12-4-13 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):

remnant 41: “poor Americans are urged to hate themselves”

remnant 41: “poor Americans are urged to hate themselves”.

by plthomasedd / 10min 

More on Failing Writing, and Students

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, I taught English in the rural South Carolina high school I attended as a student. Many of those years, I taught Advanced Placement courses as part of my load (I taught all levels of English and usually sophomores and seniors) and was department chair. Over the years, I worked hard to create an English department that served our students well. We made bold moves to p

by plthomasedd / 2min

12-3-13 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): End Zero-Tolerance Policies: A ReaderWhat do zero-tolerance policies, “no excuses” practices, and grade retention have in common? They all negatively and disproportionately impact children from poverty, minority children, English language learners, and boys; and nearly a

by mike simpson / 47min 

CA School Sells Data for Money to Cover Arne Duncan Visit | Truth in American Education

CA School Sells Data for Money to Cover Arne Duncan Visit | Truth in American Education:

CA School Sells Data for Money to Cover Arne Duncan Visit

Filed in Privacy/SLDS by Shane Vander Hart on December 4, 2013 • 0 Comments

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Arne Duncan at Castle Park Middle School

The San Diego Reader reports that Castle Park Middle School in Chula Vista, CA (part ofSweetwater Union High School District) spent well over $17,000 in preparation for a visit last September by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.  Apparently the district didn’t have the funds to cover the entire cost.  No worries, we have student data we can leverage for cash.

An excerpt:

Data-gathering has recently emerged as a primary concern for opponents of Common Core Standards and Common Core assessments. Federal laws governing privacy for student data were weakened in 2011. Across the nation, parents have expressed concern that student data will be shared with third parties.

Castle Park Middle School is a Chula Vista Promise Neighborhood school. Promise Neighborhoods are funded by the Department of Education and claim to offer “cradle to career” services. South Bay Community Services is the organization that oversees and distributes the $60 million government investment in Chula Vista.

On August 2 Principal Bleisch wrote to Alt: “By the way, FYI-SBCS [Promise Neighborhood/South Bay Community Services] is prepared to give my school a good chunk 

FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Wednesday, December 4, 2013

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

U.S. educators hope to learn from world test results

Education Headlines

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

FCMAT provides links to California K-12 news stories as a service to the industry. However, some stories may not be accessible because of newspapers' subscription policies.

School merger petition on

Volunteers throughout the Tuolumne County are gathering signatures from voters to put a measure on the November 2014 ballot that would consolidate the county's 11 school districts into one.

Sonora Elementary classes resume; arrest made

As Sonora Elementary School students returned to class this morning, law enforcement officials continued investigating the apparent arson fire that damaged 15 classrooms on Nov. 23. A 17-year-old former student has already been arrested on suspicion of starting the fire, and authorities have interviewed a second youth.

U.S. educators hope to learn from world test results

Educators and pundits all over the country are abuzz over the latest results of an international test that shows students in the United States have made little progress in the past three years.

National group asks Bellflower Unified school board to stop prayers at meetings

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is asking the Bellflower school board to stop its longtime practice of praying before meetings.

Westminster bond deal would evade new debt limits

Westminster School District plans to borrow money Thursday by issuing construction bonds that are so expensive they would be illegal under a state law that goes into effect on Jan. 1.

Zuckerberg, Gates foundations give $9 million to improve schools' Net connections

The effort to expand schools' digital infrastructure will get a boost from a $9 million grant, announced Wednesday, mainly from Mark Zuckerberg's Startup-Education foundation and the Gates Foundation.

LAUSD could lose up to $200 million if families don’t submit financial paperwork

Facing the potential loss of up to $200 million in state money to help educate impoverished students, Los Angeles Unified is scrambling to comply with new state rules requiring financial verification for every low-income pupil.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Santa Paula school superintendent a fast learner with humble beginnings

Alfonso Gamino was selected as the newly unified district's first leader, which meant he had to leave the Central Valley, where he grew up. His eldest daughter was leaving home for the first time to start a pre-med track at Long Beach State University. And two months into the job, his wife, Guadalupe, gave birth to a baby boy, their fourth child.

Eyesore no more: Edison loses '1920s mental hospital' vibe with new addition

Yes, Edison's aging main building at Center and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard remains unchanged from six years ago. But just past that edifice is Edison's soon-to-open, $6.5 million engineering and construction building, 16,212 square feet of new learning space that is changing the look of Stockton Unified's oldest high school.

Monterey Peninsula USD trustee wants to break contract with software provider

A trustee with the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District wants to renegotiate a five-year contract the district will not need after next school year. The contract stems from the administration's efforts to conduct its financial operations independently from the Monterey County Office of Education.

Coachella Valley Unified School District recall effort falls short

Despite months of collecting signatures, a group of disgruntled parents has failed to rally enough support to recall a majority of the Coachella Valley Unified School Board.

Pipes, personnel on LBUSD board's agenda

The Long Beach Unified School District board is set decide whether to take over the water pipes beneath the new McBride High School and discuss a few highlights of contract negotiations with employees at Tuesday’s board meeting.

Federal Register Notice Spells Out Arne Duncan’s Priorities | janresseger

Federal Register Notice Spells Out Arne Duncan’s Priorities | janresseger:

Federal Register Notice Spells Out Arne Duncan’s Priorities

Posted on December 4, 2013 by janresseger

Have you, by chance, found yourself wondering if it can really be true that the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama is actively supporting school privatization through the expansion of charter schools?  Maybe it isn’t true, you thought.

To help you sort out the role that Arne Duncan’s Department of Education is playing in privatization of public education, I’ll share the little blurb that caught my eye in the December 3, 2013 e-news blast on public education from Politico:

TODAY’S FEDERAL REGISTER: PRIORITIES FOR CHARTER SCHOOL GRANTS: The Education Department is pondering whether grants to nonprofit organizations that run charter school projects should be weighted based on whether they improve efficiency through economies of scale, improve accountability, recruit and serve students with disabilities and English-language learners more effectively and combine technology-based instruction with classroom teaching. There are other proposed definitions relating to graduation rate and student achievement. Weigh in during the next 30 days.http://1.usa.gov/IDkgmy

Yup.  Right there in the Federal Register it says the Department of Education is making grants to nonprofit organizations that run charter schools.  And then Politico provides a kind of laundry list of possible priorities for the granting: make charters more efficient? more accountable? more inclusive of English language learners and children with disabilities? more technology-based?  Much as the Federal Register is not my favorite periodical for casual 

Sneak Preview: How Citizens Can Hold Teach For America Accountable | Cloaking Inequity

Sneak Preview: How Citizens Can Hold Teach For America Accountable | Cloaking Inequity:

Sneak Preview: How Citizens Can Hold Teach For America Accountable

Following the comprehensive 2010 National Education Policy Center (NEPC) TFA brief (See Teach For America: A review of the evidence (The research that TFA loves to hate…), we received many requests for input from parents and educators across the nation regarding the impact of TFA in their community. Many of the requests came from new communities in the 8 states to which TFA has expanded in recent years, such as Seattle. It is important to note that the numbers of TFA teachers, attrition rates of TFA teachers, cost to communities amongst other aspects do vary by community.

To address this variation in the upcoming 2013 NEPC brief we have created a template for citizens to conduct research on Teach For America in their own communities. We will suggest that stakeholders in communities across the U.S. conduct citizen research to understand the various aspects (cost, attrition, achievement) of TFA in their districts and schools. The vast majority of records relating to TFA in each community are available via public records requests. In preparation for this brief, we created a template list of public information that individuals in regions across the US can request from districts to better understand the breadth of TFA. Follow Cloaking Inequity (enter email in the upper left hand corner of this page) and check the NEPC website for the 2013 brief and the new template. It will be released soon.

However, we did have a word limit for the 2013 NEPC TFA brief, so some of the text ended up on the cutting room 

▶ "All In" with Chris Hayes PISA Segment - Derrell Bradford (B4K), AFT Pres Randi Weingarten, and Sabrina Joy Stevens

▶ "All In" with Chris Hayes PISA Segment - YouTube:

 Derrell Bradford of Better Education for Kids (B4K), AFT President Randi Weingarten, and Sabrina Joy Stevens discuss the release of the the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's PISA results. 12/2/13

12-4-13 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum:

New Seattle School Board Leadership Elected

Sharon Peaslee has been elected President of the Seattle School Board by a vote of 4-3.  Sherry Carr was also nominated. Betty Patu was elected unanimously to be Vice-President. Marty McLaren was elected unanimously to be Member-at-Large. Superintendent Banda conducted the elections.I'll have a longer wrap-up of the Board meeting but a few notes.Blanford recused himself from two votes that involve

by Melissa Westbrook / 7min 

How Those Walls are Tottering

And I'm speaking of ed reform walls that are looking like mud caves in Seattle. - ALEC (the shadow group American Legislative Exchange Council) is losing its pow.  Who would have thought that a group so powerful - both in money and in legislative power - could be falling so fast.  But according to The Guardian story:The Guardian has learned that the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), wh

by Melissa Westbrook / 8min

Structural Racism 101 for Youth

The organization, School's Out Washington, is sponsoring a workshop for youth (middle school to young adults), Structural Racism 101 for Youth. It's Saturday, December 7th from 10 am to 2:30 pm.  It's free and breakfast and lunch are provided.  801 23rd Avenue S.It's "an opportunity to talk about race and your experience, to learn what youth can do about racism, and to provide input about how

by Melissa Westbrook / 7min 

We Have a New Seattle School Board

I attended the Oath of Office ceremony this afternoon for our two new and one returning Board members.  It had all the usual trappings; family, supporters and a fair number of staff.  There were speeches (mercifully brief) but, from talking to others, there is one person who stood out to many of us.I think I'll write this thread as straight as I can and you can be the judge of what stands out.  (I

by Melissa Westbrook / 0min

12-3-13 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Tuesday Open ThreadFor once, I am actually looking forward to going down to the JSCEE.  Not that I hate it but it's usually for some lengthy meeting.  Nope, today I get to see the installation of some new Board members.  It is very nice to see some family member standing proudly next to the new Board member.  It's a warm, fuzzy feeling and a brief shining moment, t

by mike simpson / 22h 

New Financial Aid Toolkit Part of Department’s Efforts to Improve College Access and Affordability | U.S. Department of Education

New Financial Aid Toolkit Part of Department’s Efforts to Improve College Access and Affordability | U.S. Department of Education:

New Financial Aid Toolkit Part of Department’s Efforts to Improve College Access and Affordability

DECEMBER 4, 2013

Contact:  

 Press Office, (202) 401-1576, press@ed.gov 

The U.S. Department of Education announced today the launch of an online "one-stop shop" aimed at guidance counselors and other advisers, such as staff or volunteers at community-based organizations, who assist students through the process of selecting and financing their higher education. The Financial Aid Toolkit, available at FinancialAidToolkit.ed.gov, consolidates financial aid resources and content into a searchable online database, making it easy for individuals to quickly access the information they need to support their students. Later today, Secretary Duncan will formally introduce the toolkit to more than 6,000 financial aid professionals attending the 2013 Federal Student Aid Training Conference for Financial Aid Professionals.

"By equipping counselors and mentors with financial aid information, we can help to ensure current and potential students are getting the assistance they need to successfully navigate the process of planning and paying for a postsecondary education," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. "This toolkit builds on the administration's ongoing efforts to improve college access and affordability, and it is an important step toward meeting the President's 2020 goal of having the most college graduates in the world."

The searchable online database provides access to resources covering the entire financial aid lifecycle from applying for financial aid to repaying student loans. It includes documents such as financial aid night materials, presentations, brochures, videos, and sample tweets and Facebook posts. The toolkit also offers professional development information such as training opportunities and resources for self-instruction.

Additionally, today the Department is furthering its commitment to providing students with information to make informed choices along with more options for high-quality, affordable education by calling for ideas around innovative higher education programs. When President Obama outlined an ambitious plan last August to increase value and affordability in postsecondary education, he directed the Department of Education to shine a light on effective, innovative practices and challenged leaders from across the nation to accelerate innovation and build on success.

Today's announcement follows-up on the President's call for the Department to support new ideas in higher education through a limited number of experimental sites. This authority under Title IV of the Higher Education Act (HEA) allows the Secretary of Education to waive specific Title IV, HEA requirements of the federal student financial assistance programs to allow for responsible innovations coupled with evaluations of their effectiveness. Starting today, the Department is asking the public, the higher education community and other public and private agencies and organizations to send us their ideas for experimental sites that will lead to a better-educated workforce and citizenry. More information about the call for ideas around innovative higher education programs can be found in a new blog post by U.S. Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter, and on the Department’s college affordability website.

While the Department has been traveling to cities across the country listening to hundreds of students, parents, college leaders, state officials, education organizations and many others about their ideas on how to best craft a rating system that would better inform students and encourage institutions to improve, this week the Department is submitting a Request for Information (RFI) to the Federal Register to ask experts and researchers to weigh in. This RFI will complement the ongoing engagement efforts, and the Department continues to encourage the public to share feedback through collegefeedback@ed.gov.

Today's announcements build on ongoing efforts by the administration to improve college access and affordability. Recently, the Department announced an outreach campaign to groups of federal student loan borrowers to make sure they know and understand all their repayment options. And thanks to President Obama and Secretary Duncan's leadership, the administration has worked with Congress to end student loan subsidies for private financial institutions and banks and shift billions in savings back to students; keep student loan rates from doubling this year -- saving typical undergraduates more than $1,500 for this year's loans; and cap loan repayments at 10 percent of monthly income for many borrowers who are trying to responsibly manage their federal student loan debt.

More information about the administration’s ongoing efforts to improve college access and affordability can be found here: http://www.ed.gov/college-completion.

Detroit Bankruptcy Ruling Could Set Pension Precedent - Teacher Beat - Education Week

Detroit Bankruptcy Ruling Could Set Pension Precedent - Teacher Beat - Education Week:

Detroit Bankruptcy Ruling Could Set Pension Precedent

By Stephen Sawchuk on December 4, 2013 10:28 AM

By guest blogger Katie Ash

This post originally appeared on the District Dossier blog.

Detroit has become the largest municipality in the United States to enter bankruptcy, being declared 'insolvent' by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes Dec. 3.

In his ruling, Rhodes also said that he would allow pension cuts for unionized workers as the city negotiates its bankruptcy plan—although teachers' pensions will not be impacted because they are part of the state-administered system.

But although teachers' pensions will not be affected, the ruling could have far-reaching implications for teachers' pensions in other states and municipalities, said Keith Johnson, the president of the city's 5,000-member Detroit Federation of Teachers, in an interview with Education Week. 

"I  believe that ultimately the issue of the pensions is going to end up in the U.S. Supreme Court," he said. "We have to keep an eye on this because this is going to set a precedent."

Lawmakers in Illinois, for example, are debating a bill that would cut pension benefits for retired teachers there, reports the Chicago Tribune.

The Detroit ruling ends almost five months of uncertainty after the city originally filed for bankruptcy in July. The move was almost immediately ruled unconstitutional by a Michigan judge, 

Cashing in on Kids: 139 ALEC Bills in 2013 Promote a Private, For-Profit Education Model | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!

Cashing in on Kids: 139 ALEC Bills in 2013 Promote a Private, For-Profit Education Model | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!:

Cashing in on Kids: 139 ALEC Bills in 2013 Promote a Private, For-Profit Education Model

Filed under: ALEC,Vouchers — millerlf @ 10:08 am 

by Brendan Fischer [1] — July 16, 2013 – 7:55am

Despite widespread public opposition to the education privatization agenda, at least 139 bills or state budget provisions reflecting American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) education bills have been introduced in 43 states and the District of Columbia in just the first six months of 2013, according to an analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy, publishers of ALECexposed.org [7]. Thirty-one have become law.

ALEC Vouchers Transfer Taxpayer Money to Private and Religious Schools

News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch has called public education a “a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed.”

But this “transformation” of public education — from an institution that serves the public into one that serves private for-profit interests — has been in progress for decades, thanks in large part to ALEC.

ALEC boasts on the “history” section of its website [8] that it first started promoting “such ‘radical’ ideas as a [educational] voucher system” in 1983 — the same year as the Reagan administration’s “Nation At Risk” report — taking up ideas first articulated decades earlier by ALEC supporter Milton Friedman.

In 1990, Milwaukee was the first city in the nation to implement a school voucher program, under then-governor (and ALEC alum) Tommy Thompson. ALEC quickly embraced [9] the legislation, and that same year offered model bills based on the Wisconsin plan. For-profit schools in Wisconsin now receive up to $6,442 per voucher student, and by the end of the next school year taxpayers in the state will have transferred an estimated $1.8 billion to for-profit, religious, and online schools. The “pricetag” for 

Time Once Again for the Annual Misinformation Campaign About American Education!:

Time Once Again for the Annual Misinformation Campaign About American Education!

Today has been designated as "PISA Day" by the U.S. Department of Education and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)—the day that results of the 2012 math, reading and science tests are released by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA tests 15-year-old students every three years in more than 65 countries and issues reports of the data, which are then used to compare the education systems in the tested countries. Then, journalists and politicians with little understanding of how statistics work and with strong ideological agendas will make proclamations about the data—and propose policy solutions—that are not only inaccurate, but are often thinly disguised attacks on teachers, students and parents. 

AFT has prepared a video and a brochure to address the real story of the PISA data and how policymakers should respond to the information learned from the tests. AFT's director of field programs in the educational issues department, Rob Weil, cautions against rush judgments on the data: "We want teachers, AFT leaders, policymakers and citizens in general to go beyond the page in the report that has the rankings," he said. "When they turn the page, they will quickly see that rankings and raw spending figures do not tell the whole story."

Weil's call for caution is expanded upon by a report from the Economic Policy Institute's (EPI) Richard Rothstein and Martin Carnoy, who shatter most of the methods used by pundits and politicians to explain the numbers:

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In actuality, international data are complex, and even a day or two’s advance look at a summary report would be insufficient to make an intelligent evaluation. It takes many months for careful scholars to analyze the data. Sometimes, this analysis requires examination of more detailed data, including disaggregated scores by social class, gender or race. These are eventually available on the testing organization’s website, but often considerably after the initial public release of a government summary report. Careful analyses of these detailed data can often undermine early assertions.

In January, we published an analysis based on such detailed examination of the previous round of PISA data, from assessments administered in 2009 (What Do International Tests Really Show about U.S. Student Performance?). Our analysis showed that conventional interpretations of these scores can be glib and misleading. Our chief conclusion was that an accurate interpretation of these scores cannot easily be reduced to the kinds of sound bites favored by many commentators and education policymakers.

Patricia Keefer, director of the AFT's international affairs department, concurs with the EPI analysis and notes the major impact of poverty on school performance: "That means that Americans should not only look at where our students rank against the kids in other mostly highly developed nations, but they also should consider how the day-to-day lives of those students vary from one country to another," Keefer said. "For example, among