5-25-14 NPE News Briefs ← from The Network for Public Education

NPE News Briefs ← from The Network for Public Education:

NPE News Briefs

from The Network for Public Education

Hey, Buddy: Can You Spare $2.5 Billion? | Jersey Jazzman

Now that Chris Christie’s utterly fraudulent budgeting has been laid bare, we’re left with a problem: how will New Jersey make up for its two decade-old pension holiday? It’s nice to talk about bi-partisan commissions and proclaim that “everyone must make sacrifices,” but that’s really just a way for pundits to avoid giving a straight ...read more

by admin / 1h 

What school reformers can learn from poker | The Answer Sheet

School reformers have made student outcomes the big focus of their efforts, targeting teachers for failure to improve student achievement. But teachers say they ignore the inputs — the issues students bring into a classroom and the training/resources of  teachers. Here’s a look about the problem with outcome-based assessment, by Ben Spielberg,  a Teach For ...read more

by admin / 1h 

Governor Corbett Blames Union for Child’s Death | Diane Ravitch’s blog

When people write Pennsyvania Governor Tom Corbett to complain about the devastating effects of his budget cuts on the children of Philadelphia, he responds by blaming the teachers’ union for not accepting even deeper cuts. A few days ago, a first-grader died; there was no school nurse on duty. Her position had been cut from ...read more

by admin / 1h 

Teacher Education Leaders Speak Out: Kevin Kumashiro on Teacher Preparation, edTPA and Reform | Living in Dialogue

Teacher preparation has emerged as a target of those seeking to disrupt and transform the education system in our nation. In the past I have written about the National Council on Teacher Quality’s project to rate schools of education. I also carried a guest post focused on Pearson’s EdTPA, the controversial test now being required ...read more

by admin / 1h 

Has Arne Heard About NAEP? | Diane Ravitch’s blog

Someone sent me this clip from Tennessee, where Arne Duncan was trying to salvage the federally-funded online Common Core test called PARCC. “DUNCAN: TENNESSEE CAN STILL SALVAGE TESTS: At Brick Church College Prep in Nashville, Tenn., Education Secretary Arne Duncan showered the state with praise for becoming the fastest improving state in the country. But ...read more

by admin / 1h hide  //  save

CAP Serves Some CCSS Baloney | CURMUDGUCATION

The Center for American Progress came down hard for the Common Core last week, providing yet another field test for the 100% baloney sandwich that is the Core’s urban poor talking point menu. In “The Common Core Is An Opportunity for Educational Equity,”, CAP asserts, “The Common Core State Standards hold promise for low-income students, ...read more

by admin / 1h 

Misreading the Never-Ending Drop-Out “Crisis” | the becoming radical

Prompted by Peter Greene’s Why Students Drop Out, further evidence that evidence doesn’t matter for the Obama administration of Secretary Duncan, I post below an entry for the Daily Kos from 4 February 2012. The political and public concern about high school graduation rates must be placed in two contexts: the historical reality of drop-out ...read more

by admin / 1h 

Laurel Sturt: Who Are the Biggest Bullies in Education? | Diane Ravitch’s blog

Laurel Sturt says that old-fashioned schoolyard bullying has evolved into Internet malice, protected by anonymity. She says bullying has become a national pastime for some political leaders. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has cultivated a reputation as a bully, jabbing his finger at lesser mortals. And then bullying is built into education policy–federal, state, and ...read more

by admin / 1h 

5-24-14 NPE News Briefs ← from The Network for Public Education

NPE News Briefs ← from The Network for Public Education:NPE News Briefsfrom The Network for Public EducationFirestorm erupts over teacher’s angry e-mail to legislators about low pay | The Answer SheetBY VALERIE STRAUSS May 23 at 2:28 pm An angry e-mail written by a teacher to North Carolina legislators with a subject line that said, “I am embarrassed to confess: I am a teacher,”  might have been s

by mike simpson / 20min 

Stephen Krashen Blog 5-25-14: The problem is not a lack of technology. The problem is poverty.

SKrashen: The problem is not a lack of technology. The problem is poverty.:

The problem is not a lack of technology. The problem is poverty.

Comment on "Education Needs to Change as Fast as Technology," by Zack Sims. Posted at

http://www.forbes.com/sites/techonomy/2014/05/23/education-needs-to-change-as-fast-as-technology/

Mr. Sims hasn't done his homework. He points out that the "US is ranked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S. is 31st in math achievement, 24th in science, and 21st in reading." But a number of studies have shown that when we control for the effect of poverty, our students rank near the top of the world.

Mr. Sims also has a great deal of faith in flipped classrooms. But there is no research supporting this faith.  This technology is being pushed on classrooms without proper research.

The problem is not a lack of technology. The problem is poverty. The US child poverty rate is 

Stephen Krashen Blog 5-24-14

SKrashen:Free Advertising for DuolingoSent to the Japan Times, May 23, 2014Contrary to the impression given by The Japan Times's free commercial for Duolingo ("Duolingo chief shakes up language learning," May 23), there is no clear evidence that Duolinguo is effective in teaching foreign languages. The only research study done assessing the impact of Duolingo, which was funded by Duoling

by mike simpson / 26min 

5-25-14 Jersey Jazzman - Hey, Buddy: Can You Spare $2.5 Billion?

Jersey Jazzman:

Hey, Buddy: Can You Spare $2.5 Billion?

Now that Chris Christie's utterly fraudulent budgeting has been laid bare, we're left with a problem: how will New Jersey make up for its two decade-old pension holiday?It's nice to talk about bi-partisan commissions and proclaim that "everyone must make sacrifices," but that's really just a way for pundits to avoid giving a straight answer. So let's, for once, not waste a lot of time ta

by Duke / 17min 

5-24-14 Jersey Jazzman NJ Ed News Round-up Jammin' All Week

Jersey Jazzman:Jersey Jazzman Jammin' All Week"One Newark": A Market For "Lemons"I've got a new brief over at the NJ Education Policy Forum out today about One Newark. As usual, I present my geekspeak-free (mostly) version of this brief here.Here's the background: Cami Anderson, the state-appointed superintendent of Newark, has put out a plan to restructure the district's schoo

by mike simpson / 14min 

5-25-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

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

Even More Memorial Day Resources

Here are more new additions to The Best Websites For Learning About Memorial Day: The First Memorial Day is by Ta-Nehisi Coates at The Atlantic. Memorial Day: 7 Historical Facts About the Holiday is from Live Science. American Memorial Day is by Wendi Pillars. 220,000 American flags posted at Arlington National Cemetery for Memorial Day is a video and article from a Virginia TV station.

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h 

How I Incorporate Reflection Into Semester Summative Assessments

I’ve previously posted a number of the semester final summative activities I’ll be having my students be doing during these final two-and-a-half weeks of school (you can see several of the different writing prompts that will be part of them if you scroll to the bottom of My Best Posts On Writing Instruction). In addition to those writing assignments, I always incorporate a number of reflective ac

by Larry Ferlazzo / 31min 

Just Sent-Out Free Monthly Email Newsletter

I’ve just mailed out the June issue of my simple free monthly email newsletter. It has over 2,000 subscribers, and you can subscribe here.

by Larry Ferlazzo / 24min hide  //  save

May’s Best Posts From This Blog

I regularly highlight my picks for the most useful posts for each month — not including “The Best…” lists. I also use some of them in a more extensive monthly newsletter I send-out. You can see older Best Posts of the Month at Websites Of The Month (more recent lists can be found here). Here are some of the posts I personally think are the best, and most helpful, ones I’ve written during this pas

by Larry Ferlazzo / 24min 

May’s “The Best” Lists — There Are Now Exactly 1,300 Of Them!

Here’s my monthly round-up of new “The Best…” lists I posted this month (you can see all 1,300 of them categorized here): The Best Resources Discussing The Importance Of Art In Education — Help Me Find More The Best Commentaries On The 60th Anniversary Of Brown vs. Board Of Education The Best Commencement Speeches The Best Resources On The Kidnapped School Girls In Nigeria – Help Me Find More The

by Larry Ferlazzo / 48min 

Dr. Walter Mischel, Creator Of Famous Marshmallow Test, Is Writing A Book

Dr. Walter Mischel, creator of the famous marshmallow test used by many of us in classroom lessons, is writing a book that will be published in September. It’s titled The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control. I’ve written many posts over the years about his work and how I apply it in the classroom. The first one was titled “I Like This Lesson Because It Make Me Have a Longer Temper” and you c

by Larry Ferlazzo / 32min 

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Week… 5-24-14 …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EF

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFLLARRY FERLAZZO’S WEBSITES OF THE DAYMay’s Best Tweets – Part FourEvery month I make a few short lists highlighting my choices of the best resources I through (and learned from) Twitter, but didn’t necessarily include them in posts here on my blog. I’ve already shared in earlier posts several new resources I found on Twitter —

by mike simpson / 59min 

The Answer Sheet 5-25-14

Answer Sheet:

What school reformers can learn from poker

School reformers have made student outcomes the big focus of their efforts, targeting teachers for failure to improve student achievement. But teachers say they ignore the inputs — the issues students bring into a classroom and the training/resources of  teachers. Here’s a look about the problem with outcome-based assessment, by Ben Spielberg,  a Teach For […]

by Valerie Strauss / 5min 

All Week @ The Answer Sheet 5-24-14

The Answer Sheet:All Week @ The Answer Sheet‘Let’s stop measuring fish by how well they climb trees’Joshua Katz is a high school math teacher in Orange County, Florida. He gave the following speech about what he calls “the toxic culture of education” today in a TEDx talk this month at the University of Akron. TEDx Talks is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to sha

by mike simpson / 32min 

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit 5-25-14

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit:

From the far side of the pond: EDUCATION’S CULTURE OF OVERWORK IS TURNING CHILDREN AND TEACHERS INTO GHOSTS

If schools slowed down and focused on a deeper kind of flourishing, they might be more productive (if not very Goveian)   by Melissa Benn, The Guardian, http://bit.ly/1lLwrtM ●●smf’s translation: GOVEIAN: of or pertaining to the Rt. Hon. Michael Gove, British Conservative Party politician, the Secretary of State for Education and the Member of Parliament for Surrey Heath.  Gove’s is

by smf / 24min 

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit 5-24-14

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit:4LAKIDS - SOME OF THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT  “WE TRUST THAT THE BOARD OF EDUCATION INTENDS TO EXECUTE ITS DUTIES IN A TRANSPARENT AND EQUITABLE MANNER”: Letter of reappointment of Stuart Magruder to the Bond Oversight Committeefrom the AIA/LA “ When the passage of Proposition 39 in 2000 led to the provision of the Education Code that required that the Bo

by mike simpson / 54min 

Teacher Education Leaders Speak Out: Kevin Kumashiro on Teacher Preparation, edTPA and Reform - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Teacher Education Leaders Speak Out: Kevin Kumashiro on Teacher Preparation, edTPA and Reform - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Teacher Education Leaders Speak Out: Kevin Kumashiro on Teacher Preparation, edTPA and Reform

By Anthony Cody on May 25, 2014 9:43 AM

Teacher preparation has emerged as a target of those seeking to disrupt and transform the education system in our nation. In the past I have written about the National Council on Teacher Quality's project to rate schools of education. I also carried a guest post focused on Pearson's EdTPA, the controversial test now being required by teaching credential programs. This week, I am sharing interviews with several leaders of schools of education around the country, who have thoughts about these issues and more. First up is Kevin Kumashiro, Dean of the University of San Francisco's School of Education.

1. Can you tell me a bit about how your school approaches teacher education?

I am the dean of the School of Education at the University of San Francisco.  Our School just launched a five-year strategic plan with an ambitious vision: to act collectively and leverage our resources in ways that are driven by our Jesuit mission and responsive to our constituents' needs in order to have measurable impact in schools and communities, particularly for those most affected by injustice.  Our largest program is pre-service teacher preparation, and this summer we launch a continuing-education program for teachers, both of which are developed in partnership with local districts, schools, teachers unions, and community organizations to ensure that we are preparing educators to be effective, ethical, and engaged.

 2. How does this relate to how you expect the teachers your program graduates to engage in the work of teaching?

We aim to graduate teachers who strike many balances: they are skilled at developing and teaching rich curriculum, even while acknowledging that the gaps in their curriculum and the hidden, unintended lessons can sometimes be the most powerful teachers; they are steeped in the cutting-edge of research and theory on teaching and learning, even as they acknowledge the Teacher Education Leaders Speak Out: Kevin Kumashiro on Teacher Preparation, edTPA and Reform - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

5-25-14 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.:

Ten minute drawing. Mark Zuckerberg went on Oprah.

by Fred Klonsky / 6min 

Sunday reads.

The Spanish Civil War, 1936. Grit. The new Common Core standard. 29 seconds on pensions and the Koch bros. Tax cheaters Hall of Fame. The hypocrisy of the Illinois Policy Institute. Selective promise keeping.  Dear Parents and Friends of PISD, Next week, you will be receiving your child’s STAAR/TAKS results for the 2013-2014 school year. I’m writing this letter on behalf of PISD administrators, t

3 by Fred Klonsky / 55min 

5-24-14 Fred All Week 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.: Fred All Week Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacherBob Peterson. A teacher union movement is rising.- Bob Peterson is President of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association. A revitalized teacher union movement is bubbling up in the midst of relentless attacks on public school

by mike simpson / 45min