9-13-14 Schools Matter All Week

Schools Matter: 

 Schools Matter All Week

Common core doesn't fix the real problem of education– poverty.

PUBLISHED in the Christian Science Monitor Weekly Magazine, September 15, 2014Common core doesn't fix the real problem of education– poverty.Arguments for opposing the common core presented by Gov. Jindal ("Common Core: Bobby Jindal says Obama forcing a national curriculum," August 27) do not include the reasons many professional educators and researchers oppose it. A central argument

by skrashen / 1h 

The "middle skills" shortage: The common core will make it worse

Sent to the Wall Street Journal, Sept. 11, 2014"German robots school U.S. workers" (Sept. 10) is the most recent of a series of reports in the Wall Street Journal on the substantial shortage of job applicants with "middle skills," requiring less than a college degree but more than high school. Instead of increasing apprenticeships and investing more in vocational education for

4 by skrashen / 1d 

The Common Core Dissertation on 9 + 6

2 by Jim Horn / 2d 

Primary Common Core Math Terms

from Boerne County, TX ISD:

2 by Jim Horn / 2d 

SEP 10

BC Unions Rally Behind Teacher Strike

British Columbia Teacher's Union (BCTU) Stands FirmB.C. unions rally behind teachers' strikeANDREA WOOVANCOUVER — The Globe and MailPublished Wednesday, Sep. 10 2014, 10:28 PM EDTLast updated Wednesday, Sep. 10 2014, 10:28 PM EDTCash-strapped teachers who have so far lost four weeks’ pay to the strike will be able to apply for a loan from their union after workers from across the province agreed t

3 by freetoteach / 2d 

Huffman and Barbic Targets of Lawsuit in Tennessee

Kevin Huffman took just one month after his appointment as Commissioner of Education in April 2011 to choose former CEO of YES Prep Charter Schools as Superintendent of Tennessee's new Achievement School District, the State office that would coordinate the charterizing of Memphis and Nashville schools. At that time, the betting started on how many months it would take for Yes Prep, where Barbic ha

4 by Jim Horn / 2d 

SEP 09

Outraged at the core

Sent to the Washington Post, September 9, 2014The Post says that progressives are "uncomfortable with the role of the Gates foundation and new tests associated with the (Common Core) standards" ("Common Core 2.0: Common Core by another name," Sept. 10).Uncomfortable? More accurate would be "outraged." Outraged not only at Gates' role in the Common Core, but also becau

47 by skrashen / 3d 

SEP 08

John Oliver's Takedown of Online Diploma Mills

Must see!!from the Consumerist:What would it look like if you condensed all our hundreds of stories about student loans and for-profit colleges into a profanity-filled, hilarious rant that takes a brief detour to discuss Lyndon Johnson’s scrotum? John Oliver answered that question on Sunday night.Just like it’s recently done with the payday loan industry, Dr. Oz, and net neutrality, Last Week Toni

5 by Jim Horn / 4d 

Florida Charters Corrupt as Jeb Bush

By Michael Mayo Sun Sentinel Columnist  12:23 p.m. EDT, September 8, 2014 OK class, time for a pop quiz. If you want to open a charter school — a privately run school that gets public money — which of the following will you need to get approval?a) A suitable building for classesb) A proven background in education or business c) A past with no bankruptcies or major blemishesd) A computer with

1 by Jim Horn / 4d 

NAEP, Common Core, and the Continued Production of Failure

For those who never knew Gerald Bracey's work, all I can say is you have a lot of catching up to do.  It was his writing in the Kappan in the 1990s that caught my attention, and then came his books.  He was a master at using his steel trap logic and his delightfully sharp pen to pop all the gas bags floating over the education policy centers of Washington, DC.  One of his favorite subjects was NAE

by Jim Horn / 4d 

SEP 07

Meritocracy, Chinese and American Style

The biggest difference in Chinese and American education is that the Chinese only offer their best test scores in international comparisons.  Otherwise, the systems operate on the same principles of corruption and inequality, and they produce similar results based on a caste system sustained by instituionalized racism and classism.China’s Education GapBy HELEN GAO SEPT. 4, 2014BEIJING — EVERY Sept

8 by Jim Horn / 5d 

Duncan's Civil Rights in Black Face Tour

The major civil rights initiative of the Obama Administration has been to re-segregate poor black and brown children into corporate education reform schools where they can be culturally sterilized and behaviorally neutered by white middle class missionaries with no experience.  Duncan's Civil Rights Minstrel Tour will continue this coming week:"The trip will include stops in Georgia, Alabama

6 by Jim Horn / 5d 

Gates Civ 101: The Antiseptic History MOOC Comes to High School

Some reporters for the New York Times pretend to be stupid enough to believe Bill Gates is out to simply make his favorite history course available to every high school student in America.  The bigger assumption by the New York Times is that the American people are as stupid as their "reporter" pretends to be.Actually, the Times didn't choose a real reporter but, rather, a CNBC Wall Stre

40 by Jim Horn / 6d hide  //  save

SEP 06

OECD's Efficiency Zealots Say Cutting Teacher Pay and Raising Class Size Would Be Good Policy, But Don't Do It

For my academic friends who are engaged in a new revisionism to write out effects of a hundred years of social efficiency domination in education policy, you may want to have a look at this. The OECD, the outfit that brings us PISA every so often, has taken to sub-contracting its nastier statistical tasks to other "research" firms.  The latest example is the Efficiency Index, contracted

6 by Jim Horn / 6d 

All Week 9-13-14 @ 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.

School Board Privatization: Committee for a Better _________ (Your City Here)

Not far from my home, on a vacant lot next to a major highway, I noticed an advertisement for our upcoming local school board elections. The name of the candidate is not familiar to me, but each time I pass the board, I wonder, “Who is funding you?” The purchasing of local school board races […]

2 by deutsch29 / 14min 

The Qualities Of Good Schools Are No Secret.

THE QUALITIES OF GOOD SCHOOLS ARE NO SECRET.. via THE QUALITIES OF GOOD SCHOOLS ARE NO SECRET..

1 by David Greene / 16min 

The (NY, DC, LA, and CA) Story of Eureka Math

In Louisiana, there has been a bit of mystery surrounding the only math curriculum “selected” in March 2014 by the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) and the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) and promoted as “LSU-developed Eureka Math.” It sure sounds like… dare I write it… grass roots CCSS math development, huh? Then comes […]

2 by deutsch29 / 1d 

SEP 10

Louisiana’s NCLB Waiver, Complete with Promised CCSS and PARCC

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was not reauthorized in 2007. Nor was it reauthorized in 2008. Nor has it been reauthorized in 2014. NCLB, with its nonsense “100 percent proficiency in reading and math by 2014,” has been lingering on legislative life support, even as 2014 is surely coming to an end. But the beauty […]

2 by deutsch29 / 2d 

SEP 09

PARCC and SBAC States Agree to Deliver Student-level Data to USDOE

In September 2010, two assessment consortia “won” federal Race to the Top (RTTT) money for the “design, development, and evaluation of the assessment system” known as Race to the Top Assessment (RTTA): The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). PARCC received $170 million, and […]

17 by deutsch29 / 3d 

SEP 08

Common Core: It Seemed Like a Good Idea Until It Existed

In 2008, Education Next asked 3,200 respondents (700 of whom were public school teachers) about their thoughts on having “the same set of educational standards” in order to “hold schools accountable.” Respondents were divided into sub-samples and asked one of the two following questions. Included are the percentages of respondents who chose among three response options: Question […]

9 by deutsch29 / 4d 

EngageNY : Robotic Teachers Wanted.

Came across this gem when trying to decipher my son’s 4th Grade math homework (which included the inane task of making 50 dots to represent multiplying by tens).  EngageNY contains scripted curriculum modules at a price of $12.9 million for the K-8 lessons. I find it insulting that a teacher should be told to add emotion and energy […]

67 by Chris Cerrone / 4d 

EngageNY modules: Stunning incompetence.

Another questionable lesson from the curriculum modules found at NYSED’s propaganda website EngageNY.org   Once again, why did NYSED spend $12.9 million of taxpayer money on scripted lessons for K-8 when New York’s teachers can produce superior (and appropriate) curriculum.   Thoughts on this Kindergarten homework assignment?                   […]

200+ by Chris Cerrone / 4d 

SEP 07

Laura Chapman on Education Weekly’s “Philanthropic” Funding

The post below is from the comments section of my September 6, 2014, post, Gates, Other “Philanthropy,” and the Purchase of a Success Narrative. It was written by Laura Chapman, veteran arts educator whose well-researched observations on the entangled funding of privatizing reform are often featured on education historian Diane Ravitch’s blog. Below, Chapman briefly examines the numerous philanthr

3 by deutsch29 / 5d 

A grave mythology is propagated by our own colleagues.

I am certain that any educator and reader of this website has been confronted with the following: You are against standardized testing. Therefore, you are against all assessment. You are against test-based accountability. Therefore, you are against all accountability. High-stakes are removed. Therefore, you have no incentive to work hard. For many years now, I […]

10 by Shaun Johnson / 5d 

Sorry to say, many teachers are instruments of oppression

There are teachers who, despite how they’ve been mistreated by accountability, embrace some measures of accountability because they’ve worked with fellow teachers who are indeed trifling and deserve a swift kick out the door. It takes willful ignorance, nay, stupidity of the supreme order, to think you are, as an educator, serving your profession by […]

44 by Shaun Johnson / 6d 

Received via email: “Subject: Major injustice committed by TFA”

I am posting the full-text here. I can’t substantiate these unsolicited claims. But I think many of them ring true with other accounts we’ve read online. I’m pretty sure that Ms. Rojas wanted to be heard, so I’d like to honor that. To whom it may concern, I would like to express how unfair it […]

2 by Shaun Johnson / 6d 

Data paranoia hits home. Conclusion: meh.

For the record, I use Class Dojo. In fact, one of the developers was @ the Chalk Face for an interview in August. I wouldn’t mandate its use, but I do recommend it because I actually like it. One of the primary reasons is its simplicity. The interface is crazily easy and I can create any […]

6 by Shaun Johnson / 6d hide  //  save

SEP 06

Gates, Other “Philanthropy,” and the Purchase of a Success Narrative

Billionaire Bill Gates funds the media. This is no surprise to me. What did surprise me is the discovery that he meets with the media he funds (and others) regularly behind closed doors. Yep. Gates Briefs a Media He Pays For (And Then Some) In February 2013, journalist Tom Paulson wrote a piece on Gates’ […]

3 by deutsch29 / 6d 

Video: Is Lafayette Parish Schools Selling a “Visual Strategy” or Common Core?

Let’s examine a program known as Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). They’ve been around for a while. It is important to note that VTS predates test-driven education “reform,” both the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and No Child Left Behind (NCLB): VTS is a well-known program developed by Abigail Housen and Philip Yenawine more than twenty years ago, […]

3 by deutsch29 / 6d