11-19-13 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University)

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University):

The Duncan Debacle: It’s Not (Just) about Duncan | the becoming radical | MI Public Ed

The Duncan Debacle: It’s Not (Just) about Duncan | the becoming radical | MI Public Ed

by P. L. Thomas / 1h 

Arne Duncan Sorry for 'White Suburban Moms' Remark - Education secretary sparks online debate over standardized testing

Arne Duncan Sorry for 'White Suburban Moms' Remark - Education secretary sparks online debate over standardized testing

by P. L. Thomas / 29min 

The Duncan Debacle: It’s Not (Just) about Duncan

If Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has prompted outrage from a wide range of people, as Rebecca Klein reports, by invoking “white suburban moms,” as I have noted, the controversy is much more complex than “clumsy phrasing.” I remain adamant about my concluding point concerning the racial components of Duncan’s comment and the responses to it: If white outrage is the only outrage that counts in

by plthomasedd / 2h skip  //  save

An Arne Duncan Reader: Let’s Have that Conversation

An Arne Duncan Reader: Let’s Have that Conversation.

by plthomasedd / 2h 

3 People Outraged By Arne Duncan’s ‘White Suburban Moms’ Comment

3 People Outraged By Arne Duncan’s ‘White Suburban Moms’ Comment.

by plthomasedd / 3h 

The Duncan Debacle: It’s Not (Just) about Duncan | the becoming radical

The Duncan Debacle: It’s Not (Just) about Duncan | the becoming radical

by P. L. Thomas / 2h 

Schools Matter: An Arne Duncan Reader

Schools Matter: An Arne Duncan Reader

by P. L. Thomas / 2h 

3 People Outraged By Arne Duncan's 'White Suburban Moms' Comment

3 People Outraged By Arne Duncan's 'White Suburban Moms' Comment

by P. L. Thomas / 3h 

11-18-13 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University): empathyeducates – the archeology of white peopleempathyeducates – the archeology of white people1 by P. L. Thomas / 2h How to Make Sense out of Educational ReformHow to Make Sense out of Educational Reform1 by P. L. Thomas / 2h 11-17-13 the becoming radical | A Place for

by mike simpson / 8h 

11-19-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

Cuomo Says Common Core Standards Are A "National Curriculum"

You know, in the all the fun yesterday with Cuomo saying he was open to legislative fixes on Common Core but he was powerless to do anything about that because he's just, you know, a little ol' governor, I managed to miss this important part of the story:Cuomo calls Common Core a "national curriculum" http://t.co/9qutpQbvmf (Somebody didn't get the memo!)— Lisa Fleisher (@lisafleisher) N

by reality-based edu... / 5min skip  //  save

Jeb Bush Is Sad About De Blasio's Plan To End School Report Cards...

...As are some fellow rich people on the Upper East Side:Jeb Bush doesn't think much of Bill de Blasio's plan to end the city's letter-grade system for evaluating schools.“We were the first state to grade schools ‘A’ through ‘F,’" said Bush, the former Florida governor, who made education reforms a key part of his tenure, in an appearance at the 92nd Street Y on Monday night."New York Ci

by reality-based edu... / 33min

Obama Unveils Yet Another Unproven Education Reform

Hey, P-TECH's been around for a whole two years and things are going swimmingly!  Let's scale it up:President Barack Obama on Tuesday will unveil a new $100 million competitive grant program called Youth CareerConnect, that will target preparing high school students for high-tech careers.The program will deliver 25 to 40 competitive grants of between $2 million and $7 million to teams of secondary

by reality-based edu... / 25min skip  //  save

NYSED Commissioner King Tries To Deceive The Public Over State Tests

From Albany Watch at LoHud:In a lengthy statement today, state Education Commissioner John King refuted claims that the controversial Common Core testing is hurting students and teachers.He pointed to results last week from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which showed New York on par with the national average. The report showed that less than half of the state’s fourth- and eighth

by reality-based edu... / 1h 

Regents Blame Local Districts For Too Much Testing

The state evaluation system requires that teachers be held accountable for their students' test scores.40% of the evaluation is based on test scores - 20% from state tests, 20% from "local measures."In order for teachers to be evaluated on the local measures, students in every grade in every subject must be tested at the beginning of the year to get a "baseline" of knowledge so

by reality-based edu... / 22min

Regents Cut Time To Take State Tests, But Not Length Of Tests

If Merryl Tisch, John King and Andrew Cuomo think this sort of thing is going to head off mor protests against their education reform agenda, they're delusional: The state Board of Regents, with testing policies drawing increasing public outcry, is shortening the time that students will have to take next spring's standardized tests but not the tests themselves. Some local educators dismissed the a

by reality-based edu... / 2h skip  //  save

Cuomo Cannot Run From His Own Education Reform Agenda

@leoniehaimson @NYGovCuomo running scared now trying 2 distance himself from reform agenda. Too late Andy, you own this! #studentlobbyist— Sashammy (@Sashammy) November 18, 2013Nice try making believe you have no power or influence over education policy, Sheriff Andy,  but we all remember your State of the State addresses from 2012 (you student lobbyist you!) and 2013 where you bragged about how m

by reality-based edu... / 5h 

11-18-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School: The Reformers Play The Race Here In New York StateOn the heels of Arne Duncan saying Common Core opponents are simply white suburban mothers who have found out their children are not "as brilliant as they thought" comes this doozy in the NY Times:Some of Dr. King’s supporters blame teachers’ unions for whipping up some of the emotion. Timothy Daly, the president of

by mike simpson / 9h 

Diane Ravitch Rebukes Education Activists’ ‘Reign Of Error’ | toteachornototeach

Diane Ravitch Rebukes Education Activists’ ‘Reign Of Error’ | toteachornototeach:

Diane Ravitch Rebukes
Education Activists’ ‘Reign Of Error’

Diane Ravitch, a former assistant secretary of education, spent years advocating for an overhaul of the American education system. She supported the No Child Left Behind Act, the charter school movement and standardized testing.

But Ravitch recently — and very publicly — changed her mind. She looked at the data and decided that the kinds of changes she’d supported weren’t working. Now she’s a prominent critic of things like charter schools and school choice — and she’s particularly opposed to privatizing schools.

Her new book, Reign of Error, lambastes the idea of replacing public schools with for-profit institutions. She tells NPR’s Steve Inskeep, “When people pay taxes for schools, they don’t think they’re paying off investors. They think they’re paying for smaller class sizes and better teachers.”

Interview Highlights

On why she disagrees with the charter school movement

What’s wrong with charter schools is that they originally were supposed to be created to 

Shanker Blog » A Quick Look At The DC Charter School Rating System

Shanker Blog » A Quick Look At The DC Charter School Rating System:

A Quick Look At The DC Charter School Rating System

Posted by Matthew Di Carlo on November 19, 2013

Having taken a look at several states’ school rating systems  (see our posts on the systems in IN, OH, FL and CO), I thought it might be interesting to examine a system used by a group of charter schools – starting with the systemused by charters in the District of Columbia. This is the third year the DC charter school board has released the ratings.

For elementary and middle schools (upon which I will focus in this post*), the DC Performance Management Framework (PMF) is a weighted index composed of: 40 percent absolute performance; 40 percent growth; and 20 percent what they call “leading indicators” (a more detailed description of this formula can be found in the second footnote).** The index scores are then sorted into one of three tiers, with Tier 1 being the highest, and Tier 3 the lowest.

So, these particular ratings weight absolute performance – i.e., how highly students score on tests – a bit less heavily than do most states that have devised their own systems, and they grant slightly more importance to growth and alternative measures. We might therefore expect to find a somewhat weaker relationship between PMF scores 

Staying Focused During Difficult Times | Connected Principals

Staying Focused During Difficult Times | Connected Principals:

Staying Focused During Difficult Times

November 19, 2013

By William Parker

The other day, I had someone tell me, “I would never want your job.”

Optical Illusion (by student Daniel Eckenfels. Used with permission)

On the one hand, that may be true. Sometimes the negatives can be overwhelming.
When it comes to the part of my job involving student discipline, for instance, I have conducted hundreds of suspensions for drug/alcohol violations, fights, and weapon violations.
I have administered literally thousands of other discipline actions for offenses like truancy, harassment, obscene language, driving violations, bus violations, thefts, vandalism,  computer hacking, and just about every other teen misbehavior you can imagine.
I am not alone. All principals manage a myriad of student and personnel issues, complaints, custody disputes, Facebook and texting dramas that involve both students and parents at times. We counsel students wanting to drop out, those grieving over deceased parents, and ones afraid for their safety at school or at home.
Of course, our position also means scheduling our free time around supervising ball games, dances, concerts, contests, banquets, and fundraisers–all of this while trying to stay focused on the main 

Educating for Democracy-and Liberty - Bridging Differences - Education Week

Educating for Democracy-and Liberty - Bridging Differences - Education Week:

Educating for Democracy-and Liberty

By Deborah Meier on November 19, 2013 8:32 AM

Robert Pondiscio continues his conversation with Deborah Meier today.

Dear Deborah,

I'm sorry you didn't rise to my challenge to encourage combatants in the rhetorically charged edu-wars to come together on curriculum and instruction.  I hope we can come back to those bridgeable differences before my brief residency here comes to an end.

We can also take up the Common Core State Standards if you insist.  But I must admit I am feeling exhausted by the increasing vitriol over them. When I described a knowledge-rich core curriculum as the thing I will cling to with both hands, I was not referring to the common-core standards, which are not a curriculum at all.  It is true that I've been an outspoken advocate for the standards.  But that is chiefly because they encourage (but cannot mandate) the kind of specific, knowledge-rich curriculum that I believe best serves the democratic purpose of public education.

You want to talk about that purpose.  Very well. You wrote that knowing "why" we teach must precede any discussion of "what" we teach.  I have come to see the two as inseparable—the "what" is a function of the "why."  But let's have it your way.  I was struck—and I must confess, quite surprised—by your assertion that you want "schooling for ruling in a society in which every adult is a member of the ruling class."  Isn't the very idea of a "ruling class" anathema to democratic impulses?

In my work in civic education, here is the outcome I hope to see in students: to understand the 

The Elephant in the Classroom | Ward 8 DC Teacher

The Elephant in the Classroom | Ward 8 DC Teacher:

The Elephant in the Classroom

by ANGEL CINTRON JR. • NOVEMBER 19, 2013

When it comes to dealing with chronically disruptive students, everyone  – administrators, teachers, guidance counselors, and social service providers – must operate from the “same page.” Keeping chronically disruptive students in the classroom, as opposed to removing them from classroom, isn’t an effective instructional practice. Although suspensions aren’t effective, no student has the right to take a room hostage or prevent a teacher from delivering a quality lesson. We have to discuss this phenomenon.

Every teacher in this country will attest to having a small percentage of students who aren’t prepared to learn. Moreover, these small percentages of students often prevent the larger majority from learning on a higher level. Is it fair to the large majority of students to lose instructional time because the teacher has to spend valuable time redirecting a severely disruptive student?

The go-to strategy of “calling home, “ or after school detention, isn’t always effective. For 

Oakland charter school battle rages - SFGate

Oakland charter school battle rages - SFGate:

Oakland charter school battle rages

Jill Tucker

Updated 10:34 pm, Monday, November 18, 2013

• 
  Students break for recess at Lazear Charter Academy in Oakland. Lazear, a public school that was closed by the school board last year, reopened as a charter campus after an appeal to the Alameda County Board of Education. Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

• 
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Oakland is the charter school capital of California. And that might be a problem.

This year, more than a quarter of the city's 49,000 students are attending one of its nearly 40 alternative public schools, far more per capita than anywhere else in the state.

There is a military charter school, an arts charter, a Montessori charter, one created for American Indians that doesn't serve any, one for singers and a few dozen centered on sending students to college.

Depending on who's talking, they're filling the demands of parents for educational options or devastating an already cash-strapped school district.

In reality, both are true. And that reality is setting up a battle between those wanting to open up even more charters and local critics, first among them school board member Jody London, who say the city doesn't need and

NYC Educator: Secretary of Stupidity Arne Duncan

NYC Educator: Secretary of Stupidity Arne Duncan:

Secretary of Stupidity Arne Duncan

A few years back, Obama's basketball bud Arne Duncan opened his mouth, and out came words asserting that Katrina was the bestest thing ever to happen to education in New Orleans. This revealed several things. It spoke to a gross incomprehension, indifference, and insensitivity to human suffering. It also told us that our Secretary of Education was quite sanguine over the prospect of destroying not only union, but also public education if his BFFs could benefit financially.

Though it's been largely charterized, NOLA is still waiting for Superman, or whatever the secret sauce is that was promised by the corporatists who direct President Obama.  They have him taking vital actions like hiring lunkheads as education secretaries. This goes a long way to explain why our Prez did absolutely nothing about Duncan's outrageous remarks.

Last week, Duncan managed to reach a new plateau in ignorance, stating that Common Core would teach suburban white moms that their children are not as brilliant as they think. Obviously, singling out people by color is reprehensible, ignorant, and in itself merits Duncan's dismissal, even if he weren't as blitheringly incompetent as he clearly is. It's also sexist, of course. Most pointedly, it's a slur on our students. If a city teacher were to walk around sputtering idiocies of this sort in public, he or she would likely be facing A-421 charges of verbal abuse, and 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Sec. Duncan's attempt to silence, intimidate Common Core critics was a miserable failure

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Sec. Duncan's attempt to silence, intimidate Common Core critics was a miserable failure:

Sec. Duncan's attempt to silence, intimidate Common Core critics was a miserable failure

“It’s fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were, and that’s pretty scary.”

Duncan's racist and chauvinistic swipe at "white suburban moms" for their opposition to Common Core, likely got him a spanking from Axelrod and Plouffe and Hillary Clinton's people. After all, it's her 2016 campaign that will be hearing the echo of Duncan's remarks as Republicans work to separate her from her strongest base of support.

His phony act of contrition that followed, only made matters worse. The “white suburban moms” remark was first reported Friday by Politico, which later reported that Duncan back-peddled, saying that he “didn’t say it perfectly.” You can read his official "apology" for "clumsy phrasing" on the D.O.E. website.

It's actually not an apology at all. As Diane Ravitch put it, "Arne Duncan made the grievous 

Sabrina Joy Stevens • Arne Duncan isn't just mean. He's wrong.

Sabrina Joy Stevens • Arne Duncan isn't just mean. He's wrong.:

Arne Duncan isn’t just mean. He’s wrong.

People of all colors and parental statuses are right to be offended by Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s recent comments about “white suburban moms”. But beyond the sexist and racial (note that I didn’t say racist) implications of what he said, there’s another important point to be made that isn’t getting nearly enough airtime: Duncan’s words weren’t just offensive, they were wrong.
To recap: last Friday during a meeting of state superintendents, Duncan claimed that some of the resistance to the Common Core Standards was coming from “white suburban moms” discovering that “their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were, and their school isn’t as good as they thought they were.” His proposal to quell that resistance was to mansplain remind those moms that their children are now “competing globally and need higher standards.”
Yet the very international comparisons he says illustrate the need for Common 

The Educated Reporter: To Boost Student Learning, Should Teacher Quality Trump Class Size?

The Educated Reporter: To Boost Student Learning, Should Teacher Quality Trump Class Size?:

To Boost Student Learning, Should Teacher Quality Trump Class Size?

When it comes to student success, “smaller is better” has been the conventional wisdom on class size, despite a less-than-persuasive body of research. But what if that concept were turned on its head, with more students per classroom – provided they’re being taught by the most effective teachers?

That’s the question a new study out today from the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute set out to answer, using data on teachers and students in North Carolina in grades 4-8 over four academic years. While the results are based on a theoretical simulation rather than actually reconfiguring classroom assignments in order to measure the academic outcomes, the findings are worth considering.

The research on class size is mixed, and modest efforts – taking one or two students out of a room with more than 20 kids, for example – haven’t been found to yield much benefit on average. The enormous expense of paring classes down to the point where research has suggested there’s a measurable benefit for some students is simply beyond the fiscal means of most districts. As a result, everyone from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to philanthropist Bill Gates has urged districts to consider waiving class size policies in favor of giving more students a chance at being taught by a highly effective teacher.

To test the merit of that approach for Fordham, researcher Michael Hansen of the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) simulated what might happen if teachers with stronger track records had more crowded classrooms. The model factored in an estimated loss of effectiveness d

Schooling in the Ownership Society: An easy slide from Gates to Pearson

Schooling in the Ownership Society: An easy slide from Gates to Pearson:

An easy slide from Gates to Pearson

Kate James

A week ago I gave the example of Bruce Reed, the assistant to President Barack Obama and chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, being named president of the Broad Foundation, to illustrate the easy movement between government, corporate reform and power philanthropy. Another earlier example would be Joel Klein's transition from N.Y.C. schools chancellor to a power position within Rupert Murdoch's publishing empire.

This is a hallmark of current corporate-style school reform. It's similar in many ways, to the movement between government and the war industry, usually referred to as the military/industrial complex.

The latest example of the ed/corporate complex is PR exec Kate James, who is 

Arne Is Aiming for Damage Control But Just Can’t Seem to Get It Right | deutsch29

Arne Is Aiming for Damage Control But Just Can’t Seem to Get It Right | deutsch29:

Arne Is Aiming for Damage Control But Just Can’t Seem to Get It Right

November 18, 2013

US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s tasteless remarks on Friday about the seeming inability of “White suburban mothers” to come to terms with their children’s limited intellectual ability as such is highlighted by the Duncan-beloved Common Core State Standards (CCSS) has the former Australian basketball player-gone-US-Sec-of Ed attempting to “close the gap” and re-score some of the numerous lost points with the American public– and especially with American mothers of all raceswhom he inadvertently insulted.

The only problem is that Duncan is taking his CCSS shovel and digging deeper. Here is his attempt to “make nice,” as recorded in the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

Duncan moved away from those comments in a statement issued Monday: “We have a tendency in our fast-moving world to focus on controversial-sounding sound bites, instead of the complex policy debates that underlie them. Unfortunately, I recently played into that dynamic,” Duncan said. [Emphasis added.]

Translation: “The public should ignore my comments about White suburban mothers and their less-than-brilliant children.”

And what of “focusing on complex policy debates”?  The “debate” about CCSS never happened, and now a non-invested (and arguably wounded) public is 

Some Kids 'Aren't Brilliant'? Arne Duncan Blunder Is Bigger Than It First Appears | Mercedes Schneider

Some Kids 'Aren't Brilliant'? Arne Duncan Blunder Is Bigger Than It First Appears | Mercedes Schneider:

Some Kids 'Aren't Brilliant'? Arne Duncan Blunder Is Bigger Than It First Appears

Posted: 11/18/2013 10:15 am

 In May 2010, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke at the first annual "Mom Congress" at Georgetown University. Duncan's goal, as reported on the USDOE website, was "to discuss how to effect meaningful change in American education and to mobilize millions of parents to become more involved in their children's learning." [Emphasis added.]

Duncan wants parents to be "more involved" in the educational process. But there is a hitch -- as there always is with the reformer version of "parental involvement":

The parental involvement must coincide with the reform agenda.

Consider this excerpt from Duncan's speech at the May 2010 Moms Congress:

Parents can serve in at least one of three roles: Partners in learning, advocates and advisors who push for better schools, and decision-makers who choose the best educational options for their children.

When parents demand change and better options for their children, they become the real accountability backstop for the educational system. Parents have more choices today than ever before, from virtual schools to charters to career academies. And our schools need empowered parents.

We need parents to speak out and drive change in chronically-underperforming schools where children receive an inferior education. With parental support, those 

Architecture 101 Holiday Workshops | Seattle Education

Architecture 101 Holiday Workshops | Seattle Education:

Seattle Education

Architecture 101 Holiday Workshops

Twice a year I advertise my classes on this website and that’s because it pertains to education and it also helps keep me afloat so that I can continue writing.

I enjoy all of the classes I teach but this class is totally joyous and filled with excitement and fun for me and the students.

Architecture 101 Holiday Workshops for students and their families

Holland

Back by popular demand, Architecture 101 is pleased to offer the Holiday Workshop using all edible building materials including gingerbread and candies galore.

Santa Lucia

We will look at how people celebrate the winter season around the world, the similarities and unique differences, then design and build a seasonal village using what was learned and incorporating it into a holiday street scene.

At the end of the session, the students will be