3-24-14 Perdido Street School Week

Perdido Street School:

Jeb Bush Channels David Coleman In A Defense Of The Common Core

College Board President David Coleman, one of the architects of the Common Core State Standards, famously told an audience in New York State that one of the things you learn in life when you get older is that nobody gives a shit what you think or feel about stuff.Jeb Bush channeled that Coleman sentiment in a recent defense of Common Core:Bush has repeatedly explained the standards, implemented an

by reality-based edu... / 1h 

Cuomo's Job Performance Numbers Fall Again In Siena Poll

Sheriff Andy is under water, mainly due to the economy:New York voters do not see improvement on key issues ranging from the state’s economy to curtailing government corruption during Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s tenure, a Siena College poll released Monday found. The poll, which surveyed New York voters on a range of issues including the economic well-being of their family, tax policy, the quality of publ

by reality-based edu... / 20min 

Poll Shows Cuomo Would Be Vulnerable To Third Party Candidate

Not enough to knock him off, but maybe enough to ruin Sheriff Andy's plans for a big 2014 re-election victory to set him up for a 2016 presidential run: A wealthy Democratic activist commissioned a poll that shows a third-party leftist candidate could eat into what Gov. Cuomo is hoping will be a commanding victory this year. The fact the poll was even commissioned is another sign that Cuomo's bigg

by reality-based edu... / 38min hide  //  save

Message To New York Legislators: You Leave APPR In Place At Your Peril

If you make no changes to the teacher evaluation system in NY State, then all the changes you make to Common Core aren't going to mean a damn.You see, the APPR teacher evaluation system is causing as much damage to children in this state as Common Core is.Want to know why there is so much testing and rote learning in New York classrooms these days?Because APPR forces it.Students are taking so-call

by reality-based edu... / 5h 

3-23-14 Perdido Street School Week

Perdido Street School: How Education Reform Is Harming The Health Of ChildrenThere is a horrific story in the NY Post this morning about a rash of suicides involving NYC school children over the last seven weeks: The city’s public schools are in the grip of a suicide epidemic. Ten students have taken their own lives in the past seven weeks, according to remarks made Saturday by Chancellor Carmen F

by mike simpson / 10h 

UPDATE: Parents are opting out of PSSA tests: Here’s why + The School District’s big Trust problem | Parents United for Public Education

The School District’s big Trust problem | Parents United for Public Education:

Parents are opting out of PSSA tests: Here’s why

Parents United’s own Robin Roberts talks about why she opted her three children out of the PSSA tests which begin this week. (Photo: Philadelphia Inquirer) Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer features a great photo of Parents United’s Robin Roberts on why her children are opting out of the PSSA tests which begin this week. By Roberts’ count, her third grader was going to spend six school days – at leas

by parentsunitedphil... / 2min 

The School District’s big Trust problem

Posted on March 24, 2014 by PRIDEVENTURES1Leave a comment

“Who will be the first to step up and earn our students’ trust and prove that our children are the most important? Who will start a new era of trust to create a public education model we all can take pride in?”

Trust is an important aspect in all relationships.  Lack of trust has the ability to destroy the greatest of friendships and in the past lead to wars and death.  Being able to trust someone will influence a person’s decisions, and attitude, toward an entity or institution. 

The School District of Philadelphia has a trust issue.  As president of Lea Elementary’s Home and School Association, I hear this all the time – and more now than ever.

In families the most precious commodity is their children. They represent the opportunity and possibility to repair past mistakes guardians and parents have made concerning their own life choices.  In them adults see the future and a chance to do great things, representing pride to the family. Education has always been the path forward or out of current circumstances depending on what obstacles individual families face.  The fact that there is such an exodus from the traditional public schools in certain communities to 

Schools serving as enrollment hubs for Obamacare :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet

Schools serving as enrollment hubs for Obamacare :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:



MARCH 24, 2014

Schools serving as enrollment hubs for Obamacare

by Kimberly Beltran

(Calif.) Sacramento high school student Juzely Duran is all in. So is state schools chief Tom Torlakson.

Each in their own way is supporting the “All In for Health” campaign, a major effort aimed at using schools as a conduit for helping hundreds of thousands of uninsured students, parents and employees sign up for health benefits under President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

A project of The Children’s Partnership, a national nonprofit advocacy organization, the All In for Health campaign was launched last year to provide schools and child-care providers with tools to reach out to uninsured children and families with information about new health coverage options and even help them sign up.

“As education leaders, we have an important role to play in keeping children, families, and school  Schools serving as enrollment hubs for Obamacare :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

More Than Half of Asian American Teens are Bullied in School

More Than Half of Asian American Teens are Bullied in School:

MORE THAN HALF OF ASIAN AMERICAN TEENS ARE BULLIED IN SCHOOL

Saw this infographic posted on the Giant Robot's Twitter last week... We've seen this statistic shared before, but it's worth repeating and reinforcing. And seriously, it hasn't become any less upsetting.

According to survey data released in 2011 by the US Justice Department and Education Department, Asian Americans endure far more bullying in U.S. schools than any other ethnic group, and compared to other teens, Asian American teens are three times as likely to face bullying on the internet.

A report released last year by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund and The Sikh Coalition revealed that half of all Asian American students surveyed in New York City have been the target of bias-bullying and harassment, mirroring national statistics.

And according to a report released earlier this month, more than half of Sikh school children are bullied.

Throw in the scores of stories I've posted the years about young Asian Americans who have taken their lives after 

'American Revolutionary' now playing in New York City

One-week theatrical run March 21-27 at AMC Loews 19th St. East 6If you're in New York City, make sure you take some time out to catch this amazing film... American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs is now playing a one-week theatrical run at AMC Loewes 19th St. East 6, now through March 27. Directed Grace Lee, the documtary is an illuminating portrait of legendary 98-year-old philoso

1 by Phil Yu / 7h hide  //  save

Volunteer for the UC Berkeley SASC Summer Institute

Mentorship program for Southeast Asian high school students, June 18-22This summer, UC Berkeley's Southeast Asian Student Coalition will be hosting its 2014 Summer Institute, a five-day educational and mentorship program for Southeast Asian high school youth to engage in workshops, dialogues, and a variety of peer-bonding activities promoting higher education, cultural awareness, and other subject

by Phil Yu / 7h 

Lousiana school board settles religious harassment lawsuit

Federal lawsuit alleged sixth grader was routinely belittled for being BuddhistLast week in New Orleans, the ACLU settled lawsuit with a Louisiana school board on behalf of a sixth grader who says he was routinely harassed by teachers and administrators because of his Buddhist beliefs.Settlement In Suit Involving La. Buddhist StudentThe federal lawsuit, filed in January, alleged that a teacher at

by Phil Yu / 7h 

NYC Educator: The Sad Tale of UFT-Unity's Robo Voters

NYC Educator: The Sad Tale of UFT-Unity's Robo Voters:

The Sad Tale of UFT-Unity's Robo Voters

-->   By special guest blogger Arwen E.

Welcome to the NYSUT Convention in NYC. Your UFT-Unity representatives were programmed after last Wednesday's Delegate Assembly, and will be arriving at the appointed time.

April 4th-6th, 2014, Mid-Town Manhattan

-->

The Unity Caucus, representing about one third of NYSUT's convention votes, will send approximately 800 robo-delegates to vote according to the dictates of the Unity leadership, rather than the dictates of conscience or the dictates of a democratic representation of constituencies.  It is a sad and sorry fact that although our Union is the most powerful tool we have to defend the rights of teachers, students and public schools, it has made some very poor decisions in the recent past, including support for mayoral control in the Bloomberg era, Common Core State 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: THE STRANGE ANONYMITY OF CHICAGO GUN VIOLENCE

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: THE STRANGE ANONYMITY OF CHICAGO GUN VIOLENCE:

THE STRANGE ANONYMITY OF CHICAGO GUN VIOLENCE

Stock footage (DNAinfo)

Gun violence continues to plague Chicago's communities and with it comes a strange anonymity regarding both the dead and maimed as well as the shooters. Over the weekend, 21 more people were shot, 2 of them fatally. I hate to relate this story simply in terms of numbers because the huge weekend shooting count published in the press every Monday morning, along with the stock footage of yellow crime tape, keeps us from seeing this horror in personal terms. This for example is from this morning's report from CBS 5 morning news:

A 19-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy were shot in the right foot, and a 19-year-old man was shot in the left leg. All three victims were taken to Stroger Hospital in stable condition.

The worst part is that, like the Vietnam War's body-bag count, these numbers become the 

Weekend Quotables

Courageous Saucedo student speaks out against ISAT.  Sun-Times editorial...CPS damaged its credibility with parents, and undermined the trust that is so essential to good schooling, by choosing, foolishly, to interview small children on such a sensitive matter without even informing their parents — the ones who made the final decision on skipping the test. CPS had the law on its side, but wisdom w

by Mike Klonsky / 1h 

“TFA Truth Tour” to Expose Dark Side of Corporate Education Reform | United Students Against Sweatshops

“TFA Truth Tour” to Expose Dark Side of Corporate Education Reform | United Students Against Sweatshops:

“TFA Truth Tour” to Expose Dark Side of Corporate Education Reform

By Robert Ascherman and Karen Li

Starting tomorrow, USAS is launching the next stage in our campaign to fight back against corporate robber barons of education reform on our campuses: the Teach for America Truth Tour. The tour will visit 15 campuses to expose the truth about TFA: not only does it fail to prepare teachers for the classroom, but it is systematically pushing to replace our system of community public education and replace it with an alternative largely controlled by profit-seeking corporations.

Imagine your favorite professor. Now imagine that this professor will be replaced by someone who has only been trained for 5 weeks and will only be at your university for two years. They don’t know anything about you, they don’t know anything about the community at your university, and they don’t know anything about your life and how it relates to your capacity to learn. Now imagine that this isn’t happening just to your favorite professor, but to every professor at your university. As you can tell, this is a situation that would devastate and destabilize your university.

That’s what’s happening in K-12 public education. For example, in Chicago the Board of Education slashed the budget for schools and fired teachers, yet increased its financing of TFA from $600,000 to $1.6 million and brought in over 300 TFA corps members. In Newark, the superintendent, an TFA alumnus, is likely to fire 700 teachers and replace most of them with TFA corps members. But as one study noted, TFA “is best understood as a weak Band-Aid that sometimes provides some benefits but that is recurrently and systematically ripped away and replaced.”

In order to operate, TFA depends on its partnerships with universities to get corps members certified to teach in each state. While teaching, corps members must attend classes at a university, which in some programs can lead to a master’s degree. In effect, TFA uses our universities’ names to make up for its own weak training programs and convince state boards of education that its members are “highly qualified” to teach.

But students are refusing to allow this to happen any longer. We are joining together with parents, teachers, and TFA alumni to expose the truth about TFA.

The TFA Truth Tour is just part of a larger campaign by USAS, our allies at Students United for Public Education, and the many TFA alumni who are beginning to organize and speak out against the organization, and is only the beginning of a growing groundswell of opposition to TFA’s destructive effect on our public schools.

TFA Truth Tour Itinerary

3/24/2014 George Mason University
3/24/2014 American University
3/25/2014 University of Pennsylvania
3/25/2014 Temple University
3/26/2014 New York University
3/26/2014 Hunter College
3/26/2014 Seton Hall University
3/27/2014 Boston University
3/28/2014 Harvard University
3/31/2014 University of Minnesota
3/31/2014 Macalester College
3/31/2014 Hamline University
4/2/2014 University of Wisconsin
4/3/2014 University of Illinois at Chicago
4/3/2014 University of Chicago

http://usas.org/2014/03/23/tfa-truth-tour-to-expose-dark-side-of-corporate-education-reform/

Millions of kids to test new education assessments | Nation & World | The Seattle Times

Millions of kids to test new education assessments | Nation & World | The Seattle Times:

Millions of kids to test new education assessments

What's on the new Common Core-based exams? More than 4 million kids in U.S. schools soon will have a clue.

WASHINGTON —

What's on the new Common Core-based exams? More than 4 million kids in U.S. schools soon will have a clue.

Field testing begins this coming week in 36 states and the District of Columbia on assessments developed by two different groups of states. Participating students will be asked to sit for hours in front of a computer or use a No. 2 pencil to answer questions.

But there's no need for kids to worry. The scores won't count, this time. The actual exam-testing won't be used for another year.

The Common Core standards spell out what math and English skills students should have at each grade, and are designed to develop more critical thinking skills than traditional school work. They were first pushed by governors concerned about the large number of high school graduates needing remedial college help and lacking basic skills. Most states have adopted them.

The field tests, to be conducted until June, are a big step forward in the push to more fully integrate the new academic standards into the school environment. They will give education officials a chance to judge things such as the quality of each test question and the technical capabilities of schools to administer the tests, which are computer-based but also will be available on paper.

But they also come as the standards face political push-back in many states

Indiana lawmakers, for example, last year paused implementation of the standards and a measure ending the state's participation is at the governor's desk. House lawmakers in Tennessee passed   Millions of kids to test new education assessments | Nation & World | The Seattle Times:

Hey Harrison NY! I'm Opting Out My Son and So Can You! southbronxschool.com

http://www.southbronxschool.com:

Hey Harrison NY! I'm Opting Out My Son and So Can You!

This can be done. This should be done. Parents of Harrison NY, Westchester County, and NYC, 

please read. This is important. You can take back control of your child's education. 

I have been wanting to opt out my son of the NYS exams for a number of years. Actually every year since he started testing. He is in 7th grade now and I have finally decided that enough is enough. This year he is not wasting his time taking the state ELA and math exams.

The people it took the most convincing to opt him out have been my wife and my step-mother, a retired (13 years now) AP in the Bronx. For those who are of the Jewish persuasion you know with Jewish mothers you kinda don't have much of a say at times. But I digress.

After last years ELA debacle in which not one student in his class finished the exam on any of the 3 days testing a stand had to be made.

Both my wife and step-mother had serious preconceptions to what not taking the exams meant. One argument from both of them was that this would be a great way for him to learn and feel comfortable 

Setting the Record Straight: Lottie Beebe Does Not Support Common Core | deutsch29

Setting the Record Straight: Lottie Beebe Does Not Support Common Core | deutsch29:

Setting the Record Straight: Lottie Beebe Does Not Support Common Core

March 23, 2014

On March 22, 2014, the Monroe News-Star quoted Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) member and St. Martin Parish Superintendent Lottie Beebe in such a manner as to incorrectly portray Beebe as supporting the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

Beebe does not support CCSS.

In her response below, Beebe clarifies not only her position against CCSS but also her experience and position on a number of so-called education “reform” issues mandated in Louisiana’s classrooms:

I have learned a lesson.  In the future, I will provide a written response to reporter inquiries.  This is my response to Common Core and there may be those who say I sound like a politician. To the contrary, I consider myself a public servant and educator. 

There has been much debate surrounding Common Core Standards.  According to 

TFA on Vimeo

TFA on Vimeo:

TFA from Schoolhouse Live on Vimeo.

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog: Libyan Army, Oil Rebels Clash, 16 Wounded

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog: [Nigeria] Water - So Important, So Ignored:

Libyan Army, Oil Rebels Clash, 16 Wounded

Throughout the night and again after dawn on Saturday, chaos rang out in Ajdabiya, Libya. Libyan rebels occupying oil ports clashed with Libyan soldiers as they attacked an army base, wounding 16 people before tribal leaders were able to intervene and put a stop to the fighting.The fighting began hours before the return to Libya of The Morning Glory, an oil tanker seized last Sunday by U.S. comman

by Katherine Louie / 14min 

[Nigeria] Water - So Important, So Ignored

In Nigeria, water is a serious issue. There's not enough drinking water in Nigeria for the people to live off of. Sunday, March 22nd was the United Nation's World Water Day and yet again is passed by without any action from Nigeria. Water is obviously a vital resource to human survival. Clean water is necessary if a country wants to move forward. Without the most basic tool for survival a country

by Aaron Matsuda / 1h 

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog 3-8-14

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog:untitledPolice finally caught the most wanted criminal, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. He was known as the drug lord who escaped the police for a decade and has been finally caught.  Guzmán was allegedly found in a hotel.. At first when the marines knocked on the door, El Chapo  sneaked out through a hidden exit in a bathroom ,but however was still caught after he was captur

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

A Response to “Correcting the Facts about the One Newark Plan: A Strategic Approach To 100 Excellent Schools” | School Finance 101

A Response to “Correcting the Facts about the One Newark Plan: A Strategic Approach To 100 Excellent Schools” | School Finance 101:

A Response to “Correcting the Facts about the One Newark Plan: A Strategic Approach To 100 Excellent Schools”

Originally posted on New Jersey Education Policy Forum:

Full report here: Weber.Baker.OneNewarkResponseFINALREVIEW

Mark Weber & Bruce Baker

On March 11, 2014, the Newark Public Schools (NPS) released a response to our policy brief of January 24, 2014: “An Empirical Critique of One Newark.”[1] Our brief examined the One Newark plan, a proposal by NPS to close, “renew,” or turn over to charter management organizations (CMOs) many of the district’s schools. Our brief reached the following conclusions:

•  Measures of academic performance are not significant predictors of the classifications assigned to NPS schools by the district, when controlling for student population characteristics.
• Schools assigned the consequential classifications have substantively and statistically significantly greater shares of low income and black students.
• Further, facilities utilization is also not a predictor of assigned classifications, though utilization rates are somewhat lower for those schools slated for charter takeover.
• Proposed charter takeovers cannot be justified on the assumption that charters will yield better outcomes…

View original 686 more words

Chicagoland: Watch the non-military Rambo movie for the Clueless. | Reclaim Reform

Chicagoland: Watch the non-military Rambo movie for the Clueless. | Reclaim Reform:

Chicagoland: Watch the non-military Rambo movie for the Clueless.

Posted on March 23, 2014by Ken Previti

Chicagoland is the expensive propaganda show disguised as Realty TV News by CNN which is in desperate need of improved ratings and money.

Chicagoland is about the need for a tough guy who “does what he has to do” with a little help from his friends to make the city work – Rahm Emanuel and his cohorts.
(Read Empathy Educates HERE.)

In reality Rahm and the appointed Board of Education approved the removal from class and one-on-one interrogation of public school children whose parents opted them out of high stakes standardized tests. They were questioned about their parents and teachers, their classmates and their parents and teachers, etc.
(Read what Bruce Boyer and Stacey Platt say HERE in Fred Klonsky’s blog.)

Rahm and the other child abusers should be arrested.

Since the state had already declared that the this year’s expensive and inaccurate tests