Education: Our Best Defense Against Ignorance | toteachornototeach

Education: Our Best Defense Against Ignorance | toteachornototeach:

Education: Our Best Defense Against Ignorance

Posted on September 19, 2013

Education: Our Best Defense Against Ignorance 

by Michael Rohrer

Please put your hands together and give a warm welcome to Linda Harvey, the founder of the conservative group Mission America and an all-around good Christian. Earlier this month she said:

Why are we in such a place, friends, where children learn homosexual behavior is noble, that amputating healthy body parts is admirable, but the mention of Jesus Christ during a graduation ceremony is controversial? I’ll tell you how: It’s because not enough of us are calling this lunacy what it is. We need to have a clear idea about what is evil and speak up about it in order to preserve the good. And these actions are pure evil and should be declared child abuse.

The above attack on the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) stunned me into a silence that quickly turned into an angry outburst. No applause for you, Linda Harvey.

Why shouldn’t schools have LGBT-inclusive education (e.g., lessons on the Stonewall riots and Harvey Milk)? In history class children are educated about war, slavery, the civil 

Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum:

Friday Open Thread

Well hello there. Back from hiatus and a big thank you (and good job) to Charlie who kept this thing going quite nicely.  I did read from afar a couple of times but true to my word to myself, I did not comment or post. (And by the way, a BIG thank you to all our readers.  Our numbers continue to soar and it's quite amazing.  I like to think that parents are offering this site up as a place for inf

by Melissa Westbrook / 5h 

9-19-13 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum: What is the deal with Spectrum?Thirteen years ago, when I first became an activist in Seattle Public Schools, there were problems with Spectrum. There were three problems:Qualified students could not gain access to the program because the classes were full.There was lively discussion about the student identification process including issues of under-representation

by mike simpson / 5h 

9-20-13 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:

TN Achievement School Distict Official Granted Charter Approval by TN Achievement School District

Posted at Memphis Schools Matter:After Bobby White got national attention on Fox & Friends by enforcing a ban on baggy pants at Westside Middle School in Memphis, where he was principal a couple of years back, White has become the darling of the State-funded effort to corporatize and charterize Memphis schools, per the Bill Gates design.White has his own consulting business, has hired on as Di

1 by Jim Horn / 2h 

The Greed of Big Pharma + Total Compliance Reformer Schools = More Child Doping

From Alternet, a clip from an excerpt of this book:Prices of ADHD meds at the middle dose for ninety pills on Drugstore.com in 2011 were Concerta, $540; Vyvanse, $532; Intuniv, $500; Adderall, $278; and Ritalin, $191. The price of the most common antidepressants, like Prozac, Celexa, Lexapro, Zoloft, Cymbalta, and Wellbutrin, for ninety pills, was around $380. Two of the drugs prescribed to Rebecc

by Jim Horn / 6min 

Innovation? No Thank You

There is a problem with really successful people: They tend to believe they are incredibly capable in every field, and that most other people are not.Success is a deluding experience, and if there is anything that innovators are, it is delusional—delusional that being innovative is greater than having field experience or expertise.In education reform, delusion is rampant. And the key source of all

4 by P. L. Thomas / 21min

Why Didn't School "Reformers" Respect Dunbar High School's History?

Alison Stewart’s First Class begins with her mother, Carol Stewart, as she watches the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Carol, a retired biology teacher, marvels, “What a magnificent display of what Homo Sapiens is capable of in his most civilized state?” That evening, when asked about Washington D.C.’s Dunbar High School marching band, Carol comments, “I can’t believe those girls were swit

by John Thompson / 1min 

  The Unmeasurable, Untestable You

I think you will agree that the following absolutely negates the "value" of the findings of any "standardized" testing in schools (and anywhere else for that matter)...or rather, it encourages us to understand the value of testing as producing outcomes that benefit those implementing the testing.  That is to say, testing does not serve to illuminate intrinsic "failures&quo

by Douglas Storm / 2h 

9-19-13 Schools Matter

Schools Matter: Alison Stewart's Great History of D.C.'s Dunbar High SchoolAlison Stewart’s First Class brings us full circle. Actually, Stewart guides us through a variety of recurring social, moral, and educational cycles that undoubtedly will continue to repeat themselves in one way or another. Her history of the rise and fall of Washington D.C.’s elite Dunbar High School tells a story that can

by mike simpson / 10h 

Teacher, two superintendents to hold key positions on funding law’s new agency | EdSource Today

Teacher, two superintendents to hold key positions on funding law’s new agency | EdSource Today:

Teacher, two superintendents to hold key positions on funding law’s new agency

September 19th, 2013 | Add a Comment | 
By John Fensterwald

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Consistent with the goal of shifting power over education decisions away from Sacramento, the Local Control Funding Formula law creates a new agency to work with, not dictate to, local districts on how to meet their improvement goals. In the first step toward launching the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, the Legislature this month determined that a teacher and two superintendents will form the majority on its governing board.

The passage of a bill designating the makeup of the five-member board should enable the agency to be in place by early next year, said Rick Simpson, deputy chief of staff to Speaker of the Assembly John Perez. The group’s purpose is to “advise and assist” school districts and charter schools in achieving the goals of their annual accountability plans that the school funding law requires. The collaborative is also charged with helping to improve the quality of teaching and leadership in a district or school.

Perez will name a teacher as one of the five board members. The other four members will be 

Boredom, Thy Name Is Charlotte Danielson (On Rubrics and Misuse) - The Jose Vilson | The Jose Vilson

Boredom, Thy Name Is Charlotte Danielson (On Rubrics and Misuse) - The Jose Vilson | The Jose Vilson:

Boredom, Thy Name Is Charlotte Danielson (On Rubrics and Misuse)

by JOSE VILSON on SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

in MR. VILSON

Charlotte Danielson

“And another thing!”

I’ve always wanted to start a post off like that, like I was in the middle of an impassioned diatribe and you just happened to step in to the thousand-person auditorium to hear me just get cooking. But then I snapped out of that dream and found myself in another boring Danielson training.

For those not in the know, the NYC Department of Education in conjunction with the United Federation of Teachers has agreed to use the Danielson framework, developed by professor Charlotte Danielson, to evaluate and support teachers. When I first heard her presentation a few years back, I didn’t think much of it. Four hours chock full of jargon and common understandings about the teaching profession might excite a few people, and got a few people hopeful for a person with the solution to examining the elements of a teacher’s performance.

I’m not one of them.

At one point, I remember United Federation of Teachers’ president tell a congregation of us from our district that he liked “Danielson” and calls her from time to time. He sifted through the

- See more at: http://thejosevilson.com/boredom-thy-name-charlotte-danielson-rubrics-misuse/#sthash.tsOyeO35.dpuf

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Tilson short-selling K12Inc.

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Tilson short-selling K12Inc.:

Tilson short-selling K12Inc.

Hedge-funder Tilson

You would think that the online learning company, K12Inc. would find synergy with hedge-funder Whitney Tilson, the money bags behind DFER and a co-founder of TFA and KIPP board member. But no! Tilson would never let ideological unity get in the way of super-profits. So Tilson is having his T2 Fund short-sell the hell out of K12 stock, hoping the company collapases. In fact, he calls the company “a catastrophe for education” in spite of solid financials.

So why is Tilson shorting K12? In addition to his research alleging that conditions and academic performance at each of K12’s online academies have declined significantly since its IPO, Tilson said he believed companies like K12 undermine the charter school movement in which he is deeply entrenched and that he has spent years fighting for.

“I try and separate my emotion from whether it’s a good investment,” Tilson said.

I could have told him and his investors that months ago. In fact, I did just that, last 

Teachers For Social Justice: People's Board Meeting:Wed, 9/25, 5:30 PM

Teachers For Social Justice: People's Board Meeting:Wed, 9/25, 5:30 PM:

People's Board Meeting:Wed, 9/25, 5:30 PM

Tired of not being listened to? Want your voice and views respected? Come to the People's Board Meeting!

Wednesday, Sept 25, 5:30 PM Mount Carmel Missionary Church 2976 S. Wabash Chicago, IL Organized by the GEM (Grassroots Education Movement), CODE (Communities Organized for Democracy in Education), and LSC reps from across the city. LSC members who attend get credit for lessons #7, 8, and 9. Agenda: Join the movement for the Elected Representative School Bd Build Accountability Committees at your school Sign up here if you want to attend with Teachers for Social Justice!! Questions?? Email us!!

Jersey Jazzman: The Shafting Of the American Teacher

Jersey Jazzman: The Shafting Of the American Teacher:

@jaredpolis: America's Worst Congressperson

What a schmuck: Yes, 75 year old Diane Ravitch -- grandmother, author, and historian -- is "evil" in the eyes of this sitting member of Congress. Aren't you proud, Colorado? This empty suit is the 7th wealthiest member of Congress. But Polis is really just another phony Democrat who pushes idiocy like Race To The Top so he doesn't have to have a serious conversation about income ine

47 by Duke / 22h 

The Shafting Of the American Teacher

Well, isn't this just lovely:

New Jersey teachers are returning to their classrooms this month with smaller pay increases than in previous years.

The state schools boards association said the average pay increase in settled contracts as of this past spring was about 2.25 percent for the 2013-14 school year. That’s down from 2.37 percent last year and half of the average pay hike of almost 4.5 percent five years ago, according to the association. [emphasis mine]

Ah, the good old days of 4.5% pay raises... when everyone else was getting more than that! The truth is that teacher pay in New Jersey has historically never kept pace with the rest of the workforce:

Look at that: less than 80% of the hourly wage of all statewide workers, down from about 93% back in 1990, before the jihad against educators began. The truth is that teachers have never enjoyed "big" raises:

Meanwhile, a look at data from several decades shows that while average 

Income Inequality, Educational Inequity, Privatization… Pittsburgh to Chicago | janresseger

Income Inequality, Educational Inequity, Privatization… Pittsburgh to Chicago | janresseger:

Income Inequality, Educational Inequity, Privatization…  Pittsburgh to Chicago

Two blog posts arrived in my in-box today.  The first is from a young woman, Jessie Ramey, whose blog is called Yinzercation and whose recent post is titled Diane Ravitch Launched, Yinzer-Style.  This sent me, of course to Google and ultimately Wikipedia for a definition: “Yinzer is a 20th century term playing on the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania second-person plural vernacular “yinz.”  This post is about Diane Ravitch’s book launch for Reign of Error on last Monday night at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

The event drew a thousand people and involved presentations by several school music groups.  Writes Ms. Ramey, ” Several student leaders from the Westinghouse Bulldogs high-stepping marching band joined Dr. Ravitch on stage to explain what has happened to arts education, music, and band at their high school. Despite the proud Westinghouse legacy that includes many of this country’s jazz greats (think Billy Strayhorn, Al Aaron, Mary Lou Williams and a host of others), the ragtag band has almost no instruments, hasn’t had new uniforms in more than a dozen years, and can’t even afford drumsticks. Yet the students are passionate about holding their band together.”

The second blog post, The Myth of the Level Playing Field,  is from the Rev. John Thomas at Chicago Theological Seminary.  He too writes about public education, describing the scene as he rides his bike to work each morning down Stony Island Parkway, “past two schools within a quarter of a mile of each other.  On one stretch… sits the new Earl Shapiro Hall, a slick, 

Common Core and Dr. Strangelove | Reclaim Reform

Common Core and Dr. Strangelove | Reclaim Reform:

Common Core and Dr. Strangelove

Posted on September 19, 2013by Ken Previti

Have you ever seen the movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb? There is a scene where a wild-eyed gung-ho pilot joyfully rides a nuclear bomb to his own destruction – “Whoop-whooping!” in glee all the way. The whole bombing situation was due to a major screw-up, but he was unaware of it.

Well, today there was an actual program (no photoshop) posted by someone on Facebook’s Opt Out of the State Test. Here is the cover of a school district’s program. Common Core Learning Standards: How will they impact my child’s instruction? uses an ironically similar image.

Please notice that this program is printed with the same degree of care, planning and practical usefulness as as the invalid (70% failure rate) and unreliable (for-profit 

Whitney Tilson Gets Caught Yet Again With His Pants Down southbronxschool.com

http://www.southbronxschool.com:

Whitney Tilson Gets Caught Yet Again With His Pants Down

What a day yesterday was! The new phone books arrived, I, with other education bloggers, got to engage in a video conference with Diane Ravitch, and I found out that not only had Whitney Tilson finally make some sense, but he confirmed that he is in education for the moolah and lying hypocrite as well.


So Whitney, in a obvious display making up for some Freudian shortcoming shows just how smart
and investor he thinks he is. Remember, this is the guy who shorted Netflix.

I know the company and the space well (K12’s primary business is running online charter schools in 33 states and DC), and it’s a VERY high conviction short (meaning the funds I manage will profit if the stock price declines). I think that the company has run amok in many, many ways, inappropriately targeting the most at-risk students, with dismal academic results, off-the-charts student turnover, coming under increasing scrutiny. K12 reminds me of the subprime mortgage lenders and for-profit colleges when they were flying 

Playing Games with Our Kids: Moms vs. Congress « MomsRising Blog

Playing Games with Our Kids: Moms vs. Congress « MomsRising Blog:

Playing Games with Our Kids: Moms vs. Congress

Posted September 19th, 2013 by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

Games are a time-honored way of expanding people’s knowledge.

My mom, who was a single mother throughout my elementary school years, played games with my brother and I in the grocery store when we were young to help make the price right for purchasing our family food on a very limited budget.

When we went to the store, my mom would hold contests between my brother and I to see who could find the items on our grocery list in the least expensive brand, and to see who could find the sale items on the coupon list the fastest. At the time, I thought my mom was the only one who played this particular game.

Looking back, I now know my mom was far from alone.

We all play games with our kids–it’s just not always of the board game variety. Too many moms are barely making ends meet, and sometimes parents try to hide their worries from their children within games–pretending that shopping for food on an overstretched budget is a game or that the electricity being shut off is just an opportunity for “indoor camping.” But dealing with financial woes is never fun.

Parents across the nation are working hard, playing by the rules, and still struggling to put food on the table.

In fact, yesterday the Census Bureau released a report stating that 46.5 million people

Read more: http://www.momsrising.org/blog/playing-games-with-our-kids-moms-vs-congress/#ixzz2fOIbixZj

 

The Shame and the Light of Today’s SNAP Vote

Just weeks after the USDA reported that 14.5% of American households struggled to put food on the table, today the House of Representatives passed, 217-210, a shameful bill that cuts $40 billion to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or food stamps).  Such a move would end benefits for approximately 3.8 million low-income people and deny 210,000 children school lunch and breakfast.

36 by Elyssa Koidin / 1h 

My Review of Diane Ravitch's New Blockbuster Best Seller "Reign of Error"

My Review of Diane Ravitch's New Blockbuster Best Seller "Reign of Error"

Thank You Diane!

PS Watch out for Flying Monkeys of the Great Hoax 

A Parent's Guide to Corporate Education Reform: Why Rich Guys are Screwing Up Our Public Schools

A Parent's Guide to Corporate Education Reform: Why Rich Guys are Screwing Up Our Public SchoolsAKAREIGN OF ERROR. An incisive, comprehensive look at today’s American school system that argues against those who claim it is broken and beyond repair; an impassioned but reasoned call to stop the privatization movement that is draining students and funding from our public schools.I Got Mine and I Can'

1 by mike simpson / 7h