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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

PFT launches neighborhood rallies to protest budget cuts | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

PFT launches neighborhood rallies to protest budget cuts | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

PFT launches neighborhood rallies to protest budget cuts

by thenotebook on Jul 31 2013 Posted in Latest news
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Photo: Mark McHugh
PFT members, parents, and students protest budget cuts outside DeBurgos Elementary in Kensington.
By Mark McHugh
Dressed in their red union shirts, members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers filled a crowd of abut 60 people who gathered outside DeBurgos Elementary School Tuesday afternoon to protest the budget crisis in the School District.
The protest is the first of an August campaign launched by the PFT called “Rally the Neighborhood,” in which PFT members and community organizers will stage rallies at neighborhood schools to call attention to the District’s fiscal crisis and paint a picture for the public of what students will be without when school starts in September.  
“DeBurgos is a microcosm of what is taking place in the Kensington community, in North Philadelphia, in the whole city, and to be honest, the whole state and nation,” said Hillary Linardopoulos, a 3rd grade teacher at DeBurgos.
“The idea of (the rallies) is highlighting some examples of what these cuts will look like in actual schools,” she said.  
Linardopoulos has worked with the PFT all summer to oppose the budget cuts. Just this past week, she estimated that she, along with fellow PFT members, knocked on about 500 doors in the DeBurgos community to inform residents of the impact the cuts will have.
Even with Superintendent Hite’s announcement last Friday during a special School Reform Commission meeting that the District will restore 220 secretaries, as well as fall sports and 66 itinerant music teachers through January, many still find the 
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School Report Cards? Not In Our Name. | Parents United for Public Education

School Report Cards? Not In Our Name. | Parents United for Public Education:

School Report Cards? Not In Our Name.


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Let Tony Bennett Grade Your $chool

Like many Philadelphia public school parents, I received an email from the district two weeks ago inviting me to weigh in on a new “school report card.”  This report card was billed as a tool to give parents more information to help us make better choices about our schools.  However, the school report card is the latest scheme in a series of efforts to grade public schools for questionable purposes.  In Philadelphia, we’ve had AYP, School Annual Reports, and a school performance index (redone as recently as spring 2011).  Interestingly enough, the Philadelphia School Partnership, a privately funded group, made up its own report card for schools last year, which was immediately decried for its shady reliance on minimal data.
The idea for a new graded school report card didn’t come from parents.  The impetus for this new report card came from the Great Schools Compact Committee, which is a Gates-Foundation-funded organization.  This group seeks to influence public education policy in Philadelphia and, with a booster grant from the Dell Foundation (which has funded controversial school reform efforts such as charter expansion across the country), it is currently funding consultants’ work on this new school report card.
It’s not surprising that every parent I spoke with after receiving that email responded with distrust and indignation. We’ve been around this block before. We’ve watched the district roll out assessment after assessment.  Frankly, none of it ever represented what is noteworthy or admirable—or weak or lacking—in our children’s schools.  Very few changes came as a result except for school closings and charter conversion.  And none of it compares with the best ways parents have of assessing their children’s schools, which are primarily from walking in the door and meeting with the principal and teachers, observing a classroom or the lunchroom, and watching your child’s engagement with or alienation from school.
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Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The Legacy of D.C.'s Dunbar H.S.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The Legacy of D.C.'s Dunbar H.S.:

The Legacy of D.C.'s Dunbar H.S.

Up! Men and brothers, be noble, be earnest!
Ripe is the time and success is assured;
Know that your fate was the hardest and sternest
When through those lash-ringing days you endured.
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

Don't miss this excellent NPR interview with Alison Stewart, author of  First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar, America's First Black Public High School. 

The nation's first black public high school, named after the great African-American poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and located less than two miles from the nation's capitol, opened its doors in 1870. But more than 140 years later, Dunbar — like many urban schools — has fallen on hard times. The crumbling, brutalist-style building is often described as a prison, and graduation rates hover around 60 percent.
But it wasn't always that way. Once upon a time, the yearbook read like a Who's Who of black America.
"It's really amazing because we're talking about people who literally changed America, who changed the United States," journalist Alison Stewart tells host Audie Cornish on All Things Considered. "The architect of school desegregation, Charles Hamilton Houston, was a Dunbar graduate. Elizabeth Catlett, the artist. Billy Taylor, the jazz musician. The first black general in the Army. The first black graduate of the Naval Academy. The first black 
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Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent “Involvement”

Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent “Involvement”:




“Parents Add Heft to Bond, Tax-Measure Campaigns”
Parents Add Heft to Bond, Tax-Measure Campaigns is an Education Week article worth reading. Here’s an excerpt: Though the specifics may differ from community to community, parents throughout the country are increasingly becoming advocates for bond and tax measures needed to fill budget holes and better the quality of schools. Their outreach often goes beyond knocking on doors, posting on Facebook,
by Larry Ferlazzo / 26min 
“New School Funding Formula Mandates Parental Involvement”
New School Funding Formula Mandates Parental Involvement is an article from Public Radio that points out an important point in California Jerry Brown’s potentially revolutionary new school funding formula — it requires that parents reviews plans to spend the extra money that low-income districts will be receiving. The key, of course, will be if schools take it seriously and view it as an opportuni
by Larry Ferlazzo / 26min 
“Parental involvement in education leads to successful students, stronger schools”
Parental involvement in education leads to successful students, stronger schools is a few months old, but is still worth reading. It’s a column in the Cleveland Plain Dealer about parent involvement. I’d skip the first part, which is about a charter school and solely focused on test scores. But the last two-thirds of the piece is pretty good.
by Larry Ferlazzo / 26min mark as read  //  save
Quite A Round-Up Of Pre-School Parent Involvement Research
Head Start recently published quite a compilation of recent research related to parent involvement and pre-school youth. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Pre-School Parent Engagement.
by Larry Ferlazzo / 26min 


Special Edition Of “Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL”
(I usually just publish one of these posts each week, but I’m trying to get caught-up, so I’m doing two to finish out July) I’ve started a somewhat  regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to ESL/EFL or to language in general that have caught my attention: The Institute On Community Integration has published a special report on Educating K-12 English La
by Larry Ferlazzo / 39min 
The Most Important Info On The D.C. Test Score Increase
The media is awash in stories about standardized test score increases in Washington, D.C. As I’ve repeatedly said, I think test scores are useful small parts of a school culture that should be data-informed, not data-driven. The most important part of The Washington Post story on the test scores, though, was buried near the end. Here it is: Some experts cautioned that standardized testing doesn’t
by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h mark as read  //  save
Video: Atul Gawande On The Colbert Report
I’ve previously posted about Atul Gawande’s excellent article in The New Yorker (see If You Want To Influence People To Change, Then You Want To Read Atul Gawande’s New Article). He appeared on The Colbert Report last night, and I’ve embedded the interview below. I don’t think it’s the greatest interview, but I think it is worth skipping to the three minute mark and watching the last part. The C
by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h 

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DISD School Board Warns Superintendent Mike Miles « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

DISD School Board Warns Superintendent Mike Miles « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth:


DISD School Board Warns Superintendent Mike Miles

July 30, 2013 4:05 PM









DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The Dallas School Board has issued a strong message to Superintendent Mike Miles warning him not to interfere with an on-going investigation.
School board trustees sent Miles a letter instructing him to keep his mouth closed and warning him not to tamper with anything in relationship to the investigation or risk losing his job.
The three-page memo was delivered to Miles last Wednesday.
The Board of Education has already viewed an internal report which claims Miles tried to manipulate a six-figure service contract, for the benefit of a local agency. The allegation was made by Miles’ former Communications Chief Rebecca Rodriguez.
In the letter issued to Miles, the board issued 11-directives for Miles to follow including orders to not issue public statements on the matter or about Rodriguez, while investigation is on-going. He was also ordere
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Philly teachers to Corbett: 'We will not settle' — NewsWorks

Philly teachers to Corbett: 'We will not settle' — NewsWorks:

Philly teachers to Corbett: 'We will not settle'

July 30, 2013
By Emma Jacobs, @ecjacobs
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Also from NewsWorks Tonight - July 30, 2013

Philadelphia teachers rallied in North Philadelphia today against the school district's demands for union concessions. The district has asked for $133 million a year in give-backs and changes to work rules.
About 60 teachers and their allies showed up at Julia De Burgos Elementary School, where they heard from Evette Jones, a teacher and union leader.
"Our school employees should not have to continue to pay for years of financial mismanagement and misspending. We have to tell them that we will not settle for anything less."
Passing drivers honked their horns at the assembled crowd.
Laid-off reading specialist Sue Barksdale said she's a casualty of the school district's efforts to close its looming budget gap.
"Twenty-three years I've been [teachi
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Part Two: Summer, 2013 | Bill Ayers

Part Two: Summer, 2013 | Bill Ayers:

Part Two: Summer, 2013



Until the killing of Black men, Black mothers’ sons, is as important as the killing of white men, white mothers’ sons, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes.
** Ella Baker

Summer, 2013, Part Two
And let’s take another look backward to understand a bit of falseness then and now: on October 26, 1992 the US Congress designated Monroe Elementary School, one of the segregated Black schools in Topeka, Kansas, a National Historic Site because of its significance in the famous 1954 Supreme Court decision outlawing racial segregation in public schools, Brown v. Board of Education.  The National Archives includes several documents from the case in its digital classroom.
Brown v. Board of Education overturned Plessey v. Ferguson and heralded the legal termination of racially segregated schools; it’s become an icon in the popular story America tells itself about its inherent goodness and its inevitable upward trajectory: America the beautiful; Brown as icon.  Americans are devoted to Brown, myth or symbol, just as we’re dedicated to Superman’s motto: Truth, Justice, and the American Way. But “Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will.”
Brown was decided in the wake of World War II, in the wash of that reenergized sense of freedom, and, critically, with the return of young Black veterans from Europe and Asia. Whenever you read or hear thatBrown unleashed years of struggle for civil rights, flip the script and remind people that years of struggle for civil rights resulted in Brown. The decision followed incessant and increasingly intense demands and mobilizations by African-Americans that the country live up to the 
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UPDATE: White student unions: Idea spreads to Georgia State +Study: Dual college pathways lead white students to greater... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com

Study: Dual college pathways lead white students to greater... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:


Get Schooled: White student unions: Idea spreads to Georgia State
A white student union founded at Towson University in Maryland has inspired a similar group at Georgia State University.    The founder of the informal GSU white student union says, "All we want to do is celebrate white identity. This is about being in touch with who you ...
9min 

Study: Dual college pathways lead white students to greater ends and minorities to dead ends

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White students are more likely to end up at select campuses than minority students.
White students are more likely to end up at select campuses than minority students.

Previous Posts

By Maureen Downey
I have written a great deal on colleges and the value of a college degree. I have interviewed many college presidents, admissions officers and researchers on higher education. As a result, I get a lot of questions from parents on where their teens should go to college.
And my answer is usually: The best school they can.
My reason is that a student is more likely to graduate at more selective campuses, a byproduct of the better qualified students who attend and the campus culture itself. 
I saw firsthand the difference in student motivation, learning climate and academic drive at the state university where I attended undergrad and the Ivy League school where I obtained my graduate degree.
Here is a new report that addresses why minority students suffer because too few of them – even those who are qualified to do so – attend these upper echelon universities that graduate more students and send them off into their futures with greater advantages. Too often these kids are directed to open-access two-year and four-year colleges that spend far less on instruction than the selective colleges and graduate fewe
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Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:

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From the writers. Jersey Jazzman on Anthony Weiner.
  Barbara Morgan. Barbara Morgan is the press person for the beleaguered NY mayoral candidate, Anthony Weiner. Yesterday she got into internet trouble for calling a former Weiner go-fer a “twat.” But Morgan has a resume that involves New Jersey education. That’s is where ed blogger Jersey Jazzman picks up the story. Chris Cerf, New Jersey’s Commissioner of Education, promoted Barbara Morgan to NJ
by Fred Klonsky / 10min mark as read  //  save
Doesn’t the Illinois Constitution contain the pension clause?
Back when I was a student at Los Angeles City College we had a lot of characters around campus. It was 1967. It was Hollywood. California. There were a lot of characters. Everywhere. There was a hippy-freak (damn, I can’t remember his name) who went around campus singing his one composition: “Merry-go, merry-go, merry-go round. Beep, beep beep.”  It had a tune, but it kind of works no matter how y
by Fred Klonsky / 25min 
Tony at the Red Line Tap.
  “Tony.” “Klonsky. Have a nice trip?” I sat down at the bar and turned to Marty. “Did you order that organic Seizoen Bretta for me?” “Just came in,” said Marty. “Listen. It’s not easy ordering that stuff from Portland. You’re lucky I have my contacts.” “Organic?” said Tony. “Special brettanomyces yeast gives it an added dryness and crisp complexity. Each bottle is conditioned with pear juice for
by Fred Klonsky / 18min 



Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.
Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: Back to work?Back to work?Some of you may laugh at the idea of taking a vacation from retirement. But that’s what I did. Anne, her sister and brother-in-law (our frequent travel companions) and I just got back last night from twelve days on the road through the Olympic Peninsula, Seattle, Portland and
by mike simpson / 22h 
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What New York Sees In Cincinnati | P.G. Sittenfeld

What New York Sees In Cincinnati | P.G. Sittenfeld:

What New York Sees In Cincinnati

Posted: 07/29/2013 10:10 am


 For the candidates hoping to be mayor of New York City, the campaign trail has led to unexpected destinations. Specifically, in recent months, most of the strongest candidates have visited Cincinnati.

Christine Quinn has made the trip. As has Bill Thompson. Bill de Blasio's been here. John Liu, too. Had Anthony Weiner entered the race earlier, a swing through Cincinnati might well have been on his agenda.

And it's not just political heavyweights who have paid us a visit. Leadership from the Partnership for New York City business coalition, the United Federation of Teachers, and Trinity Wall Street Church have all journeyed to Cincinnati.

All of which begs the question: What's happening here?

The answer: a model of educational innovation yielding big results, and catching the country's attention.

What the mayoral candidates have come to see is our Community Learning Center Initiative. A little more than a decade ago, voters passed a bond levy making possible the rebuilding or renovating of every public school in the district. The promise to taxpayers was that the facilities would be much more than just traditional academic settings during 
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