The Innovative Educator: The Plight of the Parent Education Advocate

The Innovative Educator: The Plight of the Parent Education Advocate:

The Plight of the Parent Education Advocate

by noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Nielsen)

Guest post by David Bernstein

I’m relatively new to the battle for wholesale educational change, but have fast learned that fighting for a different school model while parenting kids who go to fairly traditional schools requires a tortuous mental balancing act. On the one hand, I’m agitating for change to a badly broken education system, and on the other, I’ve  got to make sure that my own alternative-learning-style kids come out of the school system in one piece.

I love the movie The Matrix, not because it’s such a fabulous piece of art, but because of its powerful message of fighting back against a dehumanizing system that few fully understand.  The film depicts a future in which reality as perceived by most humans is actually a computer simulation meant to subdue the human population, while their bodies are used as an energy source (a little like factory schools producing kids to fuel an industrial economy that no longer exists). Once the main character, Neo, becomes aware of this manufactured reality, he joins a rebellion against the computers. Neo is constantly forced to move in and out of The Matrix in order to challenge it.

Scene from The Matrix

  Popout

Such is the plight of the parent education advocate, fighting the education matrix from without one moment and engaging it from within the next; making sure our children get their work done one moment, and fighting to make 

NYC Educator: Suddenly ATR Drops ATRhood and Supports Economy

NYC Educator: Suddenly ATR Drops ATRhood and Supports Economy:

Suddenly ATR Drops ATRhood and Supports Economy

by NYC Educator

 by Formerly Suddenly ATR

I haven't blogged in two weeks, and I wanted to give all the readers of this great blog an update as to why. About two weeks ago I was contacted by a school out of my district for an interview. I went to the interview and was explained the situation -- the "regular" teacher had suddenly retired in September. The school went through a series of day-to-day subs, but the situation was spiraling as it was nearly December, and the students of five classes still didn't have a regular, licensed teacher. They are all high-needs students -- repeaters who had failed the Regents last year. Two days later, it was like, "Can you start ... today?"

The first day of classes was miserable. The students 

Four CA districts make Race to the Top finals | EdSource Today

Four CA districts make Race to the Top finals | EdSource Today:

Four CA districts make Race to the Top finals

November 27th, 2012 | Add a Comment | 
By Kathryn Baron and John Fensterwald

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The U.S. Department of Education passed over California’s largest school districts in selecting finalists for the Race to the Top district competition. Out of 17 districts that applied for a share of the nearly $400 million in federal grant money, only four made the cut to the finals: Galt Joint Union Elementary, Lindsay Unified and New Haven Unified school districts, along with Ánimo Charter Schools, a division of Green Dot Public Schools. Districts that didn’t make the cut include Los Angeles, Fresno and San Diego, which, combined, educate 15 percent of California’s students.

California’s finalists will still be competing against huge urban districts, however. Included among the 61 finalists from around the country are New York City (the nation’s largest school district),Philadelphia, Dallas and Miami-Dade.

Under this latest incarnation of the popular Race to the Top program, winning districts will receive between $5 million and $40 million over four years to implement model programs designed to close achievement gaps, improve teaching and boost student learning and achievement by 

SI&A Cabinet Report – SBE waivers provide LEAs relief from class size restrictions

SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources:

SBE waivers provide LEAs relief from class size restrictions
By Kimberly Beltran
Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Requests to exceed class size limits continue to dominate the State Board of Education’s waiver calendar, with 10 districts this month seeking relief from various provisions of the laws aimed at maintaining low student-teacher ratios.

In all, SBE members approved 35 of 39 waiver requests, including those on class size but also others ranging from community day school locations to removal of a school from the open enrollment list for being ‘low achieving.’

The waivers denied by the board came from the Madera County Office of Education on behalf of four schools seeking relief from a requirement that interpreters for deaf and hard of hearing students meet certain minimum qualifications.

Despite concerns of critics, California’s State Board of Education, keenly aware of the financial stress schools are under, has since 2009 almost routinely approved class size waivers for scores of districts facing fiscal penalties under existing law generally aimed at keeping no more than 30 students in a classroom.

Even waiver requests from districts receiving special state funding to hire additional staff to reduce class sizes have been regularly granted. This month, SBE approved waivers from seven districts needing relief from class size 

Mother Crusader: Smarick Says It Simply; Chartering Can Replace The District. But Can It?

Mother Crusader: Smarick Says It Simply; Chartering Can Replace The District. But Can It?:

Smarick Says It Simply; Chartering Can Replace The District. But Can It?

by darciecima

My blogging buddy Jersey Jazzman has already done a fantastic job skewering Andy Smarick's Ouija Board fantasy of a chartery future for Newark.

Said simply, chartering can replace the district. And it can happen in Newark.

Well, can't get much more blunt than that.  Kudos to Smarick for just coming right on out and saying what it seems like the NJDOE really wants.  Urban districts overrun with charters, with districts obsolete.  

Game plan duly noted. 

But before we hand the keys to the Newark Public Schools to charter operators, let's take a look at the picture that accompanied Smarick's piece.

Now where have I seen this picture before?? 

The Macroeconomics of Raising Robots (or Children) - NYTimes.com

The Macroeconomics of Raising Robots (or Children) - NYTimes.com:

The Macroeconomics of Raising Robots (or Children)

By KJ DELL'ANTONIA

Jonathan McIntosh

On the Economix blog, Nancy Folbre has another take on our cost-benefit analysis of child-rearing, one that the parents among us, and their supporters, will love. In “Of Parents, Puppies and Robots,” she writes:

Capitalism, that masterful force, would have to pay much more for workers if families weren’t willing to pony up most of the time, money and effort necessary to raise them, train them and educate them.

Imagine a world in which businesses could largely rely on highly customized battery-powered robots but would require some humans to design, build and program them. In a competitive market, the price of robots would be determined by the cost of producing them, including the wages demanded by their human producers.

What a boon it would be to businesses – and to their 

Special Late Nite Cap UPDATE 11-26-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

Nite Cap UPDATE

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

There's Gold In Them There Schools!

by Walt S.

Public education is being bought and paid for, all under the guise of helping children. If my suspicions are correct, the welfare of children is being used to camouflage the takeover of the public schools by private interests. Access to the vast sums of money spent each year on educating our children is the golden goose they seek. 
    This article was published in Salon on November 17th. It makes clear much of the tactics and ploys that will be and are being used to ultimately transfer our schools into cooperate hands.
   It is lengthy but I have underlined

AM I THE ONLY OLD PERSON ALARMED BY THIS ?

by alkleen

The Chicago Tribune recently did a front page article about white milk being the only beverage served in elementary schools in Chicago ?  Why is this a problem ?  According to studies, “lactose intolerance” ranges from 50 to 100 percent among minority groups, which make up 91 percent of students in Chicago Public schools.
Am I the only old person alarmed by the number of ailments among today’s young people ?  Old people certainly should know something strange is going on when it comes to this generation of children. Middle age and younger adults might consider today’s frequency of ailments among young people as just typical or the norm. Perhaps they don’t realize fifty years ago all these ailments were virtually unheard of.
In the last few years of my career I was astonished at the number of students with asthma, allergies, disabilities, 

The in box. Fool me once.

by Fred Klonsky

Fred,
Fool me once, fool me twice…I think we’ve learned a lesson that we can’t depend on the IEA to organize us out of a paper bag!
When I went to Springfield in May with you and the PREA, Lobby Day had been cancelled “due to construction in the Capitol Bldg.” We didn’t see ANY major construction going on–in fact, there was but ONE sign posted in an obscure place, (which I had found, pointed out to Fred, he took a picture and posted it on his blog a few days later) referring to an out-of-the-way wing which was having work done. It was not interfering with big state science fair, house or senate hearings, etc.).
So–to put this kindly–the IEA leadership cancelled Lobby Day for no good reason. (The question 

The Wacky World of Andy Smarick

by Duke

Andy Smarick used to be the Number Two guy at the New Jersey Department of Education. Now that's he's left, we get to enjoy his brain droppings in the press, including this op-ed in the NY Daily News. In the World According to Andy, everything in Newark is coming up roses!

Today, this district has everything it could ask for: a reform-oriented teachers contract, a new state law on tenure and evaluation, funding twice the national average, the $100 million Mark Zuckerberg donation, partnerships with leading nonprofit organizations, freedom from a politically motivated school board, a tough local superintendent, a reform-friendly mayor, the nation’s best state superintendent and an incomparably bold governor.

Leaving aside the ridiculous sucking up, does Smarick really believe Newark has "everything it could ask for"? Really?

A child poverty rate of 42% - as the song says: "Who could ask for anything more?" But, hey, at least the 

Closing Schools In The Time Of A Hurricane [SchoolBook]

by Jose

Open For Business

An excerpt from my first post at the popular Schoolbook, a WNYC project:

As educators, we are charged with helping our children feel that, as wild as the world may seem, we will pull through. Parents, children, and other invested adults seek asylum in our schools because of our routines, the familiarity, and the dulcet vibrations of the students’ yells, whispers and laughter. The teachers start their classes with their usual routines. The deans remind students of the rules in the hallway as they walk to class. The principals address as many classes as possible about academics and general minutiae.
Whether we like to admit it or

LAUSD Not A Race To The Top 2012 Finalist, John Deasy Reacts: 'We're Not A Finalist? I'm Shocked'

by Joy Resmovits

Finalists for the White House's 2012 Race to the Top grant competition were released Monday. To no one's surprise, the Los Angeles Unified School District is not a contender.

In a phone call with The Huffington Post, LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy feigned shock at the news. "We're not a finalist? I'm shocked!" he said, jokingly. But Deasy also expressed sadness that the district's application, which did not have the required support of the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) teachers' union, did not place in the contest.

"It is sad, but I understand the department's decision-making process," he said, referring to the Department of 

Top Ten Teacher Beliefs

by teachbad

The education reform movement clearly thinks that if it can just get teachers to do all the right things, the Achievement Gap will be crushed. But all the right things to do have to be sold to the teachers. The sales pitch is a core set of underlying beliefs. (Underlying the underlying beliefs is a soothing tonic of wishful thinking and emotional blackmail.) By and large the beliefs are demonstrably false, which makes it all the more important that adherence to them be demonstrated amply through Read more […]

Byrd-Bennett proposes 5-year ban on CPS closures after this year

Chicago Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett Monday announced plans to try to “right-size” a district with about 100,000 excess seats by fall and then declare a five-year moratorium on school closures. The plan is contingent on the Legislature allowing the district to extend its deadline for producing a proposed school action list from Dec. 1 to Mar. 31, Byrd-Bennett told the City Club in prepared remarks.

Brilliant social media experiment?

by Rosi Efthim

This story has stuck in my craw for 4 days. Here's Jim Cook Jr., online editor of South Jersey Times:

PILESGROVE TWP. - I really did not expect to win the Woodstown-Pilesgrove Board of Education election.My campaign lasted less than 24 hours.
It didn't cost me a cent.
All I used was a few Facebook status updates saying "Write me in for Woodstown-Pilesgrove School Board candidate."

This is a pretty cool social media story, made more interesting because it's a dead tree journalist telling it. We 

Officials: A’s reflect successes, but standards may be too low

by Rachel Cromidas

Chief Academic Officer Shael Polakow-Suransky briefs reporters on the high school progress reports, alongside Deputy Chief Academic Officer Adina Lopatin.

At a briefing on the latest high school progress report grades this afternoon, Department of Education officials touted the small boost in the number of schools receiving the best grades, but warned that the high grades might 

California ranks in bottom half of states in graduation rate

California ranked in the bottom half of states in the overall high school graduation rate in the 2010-2011 school year, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
The new data, the first in which all states use a common metric, replace the variety of different methods used by states to calculate and self-report graduation rates to the education department in years past. The new measurement more accurately accounts for students who drop out or who do not earn a regular high school diploma.
“By using this new measure, states will be more honest in holding schools accountable and ensuring that 

Abortion and Information Management

by Tracy Mitrano

Blog: 

Law, Policy -- and IT?

It is a title designed to catch attention, but the content has the purpose of drawing an important similarity to what most take as a distinction.

Often when I discuss information management, or what I have categorized as type three privacy, Public Privacy Laws, with university officials, the initial thought, especially for a private institution, is that constitutional privacy does not apply.  In that instance, the kind of privacy to which they refer is the second type, Fourth Amendment.  True enough: the Fourth Amendment applies only to state institutions, including colleges and universities, and 

Oakland Tech student unveils design for trash-eating machine at science center As part of Phase II of the Chabot Space & Science Center's Climate Lab, Oakland Tech's Jun Jie Li shows off 'Raindrop Eco Spider,' which would pick up garbage and use it to charge batteries.

My NCTE Convention Takeaway

by James Boutin

There were teachers everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. And they weren't your jeans-and-sandals or undertucked-polo-wearing or I'm-overworked-and-underpaid-faced teachers either. These people were professionals!

Every room I sat in, every hallway I strolled through, every lunch conversation I eavesdropped on... Here were experts exploring the problems-of-practice frontier. And the problems-of-practice being discussed were not "I can't get my students to listen" or "Why won't they turn in homework" or "Kareem needs to stop messing with Mona." The problems they discussed were academic in nature, around ways of teaching the content and 

The Washington Teacher: Here We Go Again: More DC Public School Closures!

The Washington Teacher: Here We Go Again: More DC Public School Closures!:

Here We Go Again: More DC Public School Closures!

by noreply@blogger.com (Candi Peterson)

Written by Candi Peterson

Let's take a trip down memory lane back to 2008 when Michelle Rhee was the Chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools. Rhee rolled out a plan to abruptly close 23 public schools. Her premise was that the closing of under enrolled public schools would save the taxpayers $23 million dollars and that these cost savings could be used to hire additional teachers and create new programs. Sound similar to Kaya Henderson's Consolidation and Reorganization Proposal to consolidate 20 schools?

At the 2008 school closure meetings, parents and education stakeholders voiced strong opposition of Rhee's plan since closures were proposed before the community had a chance to have input. Stakeholders were distrustful of school closures since a disproportionately higher number of minority neighborhoods faced school closures, leaving Ward 3 schools unscathed. And it seems that the politically well 

Enslaved to the Enslaved by the Enslaving. « Cooperative Catalyst

Enslaved to the Enslaved by the Enslaving. « Cooperative Catalyst:

Enslaved to the Enslaved by the Enslaving.

by Jabreel Chisley

Is the school the source of the feeling of perpetual entrapment that the youth claim to fill? Is the number 2 pencil the slave master for the children, the ones doped up on Adderall and Ritalin, and removed from society so that they can tend to the slave masters distant cousin, the standardized assessment? Are the children the sheep in a corporatist panacea of reform? Are the teachers the herders, unknowingly herding the children of tomorrow into a field of misplacement and twisted ideology? Are the teachers just slaves themselves, slaves owned by those who have never stepped foot inside of a classroom in any capacity of an educator? Is that how it functions now, having the slave masters become so comfortable that they let educated slaves guide their impressionable ones?
It’s a shame really, our nations public schools becoming hijacked by those selling a fantasy where the teachers are the villains and Wall St. is the saint, that not only knows what is best for themselves, but shockingly for the 

Schools Matter: Louisiana Constitution on Trial and Schools on the Chopping Block

Schools Matter: Louisiana Constitution on Trial and Schools on the Chopping Block:

Louisiana Constitution on Trial and Schools on the Chopping Block

by Jim Horn

RIGHT Again Sec. Duncan

Louisiana has the highest number of black student retentions in the nation to go along with the highest black incarceration rate in the U. S.  The private prison industry is worth $182 million a year when beds are full, and "Louisiana's incarceration rate is nearly five times Iran's, 13 times China's and 20 times Germany's."  To say that it is a police state is hardly an exaggeration, and the charter reform schools in poor black areas are run like junior penitentiaries.  

The State hired a new State Superintendent a couple of years back, a former English major 

KIPP DC a finalist in Race to the Top competition - D.C. Schools Insider - The Washington Post

KIPP DC a finalist in Race to the Top competition - D.C. Schools Insider - The Washington Post:

KIPP DC a finalist in Race to the Top competition

by Emma Brown

Charter school operator KIPP DC is one of 61 finalists in the federal government’s $400 million Race to the Top-District grant competition, U.S. Department of Education officials announced Monday.

“We’re very excited,” said Susan Schaeffler, KIPP DC’s chief executive. “This was a heavy lift for all of us to get this application done, make it meaningful — and at this point we’re really excited to be in the top 61.”

The finalists were selected from among more than 350 traditional school systems and charter-school networks that applied for grants ranging from $5 million to $40 million. The Obama administration is offering the money to applicants who develop promising plans to personalize student learning, boost achievement and improve teacher and principal effectiveness.

KIPP DC, which operates 10 charter schools across Washington, is seeking $10 million, mostly to expand the Capital Teacher Residency, a 

Charter group, but not L.A. Unified, finalist for Race to the Top - latimes.com

Charter group, but not L.A. Unified, finalist for Race to the Top - latimes.com:

Charter group, but not L.A. Unified, finalist for Race to the Top

A local charter school organization is a finalist for a high-profile federal grant, but the Los Angeles Unifed School District failed to qualify in the same competition.
Green Dot Public Schools, which operates 18 charter schools, remains in the running for a “Race to the Top” grant, the U.S. Department of Education announced Monday. If successful, Green Dot could receive $30 million over a four-year period.
In the application process, districts were supposed to set out a plan to “personalize education for students and provide school leaders and teachers with key tools that support them to meet students’ needs,” according to the Education Department.
But the devil for L.A. Unified was in the details. Participation by the teachers union was required and United Teachers Los Angeles would not sign on, citing concerns that Race to the Top could commit the school system to long-term spending not covered by the grant. Union leaders in L.A. and elsewhere also were concerned such a