8-5-14 Hemlock on the Rocks

Hemlock on the Rocks:

Comrade DeFacto Tourette's Jeers at Alex Caputo-Pearl Lies and Issues A Call to Action

John DeasyI had raised this in exposing the cover-rops by collaborator  Pres A. Caputo/Pearl   (on al Jazeera interview).  UTLA knows the 'score' and the officials are political willing tools for the LAUSD purges-- ruining of their own dues pays , This goes back to Duffy /Perez regimes  and even further.Now so many  members careers arehemorrhaging by the  many hundreds and even thousands. ALL

by Rene Diedrich / 11min 

Dana Goldstein on L.A. Teacher Alex Caputo-Pearl and the Real Deal Behind Closing Schools

To be fair, this is an interesting look at how well Pearl moves between the reform and conform . He has an engaging voice and employs a very credible tone. But here's the deal. Smaller schools are BETTER. You do not cram 3500 kids in school built to hold ( they look like prisons in the hood)  a mere 2000 . Small schools are not what Gates wanted. I was part of his experiment with SLCs . These

by Rene Diedrich / 13min 

UTLA's talk of a strike: 'breathtakingly irresponsible' according to Deasy, who already has the drop on teachers with his PR Firm's carefully crafted new image

Deasy on UTLA's talk of a strike: 'breathtakingly irresponsible'FROM LASR-- the pro Deasy Deform Authority  As LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy prepared to deliver his "State of the District" speech to school leaders and educators at Garfield High School today, he sat for a wide-ranging interview

by Rene Diedrich / 9min 

Fwd: Al Jazeera: The Inside Look into Teacher Jail

www.hemlockontherocks.comcavete tyrannisqui doecet in doctrinaBegin forwarded message:From: Søren Sørensen Date: August 5, 2014 12:33:37 AM PDTTo: Rene , Arlene Schery , Jeffrey Barry , Alex Caputo-Pearl , George Buzzetti , Eric Bidna

by Rene Diedrich / 1h hide  //  save

LAUSD Chief Deasy Refines Reformy Rhetoric to Lift Students Out of Poverty Where They Have a Choice of College Ready or Career Prepared

LAUSD Chief Deasy Sounds Optimistic Note Ahead Of New School Year « CBS Los Angeles Dontchhoooo Believe IT!

by Rene Diedrich / 1h 

SXSWedu: How to Keep Friends and Influence No New PeopleY

SXSWedu: How to Keep Friends and Influence No New People

by Rene Diedrich / 3h hide  //  save

Teach for America’s Wendy Kopp Embraces New Unionism in LEE and Retains Close Ties with Alex Caputo Pearl

http://prospect.org/article/teach-america%E2%80%99s-deep-benAlex Caputo-Pearl is a member of Teach for America's inaugural class in 1990 and has maintained a close relationship with its founder Wendy Kopp Teach for America's Deep Bench "Is this our Egypt moment? Will we seize the moment?" Former New York

by Rene Diedrich / 3h 

Education Scandals Could Impede Reform Efforts - Courant.com

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-education-reform-reax-0803-20140804,0,3015662.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Courantcom-OffTheBeat+(Courant.com+-+Off+The+Beat) Education Scandals Could Hurt Reform Efforts, Advocates Say

by Rene Diedrich / 9h 

8-4-14 Hemlock on the Rocks

Hemlock on the Rocks: Local Accountability and Astroturf: Local Control without the Local Control | Cloaking InequityHow can we banish No Child Left Behind's top-down and narrow paradigm? Local control has been a bedrock principle of public schooling in America since its inception. NCLB sent us in the opposite direction of this traditional notion. A return to a traditional locally based educationa

by mike simpson / 9h 

8-5-14 Curmudgucation

CURMUDGUCATION:

Who Wants To Be South Korea

South Korea is on the reformster short list of Countries We Want To Be Like (right up there with Finland and Estonia). She Who Will Not Be Named frequently cites her own year in South Korea as a formative experience (from which she somehow jumps to the conclusion that every child in America needs the same experience).And yet, a piece in the Sunday, August 1, New York Times reminds us why South Kor

by Peter Greene / 0min 

Without Tenure...

Yesterday, twitter blew up with responses to Whoopi Goldberg and the View having one more uninformed discussion of tenure (and, really, we need to talk about why education discussions keep being driven by the work of comedians)."#WithoutTenure I can be fired for...." was the tweet template of the day, and even though I rode that bus for a bit, it occurs to me this morning that it misses

79 by Peter Greene / 1h 

8-4-14 Curmudgucation

CURMUDGUCATION: K12 Defies... Well, EverythingK12 remains the top dog in the junkyard of cyberschooling. It provides an instructive lesson in how a good pile of cash and friends in the right places can keep a business afloat even after people have poked holes in the hull.There was never anything about the organization that didn't look like a red flag. It was set up by hedge fund manager Ronald Pac

by mike simpson / 8h

8-5-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

The "Air Of Inevitability" Around Cuomo's Re-Election

Laura Nahmias at Capital NY:ALBANY—More than half the 50 top donors to the state’s Republican party between 2003 and 2006 have given more to Cuomo and the Democrats this campaign cycle than they have to the G.O.P. and Rob Astorino, an analysis by NYPIRG’s Bill Mahoney shows. Of the 50 donors who gave the most to the G.O.P. in the runup to the 2006 gubernatorial election—when Democrat Eliot Spitze

by reality-based edu... / 44min 

8-4-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School: Former Moreland Co-Chair Kathleen Rice "Assisting" With Federal Prosecutors Looking Into Cuomo's Commission MeddlingSo much Moreland news this morning, hard to get it all on the blog.Here's another piece of news via Ken Lovett of the Daily News: Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, one of three former co-chairs of Gov. Cuomo’s anti-corruption commission,

by mike simpson / 8h 

Campbell Brown and Joe Nocera Trash Teachers; Education Experts Respond | janresseger

Campbell Brown and Joe Nocera Trash Teachers; Education Experts Respond | janresseger:

Campbell Brown and Joe Nocera Trash Teachers; Education Experts Respond

Posted on August 5, 2014 by janresseger

Again in the past week, two prominent media personalities—neither one a school teacher by profession or training and both with an ax to grind—have attacked school teachers, the programs that train teachers, and the teachers unions and due process rights protected in union contracts.

Of course Campbell Brown, the former CNN anchor, has launched her new organization, the Partnership for Educational Justice, whose mission is to bring lawsuits across the states to get rid of due process protections for teachers.  This week her organization filed a second Vergara-type lawsuit in New York state, and Campbell Brown went on The Colbert Report to promote her new cause.  (This blog has covered Campbell Brown here, and here.)  Earlier this week, Valerie Strauss published an analysis of Campbell Brown’s interview with Stephen Colbert. Strauss’s guest columnist is Alyssa Hadley Dunn, a former high school teacher and now assistant professor of teacher education at Michigan State University.  Hadley Dunn fact-checks what Campbell Brown had to say; I urge you to read her careful analysis.  She concludes: “Ms. Brown… I wholeheartedly concur that educational policies should be determined by what is best for children.  What I remain unconvinced about, however, is how eliminating teachers’ rights is what is best for children.  We know that teacher working conditions are student learning conditions…. What research actually shows is best for children is teachers with long-term and sustained preparation in content and pedagogy; an equitable education that is not segregated by race and socioeconomic status; and student-centered, hands-on pedagogy that sustains students’ cultures and challenges them to be critical thinkers and engaged citizens.  None of this has anything to do with teacher tenure laws.”

And Joe Nocera (on the op ed page of the NY Times) has once again been attacking college training programs for teachers.  Last December Nocera praised the almost universally discredited report from the National Council on Teacher Quality, an organization established by the Thomas Fordham Foundation in 2000 to promote alternative certification paths outside the teachers colleges.  As the education writer and UCLA professor of education,  Mike Rose wrote in response to Nocera’s December column, “Much has been written about the problems with this report, particularly about the significant limitations of its analysis, built primarily of Campbell Brown and Joe Nocera Trash Teachers; Education Experts Respond | janresseger:

NYC Educator: If Ed. Deformers had a Rubric...

NYC Educator: If Ed. Deformers had a Rubric...:

If Ed. Deformers had a Rubric...

Do you ever find yourself wondering whether Ed. Deformers have a rubric of their own?  Much to my horror, in my mind, I stumbled upon the first page of one.  If we saw page two, we might add other elements like mining young children's data!

Ed. reformer name* ________________  
*Hint:  You may wish to keep your identity secret.

Eugene Robinson: Time to tame the intelligence monster

Eugene Robinson: Time to tame the intelligence monster:

Eugene Robinson: Time to tame the intelligence monster

byteacherkenFollow

 
 
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That is the title of this op ed for Tuesday's Washington Post.

Here's the opening paragraph:  

The CIA now admits that it spied on a Senate investigation into the agency’s shameful program of secret detention and torture. Do we need any more proof that the spooks are out of control?

Trust me, that is not even close to demonstrating the full power of this piece.

Please keep reading.

Robinson goes through some of the history that led up to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence doing its investigation, and what the CIA did to obstruct, obfuscate and more.  If you do not know it, the column will give you a good overview.

We of course now know that the CIA was spying on the Senate Committee and its staffers at the same time it was trying to accuse the Senate Committee staffers of having broken the law.

Perhaps a few more snippets are relevant to show how pointed this piece by Robinson is.

There is this, offered after noting the White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest defending CIA Director Brennan, saying he did not have a credibility problem:  

Earnest is wrong on that score, but the problem is much bigger than Brennan. At stake is the principle that our intelligence agencies — like our military forces — must be subject to civilian oversight and control. The spooks apparently have a different arrangement in mind.

Or perhaps this, after reminding people the CIA destroyed the tapes of the waterboarding its agents did:  

Ostensibly, the reason was to prevent the tapes from somehow falling into the hands of al-Qaeda. In reality, the CIA was worried that its officers might be held accountable for their actions.

Let's stop there for a moment.  How would al-Qaeda ever get their hands on such tapes, unless they were made public?

Is the issue that of the propaganda use that could be made of them, or the possible disgust of the American people, or the members of the House and Senate Committees responsible for oversight of the intelligence community>

Would not they have been prima facie evidence of a crime, given the fact that we have previously prosecuted American servicemen for using a form of waterboarding?

Or perhaps we can go back to the incident that led to a criminal referral:  

Earlier this year, Brennan complained to Feinstein that her investigators had improperly Eugene Robinson: Time to tame the intelligence monster:

My remarks to the National Society of High School Scholars

My remarks to the National Society of High School Scholars: My remarks to the National Society of High School Scholarsbyteacherken  Tweet  4 Commentswhich I delivered yesterday in Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University.I was invited to speak on behalf of the Educators of Distinction, those educators who had been selected by the student members of the organization.This was the third time

by mike simpson / 20h 

8-4-14 Wag The Dog Week

WagTheDog | Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart. ~ Rumi:

Care To Learn

Image: Rutu Modan   “What does it take to be a good parent? We know some of the tricks for teaching kids to become high achievers. For example, research suggests that when parents praise effort rather than ability, children develop a stronger work ethic and become more motivated. Yet although some parents live vicariously through their children’s accomplishments, success is not the No. 1 priority

by getwhatugive / 1h 

8-3-14 Wag The Dog Week

WagTheDog | Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart. ~ Rumi: Cognitive PrivilegeI’ve been wondering lately if there is such a thing as cognitive privilege and what role it might play in the Common Core debate? Is it possible that there are highly intelligent individuals who lack the empathy and wisdom to “see” and understand the aca

by mike simpson / 6h 

8-4-14 Hemlock on the Rocks

Hemlock on the Rocks:

Local Accountability and Astroturf: Local Control without the Local Control | Cloaking Inequity

How can we banish No Child Left Behind's top-down and narrow paradigm? Local control has been a bedrock principle of public schooling in America since its inception. NCLB sent us in the opposite direction of this traditional notion. A return to a traditional locally based educational policy can be again realized via a multiple measures approach to accountability that is

by Rene Diedrich / 24min hide  //  save

Alex Caputo Pearl : LAUSD Will Not Tell Us How Many Teachers Are Housed, Displaced and RiFed ( But they have all been replaced with TFA interns who pay dues so no problem)

Using the Freedom of Information Act, Lisa Karahalios,director of Valley East, and Arlene Schery, President ofthe Unjustly Housed Teachers Committee, worked diligentlyto force LAUSD to comply with the demand for the data on thehoused teachers from July 2011 to January 2014. Upon procurement of the data, Valley East Director ScottMandel immediately called on   warren fletcher   to  file an

by Rene Diedrich / 2h 

8-3-14 Hemlock on the Rocks

Hemlock on the Rocks: Brian Claypool: LAUSD UPPER Ranks Have Known About Abuse for Yearsby Rene Diedrich / 1h YESTERDAYLAUSD PAY ATTENTION The Contract We Do Not Deserve « Movement of Rank and File Educators@media print { .original-url { display: none; } } h1.title { font: -apple-system-headline; font-weight: normal; text-align: start; -webkit-hyphens: manual; } blockquote { color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0

by mike simpson / 8h 

Former Obama Aides Broke With Democratic Firm Over Anti-Teachers Union Project:

Former Obama Aides Broke With Democratic Firm Over Anti-Teachers Union Project

WASHINGTON -- Every day throughout the summer of 2006, seemingly without end, things just kept getting worse for Washington Republicans. Iraq was spiraling out of control, President George W. Bush was at the depth of his unpopularity. Congressional Republicans were mired in scandal. One was even caught sending dirty instant messages to young boys.

What followed was the Democratic wave of 2006, which handed Congress to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, followed by a second wave ridden by Barack Obama into the White House. Pundits talked about the end of the Republican Party, or at best, a permanent rump status.

"I remember this point in Bush's presidency. I kept a list of Cook and Rothenberg's 'toss up' races. That list tripled in six months from January," said one GOP operative who wondered where his place in the permanently Democratic Washington would be.

Eight years later, he's surprised by the answer: Fighting alongside former Obama administration officials against a common enemy -- labor unions. He's referring to former top White House aides Robert Gibbs and Ben LaBolt, who have signed on to battle teachers unions in a series of lawsuits across the country, aligning themselves with Republican operatives who no longer worry the Obama whiz kids and their army of small donors will wipe them off the map.

"We are about to hold more House seats than we ever have. We will take the Senate," said the GOP official, who asked not to be named to preserve his business options. "The future is bright for us. Shit, we may even take on the teachers unions with Obama campaign operatives-turned-lobbyists."

Through their firm, The Incite Agency, Labolt and Gibbs are supporting former CNN anchor Campbell Brown's fight against teacher tenure. Brown is wading into education politics through a group she calls the Partnership for Education Justice, which aims to tackle teachers' work protections by taking the fight to court. A week ago, her group filed a lawsuit in New York state that organized local families as Former Obama Aides Broke With Democratic Firm Over Anti-Teachers Union Project: