9-16-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

UFT Bankrolled Half Of Bill Thompson's Campaign Expenditures

The @uft spent $2.6 million on the @BillThompsonNYC campaign. That's half the entire amount Thompson spent, including public funds— Andrea Bernstein (@AndreaWNYC) September 16, 2013Two things to say here:First, why not light the money on fire instead? Do it during winter and at least you get some warmth.Second, it's this kind of headline that makes me think "And I pay my union dues because?&q

by reality-based edu... / 43min 

Mulgrew Hit For His Arrogance And Hubris Over The Thompson Endorsement

Politicker takes a look at how the UFT, and specifically Michael Mulgrew, handled the Thompson endorsement:When the United Federation of Teachers offered its coveted endorsement to Bill Thompson in June, it was seen as a game changer for the candidate. But the union’s efforts came up short yet again, with Mr. Thompson conceding the contest today after placing a distant second. This is not a new si

by reality-based edu... / 24min

What Was The UFT's Role In Thompson's Concession?

Two conflicting views on whether the UFT pushed Thompson to stay in the race until all the votes were counted or urged him to concede to de Blasio:Cappell says Mulgrew was "instrumental" in today's announcement. #nyc2013— Azi Paybarah (@Azi) September 16, 2013 @Azi hmmm. I'm told he was urging Thompson to stay in for days. Skepticism useful here.— Michael Barbaro (@mikiebarb) September 1

by reality-based edu... / 4min 

Maybe Cuomo Won't Get His Death Penalty For Schools

Daily Politics has a story out saying members of the state Legislature are angry over the Cuomo administration's treatment of them and may try and sidetrack Cuomo's legislative agenda this session:Gov. Cuomo’s commission to investigate state government corruption threatens to torpedo his 2014 election-year agenda, legislative insiders warn.“There’s a lot of anger among the lawmakers and they’re re

by reality-based edu... / 2h 

Bill Thompson To Concede Mayor's Race

From Politico:New York City mayoral hopeful Bill Thompson is set to concede to candidate Bill de Blasio on Monday morning, preventing a runoff in the city’s Democratic primary, the Associated Press reported, citing two sources.Thompson, the former city comptroller, is expected to drop out and endorse the more liberal de Blasio during an 11 a.m. news conference at City Hall. De Blasio earned a litt

by reality-based edu... / 9min 

Paradegoers Say They Prefer De Blasio Over Thompson

The Daily News covered how the mayoral candidates were perceived at the Mexican Day Parade yesterday:Many paradegoers from the neighborhood said they preferred de Blasio.“I live down the block from Bill Thompson and he never even says good morning,” Harlem resident Zena Jennings said.Another supporter, Chet Why, said de Blasio’s multiracial family mattered.“I don’t have to explain my angst about r

by reality-based edu... / 0min 

Fred Dicker Says Cuomo And De Blasio Won't Get Along

From Fred Dicker's radio mic to God's ears:Gov. Cuomo and all-but-certain Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio are on a collision course certain to explode next year — over taxes, class warfare, charter schools, and Brooklyn’s Long Island College Hospital — if de Blasio is elected mayor, insiders agree.What’s more, the widely made claim that Cuomo and de Blasio will, despite their differenc

by reality-based edu... / 27min 

Ever Notice How All The Stats Are The "Best Ever" Under Bloomberg?

Howard Wolfson responds to criticism of the police shooting two innocent bystanders in Times Square on Saturday with this:@mattapuzzo @mikiebarb the NYPD is on pace to have appro 70 police shooting incidents this year, which is the lowest since records were kept— howard wolfson (@howiewolf) September 15, 2013Highest test scores under Bloomberg - until they were exposed as inflated.Sky-rocketing gr

by reality-based edu... / 2h 

9-15-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School: NYPD Shoot Innocent Bystanders In Times Square When Suspect Points Metrocard At ThemShocking story on the front pages today: Two NYPD cops opened fire at a deranged man a block from Times Square — as he pretended to point a gun at them — but instead struck a pair of innocent bystanders Saturday night, police said. The 35-year-old man was behaving wildly in the middle of W. 4

by mike simpson / 9h 

9-16-13 Truth in American Education

Truth in American Education:

Common Core Forum in Sioux Falls, SD

There will be a Common Core forum in Sioux Falls, SD on Tuesday, September 17.  A Common Core discussion will be held during the Siouxland Republican Monthly Business Meeting from 7:00p – 8:30p.   It will be held at the Good Samaritan Society, Jerstad Retreat Center (4800 W 57th St. Sioux Falls).Panelists include:In favor of the Common Core State Standards:Dr. Rick Melmer – former University of So

1 by truthed / 3h 

Common Core Forum to Be Held in Wasilla, AK

This Thursday, September 19th from 7:00p-9:00p (Alaska Time) there will be a Common Core forum featuring Dr. Barbara Haney of Stop the Common Core in Alaska and Mr. Pat Higgins, a member of the Anchorage School Board. This is a public forum hosted by the Valley Republican Women’s Club and the Mat-Su Republican Women’s Club.  It will be held at Prudential Jack White Training Room (865 N. Seward Mer

by Shane Vander Hart / 3h 

YESTERDAY

Indiana Math Teacher Testifies Against Common Core

Layton Elliot, the math chair at Brebeuf Jesuit Prepartory School in Indianapolis, IN, recently testified against the Common Core Math Standards during the Indiana Legislative study committee hearing last Tuesday.I’ve been told by those who live in the area that this school is well-respected in the community, in particular, their math department.  Catholic schools in Indiana (and elsewhere) seem t

1 by Shane Vander Hart / 5h mark as read  //  save

Kansas Republican Party Passes Anti-Common Core Resolution

The Kansas Republican Party State Central Committee passed a resolution on Saturday opposing the Common Core State Standards.  This resolution was bundled with other resolutions so we are unclear of the actual vote tally.  TAE was told that the resolution had “strong support” by the committee.Here is the language of the resolution:WHEREAS, adoption of the Common Core StandardsObliterates Kansas’s

1 by Shane Vander Hart / 5h 

New Teach For America study: What it really proves:

New Teach For America study: What it really proves

By Valerie Strauss, Published: September 16 at 5:00 amE-mail the writer

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A new study on Teach For America by Mathematica has been released, and it is been hailed as some kind of proof that TFAers are more effective than other teachers. But does it really prove that? Here’s a piece on it by Julian Vasquez Heilig, an award-winning researcher and associate professor of Educational Policy and Planning at the University of Texas at Austin. This appeared on his Cloaking Inquality blog.

By Julian Vasquez Heilig

Teach For America (TFA) has sought to direct attention to a new study released by Mathematica.  A blogger at the Washington Post even argued that my prior critiques of TFA were “not true anymore.” (See all of my prior posts on TFA here.) Is that the case? Next week I will start an entire series on the Mathematica TFA study, but for now, because there is an avalanche of email and media inquiries about the study, I will discuss several important issues that I have noted in the study.

1) Mathematica TFA study does not say much about TFA writ large

The sample is large and covers an adequate number of students, schools and states. However, there are clearly some issues in the TFA sample that calls into question whether it really represents TFA and the profession more broadly.

The sample only contains secondary math teachers. However, in most communities, the majority of TFA teachers teach elementary, not secondary (See Houston example below).

The sample is heavily weight toward middle school, 75% of the classroom matches were middle school. Middle school teachers are much rarer in TFA assignments in districts

Problems that schools are expected to solve

Are schools asked to do too much? Here’s a post on the subject by Larry Cuban, a high school social studies teacher for 14 years, a district superintendent (seven years in Arlington, VA), and professor emeritus of education at Stanford … Continue reading →    

1 by Valerie Strauss / 18min 

Problems that schools are expected to solve

Are schools asked to do too much? Here’s a post on the subject by Larry Cuban, a high school social studies teacher for 14 years, a district superintendent (seven years in Arlington, VA), and professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, where he has taught for more than 20 years. His latest book is “Inside the Black Box of Classroom Practice: Change without Reform in American Education

1 by Valerie Strauss / 4min 

solidaridad: SM@TCF: Los Angeles parent-activist sounds off on CCSS

solidaridad: SM@TCF: Los Angeles parent-activist sounds off on CCSS:

SM@TCF: Los Angeles parent-activist sounds off on CCSS

First published on LA Schools Matter on September 14, 2013

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"We had 23 different language groups at my son's school. How can one common core be relevant to all of these very different people?" —Teresa Sitz, LAUSD Parent-Activist
I foundedCommunities & Families Resisting Proposition 39 Charter Colocationsalong with several families fighting against the privatization project's latest ploy, the colocation. While the group was pretty 90026 specific (we have two colocations in our community), it grew quickly throughout Los Angeles.
As the group grew, its focus broadened to cover all school privatization and the neoliberal corporate reform project in general. Over the weekend one parent asked about Corporate/Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Paraphrasing, she said she understood the whole opposition based on the profit motive behind CCSS, but asked why national standards were bad in general. There were a lot of excellent responses, but one of the most interesting came from a prominent Silver Lake parent-activist named 

Common Core opponents shift attention to new national science standards SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources

SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources:

Common Core opponents shift attention to new national science standards
By Carrie Marovich
Monday, September 16, 2013

As the push for common academic standards in schools gains steam around the nation, a new front in the opposition is forming – this time against the Next Generation Science Standards.

Developed by educators and scientists from 26 states, the new curriculum goals are geared to preparing students for life in a technologically-advanced society. But like the Common Core State Standards in math and English language arts – which initially enjoyed wide support among states – the science standards are also increasingly under attack.

“There’s almost a complete neglect of things in nature,” said Martin Cothran, a senior policy analyst for The Family Foundation of Kentucky and a prominent detractor of the new science goals. “There’s no emphasis at all on a content knowledge of plants or animals or minerals. Everything in the Next Generation Science Standards is focused on abstract relations between things, not focused on the things themselves.”

Kentucky has emerged as a key battleground even though the state board adopted the standards in August. During 

Endangering Intelligent Conversation: Comments on the Latest Hanushekian Crisis Manifesto | School Finance 101

Endangering Intelligent Conversation: Comments on the Latest Hanushekian Crisis Manifesto | School Finance 101:

Endangering Intelligent Conversation: Comments on the Latest Hanushekian Crisis Manifesto

Posted on September 16, 2013

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I had the displeasure of coming across this completely ridiculous and deceitful video the other day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8aeEr2qk9s

Which was created to promote Eric Hanushek’s latest U.S. education crisis manifesto.  Around the 4:12 minute mark, the video jumps from crisis mode to policy solution mode,  telling us how among U.S. States, Florida is a model for the way forward, and states like Wyoming and New York provide proof positive that money really has nothing to do with helping schools. That money doesn’t matter is a critical underpinning of nearly every reformy rant.

Here’s the complete story to the contrary.

Now, most of what’s here has been summarized previously by Hanushek, and I have discussed this stuff previously on this blog.

This bizarre video got me thinking about a series of previous posts where I’ve looked across numerous indicators to try to tease out the relationships among them, across states.  I’ve selectively scoured scatterplots of relationships between various state level indicators and outcome measures, but have not for a while now, simply stepped back and evaluated the correlations across all of them, and then tried to tease out what states, if any really do stand out.

Let’s start with the indicators and their sources.

School Funding Fairness: First up in my state level data set are a series of indicators fromhttp://schoolfundingfairness.org/

These indicators characterize the level of funding and effort in state school finance systems.

NYC Public School Parents: The MOST nonsensical co-locations of all

NYC Public School Parents: The MOST nonsensical co-locations of all:

The MOST nonsensical co-locations of all

Joel Klein and others at DOE repeatedly accused parents of only protesting  charter co-locations, and not the numerous others that DOE has pushed forward  in recent years, that of new public schools inserted into the buildings of existing public schools. 

Certainly among the 40 or so co-locations that the DOE is planning  that will only take place after Bloomberg leaves office, the most controversial are the numerous charter schools that take more space each year from public schools   -- including many with deplorable records in serving our most at-risk kids.  (See, for example Success Academy charter – which DOE is giving more space so it can extend its tentacles in every borough of the city , despite numerous examples of  illegal disciplinary and suspension practices ).    

The Panel for Education Policy has already rubber-stamped 25 school siting proposals and there are another 29  proposals  that will be voted on next month.   And while charter schools co-locations are contested, they are not the only co-locations that parents and community members bitterly oppose.  Perhaps the most absurd and nonsensical of all the proposals put forward by DOE are their plans to put new zoned public schools inside the buildings of existing public schools – of the same grade levels – for no apparent reason except to starve the existing school of students and resources.

See the comments of Laura Timoney, parent activist and CEC member in Staten Island, who deplores the plan to 

Mother Crusader: People Who Care About Education Think Christie Is Oh-So-Very-Wrong

Mother Crusader: People Who Care About Education Think Christie Is Oh-So-Very-Wrong:

People Who Care About Education Think Christie Is Oh-So-Very-Wrong

Just a quick post to point out something I thought was pretty important.

Those of us who follow education policy in this state didn't need a poll to know that Christie's education policies have hamstrung our public schools.

But the numbers in this recent Rutgers Eagleton poll are very telling.

Support of Christie’s performance on education has remained steady since June: 44 percent of all voters approve and 49 percent disapprove. Republicans are more than twice as likely as Democrats to back the governor. Independents are slightly more likely to disapprove than approve."

So more of the general public disapprove of this handling of education than approve.  Not earth shattering or surprising, but noteworthy. But then catch this part. 

Among the 13 percent of voters who call education the state’s most pressing problem, 88 percent disapprove of Christie’s 

 

UOO Book Club: Reign of Error by Diane Ravitch | United Opt Out National

UOO Book Club: Reign of Error by Diane Ravitch | United Opt Out National:

UOO BOOK CLUB: REIGN OF ERROR BY DIANE RAVITCH

Join us for our book club which will commence on September 17th. We will be digging into Diane Ravitch’s new book,Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools.

Diane supports opt out/refusing the test.

On September 9th on her blog, she wrote:

One of the most effective ways to throw a monkey wrench into harmful mandates is to resist. Say no. Refuse to participate. When they tell you to walk the plank into a sea of sharks, don’t do it.

In the case of high-stakes testing, a growing number of parents are keeping their children home on testing day. If enough parents opt out, the numbers for the school and for the district become invalid. The machine can’t run without the willing participation of those it harms.

Think about it.

From her book cover: Reign of Error begins where The Death and Life of the Great American School System left off, providing a deeper argument against privatization and for public education, and in a chapter-by-chapter breakdown, putting forth a plan for what can be done to preserve and improve it. She makes 

Short Notes: Nas Is Like, 40 Years Old Now - The Jose Vilson | The Jose Vilson

Short Notes: Nas Is Like, 40 Years Old Now - The Jose Vilson | The Jose Vilson:

Short Notes: Nas Is Like, 40 Years Old Now

by JOSE VILSON on SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

in SHORT NOTES

Nas

A few notes:

• Check out my revamped Tumblr, where I share clips of everything I like from around the web. [MathematiquesNoir]
• These pretty math posters are going up in my classroom sooner than later. [Explore]
• Comedian Russell Brand talks about his recent scuffle with GQ over what he said about Hugo Boss. Secret activist over here. [Guardian]
• Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, thinks teachers should have more autonomy in curriculum decisions. Preach! [Houston Chronicle]
• A case study of what happens when desegregation plans fail. [New York Times]

Quotable:

Freedom or jail, clip’s inserted, a baby’s being born
Same time a man is murdered, the beginning and end
As far as rap go, it’s only natural I explain
My plateau, and also, what defines my name

- See more at: http://thejosevilson.com/short-notes-nas-like-40-years-old-now/#sthash.zne7Rmq0.dpuf

Peg with Pen: The Reign of Error: My New Activist Handbook

Peg with Pen: The Reign of Error: My New Activist Handbook:

The Reign of Error: My New Activist Handbook

I am currently reading Diane Ravitch's new book, The Reign of Error. Simply put, it is excellent.

Diane has covered all aspects of the privatization of public schools – she clearly articulates how the corporate reformers’ ideas don’t work - while offering research-based solutions which indeed DO work. 

I began reading the book during a four hour hiatus last weekend when my husband and two boys took off for the afternoon to run errands. For four hours I sat reading Diane’s book, nodding my head, underlining quotes I can use to educate when I speak or when I write. I placed notes in the margins. I became hopeful, once again. In the quiet solitude of my house, normally filled with the loudness of boys who wrestle, throw, yell, and more or less keep me incredibly busy during my off hours - I took a deep breath. It is rare that I am alone and able to stop, and think in silence. I know that many of you reading this can relate.

But during that moment, in that silence, I reflected on how much our world has changed in the last few years. I reflected on how much my own life has changed, and how Diane’s book confirmed for me, that I am on the right path.

Our work as activists is huge. It is all encompassing. My mother said to me on the phone 

How the Anti-War Movement Won the Hearts and Minds of the Public by Bernardine Dohrn | Bill Ayers

How the Anti-War Movement Won the Hearts and Minds of the Public by Bernardine Dohrn | Bill Ayers:

How the Anti-War Movement Won the Hearts and Minds of the Public by Bernardine Dohrn

 

A decade of protests paved the way for Americans to say ‘no’ to Syrian strikes.

This moment of popular resistance to the military option as the only option shows that what we do does make a difference. Not immediately. Not obviously. Not in a straight line.

Who knew there was a wide and deep anti-war consensus in the United States?!

 

Apparently not the president, who appears blindsided by the growing opposition to U.S. military attacks on Syria, nor the always hawkish Sens. McCain and Graham, who speak for the aging national security elite, nor the New York Times, which flacked for a violent strike on the first day of Obama’s war announcement but made an about-face the next day, running a devastating front-page photo of “rebel” forces executing their trussed, face-down young prisoners point-blank.

 

Indeed there is a freshly expansive, growing, tidal wave of sentiment that permanent war is neither in the interest of the American people nor the global community. It’s become evident to large sectors of the population that the long war of occupation in Afghanistan, now sputtering toward withdrawal of foreign troops, is a total disaster; the invasion and occupation of Iraq—based on fraudulent evidence—is a complete failure; the military rush to interfere in Libya will have 

LAUSD AS PRESENTLY CONSTITUTED HAS TO GO - Perdaily.com

LAUSD AS PRESENTLY CONSTITUTED HAS TO GO - Perdaily.com:

LAUSD AS PRESENTLY CONSTITUTED HAS TO GO

(Mensaje se repite en Español) 

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) as presently constituted has to go. After generations of squandering the potential and destroying the lives of its predominant poor and minority student populations, those opposed to it have to finally understand that even hiring the best people to work at LAUSD as presently constituted is an exercise in futility for those of us who want real and quantifiable change and not mere disingenuous rhetoric in public education. When the United States went into Germany and Japan after the Second World War, it did not leave the Nazis in power or their militarist counterpart in Japan to run things, rather it set up a democratic from the bottom up governance, where those at the top could no longer coerce, while sabotaging real change. Such a Marshal Plan at LAUSD that centered the power of public education in the classroom and the individual school could achieve the same success that Finland and other countries have attained, where excellence and not money is allowed to be the primary motivator of public education. 

The reason that this simple reality seems to elude teachers is that