8-2-14 Schools Matter All Week

Schools Matter: 

 Schools Matter All Week

Temple Goes SAT-ACT Optional

From http://articles.philly.com/2014-07-30/news/52192626_1_temple-university-minority-students-standardized-test-scores:In an effort to cultivate talented students who don't test well, Temple University says it will become the first national public research university in the Northeast to make standardized test scores optional for admission.The university expects as many as 150 to 200 students who

1 by Jim Horn / 3min 

Eric Turner's Corporate School Handouts

by Doug MartinNursing home crusader and Cicero, Indiana’s Republican Eric Turner loves the corporate school crowd in Indiana.  Here are a few of his funders. LILLY To add to the $1000 it gave him in 2013 (page 9), the $1000 (page 13) in 2011, the $500 in 2010 (page 6), and the $1,000 in 2009 (page 8), recently the corporate school pushers at Eli Lilly handed Turner $1,000. WALMART/DEVOS Then, on

by Doug Martin / 1h 

Weird Al, My Hero

He's back to help us understand the missions of CorpEd, CorpMed, CorpRead, CorpFed, CorpTED, and even CorpDead.  More at Alternet.

2 by Jim Horn / 14min 

School Board Says No to Lily-White Charter

Fayette County, Georgia is over 70 percent white and its median household income is almost twice the state average.  But that is still not white enough or rich enough to suit some Fayette Countians who want their home-schooled or privately-educated children now supported with state funds intended children who choose public education.  The only vote for the segregated charter came from Tea Party fa

by Jim Horn / 47min 

YESTERDAY

Hey, Obama Has Faith in Patriotic U. S. Torturers

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-obama-torture-20140801-story.html

by Jim Horn / 13h 

Ritz's Attacker and the School Privatizers

CECI front-woman Claire Fiddian-Green’s latest assault against Indiana supt. of public ed. Glenda Ritz was her response to the Associated Press recently concerning the “memo” CECI sent to Arne Duncan’s office.  In the “memo,” CECI members criticize the IDOE’s “grammatical errors” and accuse IDOE of making policy changes without the state board of education’s approval while seeking the NCLB waiver

100+ by Doug Martin / 15h 

Robert D. Skeels and Doug Martin on War Report on Public Ed Sunday

by Doug Martin I will be joining fellow Schools Matter blogger Robert D. Skeels and BATS member Dr. James Avington Miller Jr. this Sunday, August 3, on the War Report on Public Education.  Robert will be speaking about the upcoming LAUSD school board election (he ran against a billionaire-funded candidate for a board seat in 2013) on the first segment of the radio show, starting at 2 pm Pacific Ca

35 by Doug Martin / 20h 

"above the snake line"

From NetRoots Nation July 19, Rev. William Barber, the voice of human rights in education: from Alternet:Then Rev. William Barber III, leader of the Forward Together movement in North Carolina, electrified the crowd with an address that included support for public education in a moral vision for America. Six panels on education topics – ranging from curriculum standards, to student suspensions, to

2 by Jim Horn / 1d 

JUL 31

Member of FBI-Raided School Funds Todd Rokita AFTER the Raid

by Doug Martin I mention Todd Rokita, the Indiana US congressman from the 4th district, in my book Hoosier School Heistbecause of his role with the Muslim Gulen charter schools recently raided by the FBI (see more on this at the end of this article). Since Rokita is up for election this year, I decided to peek into his campaign funding ("peek" because I merely touch the surface with what

100+ by Doug Martin / 1d 

JUL 29

Holy Moses Batman! Arne Met with the Badass Teachers!

The BATS Swoop Down on Department of EducationFrom With a Brooklyn AccentThe party's over but looks like the Badass Teachers, a group of people who have devoted their lives to educating children, had a meeting with Arne Duncan. The party at the DoE was  a lot of fun and nice to see new faces. The music was particularly good and the speakers, weather and entertainment was just what teachers needed

12 by freetoteach / 3d 

Evan Bayh Loves Christel DeHaan and Hedge Funders: CORPORATE SCHOOL ALERT

by Doug Martin With so many people saying Evan Bayh must come back to Indiana to "save" public education as governor, it is time to set the record straight and let Hoosiers know about the real Evan Bayh. Here is just a glimpse (after only a few hours of research) into Indiana’s hero, Fox News' on-air contributor, and former governor of and senator for Indiana, and it is not pretty. An

100+ by Doug Martin / 3d 

JUL 27

Now That Education Has Been the "Civil Rights Issue of Our Generation" for a Generation . . .

. . . it's worth asking how's that working out for those duplicitous policy elites who pretend to believe such nonsense.  Apparently, much more grit is going to required to grind poor and brown children down into that magical stuff that high test scores are made from.  From Kids Count 2014:

2 by Jim Horn / 5d 

Haslam Continues Ed Policy Based on Secrecy, Favoritism, and Dupliicty

Washington County School Board member Jack Leonard speaks Friday outside the district's central office as state Reps. Matthew Hill, Micah Van Huss and Tony Shipley listen. (Nathan Baker/Johnson City Press)Bill Haslam is up for re-election this year, and if Tennesseans can see beyond the ends of the Obama-hating noses, they will send this anti-democratic oligarch back to the corporate offices of P

3 by Jim Horn / 6d 

JUL 26

New Jersey's Hedge Fund Guru In Indiana

By Doug MartinEven though New Jersey hedge fund guru Sean Fieler likes to fight gay-marriage equality and women’s reproductive rights on the national arena, he spends a good deal of his leisure time buying Indiana politicians.  Fielder is a big honcho in the school privatization movement in the Hoosier state, although you will never hear a whisper about him in the papers.  Here is the nitty-gritt

100+ by Doug Martin / 6d 

All Week 8-2-14 @ THE CHALK FACE

@ THE CHALK FACE : 

All Week @ THE CHALK FACE 

About the radio show

Join Drs. Shaun Johnson and Tim Slekar 

LIVE Sundays at 6PM EST and Wednesdays at 7PM EST 

on Blog Talk Radio for progressive, pro-public education talk radio. 

Call in to speak live with Tim and Shaun during the show, (805) 727-7111. 

You can also listen to our Monday "Sunday-Replay" at 7PM EST, and re-broadcasts of the archives every Tuesday and Thursday at 7PM EST.

Visit the @ the Chalk Face radio main page for more information on the show and syndication.

Fordham’s Michael Petrilli: Manufacturing “Emotion” for Common Core

I am sitting in my easy chair on this Saturday afternoon, and I am trying not to write any posts. I know that I need a rest. Sure enough, though, I come across Common Core State Standards (CCSS) promotional slant from the brand-spanking new, non-teacher-practitioner president of the Gates-funded Fordham Institute, dedicated think tanker Michael […]

by deutsch29 / 12min 

David Greene Reports on the Excitement of the BAT Rally in D.C.

David Greene Reports on the Excitement of the BAT Rally in D.C..

2 by David Greene / 43min 

Pretty Campbell Brown and Her Ugly, Misguided Anti-Due-Process Crusade

Over the past several weeks, I have read only a little on the situation of former CNN news anchor Campbell Brown’s sudden interest in forming a nonprofit in order to advance a lawsuit in New York purportedly to “save” public school students of the (surely) inept teachers currently protected behind “tenure” (i.e., due process rights). […]

7 by deutsch29 / 11h 

A Passion For Teaching Evokes A Passion For Learning

A PASSION FOR TEACHING EVOKES A PASSION FOR LEARNING. An excerpt from DOING THE RIGHT THING: A Teacher SpeaksFiled under: SHAUN JOHNSON, PHD: Musings from the Chalk Face

3 by David Greene / 20h 

JUL 31

What National Group Is Funding the Pro-Common Core Lawsuit in Louisiana?

On July 29, 2014, the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) voted 6 to 4 to become plaintiffs in the pro-Common Core (CCSS) lawsuit whose plaintiffs include nine individuals and the charter management company, Choice Foundation. (Click here for Choice Foundation’s home page. However, the information on their schools has not been updated […]

8 by deutsch29 / 1d 

Concerns About the Focus on “Grit” in School Improvement

My approach was to focus on my students’ strengths. To do so, it could be said that I needed to “get inside the mind(s)” of my students. To help my students master a legitimate college prep curriculum, I would prefer to say that I needed to listen to my students. In my experience, if teachers […]

8 by John Thompson / 1d 

Thought experiment on teacher evaluation and high-stakes

This from a Twitter convo a few minutes ago. High-stakes obviously creates a culture of cheating on assessments. Broad evidence for that. Good, bad, or indifferent, teachers learn to play this unfair game to their advantage. Call it cheating, or not. Call it survival. Nevertheless, teachers do reap the rewards of an unfair system, while […]

4 by Shaun Johnson / 1d 

Join us this Sunday at 7PM EST with Nel Noddings

Of all the criticisms of corporate education reforms, one that gets short shrift is the concept of “care.” Emphasis on testing, accountability, high stakes, and competition don’t sound caring. The ethic of care seems to be lacking. We should instead emphasize the “whole child.” There is an abundance of information and skills and dispositions that […]

2 by Shaun Johnson / 2d 

@andreperryedu tells us to stop blaming black parents

An important article from the Washington Post. Clearly, there is widespread belief that black parents don’t value education. The default opinion has become “it’s the parents” — not the governance, the curriculum, the instruction, the policy, nor the lack of resources — that create problems in urban schools. That’s wrong. Everyday actions continuously contradict the […]

6 by Shaun Johnson / 2d 

JUL 30

The Turn Of The Century Blues

THE TURN OF THE CENTURY BLUES.Filed under: SHAUN JOHNSON, PHD: Musings from the Chalk Face

1 by David Greene / 2d 

A Batty 36 Hours

A BATTY 36 HOURS.Filed under: SHAUN JOHNSON, PHD: Musings from the Chalk Face

1 by David Greene / 2d 

Stop the Media Madness.

Stop the Media Madness..Filed under: SHAUN JOHNSON, PHD: Musings from the Chalk Face

1 by David Greene / 2d 

JUL 29

Pisssed Off.

PISSSED OFF..Filed under: SHAUN JOHNSON, PHD: Musings from the Chalk Face

5 by David Greene / 3d 

I will be in-studio for an interview on @EmpowerDC radio show today

Here’s the show’s synopsis for my visit: Topic: Malcolm X elementary was slated to close at the end of the 2012-2013 school year, however, it was removed as DCPS chancellor Kaya Henderson had other plans for it.  These plans included co-locating Achievement Prep charter school in the same school building and eventually blending the two […]

3 by Shaun Johnson / 4d 

Alex Johnson’s corporate SuperPAC run by Eli Broad’s Dan “students must pledge to capitalism” Chang

“Financed by conservative billionaire philanthropists like Bill Gates and Eli Broad, charters willingly carry out the indoctrination their benefactors seek.” — Professor Ralph E. Shaffer Corporate candidate Alex Johnson and his backer Mark Ridley-Thomas have already raised incredible amounts of money in their attempt to seize a seat on the Los Angeles Unified School (LAUSD) […]

54 by Robert D. Skeels ... / 4d hide  //  save

JUL 28

Revisiting the Common Core Math Content and Practice Standards (sort of)

I think there is a great deal of monocular vision when it comes to issues surrounding the Common Core Standards themselves (as opposed to the overall CCSS-Initiative, which I find execrable and irredeemable), and this narrow viewing through emotionally-charged lenses causes a lot of confusion while leading to little insight. I started out 95% opposed […]

2 by Michael Paul Gold... / 4d 

JUL 26

Why Editors Should Never Put The Phrase Common Core In A Title:

WHY EDITORS SHOULD NEVER PUT THE PHRASE COMMON CORE IN A TITLE:.Filed under: SHAUN JOHNSON, PHD: Musings from the Chalk Face

5 by David Greene / 6d