All Week @ The Answer Sheet 9-27-14

The Answer Sheet:

All Week @ The Answer Sheet

Colorado school district votes to opt most students out of Common Core testing

The board of education in Colorado’s second largest city has voted to opt out most of its 30,000 students from new Common Core standardized testing and will ask the state government for flexibility to carry out its plan. It is the first district in the state and one of the first in the country to […]

1 by Valerie Strauss / 13min

Why we can’t reform literacy and math all at once

School “reform” is hardly a new phenomenon in the public school system, with decades of efforts to improve reading and math scores. Why haven’t all these efforts met expectations? Here’s one explanation, from Andy Hargreaves, the Brennan Chair in Education in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College and an adviser to the  premier […]

18 by Valerie Strauss / 17h 

Banned Books Week: the 10 most challenged books every year since 2000

You might not think a best-selling book for kids called “Captain Underpants” would be terribly objectionable, but, as it turns out, it tops the 2013 list of books most challenged in schools and libraries in 2013. Why? Reasons cited by challengers: Offensive language, unsuited for age group, violence. It’s Banned Books Week, an annual event […]

2K by Valerie Strauss / 1d 

SEP 25

Chicago mayor admits naming elite new school after Obama, his former boss, was a mistake

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who once served as chief of staff in the White House for President Obama, just acknowledged that his plans to name a new $60 million high school located in a wealthy mostly white area of the city were a mistake. Here’s how the Chicago Sun-Times described the apparently rare moment: The […]

4 by Valerie Strauss / 2d 

Why a leading professor of new media just banned technology use in class

Clay Shirky is, as he explains below, a “pretty unlikely candidate for Internet censor.” Shirky is a professor of media studies at New York University, holding a joint appointment as an arts professor at NYU’s graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program in the Tisch School of the Arts, and as a Distinguished Writer in Residence in the […]

1K by Valerie Strauss / 2d 

SEP 24

‘Test reform’ movement picking up steam

We’ve had years and years of “school reform” that has mostly resulted in creating an untenable culture of high-stakes tests– and now, there is a growing “test reform” movement that is pushing back against the culture of high-stakes testing that has taken over public education. Every week, an organization called the National Center for Fair […]

500+ by Valerie Strauss / 2d 

SEP 23

Colorado teacher: ‘I refuse to administer the PARCC’ Common Core test to my students

Peggy Robertson is an educator in Aurora, Colo., who has been a sharp critic of high-stakes standardized testing. Robertson, a teacher and literacy coach, has taught in elementary schools in Missouri, Kansas and Colorado, and spent several years training teacher leaders and administrators in educational theory and practice. She is a co-founder of United Opt […]

10K by Valerie Strauss / 3d 

SEP 22

The ‘Big Bang’ boys (at Caltech) have a real science adviser (from UCLA)

Have you ever watched the popular television comedy called “The Big Bang Theory” and noticed complex formulas written on the character Sheldon’s white boards? Unless you are an accomplished mathematician, you would have no way of knowing that the formulas — every one of them — are real. In fact, the show’s creators have an […]

500+ by Valerie Strauss / 4d 

Common Core calls for kids to read books that ‘frustrate’ them. Is that a good idea?

This post is connected to two recent pieces I published about the Common Core State Standards. This post is a transcript of a debate on the Core that was recently held in New York; arguing for the Core were Carmel Martin and Mike Petrilli and arguing against were Carol Burris and Rick Hess. And this […]

1K by Valerie Strauss / 5d 

SEP 20

Why a kindergarten teacher is running for Congress

Janet Garrett is a veteran kindergarten teacher in Oberlin, Ohio. She just started her 35th year of teaching — which will be her last. She is running as a Democrat for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from the 4th Congressional District of Ohio, challenging the conservative Republican incumbent, Jim Jordan. In this […]

15K by Valerie Strauss / 6d 

9-27-14 Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Schooling in the Ownership Society All Week

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog:
Schooling in the Ownership Society

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk 

Schooling in the Ownership Society

Nice piece of writing by Chicago high school teacher and Louder Than a Bomb poetry coach, Dave Stieber at Huffington, &q...

Nice piece of writing by Chicago high school teacher and Louder Than a Bomb poetry coach, Dave Stieber at Huffington, "Lessons Learned in Englewood: 8 Years of Reflections From a CPS Teacher". Worth sharing with my students and fellow educators.Dave Stieber's I Teach website is here.THE POINT OF PRODUCTION... I did some classroom walk-throughs and observations (not evaluations) with a mi

3 by Mike Klonsky / 21h 

SEP 25

More name dropping

Jitu Brown and 10 other protesters say their arrest at City Hall Tuesday night forced the mayor to provide services for Dyett High School students. (DNAinfo)"I f**ked up." -- Rahm EmanuelRahm's dream of a two-tiered public school system -- one tier for gentrifying neighborhoods and one for the rest of us --- is turning into a political nightmare.The mayor has once again gotten himself in

30 by Mike Klonsky / 2d 

SEP 23

Taking back Dyett and Chicago

As I'm posting this, south-siders, CTU members and community activists from around the city are sitting-in outside the mayor's office demanding that Dyett High School not be closed. If Rahm and Byrd-Bennett carry out their plan to close Dyett and turn it over to private operators, they will leave Bronzeville, Oakland and Kenwood without a neighborhood public high school.Community activist Bob Geor

29 by Mike Klonsky / 3d 

SEP 22

Weekend Quotables

Lots of teachers among 400,000 who marched in N.Y. yesterday. Linda Darling-Hammond“The poverty rates of countries in PISA are associated with how kids do overall on the tests. The United States poverty rate far outstrips the other countries with one out of four children here living in poverty.” -- AZED NewsLaura Washington If Chicago voters really want to divorce the mayor, a Lewis/ Fioretti unio

13 by Mike Klonsky / 5d 

'The last honeypot for Wall Street'

Venture capitalists and for-profit firms are salivating over the exploding $788.7 billion market in K-12 education, writes Lee Fang at The Nation.“It’s really the last honeypot for Wall Street,” says Donald Cohen, the executive director of In the Public Interest, a think tank that tracks the privatization of roads, prisons, schools and other parts of the economy.K12 Inc.’s lobbyists helped author

2 by Mike Klonsky / 1h 

SEP 24

The Chicago Way

Every day it's something.Today there's two stories shining light on the Chicago way. The first is by Greg Hinz at Crain's. He writes about Rahm Emanuel's city council floor leader, Ald. Pat O'Connor and a woman who's "volunteered" to be the bookkeeper of his political campaign fund, even writing checks for him.That would be Mary Ann Roti-Walz, the daughter of the late 1st Ward Ald. Fred

6 by Mike Klonsky / 2d hide  //  save

SEP 21

The Mis-Education Campaign of the Climate Change Deniers

Today’s big People’s Climate Marches in New York City and 150 countries around the world, mark a new stage in the fight to save the planet from what Naomi Klein calls "the raw terror of ecocide." One of the greatest challenges faced by the movement is taking on and countering one of the greatest propaganda and mis-education campaigns in history, underwritten by the biggest and most react

6 by Mike Klonsky / 6d 

9-27-14 Wait What? - All Week

Wait What?:

  Wait What? All Week

In a stunning move, Connecticut Education Association Board of Directors Endorses Malloy

NEWS FLASH:  The only Democratic governor in the nation to propose doing away with teacher tenure for all teachers and repealing collective bargaining for teachers working in the poorest district has received the endorsement of the Connecticut Education Association’s Board of Directors. According to multiple sources, the CEA’s Board of Directors reversed the decision the […] The post In a stunning

45 by jonpelto / 50min

Tom Foley’s bizarre move on Education Policy and its potential impact on the CEA endorsement

In what appears to be an ongoing effort to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory, Tom Foley, the Republican candidate for governor, has proposed an education policy that looks eerily similar to Governor Dannel “Dan” Malloy’s corporate education reform initiatives. Over the past four years Governor Malloy has earned the reputation as the […] The post Tom Foley’s bizarre move on Education Policy

90 by jonpelto / 1d 

SEP 25

The story behind the story about UConn’s decision to spend $1 million to fix a roof

19 years after the passage of UConn 2000, the initiatives that included the funds to renovate the Torrey Life Sciences Building, The University of Connecticut plans to spend $1 million on a new roof for the building which will then be torn down in next five to seven years after a new science building is […] The post The story behind the story about UConn’s decision to spend $1 million to fix a roo

21 by jonpelto / 1d 

SEP 23

Malloy’s administration to tout Corporate Education Reform Industry Agenda at National Conference

While wooing teachers with false promises of a change in policy here at home, Governor Dannel “Dan” Malloy and his administration continue to trumpet their Corporate Education Reform Industry Agenda far from the gaze of Connecticut voters. Next month Connecticut taxpayers will pick up the tab to send the Connecticut delegation to the annual meeting […] The post Malloy’s administration to tout Corp

20 by jonpelto / 3d 

SEP 22

ConnCAN yelps response to Sarah Darer Littman’s Commentary piece

Provides stunning argument as to why Malloy does not deserve four more years! Over this past weekend, public education advocate and CT NewsJunkie columnist Sarah Darer Littman published a scathing commentary piece on the Malloy administration, the disgraced Jumoke/FUSE charter school chain and the tens of millions of taxpayer funds being wasted on charter schools […] The post ConnCAN yelps respons

20 by jonpelto / 4d 

Malloy to Teachers – Just for the record, I’m lying to get your vote

“In a recent interview published in this past weekend’s Waterbury Republican-American newspaper, Governor Dannel “Dan” Malloy admitted that when it comes to his corporate education reform industry agenda, he intends to continue along the same track. Malloy said, “What we’ve done needs to continue to be implemented and rolled out,” We all know that Governor […] The post Malloy to Teachers – Just fo

71 by jonpelto / 5d hide  //  save

SEP 21

The pro-Common Core Standardized Testing governor throws students, parents and teachers a bone.

With election day in sight, Governor Dannel “Dan” Malloy, one the of country’s leading corporate education reform supporters, recently issues a press release announcing that he was writing a letter to Obama’s Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, to “explore” reducing the use of the Common Core standardized testing for 11th graders.  (Malloy’s pro-corporate education reform […] The post The pro-Com

34 by jonpelto / 5d 

SEP 20

Another MUST READ column on Jumoke/FUSE by Sarah Darer Littman

Sarah Darer Littman is an award-winning columnist and novelist of books for teens.  She is also one of the most important voices on behalf of public education in Connecticut. This week Sarah Darer Littman’s commentary piece in the CTNewsJunkie is a key addition to the discussion about the impact the corporate education reform industry in […] The post Another MUST READ column on Jumoke/FUSE by Sara

15 by jonpelto / 6d