Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Measure the wrong thing, get the wrong thing

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Measure the wrong thing, get the wrong thing

Measure the wrong thing, get the wrong thing

by coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher)

Creativity is Declining?
Hat tip to my dear friend Maggie Tsai, cofounder of Diigo for pointing me to Newsweek's article on the creativity crisis.

For the first time in history, American creativity is declining.

"The correlation to lifetime creative accomplishment was more than three times stronger for childhood creativity than childhood IQ."

Read the article. Share it in your groups and discuss. I haven't slogged through everything, but will say that -- if

Letters to the editor on the verdict in an Oakland shooting case; an L.A. school's education experiment; and food stamps for the elderly. - latimes.com

Letters to the editor on the verdict in an Oakland shooting case; an L.A. school's education experiment; and food stamps for the elderly. - latimes.com

L.A. school district replaces first principal of new downtown arts campus By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times Officials announced that Suzanne Blake, who led Central Los Angeles High School #9 during its inaugural year, would be transferred and replaced by an administrator from Franklin High. Obituary: Alfonso B. Perez dies at 91; pioneered special education in L.A. schools By Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times Perez also guided his alma mater, Roosevelt High, during a tense period of Chicano protest. On the verdict in an Oakland shooting case; an L.A. school's education experiment; and food stamps for the elderly

EDUCATION Headlines from L.A. Now Second lawsuit seeks billions more for California schools07/12/2010, 9:30 a.m. Low-achieving Fremont High reopens; most of its teachers are new07/06/2010, 4:31 p.m. UC president in unusual public dispute with several American Jewish groups07/06/2010, 3:24 p.m. Monica Garcia to serve fourth year as L.A. Unified board president07/01/2010, 1:54 p.m. Teachers, charters, others to bid for 17 new or struggling L.A. Unified campuses07/01/2010, 1:09 p.m. More potential for problems with L.A. Unified's payroll system, grand jury says06/30/2010, 2:27 p.m. More ...

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS: Lady Liberty Academy Charter School

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS: Lady Liberty Academy Charter School

Lady Liberty Academy Charter School

by The Perimeter Primate

Letter from the NJ ACLU to the Executive Director of Lady Liberty Academy Charter School in Newark, New Jersey (June 4, 2010)

Re: Lady Liberty Academy Charter School; Open Government Violations
Dear Mr. Pinder,
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey (“ACLU-NJ”) was recently contacted by an anonymous requester of public records about the open government practices of the Lady Liberty Academy Charter School (“Lady Liberty”). Since that time, the ACLU-NJ has been monitoring various requests for public documents submitted to the school and has reviewed the responses provided. I am writing to inform you that Lady Liberty has violated several provisions of the Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”), N.J.S.A. 42:1A-1 et seq. and the Open Public Meetings Act (“OPMA”), N.J.S.A. 10:4-6 et seq., and appears to have taken affirmative steps to obstruct access to public information.
Since the ACLU-NJ was first contacted in February 2010, we have heard from various sources about the disconcerting open government practices of Lady Liberty, including that requests for public records, such as Board of Trustees (“Board”) meeting minutes or school policies, are

Important Default Rate Truths � The Quick and the Ed

Important Default Rate Truths � The Quick and the Ed

Important Default Rate Truths

by Ben Miller

I can’t recommend enough Kelly Field’s excellent piece on the front of this week’s Chronicle of Higher Education about the true story of long-term default rates (and not just because Erin and Robin’s report on this topic gets a mention). What Field turns up isn’t pretty:

According to unpublished data obtained by The Chronicle, one in every five government loans that entered repayment in 1995 has gone into default. The default rate is higher for loans made to students from two-year colleges, and higher still, reaching 40 percent, for those who attended for-profit institutions.

We’ve known from other Department documents that default rates were always higher than expected, but to see it laid out in such clear terms is worth the read by itself. But there are three other things about the story (and theaccompanying piece from Goldie Blumenstyk) that are worth highlighting.

Lots of Complexity

Over the past decade or so the Department of Education successfully established a complex and opaque

Quick Hits is a short compilation of question-raising news stories, blog posts, and video clips that Education Sector team members are reading and viewing each day.

• How effective are mandatory random drug testing programs on high school students’ drug use?(Institute of Education Sciences)
• Why is charter school governance, which might seem like a snoozer, actually a critical issue? Sara Mead’s take on her new Ed Week blog. (Sara Mead’s Policy Notebook)
• Corporal punishment making a comeback? Not in Memphis at least. (The Commercial Appeal)
• What’s the College and Career Association’s legislative strategy for dealing with increased scrutiny on proprietary schools from Congress? (Higher Ed Watch)

A Reformer's Argument for Cutting Race to Top - Politics K-12 - Education Week

A Reformer's Argument for Cutting Race to Top - Politics K-12 - Education Week

A Reformer's Argument for Cutting Race to Top

by Michele McNeil

The pros and cons of Congress' proposal to trim $500 million from Race to the Top to fund edujobs have sparked quite the discussion on this blog.
Most of the commenters seem to think edujobs is a far better use of taxpayer money than Race to the Top.
But here's one interesting argument in favor of cutting Race to the Top, and not for obvious reasons. Mike Petrilli over at Flypaper says that to leave Race to the Top Round 2 at a bloated $3.4 billion forces Education Secretary Arne Duncan to fund some very mediocre proposals. And that's not very reform-y at all. In fact, Petrilli isn't a fan

Education Advocacy Toolkit | The Forum for Education and Democracy

Education Advocacy Toolkit | The Forum for Education and Democracy

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Education Advocacy Toolkit

In conjuction with our partners in the Rethink Learning Now campaign, we have produced an ESEA Toolkit for you to use in making your voice heard around ESEA reauthorization.

To read The Forum's paper, Creating a National Culture of Learning: The Forum for Education & Democracy’s Recommendations for the Reauthorization of ESEA.

New Features

• Read George Wood's blog and learn about the new Education Advocacy Toolkit from The Forum and Rethink Learning Now in the July 13th edition of The Forum's newsletter News and Views.

  Pedro Antonio Noguera is a professor in the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University. He has published on topics such as urban school reform, conditions to promote student achievement, youth violence, the impact of school choice and vouchers on urban public schools, and race and ethnic relations in American society.

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