4-21-14 LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Laura Chapman on the Gold Rush at A$U in $cottsdale

Reader Laura Chapman has done some research on the education entrepreneurs  now meeting in Scottsdale to learn more about how to profit from the public education industry. Note that tickets for the event ranged from $1,000-2,000. In addition, there were many sponsors. Whatever comes from this conference, it is a gold mine for its organizers:   I was also doing research on this. My direct quotes co

6 by dianeravitch / 48min 

inBloom Closes Down Due to Parental Objections to Data Mining of Students

Education Week reports that inBloom is going out of business. The company was started with a grant of $100 million from the Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation, to gather confidential student data and store it on an electronic “cloud.” The technology for collection and storage of student data belonged to Wireless Generation, a subsidiary of Amplify, run by Joel Klein and owned by Rupert

by dianeravitch / 3min 

The Netherlands: Not a Model for Chile or for the U.S.

A reader from the Netherlands noticed  the recent post by Mario Waissbluth in Chile. Waissbuth said that Chileans were looking to the Netherlands as a possible model as Chile tries to extricate itself from decades of privatization. The privatization was launched by the dictator Pinochet, whose advisors admired the libertarian ideas of Milton Friedman.   Our reader from the Netherlands commented:  

1 by dianeravitch / 31min 

Education’s Gold Rush Is On!

Starting today, the nation’s leading entrepreneurs will gather for their annual conference at the Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, to exchange ideas about the ongoing monetization, privatization, innovation, and profits in the education “industry.” This summit was originally organized by Michael Moe, who has for years predicted that the education sector could be monetized. He was right. H

by dianeravitch / 5min 

Colorado: RAVE, A New Organization Unites to Strengthen Public Education

If you live in Colorado and care about the future of our society, join this group of students, educators, and citizens, meeting on May 1. Join the fight to reclaim our schools for learning and resist the corporate takeover. RAVE: Re-igniting Association Values for Educators BY PEGGY ROBERTSON Welcome to RAVE. The RAVE caucus in Colorado has been created in a determined effort to unify Colorado t

1 by dianeravitch / 12min 

New York: Why is Governor Cuomo Stripping Rural Schools of Basic Resources?

An editorial in the Glens Falls (NY) Post-Journal deplores Governor Andrew Cuomo’s disastrous policies, which are stripping rural public schools of resources and driving them into economic calamity.   Governor Cuomo is not just balancing the state budget on the backs of poor school children, the editorial says, he is literally standing on their backs in his reach for the presidency.   So eager is

1 by dianeravitch / 17min 

Alan Singer: The Dishonorable Governor Cuomo and the Charter School Zombies

Alan Singer gets credit for one of the most creative headlines of the year. He calls his article “The Dishonorable Andrew Cuomo Meets the Hedge Fund / Charter School Zombies.” Governor Cuomo has indeed dishonored his office by selling out the public schools, which enroll the vast majority of children in New York State, and paying court to his campaign contributors who love charter schools, which e

1 by dianeravitch / 31min hide  //  save

How New York State Discourages Immigrant Children by Inappropriate Tests and Labels

A teacher wrote this comment in response to a post asking why English language learners, who barely know any English, are required to take the state English test.     I agree, it is painful to watch our English Language Learners struggle with these ridiculous tests, tests which label students 1,2,3,or 4. I have worked with refugees, many of whom arrive with little or no formal education, for over

1 by dianeravitch / 1h 

Another Charter Teacher Tells Her Story: “Tame the Savages”

In response to “Confessions of a Teacher in a ‘No Excuses” Charter School,” this comment was posted:   Thank you for writing about your experience. I taught at a “no excuses” charter school in Brooklyn for a year. It was the most frustrating and disturbing experience of my life. The ridiculously punitive disciplinary system enforced by a teaching staff of young white recent college graduates felt

13 by dianeravitch / 2h 

Julie Vassilatos: Something in Me Snapped Today…And…

Julie Vassilatos, a Chicago parent, blogs about school issues.   In one of her latest posts, she realized she could  no longer use the term “education reform” because it was a complete phony and misrepresentation of reality.   She writes:   Something in me snapped today and I realized that I am finished using the phrase “education reform.”   That’s how folks refer to the constellation of ideas fir

17 by dianeravitch / 3h

4-20-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Advice from a Charter Teacher in Ohio: Regulate Us!This teacher read the post about Gulen charter schools and wrote the following comment:   This is so eerily similar to my job-it is a shame that there is poor oversight in these types of schools. I work in a Ohio-based charter school. I’m under great stress due to this under perfor

by mike simpson / 8h 

4-21-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum:

Big Ed News Roundup

Stories that have come across my computer over the last few weeks on a variety of issues.Arne Duncan - the things that Arne says.So first it was those "white suburban moms" thinking their children and their schools were really something.  He said opposition to Common Core came from "fringe" groups.  The Daily News says those against CC are "drunk with right-wing hysteria.&

by Melissa Westbrook / 7min 

Death and Adultery; More Common Core Homework

Honestly, these things come across my radar on a near-daily basis as schools and districts go the Common Core way.  This from Breitbart(emphasis mine):Breitbart Texas also covered this type of assignment in the article Orwellian Newspeak Coming to Common Core Classrooms Everywhere. It's a reading and response writing genre popping up in classrooms labeled contemporary realistic fiction.  It is a C

by Melissa Westbrook / 1h 

Gates Foundation Shuts Down inBloom

After New York state, as the last state standing in partnership with inBloom, left last month, the Gates Foundation announced today they were shutting down inBloom.This - is - HUGE.  “I have made the decision to wind down the organization over the coming months,” CEO Iwan Streichenberger said in a letter on the company’s website. “It wasn’t an easy decision, and the unavailability of this technolo

by Melissa Westbrook / 36min 

Seattle Schools News Roundup

From SPS:Seattle Public Schools seeks members for School Family Partnerships Task force Seattle Public Schools is starting the process of revising the current School Family Partnerships District Plan. An important part of the review is to engage with our families, staff and community members and gather as much feedback as possible to help revise our school family partnerships efforts over the next

by Melissa Westbrook / 10h 

4-20-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Schools This WeekTuesday, April 22nd"Open Mic Night" on Special Education, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Rainier Beach High School, 8815 Seward Park S. Families of Seattle Public Schools are invited to join experts from Louisiana State University and the TIERS Group (Teams Intervening Early to Reach all Students) during two Open Microphone Nights to give

by mike simpson / 14h 

4-21-14 The Answer Sheet What teachers really want

The Answer Sheet:

$100 million Gates-funded student data project ends in failure

A controversial $100 million student data collection project funded by the Gates Foundation and operated by a specially created nonprofit organization called inBloom is shutting down after failing to achieve its goals. After most of the original state partners with inBloom withdrew their support, the final straw was the recent decision by the New York […]

1 by Valerie Strauss / 42min 

How Bill Gates and fellow billionaires can actually help public education

  Here’s a novel idea for how Bill Gates and his fellow billionaires can use their mountains of money to actually help public education instead of continuing to waste the cash on ineffective and damaging school reforms.  If there is one thing that we know for sure about student achievement in U.S. schools, it’s that […]

by Valerie Strauss / 10min 

Actually, online skimming probably hasn’t affected serious reading after all

A popular Washington Post article by my colleague Michael S. Rosenwald said that researchers were finding that the habit of scanning and skinning material online was changing the human brain and hindering people’s” ability to read long, complex and dense material. Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham, a professor at the University of Virginia, is highly skeptical. […]

by Valerie Strauss / 10min 

What teachers really want

One of the striking things about modern school reform is that the people who you would think would be a big part of the discussion — teachers — have largely been ignored. So what do teachers want? Francie Alexander, chief academic officer for Scholastic Inc., writes about a nationally representative poll of teachers that answers […]

27 by Valerie Strauss / 6h

4-20-14 The Answer Sheet

The Answer Sheet: A defense of public education against ‘the wolves of Wall Street’Sara Stevenson is the librarian at O. Henry Middle School in Austin, Texas, who is sick and tired of assaults on the very notion of public education. Here are her reflections on the value of public education and what is being done to it in the name of  ”‘reform.”   By Sara Stevenson As a lifelong […]by Valerie Strau

by mike simpson / 8h 

Community Schools: The Basic and Radical Way to Address Child Poverty | janresseger

Community Schools: The Basic and Radical Way to Address Child Poverty | janresseger:

Community Schools: The Basic and Radical Way to Address Child Poverty

Posted on April 21, 2014 by janresseger

Trip Gabriel’s story in this morning’s NY Times, 50 Years Into the War on Poverty, Hardship Hits Back, describes tiny towns left behind by years of jobs lost in the coal mines, the ravages of meth addition, and families bereft of opportunity in McDowell County— West Virginia’s poorest county.  Education has long been one of the sole paths for escape from the towns and villages of Appalachia, but the fact that those who can make it do leave has only compounded rural isolation and poverty.

Toward the end of Gabriel’s article, however, we learn about a Community School effort being developed to coordinate social services and family supports with the public schools: “Reconnecting McDowell, led by the American Federation of Teachers…  is working to turn schools into community centers offering health care, adult literacy classes and other services.  Its leaders hope to convert an abandoned furniture store in Welch to apartments in order to attract teachers. ‘Someone from Indiana or Pennsylvania, they’re not going to come to McDowell County and live in a house trailer on top of a mountain,’ said Bob Brown, a union official.”

On May 18, 2013, Reconnecting McDowell was approved by the state board of education of West Virginia.  In West Virginia, according to a press release from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) the Community Schools plan became possible in 2012 after the state legislature established “collective innovation zones.”  Commenting on the formation of ReconnectingMcDowell, AFT President Randi Weingarten declared, “The evidence is clear that Community Schools greatly improve disadvantaged children’s chances of success because the services and programs help overcome the ravages of poverty that affect academic achievement.”

In McDowell County, the Community School collaboration will include the West Virginia Healthy Kids and Families Coalition to visit homes of new parents, IBM to increase the number of computers at school, Shentel Communications to reduce internet rates for families with children at school, and several job expansion efforts including a National Guard materials-repair program and a retraining effort of the United Mine Workers.  A Community Schools “vision” reflects the reality that parents’ employment helps children thrive.

According to the National Center for Community Schools, a division of New York City’s Community Schools: The Basic and Radical Way to Address Child Poverty | janresseger:

4-21-14 Wait What?

Wait What?:

Weekend Posts on Gubernatorial Campaign 2014

On Governor Malloy:  Malloy political operation sidesteps Connecticut law limiting contributions from lobbyists. Limiting the financial influence of lobbyists was one of the most important elements of Connecticut’s post-Rowland campaign finance reforms. In its final form, Connecticut law states that, “…lobbyists and their immediate families may make qualifying contributions of up to $100 like any

3 by jonpelto / 56min hide  //  save

Connecticut “schools of choice” are a vehicle for discrimination

Fellow commentator and public school Advocate Wendy Lecker’s latest column in the Stamford Advocate examines CT Voices for Children’s new research report which is entitled, ”Choice Watch: Diversity and Access in Connecticut’s School Choice Programs.”  The study found that charter schools and other “choice schools” systematically prevent equal access to some of the state’s neediest students. […] Th

11 by jonpelto / 2h  

4-20-14 Wait What?

Wait What?: Happy Easter…And a belated happy Passover, Holi, Paryusan, Ostara and other spring holidays to all my readers. Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love! – Chief Sitting Bull May the longer days and brighter light bring […] The post Happy Easter… appeared first on Wait What?.by jonpelto

by mike simpson / 7h 

4-21-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

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

‘Differentiation Is More Than A Set Of Strategies’

‘Differentiation Is More Than A Set Of Strategies’ is Part Two of my Education Week series on differentiated instruction. Today’s post features a response from Kimberly Kappler Hewitt and a number of suggestions from readers. Here’s an excerpt:

by Larry Ferlazzo / 27min 

Video: “Here’s How To Greet People Around The World”

I’m adding this video from Business Insider to The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures:

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h

4-20-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: Three Good New Resources On Wealth & Income InequalityHere are some new additions to The Best Resources About Wealth & Income Inequality: Get Rich, Live Longer: The Ultimate Consequence of Income Inequality is from The Atlantic. The short guide to Capital in the 21st Century is from Vox. Economist Receives Rock Star

by mike simpson / 8h