9-3-14 Answer Sheet

Answer Sheet:

A pledge school reformers should take

Education historian Larry Cuban notes that no matter what part of the political spectrum school reform originates, reformers keep making the same mistakes, decade in and decade out. What mistakes? Cuban explains in this post. Cuban was a high school social studies teacher for 14 years, a district superintendent (seven years in Arlington, VA), and […]

5 by Valerie Strauss / 6h hide  //  save

Florida county rescinds decision to drop all state-mandated testing

Last week the school board in Lee County, Fla., became the first school district anywhere to vote to opt out of all state-mandated testing as a protest against what members said was excessive testing. The vote then was 3-2 and board member Don Armstrong called it an “act of civil disobedience.” Well, one of the […]

1 by Valerie Strauss / 8h 

9-2-14 Answer Sheet

Answer Sheet: A former university president gets schooled on sexual assault and drinkingFormer George Washington University president Stephen Joel Trachtenberg was at the center of an international debate recently when he appeared on a radio show and made some comments about sexual assault and drinking on college campuses. My colleague Nick Anderson wrote this article about it: “Without making the

by mike simpson / 7h 

9-3-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum:

Title IX Update

As you may know, Seattle Public Schools wasn't quite up to snuff on Title IX compliance. The person responsible for Title IX compliance didn't know his responsibilities and, consequently, failed to perform his required duties. When this dreadful situation came to light (with tragic consequences), the District... well, the District didn't do anything for two years. But when this dreadful situation

by Charlie Mas / 33min 

Back to School New Yorker Cartoons

This one is dedicated to Smarter Balanced assessments.This one is just funny. 

by Melissa Westbrook / 2h 

Goodbye APP - Hello Highly Capable Cohort

I'm not complaining about changing the name; I think people were forever getting APP and AP mixed up.  But why is Spectrum now "Advanced Learner or Spectrum."  Pick a name. Uh, I see this about the webpage: "...remove unnecessarily repetitive or outdated material,.."  Meaning, we got rid of a lot of historical information that might have explained many things.  Don't worry, we'

by Melissa Westbrook / 2h hide  //  save

Seahawk Armageddon

I do like the Seahawks, really.  (But we are more of Packers/Steelers fans in our house even though no one is from the Midwest.  You may pick who you marry but not what sports team that person is attached to.)The NFL is taking over a section of Pioneer Square for "Gameday Village" with activities starting TODAY (Wednesday) from 10 am-10 pm.   Thursday the "Village" will be open

by Melissa Westbrook / 9h 

First Day of School!

New parent or veteran of many grades, welcome back to Seattle Schools.  It can be dizzying and worrying but take it in stride.  You - and your child - will probably be just fine.  Transportation kinks will be worked out and so can schedules.That said, if your high schooler has schedule issues, hang in there if you are trying to get your child a rigorous schedule and not TA classes.  Also, if it's

by Melissa Westbrook / 9h 

YESTERDAY

The City wants to "Improve Collaboration" with Seattle Schools

Update:  I missed the part where the City also wants to increase their data collection from their education work.   No big surprise.End of update.From the Seattle PI via Joel Connelly, comes the not-so-new news that the City is going to create "a full-fledged Department of Education and Early Learning" that will be part of the next City budget.The new city department would have 38 employ

by Melissa Westbrook / 21h 

Jane Addams Middle School - What a Busy Day

Update: coverage from the West Seattle blog about the opening of Fairmount Park.   end of updateI attended the press conference and ribbon-cutting at Jane Addams Middle School today.  Quite eye-opening.First, it's a good thing that Hale and JAMS don't start at the same time.  I note that 35th Avenue NE is closed south from Hale for about two blocks.  And, Seattle Public Utilities appears to be doi

1 by Melissa Westbrook / 21h

9-2-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Tuesday Open Thread The Times is reporting that five more Seattle area schools will have speed cameras at key intersections.  They name Roxhill (with private school, Holy Family nearby), Dearborn Park, Eckstein, and Bailey Gatzert.  The city made over $7M last year from four other schools with cameras and they say they will be using that revenue for more traffic sa

1 by mike simpson / 5h 

9-3-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:

Kevin Carey, Logically Adrift

Kevin Carey and the billionaire patrons of CorpEd who pay him to record his thought disorders in the New York Times are moving on from K-12 to more fertile education grounds to make money and to impose their idiocy.  Watch out, higher ed. With more and more young adults graduating from college with fewer good jobs available to them and the next generation of workers, the new normal for college gra

by Jim Horn / 10h 

9-2-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter: Testing Hysteria Lite, by Marc TuckerIf you were to believe the spin in the New York Times the other day, you would think that Marc Tucker, who has long been Hillary Clinton's main man on education issues, had decided that high stakes testing was a thing of the past: "Tucker would not abolish tests, but he would have fewer of them. And they would have a different purpose."

1 by mike simpson / 7h 

9-3-14 With A Brooklyn Accent:Where Are You From? A Guest Post by Malaya Velasquez Saldana

With A Brooklyn Accent:

Where Are You From? A Guest Post by Malaya Velasquez Saldana

“Whereare you from?” the ubiquitous question posed to me since I learned to formulate my first English sentence, has overtime accrued the weight of a multitude of implied questions, and exclamations. Now by 22 years old the weight of that question is so heavy with implications, and assumptive self-erasing experiences I hear it and laugh. The kind of laugh that your mother makes when you lie to her

7 by Mark Naison / 12h 

9-2-14 With A Brooklyn Accent: In the US " Improving Teacher Quality" really means Humiliating and Firing Veteran Teachers

With A Brooklyn Accent: In the US " Improving Teacher Quality" really means Humiliating and Firing Veteran TeachersAll over the nation, the imperative to "improve teacher quality" has morphed into a campaign to marginalize, humiliate and force out veteran teachers. Not only has this caused tremendous distress to the individuals thus targeted, it has deprived our public schools

2 by mike simpson / 8h 

9-3-14 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.:

The Napa Wine Club is worth two years of my pension. Rauner and Quinn think I get too much.

11 by Fred Klonsky / 3h 

Retired teachers are not just about pensions. We had a lively charter discussion.

This blogger, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky and S.O.R.E. organizer, Harriet Sheeley. We often discuss politics at our Skokie Organization of Retired Educatators (S.O.R.E.) luncheons. We are a chapter of the Illinois Education Association’s Retired section. I’m president of our local chapter, but that’s not the reason we talk politics so much. And it’s not just talk about the politics of pensions.

8 by Fred Klonsky / 4h 

Bev Johns. NCLB required all students to be proficient ontate tests by 2014.

- Bev Johns is a Special Education advocate and activist for has contributed frequently to this blog. NCLB required all students to be proficient on State tests by 2014. Failure of the public schools to reach that goal has been widely viewed as the failure of public education, requiring movement to charter schools and even increasing the talk of vouchers in the name of choice. Failure of the publi

5 by Fred Klonsky / 4h 

A new blog from Bloomberg, Broad and Walton. Did somebody ask for this?

Peter Cunningham left the Duncan Department of Education and has launched an education blog, Education Post. There is room on the internet for lots of blogs on education. But did anybody really ask for this one? If parents could ask their leaders for one thing on education this school year, it would be this: stop playing politics with education and work on results. We don’t have time for name-cal

4 by Fred Klonsky / 12h hide  //  save

TMD. Rahm, Rauner and wine.

4 by Fred Klonsky / 12h 

Local teachers are holding Democrats’ feet to the fire on pension theft.

Teachers confronted Representative Michelle Mussman just prior to her vote for pension theft. On the eve of the vote on pension theft, I made the rounds to the district offices of many north suburban state representatives and state senators. 56th District Democrat Michelle Mussman was one of them. I joined a crowd of about 100 teachers and other state employees, most of whom had voted for her. Mu

6 by Fred Klonsky / 13h 

9-2-14 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.: I’m always optimistic.National Association President Lily Eskelsen Garcia and me at the NEA RA in Denver. The new school year has started. The third without me. How have they survived? For me, the start of a new school year was a moment for optimism. It is like the optimism I felt leaving this year’s

by mike simpson / 7h 

9-3-14 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online:

Samuel Freedman, on Bel Kaufman, Goes After Teacher Bashing, With Ties to the 68 Strike

Around the same time that “Up the Down Staircase” was published, New York City was convulsed by a battle over community control of public schools. The struggle reached its apogee between 1967 and 1968, with the installation of a black governing board in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville section of Brooklyn, its dismissal of several dozen white teachers, and a series of citywide teachers’ strikes in respo

2 by ed notes online / 21h

9-2-14 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online: Eva Moskowitz Success Academy - Changes Locks on Renovated Faculty Restrooms to Shut Public School Teachers OutMy solution? Pee on the outside of the door.A co-located public school teacher in an Eva invaded school. By the way, sources tell me that in this Success School you will find a hell of a lot of white kids, a bunch of them Jewish out of a Hebrew school - not corroborated -

1 by mike simpson / 5h 

9-3-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness

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

The Conversation UK: Keeping children back a year doesn’t help them read better

Keeping children back a year doesn’t help them read better

2 by plthomasedd / 14h 

9-2-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University): It’s Time to Stop Treating Black and Brown Kids Like ‘Other People’s Children’ | AlternetIt’s Time to Stop Treating Black and Brown Kids Like ‘Other People’s Children’ | Alternet1 by plthomasedd / 6min 9-1-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindnessthe b

1 by mike simpson / 7h