Best of the Ed Blogs | National Education Policy Center

Best of the Ed Blogs | National Education Policy Center:

Best of the Ed Blogs

Best of the Ed Blogs features a frequently updated selection of interesting and insightful blog posts on education policy. The views expressed by the bloggers on our blog roll are thoughtful, original, and entirely their own. We hope you make Best of the Ed Blogs your first stop for concise takes on today's most important education topics.

San Jose Teachers’ Contract Offers Leadership Pathways

Best of the Ed Blogs

David B. Cohen

May 28, 2013

In American Schools, What is Quality Work?

Best of the Ed Blogs

Sam Chaltain

May 28, 2013

Most Screwed Local Public School Districts Update 2009-2011

Best of the Ed Blogs

Bruce D. Baker

May 28, 2013

My Discussion with Matt Barnum Part 3

Best of the Ed Blogs

Gary Rubinstein

May 24, 2013

What I Learned in Chicago

Best of the Ed Blogs

Stephanie Rivera

May 24, 2013

The Ecology of Innovation in Teaching and Learning

Best of the Ed Blogs

Jack Hassard

May 24, 2013

The Forces Driving America’s Education Spring

Best of the Ed Blogs

Jeff Bryant

May 24, 2013

A Modest Proposal (Guest Post by Colum White)

Best of the Ed Blogs

Colum Whyte, EduShyster

May 23, 2013

What a Fact? And Who Can We/Should We Trust?

Best of the Ed Blogs

Deborah Meier

May 23, 2013

School Closing Quotables

Best of the Ed Blogs

Mike Klonsky

May 23, 2013

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Education in Your Backyard — Whole Child Education

Education in Your Backyard — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

Education in Your Backyard

May 28, 2013 by Walter McKenzie

As a director of Constituent Services at ASCD, I work with the best and the brightest educators leading our affiliates around the world. It is a sincere honor and privilege. And this time of year, as affiliate boards begin meeting, reflecting, and planning, I have the opportunity to work with them virtually and face-to-face and support them in their important work. Representing ASCD, I enjoy bringing the collective resources of the world's premier professional education association to our leaders in the field. What I enjoy the most, though, is learning from our affiliates as they share their successes and opportunities.

Here are some examples from the road this spring:

• ASCD and its affiliates have made the successful case for the whole child approach in the national and global dialogue on education.
• The Whole Child Tenets nicely align with and complement (PDF) the Common Core State Standards.
• There are opportunities to meet the needs of teachers and students not already being addressed.
• Educators continue to respond to quality, targeted professional development that meets their immediate 

All Education Matters: The Guardian - Student debt crisis: 'it's like carrying a backpack filled with bricks'

All Education Matters: The Guardian - Student debt crisis: 'it's like carrying a backpack filled with bricks':

The Guardian - Student debt crisis: 'it's like carrying a backpack filled with bricks'

by Cryn Johannsen

Here is a snippet from my latest piece, which was published by the Guardian today:

Amy Diede homeschools her two children – Caleb, 9, and Ashley, 8 – and is married to a devoted husband and father, Christian. Even though Amy has a master's in psychology, and until recently was a professional herself, Christian is now the breadwinner for the family, working as a cardiovascular nurse on short-term contracts across the country.

At the moment, the Diede family lives in California. Christian wants to own a home again, but for now they are a roaming family whose home is a 400-square-foot RV. A big part of the problem is Amy's student loan debt. It does not merely affect their bank statement, it has found its way into their daily thoughts and life. Together, Amy and Christian owe over $82,000 in student loans.

The rest of the article can be read in its entirety here.  

Spring Cleaning | EduShyster

Spring Cleaning | EduShyster:

Spring Cleaning

by edushyster2012

The civil rights issue of our time will require replacing old, non-excellent teachers with fresh new ones.
It is a true fact that young teachers are not only “fresher” but also more innovative and excellent. Now confirmed by a growing body of evidence (see scientific chart below), this scientific finding presents us with a quandary, not to mention a conundrum. How do we slough off all of the old, non-excellent teachers with their millstones of experience and pension obligations? And how much more unpleasant do we have to make their jobs before they finally get the hint and head through the double doors once and for all?
Case closed
First, a brief review of the mountain of mounting evidence. Last week saw the release of yet another studyconfirming once and for all that academies of excellence and innovation in Boston are even more outstanding 

What We Talk About When We Talk About Poverty - Bridging Differences - Education Week

What We Talk About When We Talk About Poverty - Bridging Differences - Education Week:

What We Talk About When We Talk About Poverty

by Deborah Meier

Michael J. Petrilli continues his conversation with Deborah Meier today.
Dear Deborah,
I want to return to the perennial question of poverty as it relates to educational outcomes. One of the main arguments against education reform is that it misdiagnoses the problem. We have big "achievement gaps" in terms of test scores, graduation rates, college-going, and much else, but that's primarily because of inequities in our society, not because of the failings of our schools—so goes the thinking.
As I indicated in my first post for Bridging Differences, I'm not opposed to tackling these larger issues of poverty and inequality. (Neither are most reformers.) But we'd better have a good understanding of what we're tackling. I would argue that clarity is sorely lacking.
Is the issue really poverty, per se? The fact that many families in the U.S. don't have enough income to provide the advantages that other children enjoy? If so, are we satisfied with delineating the problem with the poverty line (currently about $20,000 for a family of three)? That qualifies 23 percent of all children (as of 2011), up from 18 percent before the Great Recession.
Or should we include children a little bit above the poverty line—from families that are "near-poor" or "working-

UPDATE: U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, with Malloy at his side + “Shocking Numbers Of Kindergarten, First Grade Suspensions” at Achievement First Schools - Wait, What?

Meanwhile, more on the “Shocking Numbers Of Kindergarten, First Grade Suspensions” at Achievement First Schools - Wait, What?:

News Flash: School Districts thrown under the bus as Commissioner Pryor ends successful technical services program

by jonpelto

Last Friday, Governor Malloy’s Commissioner of Education quietly ended what has widely been recognized as one of the State Department of Education’s most important and successful programs.

For years, a variety of Connecticut school districts have been receiving vital technical assistance from a group of retired superintendents and senior school administrators through a program housed at the State Department of Education.

The program has functioned thanks to a grant through EASTCONN, the Regional Education Service Center.  The program has funded four State Department “Leaders in Residence,” along with three retired school superintendents.  Together these people have been giving school districts across the state with critically important helpg on a wide 

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, with Malloy at his side, blunders his way through Hartford…

by jonpelto

….may have been attempting to explain his approach and commitment to school safety.

Like parents everywhere, most politicians were extremely disturbed and upset in the hours, days and weeks following the Newtown nightmare.  Many led or joined the debate about how best to respond to the massacre and what laws and policies could be adopted to try to limit such disasters in the future.

Some of the ideas discussed in the weeks and months after the Newtown tragedy seemed to be genuine attempts to find solutions to the cycle of violence that threatens our children and our society.  Other proposals seemed little more than publicity stunts designed exclusively to get politicians featured on the evening news.

As we approach the six-month anniversary of the shooting in Newtown, we continue to 

Meanwhile, more on the “Shocking Numbers Of Kindergarten, First Grade Suspensions” at Achievement First Schools

by jonpelto

As Wait, What have readers learned over the last two years, Achievement First, Inc. the Charter School management company that runs more than two dozen schools in New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island is notorious for “out-migrating” or “dumping” any students that don’t fit their “exacting” standards.

While Achievement First likes to brag that their students do better on standardized tests than students in their neighboring district schools, they fail to reveal that the get those results by refusing to provide educational services to broad social-demographic groups within the community.  In virtually every situation, Achievement First educates students that are less poor and they fail to take on their fair share of students who face English language barriers or need special education services.

The harsh discipline program, which they start at the kindergarten level, is just one 

Modern School: Administrators Union Protecting Bad Bosses or Just Business as Usual?

Modern School: Administrators Union Protecting Bad Bosses or Just Business as Usual?:

Administrators Union Protecting Bad Bosses or Just Business as Usual?

by Michael Dunn

While the teachers unions have been quick to jump on the evaluation reform bandwagon in hopes of appearing “reasonable” and “professional,” the real movers and shakers behind the Eval Reform movement are primarily interested in making it easier to fire bad teachers.  Their presumption (at least the one conveyed to the press) is that there are a lot of bad teachers out there—how else to explain the deplorable state of public education in America. Never mind that graduation rates are higher than they were in the 40s or 50s and the number of kids from all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds taking and passing AP and SAT exams is higher than ever.

Yet where in all this hysteria about rotten schools and our duty to the poor, innocent children is the scrutiny of the administrators, the ones who are ultimately responsible for all that occurs in their schools?

In Los Angeles Unified (LAUSD), Superintendent Deasy fired the entire teaching staff at Miramonte Elementary in response to sexual abuse allegations against two teachers, in a PR 

"Dante" Ravitch's Abhorrent Attack on Ben Austin :: Frederick M. Hess

"Dante" Ravitch's Abhorrent Attack on Ben Austin :: Frederick M. Hess:

"Dante" Ravitch's Abhorrent Attack on Ben Austin

by Frederick M. Hess  •  May 28, 2013 at 9:18 am
Cross-posted from Education Week

I've been friendly with Diane Ravitch for a long time. Encountering her historical work 20 years ago, I was struck by her hard-hitting, erudite analyses. She invited me to deliver my first featured talk (at Brookings, on my then-forthcoming Spinning Wheels book). When I was leaving UVA's Curry School of Education, she was one of the handful of mentors I turned to for guidance. A few years ago now, I hosted the first public event for her Death and Life book.

All of which left me enormously disappointed as I read two blog posts that Ravitch penned over the weekend. Ravitch weighed in on a situation in Los Angeles, where principal Irma Cobian was removed from her position at Weigand Avenue Elementary School in Watts when Parent Revolution helped parents exercise California's "parent trigger" law. Ravitch started out reasonably enough, pointing out that 21 of 22 teachers requested a transfer in response to Cobian's removal, and that one third-grade teacher said that Cobian's the best principal she's had in her nine years at the school. (It's also worth noting, though, as Parent Revolution does, that the school ranks close to the bottom of all LAUSD elementary schools on California's Academic Performance Index and that scores have fallen over the past three years under Cobian.)

Ravitch then shifted gears, summoning shades of Dante's Inferno, as she wrote of Parent Revolution, "There is a special place in hell reserved for everyone who administers and funds this revolting organization." One 

Common Core & the High-Stakes "Hiatus"

In the past month or two, serious voices have called for a "hiatus" in high-stakes testing as new assessments are phased in over the next few years. The most notable champions of a hiatus have been Montgomery County superintendent Josh Starr and AFT...

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Picnic in the park

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Picnic in the park:

Picnic in the park

by Mike Klonsky

Sadly, I missed yesterday's school-closing protest picnic in Millennium Park. Despite the rain, it looked like great fun. I was still recovering from 70th birthday celebrations. Old rocking chair's got me.

ABC News also picked it up.

Chicago Grid has an interview this morning with CFL Pres. Jorge Ramirez who says that so-called pension reform is keeping him up at night. I hope so.

Says Ramirez,

“There’s going to be critics of what’s been put out there…. There’s a great likelihood that there will 

UPDATE: No on SB1, SB2404, the cost shift and yes to changing the landscape. | Fred Klonsky

No on SB1, SB2404, the cost shift and yes to changing the landscape. | Fred Klonsky:

Ten minute drawing. Underutilized.

by Fred Klonsky

Click on drawing to enlarge.

No on SB1, SB2404, the cost shift and yes to changing the landscape.

by Fred Klonsky

Popout.
The regular session of the Illinois General Assembly ends Friday.
Reuter’s reports:

The Illinois legislature, which over decades has built up a $100 billion unfunded pension liability, now is a study in gridlock. Speaker of the House Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton each are pushing competing versions of a fix and each refuses to take action on the other lawmaker’s bill.
There is no clear path toward resolution. A Madigan-backed bill is hung up in the Senate, where Cullerton controls the legislative calendar, and Madigan has Cullerton’s plan bottled up in the House, which he controls.
House Republican Leader Tom Cross said the Democratic leaders have the power to take action and need to exercise it. “When the two of them want to accomplish something regardless of its magnitude they get it done,” Cross said. “There is no upside to inaction.”

Of course there is an upside to inaction. The Republican House leader only says that because his pension won’t be cut and his pals in the Commercial Club will continue to make out like bandits.
The upside is that public employees will continue to have their promised constitutionally protected pensions.
That is why we call for no votes of SB1, SB2404 and no votes on a pension cost shift.
There is a downside. The unfunded pension liability will continue to grow. That would happen anyway, since

CPS board member’s schedule: Close 50 public schools. Go to the gym. Dinner at Vinci. Play at Steppenwolf. Tend the vegetable garden.

by Fred Klonsky

CPS board member Andrea Zopp.
Shia Kapos in Crain’s:

Andrea Zopp, CEO of Chicago Urban League, is moving into the long weekend the way we all should—with a long work-out and massage.
Saturday
8 a.m. Start with Zumba class in Beverly and then a workout with trainer Kathy Dalby at HiFi Fitness on Orleans Street.
11 a.m. Get a massage at XSPort Fitness on State Street with Gary Smith.
1 p.m. Hair appointment at Ulta on State Street. “I’ve been going to Heidi White for a long time.”
6 p.m. Dinner at Vinci Restaurant on Halsted Street.
7:30 p.m. Attend Steppenwolf’s

Share My Lesson - Free K-12 Resources By Teachers, For Teachers

Share My Lesson - Free K-12 Resources By Teachers, For Teachers:

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Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » The most sensitive cargo…

Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » The most sensitive cargo…:

The most sensitive cargo…

by alicemercer

The minister at the church service I attended today share this poem by Naomi Shihab Nye, and it really resonated with me. Here’s a stanza, the poem in it’s entirety can be found at the link below:

This man carries the world's most sensitive cargo
but he's not marked.
Nowhere does his jacket say FRAGILE,
HANDLE WITH CARE.

- From “Shoulders” by Naomi Shihab Nye http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/23314#sthash.i0Eaf0sF.dpuf
Let’s count the many ways that the so-called education “reform” movement does not treat poor kids subjected to their “reform” agenda as the world’s most sensitive cargo:

1. School “choice” means choosing to site your school on toxic waste;
2. And while “reformers” love schools like KIPP, the students call it “Kids in Prison”;
3. The school “reformers” send their own kids to are more humane for the students, and they have union contracts (that they honor) with their teachers;
4. But, maybe this was never about the “kids” and more about power and privilege…;
5. Because surely they wouldn’t let something like this happen to “their” children;
6. Or, this;
7. Which eventually leads to decisions like this.

The way they treat teachers is like someone speeding down a residential street in an Audi A2 and running into 

UPDATE: Can a teacher be disciplined/fired for teaching students their rights Daily Kos: you do not have right to vote in Presidential election

Daily Kos: Even if you vote, you do not have right to vote in Presidential election:

Even if you vote, you do not have right to vote in Presidential election

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

I wrote this as a comment to marktheshark's diary on the Ellison-Pocan proposed constitutional amendment on voting.  I thought I would also put it up separately
Even if you have the right to vote you do not under the US Constitution have the right to vote for electors of the President and Vice-President.  The state legislature gets to decide how those electors are awarded -  remember the bill in the works in Florida to award all of that state's electors to Bush in 2000?
Now, there is a provision of the 14th Amendment that has never been enforced, which reads

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male 

Can a teacher be disciplined/fired for teaching students their rights?

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

I was a social studies teacher.
I taught government.
That meant teaching students about the Bill of Rights.
That includes the 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination.
So when I read High School Teacher Faces Discipline for Informing Students About Their Rights, you can probably imagine my reaction.
High school students were given a survey that had their names on them.
They were asked questions about drinking and drug use, both of which represent a violation of the law.
The teacher, John Dryden, pick up the survey ten minutes before his first class, had no time to consult with administrators and since he had just completed a unit of the Bill of Rights

he decided to tell his students that they did not have to complete the forms if doing so involved admitting illegal behavior. Tomorrow the school board will consider whether and how to punish Dryden for taking advantage of this teachable moment.

Now he faces discipline ranging from a letter of remedy being place in his file which could prevent his being hired by another district, and even the possibility of dismissal.There is one difference between Dryden and myself -  I would have told students they could not be required to answer the questionnaire even without checking with an administrator.  If you are going to entrust me with

I believe this is my 3000th diary

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

I did in 2006 delete two diaries.   I do not know if they are including in the count, and if so, I am premature.
If not, my taking a moment to recognize this event is not to brag, although I am proud of my participation here.
Rather it is to affirm what this site has given me and so many others -  a site at which we can share our thoughts and insights with others, build community, support others and accept support for ourselves.
3000th or 2998th -  in a sense it does not matter.
I am grateful.
I am honored to be a part of this community.
Thanks for welcoming me as part of this community over the past 9+ years.
Peace.