3-11-14 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:

Developing story. AFSCME’s Henry Bayer denies Dillard dump.

Earlier today both Greg Hinz at Craine’s and Rich Miller at CapitolFax reported that Illinois Freedom PAC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Illinois public and private sector unions had withdrawn funding for TV ads or the Dillard campaign. I interpreted this change in spending to a recognition on the part of the union leaders that Dillard was a lost cause. I still do. But there has been some dancing s

by Fred Klonsky / 3min 

Four people who would make a better Illinois Governor than Bruce Rauner.

by Fred Klonsky / 9min 

Breaking: Union PAC dumps Dillard. No more good money after bad.

Crain’s Greg Hinz is reporting: In a critical development in the GOP race for governor, a union-backed group that had spent millions of dollars on TV ads blasting front-runner Bruce Rauner has decided to end its campaign, just as the race enters the crucial last week. Michael Murray, a spokesman for the Illinois Freedom PAC, said the group has spent $3.1 million so far ripping Mr. Rauner but will

by Fred Klonsky / 10min 

Breaking: Pension suit assigned to a judge.

A few days ago the fifth and probably last law suit was filed against Senate Bill 1, Michael Madigan’s pension theft. It was filed by the University of Illinois and Parkland College employees in Champaign County Circuit Court.  It also involves the State Universities Annuitants Association. The four other suits have been ordered consolidated and will be heard in Sangamon County, which is Springfie

2 by Fred Klonsky / 19min 

Four people who would make a better governor of Illinois than Bruce Rahner.

7 by Fred Klonsky / 41min

Classroom teachers will be heard.

For years leaders of the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association have claimed that their members support Common Core State Standards. There never was much evidence provided for the claim. Yet they continued. At last year’s NEA Representative Assembly delegates refrained from resolutions opposing CCSS. But they did vote on ones that condemned the misuse of Common Core

by Fred Klonsky / 6min hide  //  save

Politics is complicated.

Illinois Retired Teachers Association Executive Director Jim Bachman yesterday. Early voting has already begun and election day is one week away. I received a request to repost the vote on Senate Bill 1. It is down below. My good friend Glen Brown sent a reminder: Unfortunately, many legislators voted “No” because they are political opportunists. It is important to remember that only a few legisl

1 by Fred Klonsky / 55min 

The Illinois Pension Black List.

Fred, Will you repost how the current incumbents voted on SB1?   In the House: Dec 03, 2013 62 YEAS 53 NAYS Y Acevedo Y Andrade Y Anthony Y Arroyo N Beiser Y Bellock N Bost Y Bradley N Brady N Brauer N Brown N Rosenthal Y Sandack N Scherer Y Schmitz Y Senger Y Sente N Sims N Smiddy N Smith N Sommer N Sosnowski Y Soto N Stewa

1 by Fred Klonsky / 3h 

3-10-14 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: Monday morning with pensions on my mind.J Jay Travis is running for the Illinois House in the 26th District. Daylight savings time means it is dark at 7AM as I head out the door. I won’t be doing much posting today since I will be at the Area II meeting of the Illinois Retired Teachers Association. I’

by mike simpson / 8h 

Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement"

Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement":

Schools in Chicago & Colorado Making It VERY Difficult For Parents To “Opt-Out”

It appears that some schools are making it very difficult for parents to “opt-out” of standardized testing for their child. I’m not sure if this attitude is the best one to take to further parent engagement…. Read about what’s happening in Colorado and in Chicago. I’m adding this info to The Best Posts On Parents “Opting-Out” Of Standardized Tests For Their Children.

by Larry Ferlazzo / 38min 

MAR 09

I’ll Be A Guest On This Wednesday’s #PTchat On Twitter

I’ll be a guest on this Wednesday’s #PTchat on Twitter. We’ll be discussing the difference between parent engagement and parent involvement. Hope you can join us!

2 by Larry Ferlazzo / 2d 

MAR 08

“N.J. Lawmaker Wants Parent Involvement Included in Teachers’ Reviews”

Last week, I wrote about a Well-Intentioned, But Odd & Unworkable Effort To Incorporate Parent Involvement In New Jersey Teacher Evaluations. Now, Education Week has written a piece on the same issue titled N.J. Lawmaker Wants Parent Involvement Included in Teachers’ Reviews. Here’s a short excerpt that describe its possible impact: It isn’t clear how (or whether) this information would affect

2 by Larry Ferlazzo / 2d 

MAR 07

New York City Mayor: “The day of drive-by parent-teacher conferences…is over”

New York City schools continue making dramatic changes in making parent engagement a priority. Here’s how a new article, De Blasio woos parent bloggers, begins: Mayor Bill de Blasio told a group of parent bloggers at City Hall on Friday that communication between schools and families is a top priority of his administration, echoing the message of his schools chancellor Carmen Fariña. Fariña has ma

2 by Larry Ferlazzo / 3d 

Surprise, Surprise — Study Finds That Positive Parenting Promotes Adolescent Brain Development

Daniel Willingham recently sent a tweet about a new study titled Positive parenting predicts the development of adolescent brain structure: A longitudinal study. It found that: Parenting interventions may promote healthy adolescent brain development….In conclusion, we have found, for the first time, longitudinal effects of positive parenting on structural development of the brain during adolescenc

2 by Larry Ferlazzo / 3d 

This Is Why St. Paul Is A National Model Of Parent Engagement

I’ve previously posted about why what’s happening in St. Paul, Minnesota is a national model of parent engagement. Check out this latest article from the Pioneer Press, titled St. Paul parents hope to keep momentum after teachers contract deal, to learn why I say that… Here’s how the article starts: When a teachers strike loomed last month in the St. Paul Public Schools district, parents joined fo

60 by Larry Ferlazzo / 3d 

MAR 06

“Most States Lack Opt-Out Policies – But Parents Find A Way”

Most States Lack Opt-Out Policies – But Parents Find A Way is a very interesting and useful post by Alexander Russo. The post gives a very good overview of state laws on “opting out” of standardized tests. I’m adding it to The Best Posts On Parents “Opting-Out” Of Standardized Tests For Their Children.

2 by Larry Ferlazzo / 4d hide  //  save

“Sign-Up Genius” Could Be A Helpful Parent Volunteer Tool

Bill Ferriter sent a tweet out about a site called Sign-Up Genius. It looks like a very easy tool to use to have volunteers sign-up for just about anything, including volunteering at school. I’m adding it to A Beginning List Of The Best Resources On Using Technology To Help Engage Parents.

2 by Larry Ferlazzo / 4d 

Video: “Cleveland Administrator Launches College Tours for Parents”

Cleveland Administrator Launches College Tours for Parents is the title of a pretty interesting Education Week article. It describes the work of the leader of parent engagement for the Cleveland school district. Here’s an excerpt: Among the administrator’s most successful parent-engagement undertakings are the Parent University College Tours, which provides parents a much-needed firsthand look at

2 by Larry Ferlazzo / 4d

3-11-14 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online:

NY Times on Chris Pavone book

I've known Chris Pavone since he was 3 years old when his mom, Vera Pavone, brought him to a meeting of Another View in District 14, the beginning of a 43 year political and personal relationship with Vera and her partner at the time, Paul Baizerman. These were the guys who had the most influence on me politically and in many ways personally. I won't get into the weeds of what I learned from them

by ed notes online / 8min hide  //  save

ADVISORY: TODAY, 11am CM Dromm, Large Majority of City Council to Blast #CuomoCuts-- City Hall Steps

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 11th, 2014  Contact:Julian Vinocur, julian@aqeny.org. 212.328.9268Large Majority of NYC Council to Demand Public School Funding Increase, Following Gov's Promise to Give More to Charter Schools InsteadLed by Councilmember Daniel Dromm, Large Majority of Councilmembers to Release Sign-on Letter Calling on State to Comply with CFE & Increase School Aid PRESS CONFEREN

by ed notes online / 1h 

3-10-14 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online: De Blasio Allies Counterattack on Moskowitz - the Real Civil Rights Issue of the TimeAs a candidate for mayor, Bill de Blasio electrified crowds of parents and education activists with a pledge to charge rent to charter schools, one of the starkest policy departures from his predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg... NY Times, March 10, 2014Well, finally, a word or two that gets to the

by mike simpson / 8h 

Marie Corfield: 'Cosmos', The Spanish Inquisition and Education 'Reform' in NJ

Marie Corfield: 'Cosmos', The Spanish Inquisition and Education 'Reform' in NJ:

'Cosmos', The Spanish Inquisition and Education 'Reform' in NJ

Within the first 5 minutes of the new ‘Cosmos’ series hosted by astrophysicist, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, he takes a not-too-subtle jab at creationists and climate deniers when he describes the explorers and dreamers over the course of human history who dared to imagine what was out there in space, and how we all got here.

Imagination alone isn’t enough. This adventure is made possible by generations of searchers, strictly adhering to a simple set of rules:

• Test ideas by experimentation and observation.
• Build on those ideas that pass the test.
• Reject the ones that fail.
• Follow the evidence wherever it leads.
• Question everything.

He might as well have been talking about the education community, which for over a decade has been at the mercy of the ‘reformy’ Inquisitors who just refuse to accept the mountains of research and evidence that disclaim their ideology because it all leads back to on

3-10-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE:

On Vouchers In General and Particularly the 2014 All-voucher Arizona Push

Over the past year, I have received three glossy mailouts telling me that I can “enroll my child in private school for free.” The last one included the message, “Time is running out!” and added, “Is your child stuck in a failing school? Send them to a private school for FREE.” Nothing is “for free.” […]

by deutsch29 / 22min 

What’s with all the white men in #edreform debates (PS, I’m a white dude)?

Let me begin. I am a white dude. I repeat: I am an average, everyday, Irish, white guy. Let me continue. When I earned my PhD in 2009, I wrote about the lack of men in education, internationally, and the various stereotypes that preclude their entrance into teaching, plus solutions to overcoming the diversity problem […]

2 by Shaun Johnson / 41min 

Writing Is a Journey: Thoughts on Writing, College, and the SAT

Writing Is a Journey: Thoughts on Writing, College, and the SAT. via Writing Is a Journey: Thoughts on Writing, College, and the SAT.

1 by plthomasedd / 3min 

American Hustle: Ignoring Poverty in U.S. Needs More than 50-Year Anniversary

American Hustle: Ignoring Poverty in U.S. Needs More than 50-Year Anniversary. via American Hustle: Ignoring Poverty in U.S. Needs More than 50-Year Anniversary.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical

1 by plthomasedd / 1h 

3-10-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE: A User-friendly Tutorial on IRS 990sOne of the panel discussions in which I participated at the first annual Network for Public Education (NPE) conference was on investigative journalism. I chose to use my twelve minutes to only touch the surface on using IRS 990s (the tax forms for nonprofit organizations) as a research tool. In this post, I would like […]3 by deutsch29 / 8h  3-

by mike simpson / 8h 

3-11-14 With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs All Week

With A Brooklyn Accent:

A First Year Bronx Teacher Who Loves Her Kids Says "Enough"

There comes a point when you've been shoved around by your job so much that you stop caring. It's scary when that day is a Tuesday in March and you're a teacher. I've been bullied. I've been ignored. My kids IEPs are a catastrophe (I don't do them, we have a "team" for that). I've been told I can't do my EdTPA for my certification with my students because I can't record them when my sch

by Mark Naison / 2h hide  //  save

The Perils of "Grit"

Many proponents of Data Driven education reforms, including Arne Duncan,and NY Education Commissioner John King have spoken of the need to toughen up children to prepare them for the Global Marketplace- especially children growing up in poverty-and have claimed their policies were designed to impart characteristics like "Grit" and ability to perform under pressure.There is a certain crue

by Mark Naison / 4h 

3-10-14 With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs All Week

With A Brooklyn Accent: On the Misuse of Statistics in Testing by the NY State Department of Education: Anonymous Posting by a Friendly StatisticianThe Common Core and Departments of Education: Lies, Darn Lies, Statistics and Education StatisticsNumbers have taken center stage in the discussion of education policy in the United States. Test score metrics have become a particularly critical set of

by mike simpson / 8h 

W.T.F. V.A.M.: Value Added Measure: Jen Hogue's Parting Words and Requiem for Valueaddedmeasure.blogspot.com

V.A.M.: Value Added Measure: Jen Hogue's Parting Words and Requiem for Valueaddedmeasure.blogspot.com:

Jen Hogue's Parting Words and Requiem for Valueaddedmeasure.blogspot.com

Dear Reader (from Jen Hogue),

I was told by my friend, Adam Bergstein, Monday, March 10, 2014, that our blog site must go black since he can find no way (even through contact with Google) to keep it up and simultaneously disassociate his name.  He is busy with committees for the NYSUT convention and  UFT leadership, to the best of my understanding of his words, sent out a general advisory that Union names should not be associated with things such as our blog.  It may have to do with Unity's loyalty oath, something I only learned about through NYC Educator and, then again, I may be mistaken.

Let it be known for the record that, to the best of my figuring, I wrote 95 pieces of the 105 pieces posted prior to this last one (and to prove that I do not hate all data, just some of the uses to which it is misapplied, I will tell you that was 90.476%).   So, let my 95 pieces in no way impugn the slate of Adam Bergstein. He shares none of that guilt.  His guilt only lies in recruiting me with powerful words and a winning way to make a pact with him to use all of our combined "firepower" to try to save public education.

I can never again view Unity with equanimity (and this is Jen Hogue speaking, let me emphasize, not Adam Bergstein) if it asks its members to sign loyalty oaths to publicly rubberstamp leadership decisions at the expense of the free inquiry, the free thought and the free speech of highly intelligent individuals elected as chapter leaders by highly intelligent educators who are supposed to teach people how to think, not what to think.

Adam said I might repost my near  one-hundred pieces on a new blog site from which he is disassociated before he soon dismantles our valueaddedmeasure.blogspot.com and all of that hard work, dedication and love is erased from public record.  I am too sickened by the situation and paralyzed by grief to undertake such an arduous task now.

I am saddened beyond belief that perceived and, doubtless very real, pressures should lead to the dismantling of a blog site founded upon the sincerest feelings of a love that values public education, humanity and a faith in the future.  The situation is made even sadder by the fact that my eldest daughter had taken great pride in her mother's work, helped me post a piece with her own design and only the other night asked for our web address to locate on her Nook--which I'm sure she wanted to share with her teacher.  I fear for when she finds out the site is gone.  I fear for when she asks me to explain.  

In retrospect, the blog was less than a year of my life, but it was part of one of the most significant years in my life.  I suppose if we had not been mildly successful with over 10,000 hits in about three months (really starting 12/22/2013), maybe no one could ever have possibly been bothered at all by our existence or could have even guessed at our existence.

I just have to thank any divine spirit(s) or sweet serendipity that there are kids in this world because without them I would really wonder what many of us, adults, are doing on this planet. 

I will make one of my first pieces the last piece, "The Day the Teaching Died." For anyone who read any of our pieces, puzzled about them whether in agreement or not, smiled, laughed, nodded or once said, "Brilliant" or "That's friggin' awesome,"  I say the words that have always come easiest to me in my life, "thank you."

Another Slice of "American Pie" (a variation on the lyrics of Don McLean)

A long, long time ago 
I can still remember how that teaching used to make me smile 
And, I knew if I had my turn that I could make those people learn, and... 
Maybe they'd be studying a while 
But, February made me shiver with every test score I'd deliver 
Bad news on the scantron - It made me want to rant on 
I can't remember if I cried when I read about a cheating tide 
Something touched me deep inside the day the teaching died 

So, bye bye Miss American Pie 
Took my marker to the whiteboard but the marker was dry 
Them good ol' boys were listening to some lie, singing... 
This'll be the day that I die 
This'll be the day that I die 

Did you write the Book of Love and do you have faith in God, above? 
If the Bible tells you so 
Now, do you believe in ABCs? Should you learn to swallow some bees? And... 
please don't teach me how to be Michelle Rhee 
Well, I know that you just want to teach, but all your dreams are now out of reach 
Hedge-fund managers rule - man, they're trying to kill my school 
I was a lonely, teacher workin' hard with a pink eraser and a metro card, but... 
I knew I'd been fed some lard the day the teaching died 

I started singing, bye bye Miss American Pie

Took my marker to the whiteboard but the marker was dry
Them good ol' boys were listening to some lie...Singing,
This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die

Now, for ten years we've been so degraded, "scapegoated" and evaluated, but...
That's not how it used to be
When the Chancellor sang for Duncan and Rhee in a coat he stole from you and me
With billionaire's dollars from Bloomie
Oh, and while we all were looking down the Chancellor stole his thorny crown
The courtroom was adjourned - no contract was returned
And, while Rhee clapped for erased marks, the Union chanted in the park, and...
We sang dirges in the dark the day the teaching died

We were singing, bye bye Miss American Pie
Took my marker to the whiteboard, but the marker was dry
Them good ol' boys were listening to some lie...Singing
This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die

Helter Skelter in the wake of Sandy - we looked to the A.F.T. and Randy
Pearson's making profits fast
Older teachers are harassed
The Charters had ensured all kids pass by kicking out half the kindergarten class
Now, the lunchtime air was sweet perfume while Michelle taped our mouths shut too soon
We all got up to eat, but Rhee with her broom had us beat
'Cause the teachers tried to save their school - billionaires passed an unfair rule
Do you recall who was their tool the day the teaching died?

We started singing, bye bye Miss American Pie
Took my marker to the whiteboard, but the marker was dry
Them good ol' boys were listening to some lie, singing...
This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die

Oh, in there we were, all in one store - with only one choice, common core
With no time left to speak our mind
So, come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick - Jack Flash sat on a mem'ry stick, 'cause...
Data is the Devil's only friend
And, as I watched him on the stage my hands were clenched in fists of rage
No angel born in Hell could break that Satan's spell
And, as the flames climbed high into the night to light the sacrificial rite, I saw...
Satan laughing with delight the day the teaching died

He was singing, bye bye Miss American Pie
Took my marker to the whiteboard but the marker was dry
Them good ol' boys were listening to some lie, singing...
This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die

I met a guy who sang the Blues, and I asked him for some happy news
He just smiled and turned away
I went down to the old classroom when I'd heard that tenure met its doom, but...
The man there said that teaching wouldn't pay
And, in the streets the children screamed, the lover's cried, and the poets dreamed, but...
Not a word was spoken - the school bells all were broken
And, the three men I admire most: the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, they...
Caught the cheese bus for the coast the day the teaching died

And, they were singing, bye bye Miss American Pie
Took my marker to the whiteboard, but the marker was dry
Them good ol' boys were listening to some lie, singing...
This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die

They were singing, bye bye Miss American Pie
Took my marker to the whiteboard but the marker was dry
Them good ol' boys were listening to some lie, singing...
This'll be the day that I die

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