Friday, February 22, 2013

Schools Matter: Common Core State Standards Primer

Schools Matter: Common Core State Standards Primer:

Common Core State Standards Primer

Disclaimer: The publishers of this document, Truth in American Education, have some very disconcerting right-wing membership and advisors. I mean really right wing, like Heritage, Koret, the Teabaggers, and other assorted birthers and Birchers. However, this Common Core State Standards Primer document appears on the Hoosiers Against Common Core site that Professor Ravitch mentions in her recent Two Determined Moms in Indiana Take On Common Core post. Like the old adage: "even a broken clock is right twice a day," this flyer provides factual information on the Corporate, er... I mean Common Core State Standards. While I have major ideological differences with their organization, I find their assessment of CCSS to be pretty much spot on.

Common Core State Standards Primer by Shane Vander Hart

Noble charter school student’s story in Education Week Parents United for Responsible Education

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » Noble charter school student’s story in Education Week:

Noble charter school student’s story in Education Week

by admin

Joshua Moore

The story about Noble Charter Schools’ “secret sauce” – their ridiculous and costly discipline policies — that PURE first brought to light has made it into Education Week. Called “Charter Discipline: A Tale of Two Students,” the story details the way Joshua Moore, son of PURE member Donna Moore, was systematically harassed and ultimately pushed out of the school by the discipline code.

A demerit for not looking at the teacher after being reminded. A detention for drawing on a desk. An out-of-school suspension for dozing off instead of doing homework.
Donna Moore, whose son, Joshua, 17, left the Noble system after repeated disciplinary incidents, sees the…policies as petty and subjective. She says they make it more likely that some students

WHY DO TEACHERS PERSIST IN TRYING TO CONVINCE LAUSD OF THINGS THAT NOT EVEN LAUSD BELIEVES ARE TRUE? - Perdaily.com

WHY DO TEACHERS PERSIST IN TRYING TO CONVINCE LAUSD OF THINGS THAT NOT EVEN LAUSD BELIEVES ARE TRUE? - Perdaily.com:

WHY DO TEACHERS PERSIST IN TRYING TO CONVINCE LAUSD OF THINGS THAT NOT EVEN LAUSD BELIEVES ARE TRUE?

by Leonard Isenberg

(Mensaje se repite en Español)

Educated teachers, parents, and even most students knows that 2 + 2 = 4 and yet the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) keep insisting that it equals 5...or sometimes even 3. Then why do teachers continue arguing with them, since to do so only gives the irrational credibility through teachers and others entering into this stupid argument with a district and union that know 2 +2=4, but only insist it doesn't, because it is to their advantage in terms of money and uncontested power- think Broad, Gates, Walton, privatization and dumbing down of America to a place where few have the intellectual ability to question authority. This was George Orwell's prescient view of his future and our present that you might be aware of, if LAUSD hasn't already taken its toll on your higher brain function.

In writing this blog for the last 4 years, a pattern of rather bizarre behavior has made

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Mayor 2% and the freedom riders

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Mayor 2% and the freedom riders:

Mayor 2% and the freedom riders

by Mike Klonsky

All the corporate reformers, from Duncan to Rhee, have been claiming that education is a civil rights issue. Turns out, they were right. Only they are the violators.

Here's the real freedom riders:

“We are here today to declare that school closings and displacing children primarily black and brown children is a civil rights issue,” said the Rev. Krista Alston, whose son attended Price until it closed. “It is a civil rights issue when children are denied the right to a quality education in their own neighborhood where they live.”

Rahm's wreck

Brother Fred art

Some are speculating that Rahm can kiss his 2016 White House aspirations goodbye. His ratings are in the toilet,

Best of the Ed Blogs | National Education Policy Center

Best of the Ed Blogs | National Education Policy Center:

Best of the Ed Blogs

Jeff Bryant

February 20, 2013

Twitter vs. Education or Women vs. Men | My Island View

Twitter vs. Education or Women vs. Men | My Island View:

Twitter vs. Education or Women vs. Men

by tomwhitby

Every Friday on Twitter, Tweeters will make recommendations based on their personal experience of exceptional people to follow on Twitter. As an educator, if I follow those recommendations I will almost certainly improve the quality and quantity of tweets I get on education since educators are the people who I follow for my own Personal Learning Network. Each of these tweets of recommendation will be tagged with the telltale hashtag #FF. This identifies them as such a recommendation and allows the hashtagged tweets to be aggregated.
In the evolution of Twitter it has become possible for each tweeter to create lists of people being followed into categories. Lists could be created for math teachers, or Administrators, or organizations. This would allow a tweeter the ability to aggregate tweets from a specific list dealing with a specific area of concern. It is another method of organizing information. These lists may be found in the profile of the Tweeter. A unique spin-off of this is that anyone can access anyone else’s profile giving access to those lists, as well as the ability to follow those very same people. If I have a great person that I follow offering great information, I might access that person’s

Schools Matter: Voucher Gospels in Indiana Government

Schools Matter: Voucher Gospels in Indiana Government:

Voucher Gospels in Indiana Government

by Storm

**Guest Post by Doug Martin

SCHOOL VOUCHER BULLYING, PURE POLITICS, AND THE INDIANA OFFICE OF MANAGEMENTAND BUDGET

When it comes to the corporate-religious-political bullying for the Amway/Walmart/ALEC/Overstock.com/Koch Brothers assault on Indiana school children, the Republicans will stop short of nothing. House Bill 1342 was a perfect example. Having moved out of committee but finally killed off yesterday by GOP House Speaker Brian Bosma, this bill sought to strip Indiana superintendent of public instruction Glenda Ritz and the Department of Education of all power to monitor the state voucher schools, giving instead, the Koch-Brothers/ALEC crony Chris Atkins and his Indiana Office of Management and Budget complete control over voucher school funding distribution, oversight, and even voucher school visits.

With OMB’s State Board of Accounts now handing charter school audits over to private companies, House Bill

UPDATE: FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Friday, February 22, 2013

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

Sacramento City district trustees vote to close seven schools

Education Headlines

Friday, February 22, 2013

Measure K funds spent accordin to plan, Lodi Unified School District officials say

The Lodi Unified School District is congratulating itself on a job well done after disbanding the Measure K oversight committee on Tuesday.

Most Marin schools to see big jump in state funding

The majority of Marin school districts would receive big funding increases under a new state formula, but the amounts vary widely and some districts would see no gains, according to state estimates.

California schools chief to promote health initiative in Monterey County

Torlakson will promote Team California for Healthy Kids, an initiative he launched in 2011 to spread the word about healthy eating and physical activity in schools.

Smooth shift to trustee areas for North Monterey County schools

Residents in the North Monterey County Unified School District are scheduled to begin electing board members by trustee area starting this fall, after perhaps one of the least contentious reorganization efforts in Monterey County's history.

Claremont school board decides to sell surplus property

School board members decided to sell off two pieces of surplus property Thursday night.

Parents raise concerns at Fresno USD town hall

More than 100 parents showed up for a town hall meeting Thursday night at St. Anthony Mary Claret church in southeast Fresno to voice concerns with Fresno Unified School District.

Denair school district is close to avoiding takeover

Denair Unified is "very close" to having made the cuts it needs to pull back from the brink of insolvency and avoid a state takeover, Superintendent Ed Parraz said Wednesday.

California publishes revenue growth for each school district

Many Bay Area school districts could see their revenues from the state increase by up to 7.3 percent next year, under Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed overhaul of school funding.

Officials studying options for closed school

Lake Elsinore Unified School District officials are moving forward to craft a plan for one of the district's three surplus properties.

Parents saddened by vote to close Sacramento elementary schools

Some parents reacted this morning with shock and sadness that schools their children attend in the Sacramento Unified School District are to be closed.

Sacramento City district trustees vote to close seven schools

Trustees in the Sacramento City Unified School District voted 4-3 to close seven schools at the end of this school year after a lengthy school board meeting Thursday night.

Credentialing commission head says California teachers lead way in stress levels

Against the backdrop of a national survey showing half of teachers experiencing "great stress" on the job, the head of California’s teacher credentialing commission says that stress levels among the state’s teachers are likely to be even higher.

California trails nation in reading, math and science, report finds

California has largely trailed the rest of the country in reading, mathematics and science in the last decade, according to an analysis released Thursday of test results from the five most populous states.

Study compliments and questions Brown's funding formula

An analysis by the Public Policy Institute of California, released Wednesday, praises Gov. Jerry Brown’s overall plan for school finance reform, while raising questions about elements of the formula that would steer substantially more money to disadvantaged students.

Inland schools win, lose under new funding plan

Brown’s goal is to help schools with bigger challenges, such as educating those who don’t speak English or who live in poverty. But it also would create wide division in funding levels among Inland districts.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Report suggests broadly expanding federal K-12 education spending

In a sweeping vision to broaden educational opportunity, a panel of national education leaders has recommended boosting teacher pay and training, widening access to preschool and adding an unprecedented level of federal involvement in schools.

Ramona district, teachers head to fact finding in contract talks

After nearly 18 months of unsuccessful contract negotiations between the Ramona Unified School District and the teachers union, talks are moving to a state-supervised "fact-finding" phase next week.

Sacramento City board appears split over tonight's vote on closing 10 schools

The proposal to shutter 10 elementary schools in Sacramento City Unified School District tonight appears headed for a split vote after numerous critics questioned the method used to decide which schools should close.

Hackery McHackerson on testing and the #commoncore @educationweek – @ the chalk face

Hackery McHackerson on testing and the #commoncore @educationweek – @ the chalk face:

Hackery McHackerson on testing and the #commoncore @educationweek

by Chalk Face, PhD

Marilyn Rhames is Charting Her Own Course at Education Week, this time in a sort of interesting and not so interesting defense of the common core and testing. This article is weak, man, very weak. Let me go through some particulars. Actually, all I need to do is underscore this early paragraph:

As annoying as it is to cut into my curriculum for two weeks of test prep and another week or two to administer this test, I realize that standardized testing does have a single valid purpose, which could lead to other noble things. My high performing kids usually perform high, my low performing kids usually perform low, and my average performing kids are usually somewhere in between. The test is not really designed to inform me-the-teacher, but the taxpayers.

Rhames makes it plain that she doesn’t necessarily agree with the test. She’s annoyed that it cuts into her curriculum for a whole two weeks, even though I can assure you that these tests are cutting into a whole helluva

GUEST POST: Julie Gorlewski Responds to AFT

by plthomasedd

Julie Gorlewski, State University of New York at New Paltz
Response to Raising the Bar: Aligning and Elevating Teacher Preparation and the Teaching Profession (A report of the American Federation of Teachers Teacher Preparation Task Force, 2012)
As an educator who has dedicated my professional life to continuous improvement in the field, I appreciate the collaborative efforts of my colleagues in working to enhance teaching and learning. However, in the service of its claims of intended improvement, this report reinforces inflammatory, deceptive, and fallacious rhetoric – rhetoric that is damaging for students, teachers, and the future of the profession itself.
The document is grounded in the notion that the profession is ineffective, substandard, and intrinsically flawed. This assertion is emphasized through comparisons with other, presumably more authentic “professions,”

Parents saddened by vote to close Sacramento elementary schools - Education - The Sacramento Bee

Parents saddened by vote to close Sacramento elementary schools - Education - The Sacramento Bee:

Parents saddened by vote to close Sacramento elementary schools

By Anne Gonzalez
agonzalez@sacbee.com

Published: Friday, Feb. 22, 2013 - 8:27 am

Some parents reacted this morning with shock and sadness that schools their children attend in the Sacramento Unified School District are to be closed.

The closures, scheduled for seven elementary schools at the end of the current academic year, were ordered by Sacramento City Unified district trustees after a 4-3 vote Thursday night. Three schools were spared closing.

At Maple Elementary, 3301 37th Ave., parents dropping their children off today said they were stunned and confused by Thursday night's decision by school trustees to shutter seven schools, including Maple Elementary.

One parent, Christina Virgen, who attended the meeting where the closure vote was taken, said

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/02/22/5209316/parents-saddened-by-vote-to-close.html#mi_rss=Education#storylink=cpy

UPDATE: Downtown School Update Seattle Schools Community Forum: Why I Can't Support Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee 's Efforts

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Why I Can't Support Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee 's Efforts:

Downtown School Update

by Melissa Westbrook

Councilman (and mayoral candidate) Tim Burgess has a regular newsletter that he sends out. Here's what he has to say about the South Lake Union development and a "public school."

3. Support our public school system.

Two weeks ago, Seattle voters once again demonstrated generous support for public education by renewing two vital levies at a time when more parents are enrolling their children in public school. City government can do more to support the school district by encouraging the development of an elementary school for the growing number of families in the greater downtown area. With this up-zone of South Lake Union, we must craft

Friday Open Thread

by Melissa Westbrook

I attended the Assessment Taskforce meeting yesterday. It was a good meeting that was very well organized (kudos to staff) and the talk by Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University who phoned in was stellar. I'll put up a thread this weekend. (If only the Advanced Learning taskforce work had been organized this well.)

The Garfield teachers are having a press conference today at 3:15 p.m. to talk about the coming consequences of their MAP boycott action. Those consequences could start as soon as today as this is the last day of the winter testing window. From the press release:

"Of the over 800 MAP tests that were supposed to be administered at Garfield during the winter testing window, only around 180 valid tests were administered - further demonstrating the unity of the Garfield community in the pursuit of quality assessment."

It is confusing as the Superintendent told the teachers that, despite his plans to suspend them without pay for

Why I Can't Support Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee 's Efforts

by Melissa Westbrook

Many seem to think that the criticism of Michelle Rhee has to do with her personal style of presentation of her ideas. She herself has said she had a "PR" problem in D.C. I would agree that she can be off-putting. (I even find a little of myself in her as she and I have a tendency to get to the point in a blunt manner that can be hard on others who prefer a gentler nuanced delivery.)

In the Frontline special on her, she says even her mother thought her too cold as a child and said that maybe her new job was just right for her because she needed that coldness. (I sense in Rhee and her background that blunt talk was the order of the day.) Here's my thread on that show.

But, in the end, it is not Rhee, it's her ideas. And she certainly is the poster child for ed reform and there was no surprise that Time Magazine put her on the cover for that reason.

But let's break this down. First, what has she truly accomplished that gives her the stature to say that she knows how to change public education for the better?

- she was a teacher for 5 years? ( I can't find a real timeframe for her teaching history). She tells people she had poor classroom management skills and, naturally there is the infamous story - that she tells several different

Four reasons why teachers should not teach creationism

Four reasons why teachers should not teach creationism:

Four reasons why teachers should not teach creationism

Posted by Valerie Strauss on February 22, 2013 at 11:30 am

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Evolution is the animating principle of modern biology, uniting all biological fields. It’s a theory in the sense that everything in science is considered a theory but biologists have no doubt of its essential truth. Creationist theory is not a scientific alternative view to evolution — though you wouldn’t know it given all the efforts in state legislatures to pass bills insisting teachers teach it alongside evolution. From 2004 to spring 2011, at least 40 such bills were filed in 13 states but only in Louisiana was one signed into law. Efforts continued, however, with eight bills so far being introduced in state legislatures this year, according to the National Center for Science Education. Here cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham explains why teachers should not teach creationism. Willingham is a psychology professor at the University of Virginia and author of “Why Don’t Students Like School?” His latest book is “When Can You Trust The Experts? How to tell good science from bad in education.” A version of this appeared on his Science and Education blog.

By Daniel Willingham

A new bill just passed the Education committee in the Oklahoma House of representatives, as reported on in the Oklahoman. Titled “The Scientific Education and Academic Freedom

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Friday, February 22, 2013

Common Core State Standards Primer

Best of the Ed Blogs

Education Headlines

Parents saddened by vote to close Sacramento elementary schools