6-13-13 @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER

@ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER:

CCSS, the Corporate Profit Black Hole

by plthomasedd

Unleash the Power!!!!! The power of corporate education reform to generate profit for textbook, program, and testing corporations while childhood poverty in the US skyrockets and children continue to be cheated out of rich educational experiences… Sounds about right: —– I think Education Week accidentally published the cover from an upcoming new young adult science […]

Ask and receive: #Commoncore cereal!

by Chalk Face, PhD

Never too early to get college and career ready! Gotta have my jobs!

Thoughts on a teacher in a Catholic school fired for being a domestic abuse victim?

by Chalk Face, PhD

I’m torn on this issue. Unfair, dispassionate, and further stigmatizes domestic abuse survivors/victims. However, this could definitely be a safety issue for students at the school. Perhaps she could be put on paid leave until this blows over, maternity leave, some kind of leave. Sick leave? But outright termination seems unreasonable.  

Coming Together for Solutions for Creating Respectful Learning Cultures

by John Thompson

Coming Together for Solutions for Creating Respectful Learning Cultures.

Even the Canucks are profiting from our #commoncore obsession

by Chalk Face, PhD

From School Specialty of Canada, each grade level classroom can own one of their own Common Core State Standards kits. For Canada, wouldn’t they be called CC Province Standards, right? Thankfully, they are Title I funding approved.   By the way, does Canada have Title I? Not sure about that one. Apparently, every kit comes […]

21st century… dance skills? YES!! #commoncore

by Chalk Face, PhD

The CASD has been released. Oh, you haven’t heard. Yes, it’s the Colorado Academic Standards for Dance. This seven page document just covers the Kindergarten.Dance.Standards.  Standards have indeed jumped the shark. I have nothing further to say about this, maybe you can help me.

6-12-13 @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 8 hours ago

@ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER: [image: gears] Improved School Safety Requires a Balanced Approach by John Thompson It speaks well of the UCLA Civil Rights Project that in addition to their own research they commissioned scholars from the Consortium of Chicago School Research and equally great institutions to analyze what schools can do to better support students. The Consortium has a long history of placing quantitative and qualitative evidence in a longitudinal […] Solidarity and My Name: Some Thoughts by plthomasedd I have written about this before at this blog: John P... more »

Top High Schools With the Most Minority, Disadvantaged Students - Morse Code: Inside the College Rankings (usnews.com)

Top High Schools With the Most Minority, Disadvantaged Students - Morse Code: Inside the College Rankings (usnews.com):

Top High Schools With the Most Minority, Disadvantaged Students

By ROBERT MORSE

June 13, 2013 RSS Feed Print

California had more gold medal high schools with high proportions of low-income and minority students enrolled than any other state.

There were many gold medal public high schools – which ranked in the top 500 in the U.S. News 2013 Best High Schools rankings – that had large proportions of economically disadvantaged students or very high percentages of minority students enrolled.

U.S. News has created two separate lists to profile the top-performing schools with these characteristics.

The first list below is of the 25 gold medal schools that had the highest percentage of economically disadvantaged students enrolled. This classification, a measure of poverty, is determined by the percent of students enrolled at a high school who are eligible for free- or reduced-price lunch.

The Preuss School in California was first with 99.6 percent of its students in poverty. California had 14 high schools on the list with the highest 

Discover an Apprenticeship That's Right for You

States and the federal government offer resources to help you find the right apprenticeship.

Gauge a School's Commitment to Diversity Before Enrolling

Theme dorms are one way colleges create racially mixed environments.

All Things Education: Putting off rich curriculum means putting off reading proficiency

All Things Education: Putting off rich curriculum means putting off reading proficiency:

Putting off rich curriculum means putting off reading proficiency

by Rachel Levy

Recently, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell proposed and the General Assembly approved a bill that allows elementary schools to apply for waivers from high-stakes science and social studies testing (aka SOLs) for third graders. So far this testing season, approximately twenty-five public elementary schools have availed themselves of this waiver. The idea is that before struggling readers can learn content they have to master reading comprehension.

Virginia's Deputy Secretary of Education Javaid Siddiqui thinks this is a good idea:

The law, which expires in 2015, is a kind of a pilot program, Siddiqi said. He said that schools with low reading pass rates often have low pass rates in social studies and science because the two are connected. “It’s not about what they know,” Siddiqi said. “They are struggling with comprehension.”

On the one hand, I am all for reducing standardized testing in Virginia. I also acknowledge that the the intention 

Out of Sync: Many Common Core states have yet to define a Common Core-worthy diploma (At a Glance)

Out of Sync: Many Common Core states have yet to define a Common Core-worthy diploma (At a Glance):

Out of Sync: Many Common Core states have yet to define a Common Core-worthy diploma (At a Glance)

Forty-five states and the District of Columbia have voluntarily adopted rigorous Common Core State Standards for what their K-12 public school students should know and be able to do in mathematics and English Language Arts. Yet most of these states have yet to take a critical step towards making those standards a reality: they do not require high school graduates to complete the math classes that typically cover the content described in the new standards.¹ Until states and districts re-examine their graduation policies, a high school diploma will not necessarily signify college- and career-readiness as envisioned by Common Core.

Change the Equation and the National School Boards Association’s Center for Public Education have compared states’ high school graduation requirements in math to the Common Core standards to see how well they align. We determined that graduation requirements most likely to be aligned to the Common Core standards must include math in each year of high school and convey substantial content typically taught in Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II classes. (See our methodology for a complete description of how we determined alignment).²

According to our analysis, graduation requirements in only 11 Common Core states meet this definition of alignment, and requirements in 13 are partially aligned.³ This leaves 22 states that have adopted the Common Core but lack corresponding graduation requirements that match the expectations of new standards.⁴ Some Common Core states with rigorous graduation requirements are rolling them back. Florida recently removed Algebra II from its requirements, and Michigan may follow suit.

 

Click map to enlarge in new window.

It is important to note that our definition of alignment does not tell the whole story. Even states whose graduation requirements appear to reflect the demands of the Common Core may still have much work to do to ensure that their high school course sequence and content is truly aligned to the standards. Because the Common Core Sta

- See more at: http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/out-sync#sthash.kIrd6iCw.dpuf

California's new Transitional Kindergarten: a glimpse into universal Pre-K | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC

California's new Transitional Kindergarten: a glimpse into universal Pre-K | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC:

California's new Transitional Kindergarten: a glimpse into universal Pre-K

by Deepa Fernandes

Transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students line up to sing a song before their parents arrive for a graduation ceremony at Stanley Mosk Elementary School in Winnetka.; Credit: Grant Slater/KPCC
Emma Chavez sat on a mat in her classroom, her face buried in her hands, sobbing.
“Why are you crying?” teacher Veronica Azizi asked the five year old?
“Because it’s the last day of school,” Chavez blurted out as she heaved deep breathes in between sobs. “And I’m going to miss you.”
Azizi hugged her and broke down into tears herself.
This was no ordinary last day. The 23 children in Azizi’s Winnetka classroom were a combination of Kindergarten and Transitional Kindergarten students. Transitional Kindergarten (TK) is the new grade level that California created for children who just missed the age cutoff for kindergarten.
The new grade, which started this year, is meant to get those kids ready for the rigors of Kindergarten by learning numbers and words. Education experts across the country are watching the program for lessons on how the Obama Administration’s proposal for universal Pre-K would work -- or stumble.

In declaring war on Common Core, Cobb is also attacking state... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com

In declaring war on Common Core, Cobb is also attacking state... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:

Get Schooled: In declaring war on Common Core, Cobb is also attacking state standards

 This is what I don’t get about Cobb County’s antipathy toward Common Core: Georgia standards are Common Core.

There have been several evaluations of how well Common Core aligns with state standards, including a report released just this week.

The report, “Out of Sync: Many Common Core States Have Yet to Define a Common Core-worthy Diploma,” found that of the 45 states that have voluntarily adopted Common Core, only 11 have aligned their graduation requirements in mathematics with those standards.  

And Georgia is one of them.  And the map from the report shows quite clearly.

School board resistance to Common Core in Cobb led to a “no” vote on new textbooks for next year, textbooks that teachers keep telling me are vital to student learning.   (When people refer to 

(Extra)Ordinary People

(Extra)Ordinary People:

(Extra)Ordinary People

by Sam

There’s an anecdote the Calhoun School’s Steve Nelson likes to share when he speaks to teachers and parents about the purpose of education. “We should think of our children as wildflower seeds in an unmarked package,” he says. “We can’t know what will emerge. All we can do is plant them in fertile soil, give them plenty of water and sunlight, and wait patiently to see the uniqueness of their beauty.”
At a time when too many students are still being planted in highly cultivated gardens – trimmed and pruned to resemble each other closely – it is incumbent upon all of us to stand on the side of the unmarked package. And at a time when we stray further and further from our democratic roots – from Chicago to DC – it is essential we heed the words of Mission Hill founder Deborah Meier, who reminds us that “democracy rests on having respect for the judgment of ordinary people.”
These two visions – of a school filled with unmarked seeds, and a democracy fueled by ordinary citizens – come together in the tenth and final chapter of A Year at Mission Hill. We see a montage of children in various states of joy. We hear teachers sing the words of poet Kahlil Gibran at their school’s graduation ceremony (“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.”). And we watch principal Ayla Gavins tell her staff she will refuse to administer new testing requirements under the Obama administration’s Race to the Top program.
Popout
As Mission Hill plans for the challenges of a new school year, we should pay attention to the principles its 

Teaching Career Pathways: Leadership Certification | InterACT

Teaching Career Pathways: Leadership Certification | InterACT:

Teaching Career Pathways: Leadership Certification

by David B. Cohen

Promoting Quality Teaching: New Approaches To Compensation and Career Pathways

Note: In 2012, Accomplished California Teachers published Quality Teaching in Every Classroom: New Approaches to Compensation and Career Pathways. Our team of teacher leaders from diverse regions and types of schools recommended that California policy makers should pursue means to give talented and motivated teachers expanded, formal opportunities to contribute to school improvement. We advised policy makers to consider a higher level license or certification for teachers who demonstrate teaching excellence and the skills and desire to lead. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson convened an Educator Excellence Task Force last year as well; their comprehensive report Greatness by Design cited the ACT report in making similar recommendations about the trajectory California should follow to strengthen the teaching profession. This 

Blue State Boeing, Gates, High Tech Dreamland WA — Send Kids to Amazon Warehouses | Dissident Voice

Blue State Boeing, Gates, High Tech Dreamland WA — Send Kids to Amazon Warehouses | Dissident Voice:

Blue State Boeing, Gates, High Tech Dreamland WA — Send Kids to Amazon Warehouses

by Paul Haeder

“Economists study and analyze poverty in their nice offices, have all the statistics, make all the models, and are convinced that they know everything that you can know about poverty. But they don’t understand poverty.”  —Manfred Max-Neef 

Way-way too much in the education news for me to crank out one single column. That’s coming up. For now —  Just one state gives us a peak into the STATE of affairs for the USA. Cutting Head Start. We are ending as a culture, albeit a long and protracted ending, with so-so much pain for the 80 percent and so-so much glee and gout for the One Percent and their Little Eichmanns. We have no one to blame but the media, politicians, education system (at the top) and the lusty consumerists. At least more and more of us are coming together now through these hit-and-run measures, the so-called “cuts and deaths by a thousand sequesters.” What kumbaya for the poor of us, for the precariate class, for the sliding toward oblivion us in the lower rungs of 

UPDATE: Who would you like as Illinois Governor? + The in box. “Karen Lewis is right.” | Fred Klonsky

The in box. “Karen Lewis is right.” | Fred Klonsky:

Who would you like as Illinois Governor?

by Fred Klonsky

Take Our Poll

The in box. Booze Allen, Boeing and the NSA.

by Fred Klonsky

Fred,
I find it interesting that Sen. Levin found it unacceptable to have the investigation of sexual misconduct charges, in the military, fall outside the military chain of command. And at the same time Sen Durbin, and others, don’t set the same standard for the NSA and national security, 70% of national security monies/duties go to pvt. companies and fall outside the chain of command. In both cases they want the publics illusion of safety and individual rights to stay intact and that we should trust them. Booze Allen started in Chicago in 1914 and are very tight with Boeing which we gave tax breaks to so they would relocate here.
-Sig

I’m forming an exploratory committee to draft Ralph Martire for Governor.

by Fred Klonsky

“Have you asked him?” a friend said when I suggested an exploratory committee to draft Ralph Martire for governor.
“No. But you don’t ask someone if you can draft them. That’s the opposite of drafting them.”
Ralph Martire is the Executive Director of the non-partisan Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.
If you have attended one of the many meetings that have taken place around the state concerning taxes, 

The in box. “Karen Lewis is right.”

by Fred Klonsky

Fred,
Karen Lewis is right. The Boeing Corporation is one example. Chicago City officials justified huge tax incentives enticing Boeing to move its headquarters to Chicago by claiming that the company’s operations would produce jobs and a future income stream for the city. So Boeing got a free ride, but where are all those jobs and where is that promised income stream? Anyone with reasonably healthy instincts now knows that they were just mirages for public consumption and deception. And you can multiply the Boeing example by the hundreds.
This is how they run the city. Cutting school programs, increasing class sizes, closing schools, fighting salary increases, all are designed to support large corporations that outsource jobs to foreign countries, and all are justified by a philosophy of austerity and budget cuts to offset 

Hmmm, Why Don’t I Have Much Confidence In Chicago Superintendent’s Parent Engagement Plan? | Engaging Parents In School…

Hmmm, Why Don’t I Have Much Confidence In Chicago Superintendent’s Parent Engagement Plan? | Engaging Parents In School…:

Hmmm, Why Don’t I Have Much Confidence In Chicago Superintendent’s Parent Engagement Plan?

by Larry Ferlazzo

Weeks after announcing the largest school closure plan in United States history — one developed with little or no parent input — the CEO of Chicago Public Schools announced a new parent engagement plan.
Her plan — to start parent “universities”:
Byrd-Bennett’s action plan promises to launch “Parent Universities” across the city to “help parents understand expectations at each grade level, how to build children’s academic and social-emotional skills and how to support their college and career plans.”
At these universities, parents “can learn math and literacy, become more proficient in English, earn GED and college credits, learn skills to get a job, and take

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 6-13-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

Writing for the Common Core Tests

by dianerav

Vicki Cobb, an award-winning author of more than 90 children’s books about science, recently received a requestfrom a test publisher to write for the new Common Core assessments. However, when she saw the guidelines, she wondered if she could do it. Will her voice disappear? Will she be compelled to write the same pap that deadens textbooks? Stay tuned.

Pennsylvania: Now We Know the Truth About Cyber Charters

by dianerav

Rhonda Brownstein, the executive director of Pennsylvania’s Education Law Center, says that it is time to stop trusting the claims of cyber charter promoters. For years, they have promised that students would get “innovative” education and that wondrous things would happen when virtual charters became reality, butPennsylvania now knows that none of that turned out to be true.
Pennsylvania has allowed unchecked growth of cyber charters. They have drained funding away from public schools while providing a low-quality of education.
She writes:
“Attorneys at ELC have heard from the families of many students attending cyber charter schools. Here’s what those families have reported: Students spending countless hours behind computer screens without any required 

Charter School Rejects Student with Special Needs

by dianerav

Again and again, we hear the same story: charters excluding children with special needs. This is contrary to federal law. How do they get away with it? Where are the lawyers?
A mother writes:
My daughter is a mainstream student and has been attending Minnesota School of Science since they opened. For 2 years in a row I have been trying to enroll my son who is a special needs student but have been told by the school both years not to enroll him because the special education program is lacking and that my son’s needs 

When Professional Judgment Conflicts with Common Core

by dianerav

This reader explains the conflict between Common Core expectations and her professional judgment. How did she resolve it? She did what she believed was in the best interests of children. It’s not easy.
She writes:
“As a literacy consultant and Title 1 coordinator at my K-6 rural NH school, I sympathize. At my school, we use Fountas and Pinnell’s Benchmark Assessment System as our universal screening tool for literacy. When F&P came out with their revised reading level expectations (obviously inspired by the CCSS, although they refuse to admit this), my colleagues and I came to consensus about the fact that we will not adhere to them, as we feel 

The Negative Consequences of Pressuring Students to Take AP Courses

by dianerav

A reader commented on an ongoing discussion of Advanced Placement courses and the rating of high schools according to how many students, ready or not, take them.
She writes:
“The highly publicized rankings based on AP tests taken did a lot of harm in my sons’ high school. AP courses used to attract the students who were genuinely ready for college-level work, but about seven years ago, the school system instituted a policy that required every student who took an AP course to take the AP exam, and also began to push students into AP who did not really need to be there. There were parent meetings about AP 

Helen Gym: Report from Philadelphia Parents on the Front Lines of Destruction

by dianerav

Philadelphia has had a disastrous year of school closings, budget cuts, and a report recommending privatization of large numbers of public schools. Now, as parent activist Helen Gym reports, the situation is even more dire after massive layoffs. The state of Pennsylvania and the mayor of Philadelphia seem content to let private corporations take over public education  in the city. This is an ominous sign, not only for Pennsylvania, but for other urban districts. This is purposeful abandonment of a basic public function.

Gym writes:

For those watching Philadelphia’s tragic schools situation from afar, hope you might consider a few pieces from Parents United for Public Education.

Topping off a dreadful year that saw 24 school closings, and the stripping away of all educational supports from 

Bruce Baker: Another Look at the Much Hyped Chetty-Rockoff-Freidman Study

by dianerav

Perhaps you recall the hoopla that surrounded the release in late 2011 of a study by economists Chetty, Friedman, and Rockoff, in which they claimed that a great teacher would produce a huge increase in lifetime earnings, fewer pregnancies, and other wonderful life outcomes. It was reported on the front page of the New York Times, where one of the authors said that the lesson of the study was that it was best to fire teachers who couldn’t produce big gains sooner rather than later. The study was discussed reverentially on the Newshour and President Obama referenced its conclusion in his 2012 State of the Union address.
The central claim was that the great teacher produced a lifetime gain of $266,000 for a typical classroom.
First out of the box to challenge the study was Bruce Baker of Rutgers. He pointed out that if a class had 26 

Diane 6-12-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 10 minutes ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Faces of the Layoff: Who Got Pink Slips in Philadelphia by dianerav Numbers don’t begin to tell the story. Nearly 4,000 employees of the Philadelphia public school district learned that their jobs had been terminated. The Teacher Action Group of Philadelphia is gathering photos to put a human face on an inhumane decision. Each one has a story. They are real people, not numbers. *LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 6-12-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all* mike simpson at Big Education Ap... more »

Hey City Council: You’re Supposed to Be Better than Harrisburg | Parents United for Public Education

Hey City Council: You’re Supposed to Be Better than Harrisburg | Parents United for Public Education:

Hey City Council: You’re Supposed to Be Better than Harrisburg

by rebeccapoyourow

City Council’s failure to move a liquor-by-the-drink tax yesterday disappointed parents and school supporters all
 across the city.

Today over 100 parents, students, and community members packed City Council chambers—in the middle of a workday afternoon—and testified for over three hours to demand movement on the liquor-by-the-drink tax.  For weeks, parents and other community members have made thousands of phone calls, sent hundreds of letters, spent hours on lobbying visits, and gathered countless petition signatures in support of raising desperately needed funds for our public.
Opposite us were a handful of lobbyists, whose sole job is to be paid to gain access to City Council members and state legislators.
To our disgust, Council could not muster enough support on the liquor-by-the-drink bill in order to vote it out of committee.  Despite testimony on the desperate need of our students, and despite presentation of data demonstrating how this tax will not undermine food and beverage establishments, Council could not summon the collective will to do right by our city’s children.
As proposed, the liquor-by-the-drink bill would raise $22 million for Philadelphia’s public schools by increasing the tax rate on liquor by the drink from 10% to 15%.  In effect this would add 15 to 50 cents to the price of a drink and be borne by individual customers as a sales tax—not by businesses.  As a regional hub, Philadelphia will continue to attract suburban visitors and tourists as well as local residents, none of whom will be deterred from patronizing bars and restaurants by paying an additional charge ranging from 15-50 cents per drink.  Indeed research conducted by the PA Budget and Policy Center found that when this tax was first introduced back in 1996, it did not depress sales, job growth, and new business as the restaurant lobby had claimed.  Rather, restaurants experienced phenomenal growth over the next several years as measured both by the number of new 

We're Not Misinformed; We Know What Common Core Is, & We Reject It. | Truth in American Education

We're Not Misinformed; We Know What Common Core Is, & We Reject It. | Truth in American Education:

We’re Not Misinformed; We Know What Common Core Is, & We Reject It.

by Christel Swasey

In Utah this year, GOP state delegates passed a resolution that opposed Common Core, by a 65% vote. The National GOP passed a similar resolution. The Michigan legislature passed a bill that defunded Common Core. Indiana legislators passed a year-long time-out bill to pause Common Core. Similar efforts by Republicans and Democrats are growing in North Carolina, Georgia, Missouri,Iowa,Florida, Wyoming, Illinois and elsewhere.

Yet Utah’s governor continues to promote the Common Core-dependent Prosperity 2020, and the Utah School Board continues to label as “misinformed” or “erroneous” all who oppose Common Core.

We are not misinformed. We know what Common Core is, and we reject it.

It’s not “state-led.” The authors of the copyrighted Common Core are

Common Core Makes a Surprise Appearance in Texas

by Shane Vander Hart

A mother of a third grader living in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area in Texas messaged us through our Facebook page(be sure to like us).  She wrote:

Look what came home in my 3rd grader’s backpack today to use as summer practice? This is the book they’ve been using all year (unbeknownst to me). It says ‘common core edition’. I specifically asked our ISD in DFW if they used any part of CSCOPE or Common Core and they said no. I have the email to prove it. I was lied to. Am going back to them asking them to explain. I’m very concerned. Even so, my 1st grader had a very hard time with math and I’ve had to re-teacher her basics since she’s not getting it at school. If you look through the book, it’s exactly everything people say the ‘fuzzy math’ is — full of riddles and lengthy word problems. I’m confused myself and it’s 3rd grade math! I can’t believe this was used without any heads up from the district. Common Core is indeed in Texas!

She included a picture…

I don’t know if it is the school trying to bring the Common Core in through the back door or if the school district is 

A Glimpse of Math Homework from a Parent’s Point of View

by Shane Vander Hart

Meredith Gavin, a parent in New York State, emailed me this morning with a video she made of her third grade son, Liam, doing his math homework.  She wrote:

This is a prime example of how my son’s brain gets confused, when he is given homework that entails knowing several different concepts that he struggles with, and then those concepts are mixed together – he even struggles with taking 0 away from 5.

I will recognize that even if this Math HW was not based around CC he would still be having a hard time. I will also add that CCSS is not helping special ed kids in any- way, shape, or form. They are rushing him through 3rd grade lessons without a solid foundation, and I truly believe it is BECAUSE of Common Core.

She said this video was the result of months of frustrations she has had with him coming home not being able to 

OK State Superintendent of Education Confronted on Common Core

by Shane Vander Hart

An Oklahoma homeschooling mom, Karen Cuellar, gives a play by play of Oklahoma State Superintendent Janet Barresi’s visit with the Wagner County GOP Central Committee at their meeting this month.

I think she got a little more than she bargained for.

Restore Oklahoma Public Education has the story.

The post OK State Superintendent of Education Confronted on Common Core appeared first on Truth in American Education.