Sunday, April 28, 2013

by admin

COLORADO STUDENT ACTIVISTS: JOIN US MAY 10TH

Posted on April 28, 2013

April 28^th, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WHAT: Students standing up for our education

WHEN: May 10^th, 2013 from 1:30 – 5:00pm

WHERE: West Steps of the Colorado State Capitol

On a student retreat in March, student leaders in Colorado decided that more actions needed to take place to fix our public school system. From there, three student leaders went to Washington D.C. to speak as presenters at the annual Occupy the DOE 2.0 protest; while in D.C. they met with other student activists as well as representatives of the Dept. of Ed. They shared their ideas, their concerns and plans to take local action upon their return to Colorado.

One of many actions they are taking includes a student walkout on May 10^th. They will be taking a stance against high stakes standardized testing and the privatization of public education occurring across the country.

In the coming year, schools will have to compromise their curriculum to teach to the new PARCC test which is aligned with the common core standards. We will see an increase in test prep and skill/drill. Public tax dollars will be used to fill the requirements necessary for the increased testing and curriculum aligned with common core (which has never been field tested). Students will be denied classroom environments focused on creative, critical and conceptual thinking.

We, the students, will be asking for:

-A democratic education, wherein the biggest stakeholders (i.e. students and teachers) have influence and input

-Equitable funding and access to education

-Inclusivity and anti-oppression

-Engagement in equitable curriculum reform

On May 10^th, the students will be standing up for their education. They will advocate for an authentic education where they are evaluated by portfolios, self-directed projects and self-written evaluations. They want to see an education system where they have a passion-driven curriculum.

Students will participate by walking out during lunch and will join together at the Capitol where their voices will be heard. They encourage all students, parents, teachers and concerned community members to join them as they stand up for their education.

Alex Kacsh states: “This will be the start of the education revolution.”

For more information:

Alex Kacsh

akacsh@students4ourschools.org

720.232.1918

Research on Reforms Our mission is to contribute to the improvement of the New Orleans Public Schools

Research on Reforms:

Our mission is to contribute to the improvement of the New Orleans Public Schools by conducting research on reforms, and publishing research findings, so that successful reforms can be replicated, and failing practices can be eliminated.

Our organization goals and our mission are founded upon the premise that effective education policies and practices:

1. Promote equal access and quality education for all students,
2. Are research-based and data-driven, and
3. Reflect an understanding of how children learn and how schools become effective.

Research on Reforms

Wresting the Public’s Rights: Lawsuits Against White, LDOE et al. | deutsch29

Wresting the Public’s Rights: Lawsuits Against White, LDOE et al. | deutsch29:

Wresting the Public’s Rights: Lawsuits Against White, LDOE et al.

by deutsch29

Corporate reform thrusts ahead with little regard for what is legal or even decent. Privatizers are just fine with forcing those whose lives they callously damage to spend both money and time in litigation in order to gain what they were legally entitled to in the first place.
I’m sure Eli Broad would be proud. He probably offers Make the “Non-talented” Waste Their Resources on Needless Litigation as a course at his (We Are Anything But) Superintendents Academy.
At the conclusion of my update on John White and InBloom, I mentioned that I would write a post in which I discuss lawsuits filed against White and LDOE for their withholding data and violating open meetings laws. Let me add BESE and Superintendents Advisory Council Chairman Michael Faulk to the list of those being sued. Also, in addition to withholding data, let me add withholding other public documents to the list.
In this post, I focus on three lawsuits. I will address them chronologically.
The first of these lawsuits was filed in October 2012 by the New-Orleans-based group, Research on Reforms (ROR).

Research on Reforms Sues LDOE

Research on Reforms was developed because of the urgency to collect data and analyze the findings to determine if the educational reforms of 2005 were working.
The 2005 Louisiana Legislature enacted laws that allowed experimentation in the public schools, and recognized

UPDATE: The world has lost a giant Daily Kos: Religious indoctrination in the military is now a serious issue

Daily Kos: Religious indoctrination in the military is now a serious issue:

The world has lost a giant - Janos Starker

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

He was 88.
Since 1958 he taught at the Jacobs School of Music at the University of Indiana.
He was, simply put, one of the greatest cellists to ever live.
I offer that evaluation as one who was himself as an adolescent a very serious cellist and as one who had the opportunity to play in an orchestra behind him.
perhaps this will give you a sense of his mastery:
Popout
He was, according to friends who studied at Indiana, an absolutely superb teacher, as you can see here:

another week of treatment for Leaves on the Current

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

As I write this, it is the weekly anniversary of that fateful visit January 27 to the x-ray center at Virginia Hospital Center where this all began.
It has been a relatively quiet week. Chemo began again on Tuesday for another 2-week cycle. As a result blood tests taken before receiving chemo, Leaves was temporarily put on a supplement to adjust one of her mineral levels - not a big deal, but a pill that had to be broken in to. Otherwise her lab work has been excellent.
Still, between us we take lots of pills, me for my cholesterol and high blood pressure as well as my permanent problem with my sinuses, her as part of the overall plan to whip this cancer back into remission.
Today is Palm Sunday for Orthodox Christians. Tomorrow begins an intensive week of services. She does not know whether she will make the full length of each, but was able to stand and sing in choir for more than an hour this past Wednesday, then stay for a lecture by the now retired priest who married us back in 1985. She has can dress or undress herself without me. She can put on and take off Gregor, her back brace. She can even get what she wants to eat or drink. And once I have set up all the pills for the week?? Am I really still necessary? Well, she isn't allowed to deal with cat litter (and that would also require bending over) so with four felines I still have my irreplaceable responsibilities. It's nice to feel necessary for some things, even nicer that I am still wanted for things she can do but which I can make easier.

Religious indoctrination in the military is now a serious issue

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

It must be. After all, Sally Quinn, wife of former legendary editor of the Washington Post Ben Bradlee and author of the "On Faith" part of the paper, wrote that U.S. military should put religious freedom at the front.
There are others here for whom tracking the Dominionists in America, including what they are doing in the military, is their main focus. Thus you could - and should - have read Death by Dominion by Frederick Clarkson, who is an acknowledged expert on the topic. When I pointed out the Quinn piece to him, he encouraged me to write about it.
What I offer is placing the authorship in context. Sally Quinn is as representative of "The Village" - the conventional wisdom of the permanent pundit class of Washington - as is anyone.
The occasion for this piece is a conversation Quinn had with three men - former chief of staff to Colin Powell Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, and head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation Mikey Weinstein (who has been attempting to get people to address this issue for a number of years).
Wilkerson pointed out that proselytizing and sexual assault both undermine the bonds necessary for a

Diane in the Evening 4-28-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Jeff Bryant: Why There Is No Middle Ground

by dianerav

Earlier today there was a good exchange on the idea of finding common ground. Robert Shepherd explained why it should happen, and Ira Shor said it would not happen in light of the unreasonable attacks on teachers and public schools.
As it happens, Jeff Bryant addressed the same issues two years ago..
He commented today:
“Why there is not a middle ground in the education debate:

Dayne Sherman: Jindal’s War Against the People of Louisiana

by dianerav

Dayne Sherman is going to a rally at the state capitol in Baton Rouge on April 30.
The people of Louisiana are waking up to Jindal’s war against the common weal.
Now, says Sherman, even the Legislature is turning against Jindal.
Four big issues stir public antipathy:
First, we have to repeal the tax give-aways passed under Jindal. Rep. Jerome “Dee” Richard (I-Thibodaux) has a bill to do this very thing. We now give away an extra 2 billion dollars a year since Jindal took office. This is

Ira Shor: Why Common Ground Is Not Possible

by dianerav

In response to an earlier post by Robert Shepherd, asking whether it might be possible to find common ground on contentious issues, Ira Shor, a professor at the City University of New York, answers:
“Dr. Shepherd sounds like a person of good will who is extremely uncomfortable with the rash, untested, arrogant impositions of high-stakes testing so profitable to corps. like Pearson, and through which govt. officials like Jindal, Emanuel, Cuomo, Christie, etc., make whimsical decisions to disrupt communities, families, kids, and teachers, none of whom send their own kids to pub schls. The opposition consolidated by the brilliant work of Dr. Ravitch has not done any damage to pub schls, kids, teachers, or families, so to represent the issue as good

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 4-28-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 1 hour ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Parents File Class Action Lawsuit Against State Testing by dianerav Parents in Rochester, New York, filed a federal class action lawsuit against the state and their son’s school, which punished him for refusing to take the tests in accordance with his parents’ wishes. The school not only punished the boy, but sent the sheriff’s office to the ballfield to make sure he was not allowed to play baseball. Good for them! I would sue too. The story says: Hello, NY D... more »

Pre #commoncore kindergarten and #commoncore kindergarten – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER

Pre #commoncore kindergarten and #commoncore kindergarten – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER:

Pre #commoncore kindergarten and #commoncore kindergarten

by Timothy D. Slekar

Thanks to Sara Wottwa for the image collections below. You can read about these images on her blog at http://nocommonsenseeducation.blogspot.com/2013/04/kindergarten-comparison.html .

Kindergarten (Pre Common Core)

Common Core Kindergarten

It’s never too early to start getting your five-year olds ready for college and careers!

Someone has to say it!

“Time to grow up!”

Follow Timothy D. Slekar on Twitter: www.twitter.com/slekar

No Rich Child Left Behind - NYTimes.com

No Rich Child Left Behind - NYTimes.com:

No Rich Child Left Behind

By SEAN F. REARDON

Here’s a fact that may not surprise you: the children of the rich perform better in school, on average, than children from middle-class or poor families. Students growing up in richer families have better grades and higher standardized test scores, on average, than poorer students; they also have higher rates of participation in extracurricular activities and school leadership positions, higher graduation rates and higher rates of college enrollment and completion.

Whether you think it deeply unjust, lamentable but inevitable, or obvious and unproblematic, this is hardly news. It is true in most societies and has been true in the United States for at least as long as we have thought to ask the question and had sufficient data to verify the answer.

What is news is that in the United States over the last few decades these differences in educational success between high- and lower-income students have grown substantially.

One way to see this is to look at the scores of rich and poor students on standardized math and reading tests over the last 50 years. When I did this using information from a dozen large national studies

NYC Public School Parents: Important! Attorney handling class action lawsuit vs. NYS exams wants to hear from NYS parents

NYC Public School Parents: Important! Attorney handling class action lawsuit vs. NYS exams wants to hear from NYS parents:

Important! Attorney handling class action lawsuit vs. NYS exams wants to hear from NYS parents

by Leonie Haimson

Van White, the attorney handling the class action lawsuit of parents whose child was punished for opting out of the state exams in the Rochester area, is looking for information from New York state parents, to be sent to him at van.white@thelegalbrief.com.

More specifically, he would like to hear from parents if their children opted out of these exams and were punished in some way by their schools or districts, as well as from parents whose children opted out but received no punishment. He is especially interested in hearing from parents of children who were deprived of some "instructionally related event or material" as a result.

Please send him your stories, along with your name, school, district and your child's grade level, to help him gather evidence about unequal treatment of students across the state. His email is below; please contact him directly with this information.

More on this case can be found here. The defendants in the lawsuit include the State of New York, the NYS Education Department, Commissioner of Education John B. King, the Rush-Henrietta School District, its Board of Education, Superintendent J. Kenneth Graham Jr., and the Burger Middle School principal. And please forward this message to other parents. Thanks!

On Apr 27, 2013, at 3:08 PM, Van White <van.white@thelegalbrief.com> wrote:

Hello. My name is Van White. I am an attorney in Rochester, NY. By now I think you may have heard from several sources …that I am representing a family whose son is being punished (no extra curricular activities for each day he refused to take the state assessment exams). One of the claims made in the suit is that there is great disparity among how children are being treated for having opted out and this inequity, we argue, amounts to a violation of the Equal Protection clause.

To support this claim I'm looking for parents/students who opted out and were either punished or not punished. Because it seems that most districts did not punish, I am especially interested in cases where students were punished. Moreover in those cases (where they were punished) I am particularly interested in those students who were denied access to some instructionally related event or material. (That is because the more the activity relates to the instructional arena, the more likely the court will find that it is a constitutional violation.) I am trying to amend the complaint (with any additional clients or facts that I get) to keep the case moving along, so your prompt response would be appreciated. Please let me know if you need anything further. Thank you.

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Schools This Week

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Schools This Week:

Seattle Schools This Week

by Melissa Westbrook

Monday, April 29th
Special meeting of Audit& Finance. One thing on the agenda - potential RIF presentation by HR head, Paul Apostle.

Also, if you wish to speak at the School Board meeting on Wednesday, you can start calling/writing at 8 am on Monday.

Tuesday, April 30th
Charter Commission Meeting in Bellevue from 10 am - 5 p.m. at the Bellevue Arts Museum. Agenda. Open to the public (and people do come and go).

They will be having an Executive Session first thing until 10:40 am. They will then have a presentation about "charter school research findings" from the CRPE's Robin Lake. (I have heard Ms. Lake speak before and she's

Florida approves online-only public university education - Yahoo! News

Florida approves online-only public university education - Yahoo! News:

Florida approves online-only public university education

By Bill Cotterell | Reuters – Sat, Apr 27, 2013

Con Academy

Browse Con Academy library of over 3,100 educational videos...

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - Public university students in Florida next year will be able to start working toward college degrees without actually going to college, under a law Governor Rick Scott signed on Monday in front of educators and business lobbyists.

The state-run University of Florida plans to start a series of online bachelor's degree programs next year, with $15 million start-up funds for 2014.

Until now full-time online education has just been available to elementary and high schools in the state.

"This bill transforms education in Florida," said House Speaker Will Weatherford, a Republican who has long been a proponent of "virtual learning" in public schools.

"Now, we will be home to the first fully accredited, online public research university institute in the nation," said Weatherford. "These bold higher-education reforms will help increase Florida's global competitiveness and ensure our students have meaningful opportunities after high school."

Colorado State University began offering online university courses in 2007, according to Kyle Henley, a university spokesman, though students must first have 13 credits from another university to be eligible.

California and Texas are also developing totally online university programs, while Illinois considered the idea and discarded it, according to a spokesman for the Association of Public and Land-grant

Obama’s big second-term education problem

Obama’s big second-term education problem:

Obama’s big second-term education problem

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 28, 2013 at 12:48 pm

Comments

President Obama and Arne Duncan (ed.gov)

President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan. (ed.gov)

President Obama has a big problem in his second term in terms of education policy: his first term.

Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, pushed hard in their first term to have a major impact on changing public schools with a larger-than-ever federal role in school policy issues that affected every single classroom in the country. And they did, with rare bipartisan support.

They borrowed tactics from the corporate world, setting up the competitive Race to the Top initiative, in which states competed for federal funds by promising to implement specific reforms. Those included new accountability systems that linked teacher evaluation to student standardized test scores, new standards that became known as the Common Core initiative, and an expansion of charter schools. Only 11 states and the District of Columbia won in the $4.3 billion state Race competitions, but other states, in hopes of winning some of the cash, signed on to these reforms, too. The administration’s attempt at leveraging the money they had to get more bang for their buck worked.

In 2008, Obama campaigned on rewriting the 2002 No Child Left Behind law — which was supposed to be done in 2007 because even its authors knew it had to be improved due to its

Pennsylvania Man Pleads Guilty In Manhattan Federal Court To Bribing New York City Department Of Education Employee In Furtherance Of $2.7 Million Fraud Parent Advocates

Parent Advocates - ParentAdvocates.org:

Pennsylvania Man Pleads Guilty In Manhattan Federal Court To Bribing New York City Department Of Education Employee In Furtherance Of $2.7 Million Fraud
Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that NELSON RUIZ pled guilty today to defrauding the New York City Department of Education (“DOE”) out of approximately $2.7 million and to bribing a DOE employee in furtherance of the fraud scheme. RUIZ pled guilty in Manhattan federal court before U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl.

Preet Bharara

Pennsylvania Man Pleads Guilty In Manhattan Federal Court To Bribing New York City Department Of Education Employee In Furtherance Of $2.7 Million Fraud
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, December 17, 2012

Fraud Scheme Was Based on False Billing for Services to Special Needs Students That Were Never Provided

LINK

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that NELSON RUIZ pled guilty today to defrauding the New York City Department of Education (“DOE”) out of approximately $2.7 million and to bribing a DOE employee in furtherance of the fraud scheme. RUIZ pled guilty in Manhattan federal court before

Jersey Jazzman: Teachers Punished When They Question Authority

Jersey Jazzman: Teachers Punished When They Question Authority:

Teachers Punished When They Question Authority

by Duke

One of the friends of this blog is teacher/blogger @rratto; he's reposted and retweeted me more times than I could count, which I very much appreciate. So this is hardly an unbiased opinion on my part; nevertheless, the story he is telling at his blog is shocking and disturbing:

It all began Wednesday evening with the following “tweets”;
My initial tweet was an editorial comment based on a Common Core standard (which includes a similar example in the standard), and included a generic example that can be found in many practice workbooks. As you can see Allison Sitts, aka, IthacaGorges took

Sunday reads. | Fred Klonsky

Sunday reads. | Fred Klonsky:

Sunday reads.

by Fred Klonsky

Photo: Chicagoist.com Friday’s Chicago Critical Mass bike ride in support of keeping all Chicago public schools open.
Did you watch the game? ‘‘Grueling,’’ Hinrich said in summing up the Bulls’ Game 4 victory at the United Center. ‘‘It was just one of those games that everyone is going to be talking about for a while.’’
One year moratorium on virtual charters.
Family wealth is still the greatest predictor of school success.
Life in Rahm’s Chicago. Alderman’s sister gets a key post in CPS.
The evidence mounts that the education reformers are

Observations from yesterday’s IEA Retired conference.

by Fred Klonsky

I spent yesterday, Saturday, at the Oak Brook Doubletree Hotel where the Spring IEA Retired meeting was held.
I would guess that there were about 200 IEA Retired members in attendance.
There was a large turnout to hear Will Lovett present on TRS and the pension fight in Springfield. Lovett is an IEA lobbyist and the pension go-to guy in Government Relations. He is personable and knowledgable.
“Don’t pick on me on your blog,” Lovett joked after the session when John, Glen, Jack and I were playing hooky from a third session, hanging in the banquet room.
“I’ve only said good things about you, Will.”
And it’s true. Lovett doesn’t set policy. He just works for those who do.
His session was full of retirees who know about pensions.
We are worried about the news that We Are One and IEA leaders are at the table with Senate President John

Connecting test scores to teacher evaluations: Why not? | Dangerously Irrelevant

Connecting test scores to teacher evaluations: Why not? | Dangerously Irrelevant:

Connecting test scores to teacher evaluations: Why not?

by dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)

Mike Wiser at The Quad-City Times reported today on the controversy here in Iowa around connecting student test scores to teacher evaluations (aka ‘value-added modeling’ or ‘VAM’). Last week I shared the research and prevailing opinion of scholars supporting why this should not be done.
In the article, notes that ‘teacher accountability has to be be part of it, or it’s not reform.’ This is consonant with policymakers’ general willingness to ignore the rating volatility concerns associated with VAM. As Amrein-Beardsley, et al. (2013) noted:

Policymakers have come to accept VAM as an objective, reliable, and valid measure of teacher quality. At the same time, [they ignore] the technical and methodological issues.

There appears to be a blind faith by many legislators in the objectivity of VAM, even though the actual data show that there is extremely high volatility in teacher ratings from year to year. Somehow policymakers are able to dismiss that rating instability as unimportant, even though it has tremendous impacts on teachers’ lives

Latest News and Comment from Education

Sunday, April 28, 2013