UPDATE: 'House Of Cards' Goes Where No Congress Has Gone In Recent Years; SOTU And Early Education: Ed Today + Education Content In State Of The Union Likely To Focus On Littlest Learners

Education Content In State Of The Union Likely To Focus On Littlest Learners:

'House Of Cards' Goes Where No Congress Has Gone In Recent Years; SOTU And Early Education: Ed Today

by Joy Resmovits

Netflix Reauthorizes No Child Left Behind? Or so quips this EdWeek headline. Real-life Congress hasn't yet reauthorized NCLB (since 2007!), but characters on the Netflix series "House of Cards" do. "[Writer Beau] Willimon noted on Twitter that he hinged the plot on education because it affects us all directly and indirectly, and because of the contention that often revolves around education reform," EdWeek writes. Read the full story for a taste of which education fights the show covers. My take: Obviously TV isn't reality, but there are a few major inaccuracies. The most glaring one in my eyes is that teachers unions can't legally hold a national strike over some federal legislation they dislike!

Pre-K Push In The State Of The Union? While the State of the Union is a very fluid speech until the president delivers it, and it's impossible to know what, exactly, will be in it until then, we're hearing that tonight's version 

Education Content In State Of The Union Likely To Focus On Littlest Learners

by Joy Resmovits

President Barack Obama made K-12 education a major component of his 2012 State of the Union Address -- so much so that the topic garnered the most traffic on sites like Twitter. But this year, education advocates are expecting something entirely different.

The White House mostly has been tight-lipped about its State of the Union plans, but to the extent that the administration is saying anything, they're looking at Tuesday night's speech as an opportunity to "bookend" their K-12 plans, sources say. Instead of focusing on the compulsive, public kindergarten through high school school system, advocates are expecting the president to offer more of a focus on early education, with a little bit of higher education thrown in.

That might be because the Education Department is already in implementation mode on K-12. Obama 

Why Can Some Kids Handle Pressure While Others Fall Apart? | toteachornototeach

Why Can Some Kids Handle Pressure While Others Fall Apart? | toteachornototeach:

Why Can Some Kids Handle Pressure While Others Fall Apart?

by aristotlethewise

Why Can Some Kids Handle Pressure While Others Fall Apart?

By PO BRONSON and ASHLEY MERRYMAN
Noah Muthler took his first state standardized test in third grade at the Spring Cove Elementary School in Roaring Spring, Pa. It was a miserable experience, said his mother, Kathleen Muthler. He was a good student in a program for gifted children. But, Muthler said, “he was crying in my arms the night before the test, saying: ‘I’m not ready, Mom. They didn’t teach us everything that will be on the test.’ ” In fourth grade, he was upset the whole week before the exam. “He manifests it physically,” his mother said. “He got headaches and stomachaches. He would ask not to go to school.” Not a good sleeper anyway, Noah would slip downstairs after an hour tossing in bed and ask his mom to lie down with him until he fell asleep. In fifth grade, the anxiety lasted a solid month before the test. “Even after the test, he couldn’t let it go. He would wonder about questions he 

CalSTRS board to forward options for saving teacher pensions | EdSource Today

CalSTRS board to forward options for saving teacher pensions | EdSource Today:

CalSTRS board to forward options for saving teacher pensions

February 12th, 2013 | Add a Comment | 
By John Fensterwald

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Later this week the board of the California State Teachers Retirement System, or CalSTRS, will forward to the Legislature a report laying out options for raising higher contributions into the pension system to ensure its long-term viability.

The Legislature has avoided action for a decade, and Gov. Jerry Brown’s  budget forecast for education, with healthy projections for revenue, doesn’t take into account the daunting cost of teachers’ pensions on the expense side of the ledger.

Funding ratio of CalSTRS’ defined benefit program for the past 35 years, through 2011. After being fully funded by 2000, the Legislature expanded benefits. Values fell, recovered, then plummeted in 2008. (Click for  a clearer image)

The remedies won’t come cheap. The choice that CalSTRS financial analysts recommend would boost payments, currently about $6 billion, by $4.5 billion per year, starting next year. That amount, a whopping 75 percent increase per year – would be borne mostly by the state and by K-12 and community college districts, as employers and not by current employees. If adopted by the Legislature, that option – 

UPDATE: Why introverts shouldn’t be forced to talk in class

Why introverts shouldn’t be forced to talk in class:

Why introverts shouldn’t be forced to talk in class

Posted by Valerie Strauss on February 12, 2013 at 4:00 am

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Suddenly there is a lot of talk about introverts and the power of silence, in part because of a popular new book by Susan Cain called “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.” Making a different argument is a piece in the Atlantic magazine advocating required participation in class. Here’s a look at the issue, by Katherine Schultz, a professor and dean of the School of Education at Mills College in Oakland. She is the author of the2009 book, “Rethinking Classroom Participation: Listening to Silent Voices.”

By Katherine Schultz

Jessica Lahey, a high school teacher and writer, argues in the Atlantic magazine that introverts should be required to speak in class. She claims that classroom participation grades are not only fair but are necessary. Drawing on recent work on introverts (e.g., Susan Cain’s popular new book, “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking“), she suggests that in order to be successful in today’s world, it is imperative that introverted students be taught and coerced through grades and expectations to participate in

Jon Stewart on Harvard cheating scandal in U.S. government class

by Valerie Strauss

In the you-can’t-make-up-this-stuff department, a cheating scandal in a Harvard University government class about Congress, put through the Jon Stewart filter on The Daily Show this week. Watch this video for a good laugh.   The Daily Show with Jon … Continue reading →

Next ELT Blog Carnival Coming Up! | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

Next ELT Blog Carnival Coming Up! | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…:

Next ELT Blog Carnival Coming Up!

by Larry Ferlazzo

As I’ve previously mentioned, after 31 editions of ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival, it was time for it to be refreshed. So I’ve worked with other bloggers to “re-brand” it as The ELT Blog Carnival and it now has its own permanent site!
You can see links to all previous Carnivals there, along with plans for future ones.
Here’s the announcement for the next Carnival:
The next ELT Blog Carnival will be hosted by EFL Classroom 2.0 on March 01.
You can send your entry HERE or directly to teachers@eltblogcarnival.com
The Theme for this month’s carnival is
Using Your Students’ Lives: Personalizing Your Teaching.
The site also has this announcement about future hosts:
Want to host a blog carnival on your blog? Please contact us! We hope to have blog carnivals each month and hosting on your own blog will help share so many valuable blog posts written each month by teachers all over the world.
Check it out!

NYC Educator: Give Me Four

NYC Educator: Give Me Four:

Give Me Four

by NYC Educator

by Recovering ATR

I wrote before the end of last semester about the two hell-raisers in my class, the Terrible Twosome of Bobby and Johnny. Since I wrote that blog a lot has happened, and so I thought I'd give readers an update.

First of all I decided to take action and talk to Bobby's guidance counselor. The guidance counselor actually had heard numerous complaints about Bobby and Johnny. So I suggested changing Bobby's schedule, and moving him to another class. Say, the class where everyone is hard-working and respectful and he has no room to cause trouble. The guidance counselor agreed 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: After being locked out in the cold, we made our voices heard

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: After being locked out in the cold, we made our voices heard:

After being locked out in the cold, we made our voices heard

by Mike Klonsky

Outside the church, crowd chants, "Let us in!" (M. Klonsky pic)

While hundreds of us were enduring the sub-freezing Chicago night, locked outside the Armitage Baptist Church in Logan Square, where the Fullerton Network School Utilization meeting had been called, I was remembering a similarly cold night in 1987 following the death of Mayor Harold Washington. That night we stood in the snow 

Special Late Nite Cap UPDATE 2-11-13 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

Nite Cap UPDATE

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

Black History Month: James Meredith and Ole Miss

No Trust For Principals

by Duke

Carol Burris, who I will henceforth refer to as America's Principal™, has a clever piece out today about what's it's like to be trained as a teacher evaluator in our brave, new, reformy world.

The trainers went on to explain why we were there. We would have four sessions to prepare for Calibration Day. We would learn “the tool,” and watch teaching videos for two days. Day Three—the pre-test. Day Four—Calibration Day and the Calibration Event. We would see a video of a teacher, use the rubric to rate her, and then try to sync up with the Master Coder.

“If you miss one or two, you might not be misaligned,” one of the Ambassadors reassured 

Byron Sigcho on UNO

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

As promised, some video of the ed policy event of the season: Byron Sigcho and Steve Serikaku''s presentation on the charter school movement and UNO in particular. The event was on February 9, 2013, at the Rogers Park Branch Library.

This clip is Byron's talk about UNO. It was riveting. Look, this talk is 40 minutes long; you're not going to see the whole thing in your pajamas before bed. It's the sort of talk you gather your group for-- sit around a projector and watch, take notes, and discuss.

Go full screen. This is America. You're still allowed to go full screen. You may or may not want to read my mea culpa  below prior to watching.

Byron spends a couple minutes giving the neoliberal context around the privatization movement; he launches into his UNO analysis at about 1:45.

Popout Byron Sigcho on UNO Charter Schools from Tim Furman on Vimeo.

Mea Culpa. As has been much noted, I do not know how to hold a camera, to begin with. Will someone show 

Washington may ease up on high school senior project requirement

by Anna Marum, The Oregonian

Proposed legislation would allow students enrolled in AP classes, Running Start and similar programs to graduate without completing a culminating project.

Parents angry over Parkside Elementary phase-out of Montessori program

School Closings: Chicago Union Mobilizes Entire Teacher Corps to Fight Hit List

by ed notes online

...while the UFT leaves each school to fight for themselves.

Note the message from Karen Lewis below.
Don't use the phrase closing schools. Use Hit List. Don't think because your school is not on the list that this is not coming to you soon.

Can you imagine our UFT union leadership sending us such a message!!
In fact Rahmbo and Bloomberg are out to close and privatize as many as they can feasibly accomplish. With 

The Ultimate Goal in School?

by Kris Nielsen

My friend, Gail Richmond, posted the below photo, which was shared by a parent.  In class, apparently the lesson was that some of us are not being all that we can be.  Therefore, it was time to start doing some goal setting!  Children, if your RIT score is not high enough, you need to apply yourselves and reach the new number.  If you don’t, Pearson will tell your teacher, your school, and your parents that you are not “proficient,” but merely “emerging.”

My goal is to be a Pearson child!

As many have commented, whatever happened to what I want to be when grow up?  What my hopes and 

Officials reassess state tests in wake of attendance disruptions

by Geoff Decker

ALBANY — As state exams near, education officials are growing increasingly anxious about the large swath of city students whose schooling has been interrupted this year by Hurricane Sandy and the ongoing school bus drivers’ strike.
Speaking to members of the Board of Regents at their monthly meeting today, Chancellor Merryl Tisch said she thought students with disabilities who have not been able to get to school should not have to take the state’s 

Remainders: Pathos and humor in kids’ depictions of bus strike

by Philissa Cramer

• Children’s depictions of the city’s school bus strike include both humor and sad stories. (Times)
• A teacher says good conversation followed when his principal created a safe space. (Ed on the Plate)
• A science teacher argues for ditching textbooks and making lessons interesting instead. (TED)
• A Caucasian teacher says he’d like guidance for teaching about Black History Month. (NYCDOEnuts)
• There are many different players in New York City’s tumultuous world of education politics. (WSJ)
• Survey data show that teachers are often less satisfied with their schools than parents are. (SchoolBook)
• Like many educators, city teachers had to sign loyalty oaths during World War I. (Dana Goldstein)
• Here’s Diane Ravitch’s wish list for Obama’s State of the Union take on education. (Answer Sheet)
• A new online tool allows users to rank city schools by their state math and reading scores. (DNAInfo)
• Whoever said schools oughtn’t teach Latin never tried to break news of a pope’s resignation. (Daily Intel)

ACLU files federal lawsuit against Wisconsin for violation of first amendment in Capitol building

by bluecheddar

Wisconsin’s ACLU says that Michael Kissick has refrained “from exercising his First Amendment rights in the Capitol for fear of being ticketed or arrested” and he is suing the Wisconsin DOA with their help. I love to sing in the Capitol rotunda, but like Kissick, I am no longer a singer [he quit in September 2012]. For me it’s the security cameras everywhere and the cops taking photos and looking people up on the net to get a facial recognition match and keeping a list. It’s seeing people dragged out for taking a picture, or shoved to a wall, or shoved to the ground, or chased by cops for nothing that I can understand. Those were all separate incidents – 

Tales of Desegregation: East Carolina University

by cmaadmin

Part of East Carolina University’s mission is “to serve as a national model for public service and regional transformation by: Providing cultural enrichment and powerful inspiration as we work to sustain and improve quality of life …”

Laura Marie Leary (Elliott) was the first Black student to attend East Carolina University in 1962. She graduated in 1966.

Founded in 1907 as a teacher training school, East Carolina University was segregated until 1962. Laura Marie Leary Elliott, ECU’s first African-American student and graduate (class of ’66), said “it was publically smooth but, privately, we were hurting.”
Elliott, originally from Vanceboro, N.C., set out in 1962 to do nothing more than simply further her education. “I was a 17-year-old kid. I wanted to make my parents proud,” she said.

Fish with Fur: Natural Selection of Teachers

by teachbad

About five years ago I read Tinkering Toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform by David Tyack and Larry Cuban (Harvard, 1995). It’s a great historical overview, written before the Dark Times, and I recommend it. The thing that still sticks out most for me from that book is their argument that education reform, small– or large-scale, cannot be successful without a great degree of support and compliance from teachers. Ultimately, we are the ones who run this place. We don’t get to decide Read more […]

State of the Union Speech Tomorrow Night

by Melissa Westbrook

President Obama will be delivering his State of the Union speech tomorrow night.  Here's what Diane Ravitchwould like him to say about public education.

What would you like to hear President Obama say?

Couple donates $100K to LAUSD's Aviation Mechanics School at Van Nuys Airport

by By Dana Bartholomew, Staff Writer

VAN NUYS - An embattled mechanics school at Van Nuys Airport got a supercharged boost on Monday with a major gift from a San Fernando Valley aviation firm. Si and Betty Robin, owners of Sensor Systems, Inc. of Chatsworth, gave $100,000 to the LAUSD's Aviation Mechanics School.

Diane in the Evening 2-11-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog: Gerald Coles Replies to Critics: Obama’s Second Term by dianerav I posted Gerald Coles’ predictions about President Obama’s second term. Many commenters responded. This is Coles’ response to those who raised questions: With respect to the suggestion that the “federal govt. should get out of the classroom entirely,” I think that’s a complicated issue, given, for example, the federal government’s role in ending LEGAL segregation of schools. While issues of curriculum and what should and should not be discussed in the classroom do caution against a A Reader... more »

Pew study of 12 districts finds that closed schools are most often reused as charters | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 1 hour ago

Pew study of 12 districts finds that closed schools are most often reused as charters | Philadelphia Public School Notebook: Pew study of 12 districts finds that closed schools are most often reused as charters by Dale Mezzacappa More than 40 percent of shuttered school buildings in 12 cities were ultimately reused as charter schools, according to a Pew Charitable Trusts study of 12 big cities that have undergone substantial downsizing of their traditional districts. The reasons, according to the report: the buildings are most suited as schools, public policy that encourages charte... more »