Teacher: Why I won’t quit despite ‘inane’ reform:

Teacher: Why I won’t quit despite ‘inane’ reform

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 11, 2013 at 6:00 am

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A recent post of a teacher’s resignation letter struck a chord with many readers, who wrote more than 1,300 comments, tweeted it some 2,000 times, and “liked” it more than 91,000 times. That teacher, Gerald J. Conti, a social studies teacher at Westhill High School in Syracuse, N.Y., wrote that he felt that school reformers have decimated the teaching profession.

Here is a different letter, one from a teacher who refuses to quit despite what she calls “inane” school reform. She is Christine McCartney, an English Language Arts high school teacher in Newburgh Free Academy in Newburgh , NY. She is currently in Finland through a Distinguished Fulbright Award in Teaching, doing a comparative study of our education systems. Finland, of course, has one of the world’s highest achieving school systems, at least according to international test scores. (You can read about Finnish schools here and hereand here.) This appeared on her blog, “an educator’s re-reducation.”

By Christine McCartney

I applaud the resolution of educators such as Gerald J. Conti and Kris L. Nielsen, for 

What teachers need and reformers ignore: time to collaborate

by Valerie Strauss

One of the primary things that teachers value but that school reformers have given short shrift is time to collaborate. Here,  Stanford University Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, an expert on teaching and teacher education, writes about why this is so important … Continue reading →

Ten things to know about Fairfax County’s next schools chief by Valerie Strauss Karen Garza, chief of the Lubbock Independent School District since 2009, was just tapped as the next superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools. Garza, the first woman to be selected for the job, will succeed Jack Dale this summer. Here … Continue reading →

NYC Educator: The Very Important Job

NYC Educator: The Very Important Job:

The Very Important Job

by NYC Educator

It's not easy when you have a Very Important Job that takes all your time. You don't really have time for your kids, because the Job takes up every moment of your time. Sure, it bothers you when report cards indicate they're failing every one of their classes in school, but that's really the teacher's job, not yours, so what can you do?

Still, when you get a Very Prestigious Offer to work in the United States, that's nothing to sneeze at. And it's pretty well known that the teachers there aren't nearly as rough as the ones in your country, so why not bring the kids along and give them  a new start? This way, it's a clean page, and they'll surely excel.

Yet, after all that, coming to a new country and all, the darn English teacher has the audacity to find your private phone number and call you. In fact, he has someone who speaks your language call you, and says The Boy has cut class six times. What can you say? You say the teacher has not been taking attendance properly, and to show you're not to be trifled with, you hang up. That should end things. But no, the teacher gets someone else to call The Wife on some other number. Where does he find all these numbers? Again it's someone in your language, and now he not only wants to talk about it, but he demands someone come to school and discuss it. He says in this country people have to come to school when their children have issues. What's up with that? The 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Thanks for listening, Carlos. But here's how you know the decisions have already been made.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Thanks for listening, Carlos. But here's how you know the decisions have already been made.:

Thanks for listening, Carlos. But here's how you know the decisions have already been made.

by Mike Klonsky

Azcoitia just "listening"?

CPS board member, Carlos Azcoitia showed up at Amundsen High School, host to back-to-back community meetings for Graeme Stewart and Joseph Stockton elementary schools. Both are on BBB's chopping block. Carlos said he was there to "listen" and knowing him, I believe that is true. But Carlos was also running the party line on people who have heard it too many times.

He admits that "some disruption is going to occur when you close a school."

"But we're going to do it with educational enhancements, better facilities, and having safe passage for students," he said.

Well at least he didn't say the board was liberating students "trapped in bad schools." He must have missed the last meeting with Liar-in-Chief Becky Carroll. But Carlos knows as well as I do that these hearings are meaningless at this point. Rahm even said as much.  But the real way you know that nobody, including Carlos, 

Special Late Nite Cap UPDATE 4-10-13 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

Nite Cap UPDATE

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Preschool For All Plan In Obama Budget May Skip Some States

by Joy Resmovits

President Barack Obama's "Preschool for All" initiative in his 2014 2014 budget proposal is billed as a way to make sure every American child can attend preschool for free. Helping kids in their early years can ease achievement gaps and help them enter the workforce later on, the administration said.

"This would constitute the largest expansion of educational opportunity in the 21st century," Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said on a Wednesday call with reporters.

But the $77 billion measure, to be funded by a 94-cent tax increase on a pack of cigarettes, is no sure bet. And even if Congress does pass the measure, it would not require states to actually expand preschool offerings. Rather, it would give incentives for them to do so, much like the Affordable Care Act. But the preschool incentive may be even less compelling to states than Obamacare, since Preschool for All doesn't help governors fulfill a 

Public education is a treasure we must protect

by Activism in paradise - Voices from down under

Public education is a treasure we must protect

by Peter O’Connor

Associate Professor Peter O’Connor is director of the Critical Research Unit in Applied Theatre at the University of Auckland.

Reposted from the New Zealand Herald.

(New Zealand) Teachers know they are in an ideological battle over the future of public education. That is why on Saturday they will be marching in civic centres across the country.

They are taking to the streets as they have little trust in the Minister of Education and if it is at all possible, even 

I’m not a theologian or educator: I’m “special assistant” to the governor.

by Timothy D. Slekar

Its been almost three weeks since Kathy M. Newman’s OP/ED (about opting out of PSSAs) went viral after being published in the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette.

That of course prompted Mr. Tim (not an educator) Eller to post a rebuttal.

In case you’ve forgotten, Mr. Eller is the press secretary to Pennsylvania secretary of education (Ronald Tomalis).  Between the two of them they have racked up ZERO years of teaching experience in K-12 public 

WHAT DO PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY AND DINOSAURS HAVE IN COMMON ?

by alkleen

Please don’t read any more of this if you hate when grumpy old people make generalizations about modern society. I just feel the need to vent about something. DOES ANYONE TAKE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYTHING ANYMORE ?

With my wife requiring many doctor appointments these days, I have become increasingly irritated by the medical professions need to make “confirmation calls”. PLEASE STOP CALLING ME TO CONFIRM UPCOMING APPOINTMENTS! I wrote down the appointment date, I’m not going to forget it, I will bring my insurance cards and medication lists and everything else you feel the need to remind me about. These calls are getting 

Should Computers Grade Student Essays?

by dianerav

The New York Times recently reported on the introduction of software that is able to grade student essays and give instant feedback. It is currently being used in a number of universities; many others are likely to follow suit.

The student submits an essay and instantly receives a graded response from a computer. The student can then revise in hopes of improving the grade.

The software inevitably will be adopted for use in schools as well as colleges and universities.

Actually the Educational Testing Service already has an essay grader that can grade 16,000 essays in 20 seconds. Michael Winerip wrote about this in another article in the New York Times, back when he had a regular 

Bill Introduced: H.R.1222 Compact-Impact Aid Act of 2013

To amend the Compact of Free Association of 1985 to provide for adequate Compact-impact aid to affected States and territories, and for other purposes.

Bill Introduced: H.R.1200 American Health Security Act of 2013

To provide for health care for every American and to control the cost and enhance the quality of the health care system.

Goodbye Creativity and Imagination, Hello Common Core Writing!

by Lisa M

I was at a meeting this morning, (Yes, another one).  This one was about Common Core writing standards. I sat there, staring blankly at the PowerPoint presentation being READ to me. (That's another post topic). The presenter showed screen after screen of what is expected of us next year when we implement the Common Core writing standards. My mind wandered to the soldiers in North Korea, all

Obama Administration’s 2014 Education Budget Proposal Boosts Pell Grant, Seeks Interest Rate Changes

by cmaadmin

The Barack Obama administration is proposing a $140 increase in the top Pell Grant plus more work/study funds and level support for minority-serving colleges and universities in a fiscal 2014 budget blueprint released Wednesday.

Overall, the U.S. Department of Education would realize a 4.6 percent increase, to $71 billion, for the next fiscal year. Also included in the budget is a plan to take Congress out of the business of setting student loan interest rates, instead moving to a market-based system.

One overarching goal in the budget is to address a “stubborn opportunity gap” facing many children and youth, said Education Secretary Arne Duncan. To help address such challenges, the budget includes more funds for low-income students and a $1.3 billion down payment on a new federal/state preschool partnership to expand 

The dark side of Parent Trigger

BY DANIEL SHOER ROTH

DSHOER@MIAMIHERALD.COM

The crusade to privatize public education continues gaining ground in the Florida Legislature, where the controversial bill to have a traditional neighborhood school transformed into a charter school, among other options, sails at full speed under the premise of empowering parents to turn around a school that’s failing their children.

This bill, with great symbolic importance to both sides of the issue, will be heard Thursday by the Senate Education Appropriations Subcommittee. The Florida House and the Senate Education Committee have already approved it.

Many legislators — some with strong economic ties to the charter school industry — promise the moon when describing the bill known as the Parent Trigger Act. Nonetheless, they present little evidence of its

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/10/3336512/the-dark-side-of-parent-trigger.html#storylink=cpy

A Year at Mission Hill Wrap: Chapters 4 and 5

by Dana Bennis and David Loitz in Blog

What Is the Goal of NJ's New "School Report Cards"?

by Duke

Let's suppose we got a bunch of educational researchers together with the goal of identifying 30 high-achieving schools in New Jersey. Using a combination of test scores and course selections and GPAs and AP scores and attendance records and all sorts of other metrics, our raters would select this group of 30 "peers," all having demonstrated they are doing very well by various academic measures.

Once they had identified this group of schools, what should the researchers do? Should they gather the teachers and principals together to commend them for their achievements? Maybe give the students in the schools an opportunity to learn from each other in a collaborative setting? Certainly, we'd want to celebrate the achievements of these fine 30 institutions; we'd want to commend them, their students, their teachers, and their 

Connected From The Start

by Dean Shareski

It’s my pleasure to announce the publishing ofKathy Cassidy’s new book about primary learners. Kathy is a long time friend and colleague who I’ve long admired and watched her own growth as a connected learner and teacher. I was privileged to be ask to write the foreword which I’ll share here:

In my personal journey with technology, there are two very distinct “aha” moments. Number one came in 1997 when I created my first webpage using something called html. Inputting some weird symbols on a screen, sending them up to something called a web server, using something called FTP, and then knowing that the page could be seen by anyone anywhere with an internet connection and something called a web browser was transformational. Computing was about possibilities.

The second aha occurred in 2003, when I discovered something called a blog. I should say that in my rolefor nine years as a district technology consultant, aha moments were not of much value unless I could help teachers somehow see the same value as I did. While the complexity of 

Bobby Jindal and John White Decide to Experiment on Special Education Students

by crazycrawfish

Louisiana Superintendent of Education and Governor Bobby Jindal are experimenting on Louisiana’s Special Education students. This might seem like a harsh assessment, but as far as I can see the only alternative to this is that these guys are straight up stealing state and federal dollars allocated for special education students to fund pet projects, plug budget holes and provide additional funding to charter and voucher school operators – and that would be a violation of federal law and criminal – so I’m actually giving them the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Superintendent John White takes his marching orders directly from Bobby Jindal, who recently had to abandoneliminating the state’s hospice program and an ill-conceived reverse robin hood tax scheme that increased the taxes on the poorest citizens of our state so as to eliminate taxes for the wealthiest citizens and corporations.  This follows on successful Jindal campaigns to eliminate the office of elderly affairs, over the objection of the head of this agency – whom Jindal fired immediately after she voiced her assessment under oath that eliminating 

“This Is Boring” — Part Two

by Larry Ferlazzo

I’ve previously posted about a short lesson I’ve done on being bored and what students — and teachers — can do about it (see Have You Ever Had A Student Say “This Is Boring”? Here’s A Lesson On It I’m Trying Out Tomorrow).

A new article (Could boredom be curable?) in The Boston Globe follows-up on the research I used in that lesson and adds the results of even more recent studies.

Two ideas mentioned in the article are not “earthshakers,” but I still might try to add them to my lesson as strategies that students should keep in mind if they feel bored.

One is that research found that if subjects found that their mind was wandering towards pleasant alternative 

Terrible is the new Pretty Good

from Mr. Teachbad's Blog of Teacher Disgruntlement by teachbad

Sometimes it is breathtaking how crappy student work can be. What's even more breathtaking is how crappy something could be that I would still give a B or C to. Teaching in achievement gap schools does this to you. It's not that my expectations weren't high enough. I must insist on that. Every time I have started a new semester or taught a new class, I have had high expectations for what my students might do this term. I got excited, like you're supposed to. But the expectations were always Read more [...]

Arne Duncan's Next $5 Billion Corporate Bonanza Based on Same Mythology

by Jim Horn

For years the ostensible guru of value-added testing, Bill Sanders, told anyone who would listen that teachers are the most important factor influencing student achievement.  When Richard Rothstein, Gene Glass, and others pointed out the obvious falsity of this lie, the language shifted among corporate ed reformers to argue that teachers are the most important school-based factor in raising student achievement.

Well, that is sort of accurate in a misleading sort of way, with some caveats and contextual factors to consider, which has led even the conservative Education Writers Association to conclude that

Research has shown that the variation in student achievement is predominantly a product of individual and family background characteristics. Of the school factors that have been isolated for study, teachers are probably the most important 

Reaction mixed in ed world to Obama budget proposal:

Reaction mixed in ed world to Obama budget proposal

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 10, 2013 at 7:45 pm

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The early reaction to President Obama’s newly released 2014 budget proposal has garnered mixed reviews from the education world. Here’s some of the reaction:

Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers union, both praised and criticized the proposal

Referring to proposed cuts in Medicare and other health programs as well as other cuts, he said in a statement:

Right now the focus should be on protecting and increasing benefits for our seniors, not pulling the rug out from under them as seniors and families are working so hard to make ends meet. Social Security belongs to the people who have worked hard all their lives, contributed to the program, and relied on the promise that they and their family will be able to collect benefits that accurately reflect the cost of living when they retire.

Any budget proposal must be balanced and fair by demanding more of the wealthiest and corporations while staying true to our nation’s commitment to seniors and those 

The walk Michelle Obama didn’t walk in Chicago today. | Fred Klonsky

The walk Michelle Obama didn’t walk in Chicago today. | Fred Klonsky:

The walk Michelle Obama didn’t walk in Chicago today.

by Fred Klonsky

Photo: Raise Your Hand.
I heard Michelle Obama’s talk to Chicago corporate and political leaders about gun violence on TV this evening.
“Hadiya Pendleton was me,” Mrs. Obama said, referring to the Chicago high school student who was gunned down after returning from Washington, DC having marched in the Obama inauguration.
Michelle Obama was very moving in her words and in the sincerity of her voice.
What she didn’t do this morning was walk the walk that many more Hadiya Pendleton’s will have to walk next 

A response to the NYSSBA attorneys. #optout #refuse – @ the chalk face

A response to the NYSSBA attorneys. #optout #refuse – @ the chalk face:

A response to the NYSSBA attorneys. #optout #refuse

by Chris Cerrone

I have been very fortunate to have worked with Eric Mihelbergel the last few months on education advocacy in Western New York.  Eric has been a bundle of energy and a trusted source of information and research.  His passion to to fight the high-stakes testing madness is truly appreciated by parents and educators across New York. Eric’s “refusal” letter has helped justify the parental and student right to boycott the New York State Assessments.
Recently Tim Slekar wrote about the New York State School Boards Association attorneys response to parental requests to opting out.  Mr. Mihelbergel crafted an excellent response to that memo.
__________________________________________________________
by Eric Mihelbergel
As a concerned parent  I am wondering if you might consider advising the NYSSBA in a slightly different way than your article describes (which I will describe below) for the following reasons:

• Excessive testing takes away approximately 25% of our children’s academic school year.
• Excessive testing forces teachers to “teach to the test” instead of nurturing higher order thinking skills, independent thinking, and creativity.
• Excessive testing teaches children that there is only one right answer in academics and in life.