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Thursday, February 14, 2013

MORNING UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 2-14-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch




Indiana Will Not Drop Out of Common Core

Despite protests from parents and teachers, the Indiana Legislature agreed to continue rolling out the Common Core standards, which have already been rolled out for kindergarten and first grade, and will soon be released for second grades (these are the grades in which early childhood experts say the Common Core standards are developmentally inappropriate).
The state board of education, which is staunchly Republican, is firmly and unanimously committed to the 

Gary Rubinstein on the Union City Story

This is one of the most interesting education stories on the web this week.
David Kirp wrote a very good article in the New York Times about how the Union City public schools have improved over the years without charter schools or TFA. The Times gave it the headline “The Secret to Fixing Bad Schools.”
Gary Rubinstein decided to subject it to careful analysis, as he has done on other occasions when Arne 

School Board Races in Los Angeles Heat Up with Big Bucks

Here is a good overview of the political situation in Los Angeles by Howard Blume of the LA Times. Two billionaires have assembled a campaign chest of $2.5 million to make sure that Superintendent John Deasey has a board that supports his agenda.
Los Angeles has more charter schools than any city in America, and more are on the way.
Mayor Bloomberg’s contribution of $1 million to the pro-Deasey forces is called “a game-changer.”

What Was Wrong with Obama’s State of the Union Address

In this article, which appeared on Huffington Post, Alan Singer of Hofstra University in New York, nails the empty promises and misleading claims in President Obama’s State of the Union address. He calls it “Obama’s Mis-Education Agenda.”
I am a lifetime teacher, first in public schools and then in a university-based teacher education program. I think I do an honest job and that students benefit from being in my classes. I was hoping to hear something positive about the future of public education in President Obama’s State of the Union speech, I confess I was so disturbed by what Obama was saying about education that I had to turn him off.  In the morning I read the text of his speech online, hoping I was wrong about what I thought I had hear. But I wasn’t. There was nothing there but 

Did EdWeek Sell Its Soul?

Timothy Slekar here writes a scathing condemnation of Education Week, our K-12 journal of record, for acting as an uncritical mouthpiece for the Common Core State Standards.
Slekar says:
“Other than some of the blogs, EdWeek’s so called “news” is nothing more than propaganda for the corporate reformers. I pointed it out before, EdWeek and its reporters either are clueless about the difference between advocacy organizations that push propaganda and peer review research outlets or they (EdWeek and its 

Schneider Finds Three Educators on NCTQ Board: Part 12

Mercedes Schneider continues her patient and painstaking dissection of the Bational Council on Teacher Quality board.
In earlier posts, she reviewed the qualifications of Wendy Kopp, Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein and others. In this post, she discovers some real educators on the board of this organization. NCTQ is especially important because it is rating the nation’s teacher education programs.

Send a Valentine Now to Your Favorite Teacher!

Happy Valentine’s Day!
When I was a child in public school in Houston, we had an annual ritual of sending handmade valentines to everyone else in the class, so that no one was left out. It was a day to express not only love but friendship and kindness.
These days, teachers don’t get the love, kindness, respect, and gratitude they deserve. A lot of tinhorn 

Preparing Walmart’s Workforce of Tomorrow

EduShyster has a hilarious post about how to prepare Walmart workers of the future.
You know, the ones who conform and obey without question.
These are the children who work to meet the demands of a stopwatch, getting ready to punch a time clock.
Better yet, they are learning in an environment where there are no unions, long days, and white authority figures.

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

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago
Diane Ravitch's blog: What’s Happening in Hawaii by dianerav A reader just informed me about her blog, which describes the changes in Hawaii. Justice Louis Brandeis long ago referred to states as “laboratories of democracy,” where new ideas could be tried out, to succeed or fail. Each state could try out social or economic experiments without peril to other states. Now, a stifling blanket of standardization and conformity is covering the land. Read about Hawaii and you will be shocked and saddened to see the same tired ideas that are in your own state. Big Business and the Com... more »

Daily Kos: Charles Blow: "The Real Obama"

Daily Kos: Charles Blow: "The Real Obama":


Charles Blow: "The Real Obama"

Is this the real Barack Obama? I hope so. I like this one.
So begins Charles M. Blow in The Real Obama, his New York Times column today. He immediately follows with this paragraph:
The president used Tuesday’s State of the Union address to detail a vision of America’s future, and his second term, in which the country is not in perpetual war, government plays an expansive role, Congressional obstruction is named and shamed and he is bold and unapologetically progressive.
He thinks this is how politician who no longer has to worry about re-election looks, more like himself.Perhaps.
And yet -  this administration has made clear through the confirmation hearings of John Brennan that it is prepared to continue using drone strikes to make targeted kills.  We might not still have massive numbers of 

Eugene V. Debs: Statement September 18, 1918 – @ the chalk face

Eugene V. Debs: Statement September 18, 1918 – @ the chalk face:


Eugene V. Debs: Statement September 18, 1918

Prompted by Deborah Meier’s “Considering How to Use Competition and Conflict” at Bridging Differences(Education Week) and Barbara Madeloni’s brilliant “The emotional violence of the accountability regime: part two”here @ the chalk face, as well as my own blog posting, “Lessons from the Zombie Apocalypse,” I am reposting “Statement September 18, 1918″ from Eugene V. Debs, who should serve in this country as a beacon for speaking and acting truth to power.

For opposing World War I, and speaking to as well as acting upon his convictions, Eugene V. Debs was imprisoned.
Below are his words addressing his conviction for sedition. While some of the details remain in the past, the 

Union wins right to represent Valley charter school - latimes.com

Union wins right to represent Valley charter school - latimes.com:


Union wins right to represent Valley charter school



The Los Angeles teachers union announced Wednesday night that it has won the right to negotiate a contract for teachers and counselors at a West San Fernando Valley charter school.
The charter, Ivy Academia, operates out of three locations and serves students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The school has produced consistently high test scores and is known for its focus on encouraging entrepreneurial skills among its students.

For the union, United Teachers Los Angeles, the successful organizing drive represents a welcome rarity: a non-union charter school that it has brought into the labor fold via the school's 56 teachers and counselors.
“This move is to ensure a stronger learning environment for students and open communication between teachers, 

UPDATE: Obama On Preschool Education: 'Let's Give Our Kids That Chance' + Chicago Public School Closure List Out; More SOTU Preschool Details: Ed Today + Obama Early Education Plan To Be Detailed In Georgia Speech

Obama Early Education Plan To Be Detailed In Georgia Speech:



Obama On Preschool Education: 'Let's Give Our Kids That Chance'

President Barack Obama visited an early education center in Decatur, Ga., Thursday to make his case for dramatically expanding pre-school access. After sharing a classroom with 16 young children -- one of whom asked, "Are you our teacher?" -- Obama elaborated on his State of the Union plan, saying it would give pre-K to every single American child.

"Let's make it a national priority to give every child access to a high-quality early education," Obama said Thursday. "Let's give our kids that chance." A brightly colored banner behind the audience read, "PRESCHOOL FOR ALL."

But that's not exactly what the White House's plan delivers.

"The White House pre-K plan is very different from the signal the president sent in the State of the Union and the signal he's sending by visiting Georgia," Russ Whitehurst, a former federal education official who heads the Brooking Institution's education program, told The Huffington Post. 



Chicago Public School Closure List Out; More SOTU Preschool Details: Ed Today

Chicago School Drama? Two notable things happened in Chicago Public Schools land on Wednesday. First, 39 or 50 aldermen (code for city councilmen) signed a resolution that calls for a moratorium on charter schoolsnext year. (Sort of similar, ish, to the closure and colocation moratorium several New York City mayoral candidates signed onto.)

More controversially, CPS released a list of 129 schools that could be eligible for closure, notes the Chicago Tribune.. As teacher/commentator Seth Lavin notes, the number of kids in these schools is bigger than the Newark school district, the Cleveland public school system, and double the size of Pittsburgh public schools. And parent activist Wendy Katten notes that these schools currently teach at least 5,792 special-education students.

Can Obama Make Universal Pre-K Happen? On Tuesday night, President Barack Obama made a State of 



Obama Early Education Plan To Be Detailed In Georgia Speech

President Barack Obama is traveling to Georgia today to press a plan he announced in his State of the Union address to dramatically expand preschool. The plan would include smaller class sizes, better-paid teachers, and exams for 4-year-olds.

While the White House is beginning to circulate details on how to provide every child with preschool, crucial questions, including cost, remain. And because universal pre-K would likely require an act of Congress, questions may prevent the initiative from advancing amid tightening budgets.

As The Huffington Post was first to report in January, the new initiative would focus on providing preschool to 4-

Pass / Fail : LA Unified school board race could break fundraising records | 89.3 KPCC

Pass / Fail : LA Unified school board race could break fundraising records | 89.3 KPCC:


LA Unified school board race could break fundraising records

Incumbent LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia at her East LA campaign office. Credit: Maya Sugarman/KPCC
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's unprecedented $1 million donation Tuesday to influence Los Angeles school board elections ups the ante in a school board race that is on its way to breaking fundraising records.
The 2013 school board races have barely started and they have already attracted more than four million dollars in donations. Compare that to 1978, when Bobbi Fielder spent $56,000 to win a seat on the board.
Unlike in Fiedler’s time, most of the money this year isn't coming from individual donations. It's coming from 

UPDATE: On Public Integrity and Our Ethics Complaint + Dear Philadelphia: “We are above the law” | Parents United for Public Education

Dear Philadelphia: “We are above the law” | Parents United for Public Education:


Dear Philadelphia: “We are above the law”

Image
If there’s any question about what’s at stake regarding the lobbying complaint filed last month by Parents United, the Philadelphia Home & School Council, and the Philadelphia branch of the NAACP, read about this move by the William Penn Foundation. Last week, the Foundation announced the suspension of funding to all city agencies, stating that they could not move ahead until the city ethics complaint was resolved.
(Read City Paper’s article here)
In December after months of thoughtful deliberation and a full legal analysis by our lawyers at the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, we decided to file a complaint against the William Penn Foundation based on the


On Public Integrity and Our Ethics Complaint

A few months ago, I made the decision to sign on to a complaint filed with the Philadelphia Board of Ethics.  The complaint, signed by members of Parents United for Public Education, the NAACP, and the Philadelphia Home and School Council, was concerned with the William Penn Foundation’s financing of a private consulting group in order to drive the direction of our city’s public education policy.  Signing was a tough personal decision, and I weighed it for a long time before committing.  William Penn has funded and continues to fund many laudable institutions and initiatives in our city, which I and other Philadelphians use and appreciate.  Yet no institution, however worthy or powerful, should be above criticism.  And no individual should be excluded or intimidated from participating in a public process of shaping education policy—or denied the right to scrutinize the ethical or legal nature of actions taken in order to influence that process.
I and my co-signers believe that the William Penn Foundation moved into the arena of lobbying when it contracted directly with the Boston Consulting Group to create and promote a plan to privatize school district management, expand the charter school sector, and target a huge number of Philadelphia’s public schools for 

Mr. President, My Students Deserve Better | toteachornototeach

Mr. President, My Students Deserve Better | toteachornototeach:


Mr. President, My Students Deserve Better

Mr. President, My Students Deserve Better
by Randy Turner

It certainly was depressing last night to discover that the only reason I am standing in front of a classroom of eighth grade students day after day, year after year, is so at some point they can be delivered job ready to some employer.
Whatever happened to the loftier goals of teaching young people the thinking skills needed to succeed in life, the ability to function not only as members of a faceless workforce, but also as key components in directing the civic and political discourse of this country?
In one short paragraph during last night’s State of the Union Message, President Barack Obama spelled out today’s definition of high school education:
Tonight, I’m announcing a new challenge to redesign America’s high schools so they better equip graduates for 

Obama visits Decatur pre-k today: A teacher suggests what else he should see | Get Schooled

Obama visits Decatur pre-k today: A teacher suggests what else he should see | Get Schooled:


Obama visits Decatur pre-k today: A teacher suggests what else he should see

President Obama visits a Decatur pre-k today. (AJC photo)
President Obama visits a Decatur pre-k today. (AJC photo)

Here is a piece by Robyn Tedder, who taught kindergarten as a Teach For America corps member in Metro Atlanta. She now works on TFA staff to support pre-k and kindergarten and teachers throughout the region.
By Robyn Tedder
On Tuesday, President Obama called the nation’s attention to the need for high-quality early education – highlighting the gap between the long-term success we envision for our kids, and the foundations we lay in their young lives.
For those of us in the world of early education, these words felt like a breath of fresh air – validation 

School Tech Connect: These Kids Are The 25%, Apparently

School Tech Connect: These Kids Are The 25%, Apparently:


These Kids Are The 25%, Apparently

129 schools on the hit list in Chicago.

You must remember that the de facto superintendent here, the mayor, laid his hand on the table months ago, in a meeting with Karen Lewis:
He did say to me that 25 percent of the students in this city are never going to be anything, never going to amount to anything and he was never going to throw money at them."
He denied the comment at the time, but I believe her. 

In the suburbs, no such cynical person would ever be elected to a school board, unless he was funded by an out of state billionaire. 

The CPS list is appalling. Trumbull? Stockton? Has CPS walked through these schools to see who they're serving? ---- There are travesties in every sector of the city, of course, but they're concentrated on the west and 

UPDATE: Duncan warns Congress on impact of ‘sequestration’ on education programs + Let’s measure love (just like we measure teachers)

Let’s measure love (just like we measure teachers):



Duncan warns Congress on impact of ‘sequestration’ on education programs

Arne Duncan testifying earlier this month.
Arne Duncan testifying earlier this month.
Here is the testimony Education Secretary Arne Duncan gave Thursday before the Senate Appropriations Committee on what could happen to education programs if Congress takes no steps to avert a March 1 deadline for automatic spending cuts, known as the “sequestration.” This testimony was provided by the Education Department.
Madam Chairwoman and Members of the Committee:
Thank you for this opportunity to talk about the impact of a March 1 sequestration on education programs.  The across-the-board nature of the cuts would focus an ill-advised reduction on our grant programs and the funds we need to administer them.  In short, sequestration would have a negative impact on the education of our Nation’s children 




Let’s measure love (just like we measure teachers)


LovemeterIf you put together the current obsession with measurement in modern school reform (Bill Gates titled his 2013 annual foundation letter “Measuring Progress”) with the fact that today is Valentine’s Day, you get the following satirical piece by Steve Strieker, a veteran social studies teacher in Janesville, Wisconsin. This appeared on his blog, One Teacher’s Perspective.
By Steve Strieker
With Valentine’s Day here, my family just took its annual love survey.
Using a privately run, publicly funded love rating system, my family members and I rate our love for one another using a scale of 1 to 5. While the surveys are done individually and 

Stop saying that

My colleague Emma Brown recently wrote a glossary to help people better understand the undecipherable jargon used in the education world — words and phrases such as “self-regulation” and “DIBELS” and “scaffolding.” Here’s a related piece, about what a maddening … Continue reading →

It’s BaaaaAAAAACK! Contradictions, Clowns, Conflicts and All…Parent Trigger Returns | Scathing Purple Musings

It’s BaaaaAAAAACK! Contradictions, Clowns, Conflicts and All…Parent Trigger Returns | Scathing Purple Musings:


It’s BaaaaAAAAACK! Contradictions, Clowns, Conflicts and All…Parent Trigger Returns

I’ve been wondering when we’d see this Vaudeville act again and whether or not it was going to be about stroking Jeb Bush’s ego. (He vowed that it would be back after last year’s defeat in the senate). What better way is there to open this year’s show than to highlight a new twist of  irony. SB 862′s sponsor is Sen. Kelli Stargel (R-Lakleland). Who new that Stargel would ever be for anyone’s ability to choose charter schools? Why it was just last July when Stargel was throwing up roadblocks in front of Polk school district’s desire to open charter schools for it’s at-risk population. From Lakeland Ledger reporter Merissa Green:
State Rep. Kelli Stargel, who is a member of the House Education Committee, told The (Lakeland) Ledger in June that although taking struggling students out of the regular student population would