3-25-14 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.:

Urgent. Charter bill witness slips needed. Now.

The House version of the charter school accountability act passed successfully out of committee. The Senate version of that same bill, SB 3030 will be heard in committee this afternoon. We have been told that it will face a much tougher hurdle in getting out of committee than its House counterpart. Fill out witness slip here.

by Fred Klonsky / 8min 

A message from the Ken Swanson, the IEA President who gave us Senate Bill 7.

A NOTE TO ALL ILLINOIS TEACHERS FROM KEN SWANSON – former IEA President….. Hi Everyone, I wish to add my voice to those coming to the defense of IEA and its current leadership. I have nothing but great praise for the efforts to nominate Sen. Dillard. It would have been easy to buy into the defeatist attitude of those who argued there was no way and it couldn’t be done. Well, it was nearly accompl

by Fred Klonsky / 22min hide  //  save

Squeezy defends collective bargaining. In theory.

A former IEA leader who was running for another top office came to our Region asking for support.  Given his support for Senate Bill 7 – which took away our seniority and tenure rights, linked teacher performance and evaluations to student test scores and raised the bar for strike authorization – I asked him if there was anything that he absolutely wouldn’t bargain. He thought for a moment. Or tw

by Fred Klonsky / 38min 

Illinois set to put major limits on charter schools. Act now.

Illinois charter school operators are about to face major legislative restrictions on their expansion of operations. This is big. But you must make your phone calls and file witness slips. HB 3754, a bill sponsored in the House by State Representative LInda Chapa LaVia, a Democrat from Aurora would defang the Charter School Commission of its authority to overturn a decision by an elected local sc

by Fred Klonsky / 54min 

3-24-14 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.: CPS continues its ethnic cleansing of its teaching faculty.  Photo: George Schmidt, Substance. The announcement late Friday that CPS was closing three more schools – calling them turn-arounds – was an attempt to bury the story of the system’s continuing efforts at the ethnic cleansing of the teaching

by mike simpson / 8h 

3-25-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:

“Unknown Unknowns” & The Potential Of An Exceptional Theory Of Knowledge Lesson

One of Donald Rumsfeld’s most famous – if not his most famous – utterance was his “unknown unknowns” response at a press conference related to Iraq (you can see a video of it at the end of this post). Now, filmmaker Errol Morris has just published The Certainty of Donald Rumsfeld (Part 1) over at The New York Times, the first in a four-part series. I don’t know what the next three parts are goin

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h 

The Best Posts, Articles & Videos On “Teacher Leadership” — Contribute More!

“Teacher Leadership” is a phrase that’s used a lot, and to not always mean the same thing. It’s particularly important, I think, to talk about it now since Education Secretary Arne Duncan is kicking-off an initiative using the term (you’ll find commentaries on that effort later in this post). I thought it might be useful to share a few of what I think are the best ones (or, at least, the ones tha

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12min 

Infographic: Universal Declaration Of Human Rights

I’ve previously posted about how I use the UN Universal Declaration Of Human Rights in a modified version of the well-known Rethinking Schools lesson ((I provide students excerpts of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the South African Bill of Rights, have students compare them our own, and then students develop one for their own imaginary country — with justifications). You can se

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12min 

“8 Tips for Reaching Out to Parents”

8 Tips for Reaching Out to Parents is a very good list of suggestions by educator David Cutler that has been published by Edutopia. Here is one of his suggestions: 6. Call Home to Report Good News Parents rarely receive a positive call home. Twice a semester, I make a point to call and tell them how impressed I am with something their student did or said. It surprises me when parents nervously ans

2 by Larry Ferlazzo / 6h 

Video: This “Unusual” Bus Shelter Could Be A Good Video For English Language Learners

This video of an “unusual” bus shelter could be useful to show to English Language Learners and have them describe — in writing and verbally — what they see:

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h 

3-24-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: Students Learn About Antonyms & Write About Their Perfect School In My Latest NY Times Post For ELLsStudents learn about antonyms, in addition to writing about what they think are the qualities of an excellent school, in my latest New York Times post for English Language Learners. An interactive and teaching ideas are i

by mike simpson / 9h 

3-25-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE:

What Common Core Looks Like In Desperation

It seems that the protests of the American citizen against the so-called Common Core State Standards (CCSS) has become proverbial grains of sand in the works of the mammoth corporate reform machine. Die-hard supporters of CCSS are becoming desperate, and such is showing in their words and actions. Consider Jeb Bush’s declaration, “In Asia today, they […]

by deutsch29 / 2min 

Are We (Finally) Ready to Face Teacher Education’s Race Problem?

Are We (Finally) Ready to Face Teacher Education’s Race Problem?. via Are We (Finally) Ready to Face Teacher Education’s Race Problem?.

1 by plthomasedd / 41min 

What to Expect When Your State is Being Run Amok

I had the unique experience of living in several states as the reform onslaught took hold over America’s public schools.  Each state had its nuances, its preferences, its prejudices, and its own structure.  I also had the priviledge of living in New York State just as the shit was hitting the fan and parents decided […]

32 by Kris Nielsen / 7h 

3-24-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE: “Grit”: Demanding Superhuman from African Americans, Impoverished“Grit”: Demanding Superhuman from African Americans, Impoverished. via “Grit”: Demanding Superhuman from African Americans, Impoverished.1 by plthomasedd / 27min 3-23-14 @ The Chalk Face@ THE CHALK FACE: Of the thousands of slacktivists, we only have 1,756 signatures?I know what you’re going to say: petitions don’t

by mike simpson / 7h 

3-25-14 With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs All Week

With A Brooklyn Accent:

My Long and Convoluted Parth To Anti-Racist Scholarship and Activism

Speech at the University of MarylandDr Mark Naison The subject of my talk today is my own evolution as an anti-racist activist, which led from cautious participation in the Northern Civil Rights movement, to involvement in the Columbia Strike and NY and National SDS as a theoretician on race and Black nationalism, to the founder of an anti-racist and anti-war organizing group in the Bronx, to my b

by Mark Naison / 40min hide  //  save

What's Most Damaging in Schools Today:

In looking back at my own public school experience in Brooklyn in the 1950's, I get an interesting reading on what is going wrong in Education Policy today. It's not just the scripted curriculum. We had that then. There was a whole lot of memorization and rote learning in pubic school classrooms I was in. We also had a bunch of testing and drilling, most but not all of it created by our teachers.B

by Mark Naison / 5h 

3-23-14 With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs All Week

With A Brooklyn Accent: Is High Stakes Testing the Best Way to Improve Educational Performance Among Students of Color and Students Living in Poverty?     Since the passage of No Child Left Behind, there has been a concerted effort to reduce gaps in educational  performance  by race and class by promoting regular testing in all grades and subjects and rating schools and teachers on the basis those

by mike simpson / 10h 

3-25-13 Curmudgucation

CURMUDGUCATION:

Can Hillary Be Trusted?

The twitterverse erupted briefly yesterday when Hillary Clinton, appearing at the Globalization of Higher Education conference in Irving, Texas, dropped a few bricks of praise upon the head of co-host Jeb Bush. Specifically, she lauded him for his dedication to and passion for education and the reform thereof. Upon hearing those words, many Democratic fans of public education dropped their jaws up

3 by Peter A. Greene / 2h 

3-23-13 Curmudgucation

CURMUDGUCATION: Why CCSS Can't Be DecoupledDon't think of them as standards. Think of them as tags.Think of them as the pedagogical equivalent of people's names on facebook, the tags you attach to each and every photo that you upload.We know from our friends at Knewton what the Grand Design is-- a system in which student progress is mapped down to the atomic level. Atomic level (a term that Knewto

by mike simpson / 9h 

3-25-14 Perdido Street School Week

Perdido Street School:

Budget Update - NO Changes To APPR Teacher Evaluations

This afternoon I wondered if Shelly Silver had caved to Governor Cuomo on the charter school issues yet.I also wondered if there would be any changes to either the Common Core implementation or Cuom's APPR teacher evaluation system.  Daily Politics reports the following:Gov. Cuomo and state lawmakers are zeroing in on a deal that would set aside $300 million for a full-day prekindergarten in New Y

by reality-based edu... / 18min 

Has Silver Caved To Cuomo On Charter School Issue?

Trying reading these tea leaves:The top legislative leaders emerged from closed-door budget negotiations with Gov. Andrew Cuomo reporting progress and gave a clear public signal that whatever disagreements between Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate GOP Leader Dean Skelos arose had been patched up.  “Look how much I love Shelly,” Skelos said smiling while putting his arm around the longtime speaker.

by reality-based edu... / 22min 

The Old Paradigms For Education Cannot Work In This World

The editorials from the NY Post about de Blasio and Farina get more vicious and ridiculous by the day. Today's is about how ruthless competition among schools and putting extra stress on students is the key to success for children:In the course of admitting he didn’t have a good reason for taking a good school away from kids in Harlem, Mayor de Blasio said that to fix a “broken” city school system

by reality-based edu... / 2h  

3-24-14 Perdido Street School Week

Perdido Street School: Poll Shows Cuomo Would Be Vulnerable To Third Party CandidateNot 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

by mike simpson / 9h