Mr. Van Roekel: Common Core Standards Mean Standardization, Not an End to One-Size-Fits-All - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Mr. Van Roekel: Common Core Standards Mean Standardization, Not an End to One-Size-Fits-All - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Mr. Van Roekel: Common Core Standards Mean Standardization, Not an End to One-Size-Fits-All

By Anthony Cody on September 3, 2013 5:35 PM

The critical thinking that the Common Core is supposed to promote cannot come soon enough. It is sorely lacking in the defense of the Common Core standards offered today by NEA president Dennis Van Roekel. Mr. Van Roekel continues the union's attempt to separate the standards from the tests that have been designed to enforce them. He describes a mythical land where standards are broad, and teachers have autonomy to create their own lessons.

The problems start with the headline: "Why the Common Core Could Bring the End of One-Size-Fits-All Learning."

Wouldn't that be great? Isn't that what everyone dreams of? So let's pull up our chairs and read a bit about how this could happen.

First Mr. Van Roekel offers this:

Over the past decade we have increasingly relied on standardized test results to judge students, teachers, and schools, but we still haven't created assessments that give a fully accurate picture of student learning.

Is this intended to suggest that there are assessments around the corner that COULD give a fully accurate picture of student learning -- but we just haven't created them yet? What about the tests that were given last spring in New York?

Next we have a critique of the patchwork of different states using different standardized tests 

Michigan Amendment Restricts Use of Diversity to Provide Educational Benefits, NSBA tells Court:

Michigan Amendment Restricts Use of Diversity to Provide Educational Benefits, NSBA tells Court

Alexandria, Va. (Sept. 3, 2013) — The National School Boards Association (NSBA) is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down an amendment to the Michigan Constitution that unduly limits school districts from adopting diversity policies by prohibiting the consideration of race and other factors in public employment, public education, or public activities despite the constitutionality of such policies.

Instead of protecting the rights of public school students, the ill-conceived Michigan amendment would limit students' opportunities by interfering with local control of education and local school boards’ abilities to design voluntary policies promoting  the academic benefits of diversity, NSBA argues in an amicus brief in Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action. The 2006 measure squelches the discretion of K-12 school officials to use demographic factors including race, sex, ethnicity, and national origin in designing programs that seek to create or promote diversity within the student body and among the school staff. 
“This amendment to the Michigan Constitution is being billed as an anti-discriminatory measure, but it would have the reverse effect by essentially cutting off local school officials’ abilities to implement research-based programs that benefit student learning,” said NSBA Executive Director Thomas J. Gentzel. “It also would effectively end programs that target  the unique academic needs of certain subgroups of students.”  
In Grutter v. Gratz and Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School Dist., the U.S. Supreme Court granted school boards the authority under certain limited circumstances to adopt race conscious policies that promote diversity in schools for educational reasons. School boards have adopted  diversity policies aimed at  preparing students to compete in a global economy, developing leadership skills, increasing standardized test scores and instilling democratic values associated with a pluralistic society. 
“Research shows that all students achieve at higher levels when they learn with peers in diverse settings,” said NSBA General Counsel Francisco M. Negrón, Jr. “This amendment would restrict public schools from using even narrowly tailored, race-conscious methods to implement the educational benefits of voluntary diversity policies, hindering schools’ ability to provide all students with a key component of the 21st Century skills they need to compete in the global workforce.”
NSBA is joined in the amicus brief by AASA, the School Superintendents Association; the National Association of Elementary School Principals; and the Horace Mann League.

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Founded in 1940, the National School Boards Association (NSBA) is a not-for-profit organization representing state associations of school boards and their more than 90,000 local school board members throughout the U.S. Working with and through our state associations, NSBA advocates for equity and excellence in public education through school board leadership. www.nsba.org

- See more at: http://www.nsba.org/Newsroom/Press-Releases/2013/Michigan-Amendment-Restricts-Use-of-Diversity-to-Provide-Educational-Benefits-NSBA-tells-Court.html#sthash.DLixpPyT.dpuf

Empathy from the Beginning — Whole Child Education

Empathy from the Beginning — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

Empathy from the Beginning

September 3, 2013 by Start Empathy

Post written by Laura White for Ashoka's Start Empathy Initiative, a whole child partner organization. Also published in Greater Good, the online magazine of the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

How early should you be thinking about developing empathy in your child? According to Dr. Terrie Rose, Ashoka Fellow and Founder of Baby's Space, the work of developing a child's emotional readiness for school and life happens before they are even born. In the following interview, Dr. Rose shares some of her insights and advice from her new book, Emotional Readiness: How Early Experience and Mental Health Predict School Success, on how to help children be empathetic and healthy individuals.

Start Empathy: Dr. Rose, when you decided to write Emotional Readiness, what goals did you have in mind for the book?

Terrie Rose: As a society and as educators, we spend a lot of time talking about children that are "reading ready" and are performing well on tests by third grade. Yet if you ask a kindergarten teacher what he wants his kindergartners to be able to do, he doesn't say that he wants them to know their letters and numbers. Literacy and numeracy are outputs. Instead, he wants them to get along, pay attention, and be willing to learn. This emotional readiness is key to school success. My book is about switching the conversation and promoting the idea that kids have to be ready to be friends, regulate their emotions, and have the confidence that they can 

Better School Funding NOW! Sign up now for Ralph Martire forum Parents United for Responsible Education

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » Better School Funding NOW! Sign up now for Ralph Martire forum:

Better School Funding NOW! Sign up now for Ralph Martire forum

Sign up now for a lunchtime forum with Ralph Martire, director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability (CBTA).

• When: Friday, October 11, 2013, noon to 1 pm

• Where: 70 E Lake Street, Chicago (conference room)

Space is limited, so please sign up soon to find out what’s really going on in state school funding and what we can do about it.
Here’s what CBTA’s web site says about that:

Since the 1970’s, Illinois has struggled to solve its inequitable and inadequate school funding system: (i) three blue ribbon commissions have been formed; (ii) two state Supreme Court cases have been litigated; and (iii) numerous proposals to put band-aids on the existing system have been offered.  Unfortunately for the two million public school children in Illinois, all attempts have failed. 
Past attempts failed primarily for one reason – they did not recognize that the fundamental cause of the state’s inequitable, inadequate school funding system is the state’s antiquated fiscal system.  Until Illinois comprehensively fixes the way it raises the revenue that funds public services, education funding reform will continue to fail. 

CBTA recently released a critical analysis of the Chicago Public Schools’ 2014 budget, which opens with this statement:

- See more at: http://pureparents.org/?p=20846#sthash.bwLV8kaf.dpuf

Dallas ISD trustees to receive investigative report on Superintendent Mike Miles on Friday | Education Blog

Dallas ISD trustees to receive investigative report on Superintendent Mike Miles on Friday | Education Blog:

Dallas ISD trustees to receive investigative report on Superintendent Mike Miles on Friday

By Tawnell Hobbs
thobbs@dallasnews.com
3:48 pm on September 3, 2013 | Permalink

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Former U.S. Attorney Paul Coggins (left).

Dallas ISD trustees will receive the results of an independent investigation into Superintendent Mike Miles’ handling of a contract award this week.

Former U.S. Attorney Paul Coggins, who is leading the investigation, said the plan is to deliver a written report to trustees on Friday. He provided no details about his findings.

Board President Eric Cowan said that after trustees have had time to read the report, they’ll determine an appropriate time to meet.

A 72-hour notice is required for trustees to hold a regular or called meeting. However, an emergency meeting can be called with at least two hours notification to deal with unforeseen matters.

The investigation is looking into whether Miles tried to influence the outcome of a service contract award and whether he interfered with a district investigation into his actions.

A resignation letter from former operations chief Kevin Smelker has also become part of the investigation. An early draft of the resignation letter written by consultant Lisa LeMaster and sent to Miles and Smelker was highly critical of the school board, with explicit criticism of trustee Elizabeth Jones.

LeMaster’s draft, obtained by The Dallas Morning News through an open records request, was sent in an email dated June 16. Until the day before, she was under contract to provide communications 

 

Dallas ISD Superintendent Mike Miles puts his North Dallas home on the market for $799,000

The outside of Mike Miles' North Dallas home, which you can now buy. (Candy Evans/CandysDirt.com) Dallas ISD … [visit site to read more]

25 by Matthew Haag / 27min 

Obama’s newest bad education idea:

Obama’s newest bad education idea

By Valerie Strauss, Published: September 3 at 2:46 pmE-mail the writer

President Obama announcing his plan to reduce college costs. (Carlos Osorio/AP)

President Obama’s newest education reform idea, aimed at making college more affordable, is a plan that on its face seems helpful to families but isn’t.

Obama said late last month that his administration is, by 2015, setting up a system to rate colleges and universities and then link federal student aid to those ratings by 2018. Should the federal government be in the business of rating schools? Here’s what Catholic University President John Garvey said when my colleague, Nick Anderson, asked a number of college and university presidents what they thought of Obama’s new plan:

I’m not sure it’s a great idea to have the federal government rate colleges. How would you feel about having the federal government rate newspapers? There is something squidgy about having the government, federal or state, oversee our intellectual life in any of its important sectors …

Among the data points that will be included in the rating scheme are:

* the percentage of students receiving Pell grants
* average tuition, scholarships and loan debt
* graduation and transfer rates
* advanced degrees of college graduates
* how much graduates earn when they leave school

The earnings of graduates? Really? Pity the school that has a strong poetry program and sends more poets into the world. Or social workers. Or teachers.

Transfer rates? Schools are going to be held responsible for students who decide to 

L.A. sheriff: Pay for preschool, not prisons

The man who runs the nation’s largest jail system came to Washington on Monday to promote what he considers a potent tool in crime-fighting: universal pre-school. Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy Baca is heading a lobbying effort by more than 1,000 police chiefs, sheriffs and prosecutors to convince Congress to enact the Obama administration’s plan to expand preschool to every 4-year-old in the c

1 by Lyndsey Layton / 0min 

Diane in the Evening 9-3-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

E.D. Hirsch, Jr.: What Am I Trying to Sell?

E.D. (Don) Hirsch, Jr., submitted the following essay to the blog. He is the founder of the Core Knowledge curriculum and has written several books explains the ideas behind it, beginning with “Cultural Literacy,” and including “The Schools We Need,” and “The Knowledge Deficit.” He writes: Diane kindly offered me a blog slot on her site – a great opportunity to explain what I’m about. I intend to

by dianerav / 31min 

Words to Remember and Believe In

Our frequent commenter who signs in as “KrazyTA” gave us this inspirational gem: “Always take things with a grain of salt, but Mahatma Gandhi was not far off when he said: “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–alwa

1 by dianerav / 8min 

Why Is L.A. Spending School Construction Bonds to Buy iPads?

A reader wants to know the answer: “The LA Unified School District is going to spend $1 billion on iPads at a cost of $678 per device, more than the tablets cost in stores. They come with “partially developed” educational software and are being paid for by school construction bonds. “There are currently over 16,000 repair requests across the District that have yet to receive a response. The Venic

13 by dianerav / 1h 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 9-3-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Special Education Teacher: As I Begin My Final Year of TeachingArthur Getzel has been a teacher of special education in New York City since 1978. On his blog, he describes his preparations as the school year begins. It is his last year. He goes shopping for supplies and spends $200 of his own money for necessities. He cleans the cl

by mike simpson / 3h