6-13-14 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.:

A message to retiring teachers at the end of the school year.

Some members of our Skokie Organization of Retired Educators (SORE) IEA Retired making a call on our local state representative. This is the last day of school in Park Ridge, where I once taught. I retired two years ago. I want to send out a message to those teachers in Illinois who are leaving their buildings for the last time as full-time professionals and retiring. Welcome to the club. Literal

by Fred Klonsky / 49min hide  //  save

Ten minute drawing. Signs.

3 by Fred Klonsky / 1h 

 

6-12-14 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.: Karen Lewis. The California tenure decision. “The moguls are drinking champagne.”[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9Fb1lsn6i4&feature=youtu.be}4 by Fred Klonsky / 2h 6-11-14 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacherFred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teach

by mike simpson / 5h

6-13-14 With A Brooklyn Accent:: Love Letter to the BATS- On the First Anniversary of the Badass Teachers Association

With A Brooklyn Accent:

Love Letter to the BATS- On the First Anniversary of the Badass Teachers Association

  I have been enraged by what has been happening to teachers and public education  for at least 7 years. My involvement began in  2007 with school grading and school closings in the Bronx, which drove the history projects I was doing out of the public schools, and victimized many of the great teachers I had worked with. It built up steam when Barack Obama and Arne Duncan unleashed Race to the Top

by Mark Naison / 5h 

6-12-14 With A Brooklyn Accent:: Why Teachers Need Tenure and Due Process

With A Brooklyn Accent: Message from a Florida Teacher on the Discriminatory Impact of High Stakes Testing on Students in High Poverty CommunitiesBut there is something about teacher accountability that everyone seems to be missing. I worked at a school with an extremely transient population for two years. We had more than a 50% transiency rate in a highly impoverished neighborhood. For purposes o

by mike simpson / 1h 

6-13-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness by P. L. Thomas, EdD

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University):

South Carolina Officially Vamboozled

If anyone is wondering why the “bad” teacher crisis remains central to what political leaders want the public to hear, South Carolina offers a heaping dose of why: Political leaders are enormously incompetent and need us all to remain distracted from that fact. Case in point: SC has now been officially vamboozled, passing a new teacher evaluation system that includes the new sham word “growth” nea

11 by plthomasedd / 26min hide  //  save

Listen to Gary Rubenstein: “TFA…thrives on greed, deception, and fear”

Gary Rubenstein’s Advice to the 2014 TFA Corps Members is, I assume, intended for TFA recruits directly and about specifically TFA as a reform agenda. Thus, I do first recommend that those drawn to TFA should read carefully, and then heed Rubenstein’s words, notably this: But I am compelled to go further and note that Rubenstein’s central point is also applicable to the entire education reform ag

4 by plthomasedd / 1h 

6-12-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness by P. L. Thomas, EdD

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University): What We Tolerate (and for Whom) v. What the Rich Demand: On Teacher QualityTwo of the best teachers and education advocates I respect and listen to carefully, Nancy Flanagan and Susan Ohanian, had an important exchange on Twitter recently: “Vergara ruling rhetoric stern

by mike simpson / 1h 

Answer Sheet 6-13-14

Answer Sheet:

It’s Friday the 13th. Keep your paraskevidekatriaphobia in check.

If you suffer from friggatriskaidekaphobia, otherwise known as  paraskevidekatriaphobia, today isn’t a great day for you.  It’s Friday the 13th, and the phobia is all about a blinding fear of this day — however irrational it may seem. (But you can take heart; it’s the last Friday on the 13th day of any month in 2014, although 2015, […]

by Valerie Strauss / 4min 

Mother of 7 in jail because her kids skipped school dies in cell

A 55-year-old Pennsylvania mother of seven, sentenced to serve two days in jail because her children were absent too much from school and she couldn’t pay some $2,000 in truancy fines, was found dead in her cell. The Associated Press reported that District Judge Dean R. Patton, who sent her to prison reluctantly, blamed a judicial […]

by Valerie Strauss / 2min hide  //  save

One thing we can learn from Shanghai: How to develop teachers

Shanghai has been No. 1 on the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, two straight times — in 2009 and 2012 — though it is now considering pulling out of the exercise in part, officials say, because they don’t want to place so much emphasis on standardized tests. That sounds refreshing. And here’s another lesson […]

by Valerie Strauss / 2min 

Answer Sheet 6-12-14

Answer Sheet: Real learning doesn’t ‘look like 6-year-olds slumped in chairs … staring at iPads’ — parent tells school boardMassachusetts parent Tassia Thomas gave the following testimony to the Cambridge School Committee — a panel of seven members that sets policy and oversees Cambridge Public Schools – earlier this month. It appeared in Cambridge Day, which said it had lightly edited her comment

by mike simpson / 4h 

6-13-14 Wait What? - Jonathan Pelto: Gubernatorial Candidate and A Really Nice Guy #Malloyrespond

Wait What?:

Wait What? #Malloyrespond 

“I don’t need to respond to what Jonathan says,” Malloy told reporters.

Governor Dannel “Dan” Malloy is absolutely correct.  He doesn’t need to respond to what I say. In fact, as is his style, Malloy doesn’t need to respond to what anyone says…at least not until the voters have had their say in November. But that said, when it comes Malloy’s anti-teacher, anti-public education, pro-corporate education reform […] The post “I don’t need to respond to what Jonathan says,

by jonpelto / 16min 

6-12-14 Wait What? - Jonathan Pelto: Gubernatorial Candidate and A Really Nice Guy

Wait What?: Wait What? Pelto To Run For GovernorPress Release:  6/12/2014 Pelto To Run For Governor - Will Covert from Exploratory Committee to Candidate Committee for Governor Former state legislator Jonathan Pelto is announcing that he will be a candidate for Governor this year and that he and his Lt. Governor candidate, Ebony Murphy, will be converting their exploratory committee into a candida

by mike simpson / 1h 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 6-13-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

97% of Pittsburgh Teachers Get High Ratings

Billions of dollars have been spent to create new teacher evaluation systems. Here is one result: in Pittsburgh, 97% of teachers were rated either distinguished or advanced. Meanwhile budget cuts are harming children in Pennsylvania. For Immediate Release June 13, 2014 Contact: Marcus Mrowka 202/531-0689 mmrowka@aft.org http://www.aft.org Pittsburgh Teacher Evaluation Results Demonstrate Importan

1 by dianeravitch / 4min 

Stephanie Simon: Are Teacher Unions Doomed?

In an article at politico.com, Stephanie Simon presents a gloomy portrait of the future of teacher unions. At the outset, she acknowledges that the unions have been the target of “a multimillion-dollar public relations campaign portraying them as greedy and selfish.” This campaign is funded by billionaires, millionaires, ALEC, powerful corporations (Koch brothers?), rightwing think tanks, and we

4 by dianeravitch / 24min 

John Merrow on Vergara: The California Laws Are Indefensible

John Merrow says that the laws struck down by the Vergara decision are indefensible.   Teachers get tenure after 18 months, but in most states it takes three or four years.   Seniority, he says, discourages young teachers, who are first fired.   The process of removing an ineffective teacher is far too complex, requiring some 70 steps.   My view: The legislature should promptly remedy these defect

by dianeravitch / 9min 

Professional Staff Congress at CUNY Opposes edTPA

This morning I posted a statement by a group of professors at City University of New York in support of the edPTA, which assesses the performance of those who seek certification to enter teaching.   Let me make clear that I am not supporting or endorsing either side of this debate but am watching carefully, as I tend to be suspicious of all high-stakes testing.   Soon after the post appeared this

by dianeravitch / 1min 

Bridgeport: Where Is the Money for Néw Charters?

Bridgeport officials are worried. The state board of education approved the expansion of two charters and the addition of a new one. Local officials want to know where the money will come from and how the budget for the other 90% of the city’s children will be affected.

by dianeravitch / 0min 

Teacher Educators at CUNY: Why We Support edTPA

In Support of a Performance Assessment of Teaching June, 2014 Beverly Falk, Professor and Director, Graduate Program in Early Childhood Education, The ​City College of New York Jeanne Angus, Assistant Professor and Program Director, Graduate Program in Special Education, Brooklyn College Greg Borman, Lecturer, Secondary Science Education, The City College of New York Nancy Cardwell, Assistant Prof

by dianeravitch / 0min 

The Statistical Error at the Heart of the Vergara Decision

Jordan Weissman, a business correspondent for Slate, read the Vergara decision and noted that the judge’s conclusion hinged on a strange allegation. The judge quoted David Berliner as saying that 1-3% of the teachers in the state were “grossly ineffective.” The judge then calculated that this translated into thousands of teachers, between 2,750 and 8,750, who are “grossly ineffective.” Weissman ca

5 by dianeravitch / 9min 

Virginia Court Declares State Takeovers Unconstitutional

A Circuit Court judge in Virginia declared unconstitutional a law that created a state takeover board for low-performing schools. Wonder if this was ALEC legislation? According to a release from the National School,Boards Association: “A Circuit Court judge has struck down a state school takeover board that would have stripped local school boards of their authority over low-performing schools, r

18 by dianeravitch / 49min hide  //  save

Randi Blasts Duncan for Betraying Teachers in Vergara Case

Randi Weingarten wrote a letter to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, criticizing his sympathetic response to the Vergara decision, which held that tenure and seniority were unconstitutional in California. She wrote: “This week, we needed your leadership; to demonstrate that teacher and student interests are aligned; that we must press—60 years after Brown v. Board—for educational equity; that

21 by dianeravitch / 1h 

FBI Raids 19 Gulen Charter Schools in Midwest

The FBI and two other agencies conducted raids with search warrants at 19 Concept charter schools in Illinois and two other states. “The FBI and two other federal agencies conducted raids in Illinois and two other states at charter schools run by Des Plaines-based Concept Schools, FBI officials said Tuesday. “Search warrants were executed at 19 Concept schools in connection with an “ongoing white

93 by dianeravitch / 2h  

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 6-12-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Kevin Welner: The Silver Lining in the Vergara DecisionKevin Welner, director of the National Educational Policy Center in Colorado, is both an education policy analyst and a lawyer. He read the Vergara decision and saw a bright side. While he was struck by the weak evidence for the judge’s conclusion, he thinks the case might open

by mike simpson / 1h 

6-13-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE:

Why Tenure is Essential

I usually find it easier to communicate with conservative reformers like Mike Petrilli or Rick Hess. Unlike their liberal counterparts, they don’t have to contort themselves into crusaders for equity and justice. They don’t have to pretend that attacks on teachers and other workers is some sort of civil rights crusade. These defenders of Scott […]

by John Thompson / 10min 

South Carolina Officially Vamboozled

South Carolina Officially Vamboozled. via South Carolina Officially Vamboozled.

by plthomasedd / 6min hide  //  save

A few thoughts on #Vergara and Inequality

Why don’t the billionaires encourage parents to sue because of large class size creating inequality?   Why don’t the billionaires encourage parents to sue because of a lack of school nurses & counselors creating inequality?   Why don’t the billionaires encourage parents to sue because of a lack of music & art creating inequality?   Why don’t the […]

7 by Chris Cerrone / 1h 

A few thoughts on inequality and #Veraga

Why don’t the billionaires encourage parents to sue because of large class size creating inequality? Why don’t the billionaires encourage parents to sue because of a lack of school nurses & counselors creating inequality? Why don’t the billionaires encourage parents to sue because of a lack of music & art creating inequality? Why don’t the billionaires encourage parents […]

4 by Chris Cerrone / 1h 

6-12-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE: POST VERGARA FALL OUT: Nothing says it any better than this from Brian Jones:POST VERGARA FALL OUT: Nothing says it any better than this from Brian Jones:.by David Greene / 4min Fighting Vergara in California and ElsewhereAs a former legal historian and inner city teacher, I’m offended by Judge Rolf Treu’s one sentence legal justification of the key issue in Vergara v California.

by mike simpson / 1h