only a majority of those voting rather than an absolute majority of membership. Defending his ruling to the House, the speaker dismissed any constitutional concer

Top Ed Official Tells NY to Keep Up Reforms – SchoolBook

Top Ed Official Tells NY to Keep Up Reforms – SchoolBook:

Top Ed Official Tells NY to Keep Up Reforms

by Yasmeen Khan

United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said the country is lagging far behind its international competitors, and he supported New York’s efforts to implement a reform agenda.
He told an audience of foundation leaders that he supports revisions to teacher evaluation systems, new learning standards and the tests to assess them, all to ensure students leave high school with “21st century skills.”
“The biggest challenge I think we all face is that we’re all told we’re going too fast,” he said. “When in fact we are going far, far, far too slow. The world is passing us by.”
Mr. Duncan was joined on stage by State Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. and New York City schools chancellor Dennis M. Walcott at the annual meeting of Philanthropy New York, a group of New York-based 

Last Stand for Children First: CTU Respect Yourself

Last Stand for Children First: CTU Respect Yourself:

CTU Respect Yourself

by Last Stand for Children

Popout

I've been so upset about the Chicago Teachers Union strike authorization this week, but I haven't been able to figure out why.  Sure I care about the students who will be left without a school to go to and the hardship these families face, but I realized what the answer was when I head CPS' CEO Jean Claude Brizard tell reporters, "What are they voting on? You’re asking educated professionals to decide something that they don’t know what they’re deciding on. That is disingenuous and disrespectful of teachers."

That's the problem!  Since the Chicago Teachers Union is made up of teachers obviously, the problem is that 

Why we need vocational education - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Why we need vocational education - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

Why we need vocational education

By Valerie Strauss

This was written by Mark Phillips, professor emeritus of secondary education at San Francisco State University. This was written for hisblog on Edutopia , and he also publishes a monthly column on education for the Marin Independent Journal.

By Mark Phillips

I was hired by Norway’s Ministry of Education to train vocational education teachers some years ago . Having myself attended a comprehensive high school where vocational students were those who couldn’t make it academically it was eye opening to be in a country where vocational education had high prestige, was well funded, and included students who could have gone to medical school if that had been their preference. 

 I was reminded of this experience recently when Tony Wagner, the 

Geaux Teacher!: THE MEDIA IS WAKING UP!!

Geaux Teacher!: THE MEDIA IS WAKING UP!!:

THE MEDIA IS WAKING UP!!

by noreply@blogger.com (Lee Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT)

A growing army of educators nationwide have been throwing bones at the media for several years. In the end it is small town journalism that took the bite and is now stirring up interest in the debacle name Bobby Jindal and his efforts to trample democracy on his way up the political ladder.

We won't give up in what has become a battle to save public education and the communities that have traditionally been built around our schools. The MYTH of The New Orleans Miracle will be fully exposed. WWBJ do now?

TALK ABOUT THE SOUTH: VOUCHERS GONE WILD!

By Dayne Sherman
Monday, June 4, 2012 11:14 AM CDT



The ink was barely dry on Bobby Jindal’s new school voucher program, state tax money given to private and parochial schools to teach Louisiana students, and it’s already a national disgrace and a scandal. Due to the diligent investigative reporting of the Monroe News-Star, this past week has been a nightmare for the Jindal Machine.

http://www.southbronxschool.com

http://www.southbronxschool.com:

Marsha Elliott Forgets What Christianity Is All About

by noreply@blogger.com (Bronx Teacher)

More to come as promised. Still on the subject of Marsha Elliott, my former principal at PS 154. Today we will learn just how low a principal will sink and lie to get their way.

As a dean and SAVE room coordinator at my school it is very hard work though there are some who think it is easy. Back in December of this school year we had a 4th grade student who was assigned to me for several days and basically a terror. She refused to stay in the room and was more apt to be wondering around the school than being where she should be.

So one day, Marsha Elliott decided that her mother was to accompany her to the SAVE room and stay there. Not for a few minutes, not for an hour, but for the whole day and this was without any input from me.

The mother was quite paranoid and in the past several years had accused teachers of plotting against her daughter, she believed that her daughter was a perfect child, caused no problems, etc... Even Marsha Elliott knew that this mother was full of shit, yet, she put th

Schools Matter: Attention All Teachers: Your Union Leaders Are Betraying You

Schools Matter: Attention All Teachers: Your Union Leaders Are Betraying You:

Attention All Teachers: Your Union Leaders Are Betraying You

by Jim Horn

Last year Paul Toner, the ostensible leader of the MA Teachers Association, surrendered his membership by capitulating without a whimper to the first step in the corporate blueprint to replace tenured and experienced teachers with a new generation of untrained neophytes who will cycle through the system after a two to three year stint.  That first step in that process was to establish a teacher evaluation scheme based on student test scores, and to link job security pay to those test scores.  Toner accomplished this feat without a vote by the rank and file--not even an opinion survey.

This kind of open contempt for the teachers he was elected to represent in 2010 signified a transparent betrayal of teachers and children for the self-aggrandizing goal of cozying up to the corporate foundations and education terrorist organizations like Stand for Children (see Jonah Edelman spill the beans on the real goals of Stand on Children).

Now we find that President Toner has surrendered Massachusetts teachers once more in Step 2 of the corporate 

Jersey Jazzman: Marie Corfield for NJ Assembly

Jersey Jazzman: Marie Corfield for NJ Assembly:

Marie Corfield for NJ Assembly

by Duke

Tomorrow is primary day in New Jersey. I'll keep this really simple:

If you are an educator and/or a parent, you deserve a voice in government. You deserve to have one of your own fight for your interests and the interests of your students and/or children (and don't let anyone ever tell you those two interests are not aligned).

I'm not saying you should automatically vote for any teacher or parent who runs. But when you find a smart, tough, engaging, charismatic, funny, and brave teacher and mother running for political office... well, it's really a no-brainer, isn't it?

I'll let others detail why Marie is a better choice than her opponent. For me, it just comes down to one thing:

This is a chance to put one of our own into power. We need to take it.

Marie Corfield for NJ Assembly in LD-16.

Popout