This PLC Thing… « Diary of a Public School Teacher!

This PLC Thing… « Diary of a Public School Teacher!

This PLC Thing…

I have to say, this PLC thing (Professional Learning Community)has really been working. I went to Arizona in February to a PLC Summit, thought it was just a free trip to Phoenix. But it wasn’t, it was so much more. Very productive seminars, and I learned so much!

Fast forward to May, and I have to admit, I am enjoy using what I’ve learned from it. Now, as a school, we’re not quite there yet, but we are a lot farther than where we were when we started. More people have ” got on the bus”, and it has really helped our students improve. Personally, I love what it has done for my team, we are collaborating and making decisions that are good for our kids.

For example, we looked at our student scores on a common math assessment, and decided to have Math workshops that focused on the skills they were weak in. Each teacher chose the focus skill he or she was strong in, and taught based on the level of the group we saw. Can you say “differentiated instruction”? Of

State budget will keep new $105 million Grover Norquist high school closed - San Jose Mercury News

State budget will keep new $105 million school closed - San Jose Mercury News

State budget will keep new $105 million school closed

Associated Press

Posted: 05/31/2011 01:05:45 PM PDT

Updated: 05/31/2011 01:05:45 PM PDT

RIVERSIDE -- A Southern California school district has spent $105 million on a new state-of-the-art high school but now doesn't have the money to operate it.

The Los Angeles Times reports Tuesday that Alvord Unified School District is building Grover Norquist high school* (aka Hillcrest High School) to relieve overcrowding. But after three years of state funding cuts totaling some $25 million, it doesn't have the funding for staff and overhead to open it in September.

The school board in the Riverside County district has postponed opening the school for a year. But even then there's no guarantee that the district will be financially able to take on the extra expense.

In the meantime, the district will spend about $1 million in security and maintenance for the empty campus.

------

Information from: Los Angeles Times and *B.E.A.

Pissed Off: Student Rating Systems

Pissed Off: Student Rating Systems

Student Rating Systems

by Pissed Off

The statistics unit of my college class spends quite a bit of time talking about valid studies. As an extra credit assignment, I asked my class to make up a survey that could evaluate their teachers. It is interesting that not one question in this study deals with test grades. Kids are a lot brighter than the people running the school system.

Survey 1:

This is a confidential assessment that will help evaluate your teacher’s performance.

Consider each of the following statements below. Then, rate them accordingly to your teacher’s performance.

Statement	1 2 3 4 5 Never Rarely Sometimes Frequently Always
1. Is available outside the classroom
2. Provides clear lessons
3. Provides lessons with an objective/aim
4. Actively involves students into the lesson
5. Seeks constructive feedback from students
6. Knows and addresses students by name
7. Gives students sufficient time to finish exams
8. Values what students have to say
9. Communicates with students respectfully
10. Explains homework efficiently

Statement

1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Disagree Neither

Schools Matter: Protesting Arne at Harvard

Schools Matter: Protesting Arne at Harvard

Protesting Arne at Harvard

by Jim Horn

From WickedLocal Cambridge:

Cambridge —Last Thursday, Harvard graduate and current U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was honored as the Chief Marshall of his alma mater’s graduation ceremonies.

Traditionally, the Chief Marshal for Harvard Commencement is elected from the class that is celebrating its 25th reunion, according to the Harvard News Service. Duncan, who graduated in 1986, was elected to the post by his classmates.

But for a handful of educators and activists just outside the university gates, the event wasn’t a reason for celebration.

Close to 60 protesters gathered in Harvard Square to speak up against Duncan’s policies as secretary of education — policies, they said, that depend too much on standardized testing.

“We are here to let the world know about the problems that he’s caused for our teachers and our families,” Liza Womack said. Womack — herself a Harvard alum, an elementary schoolteacher and an organizer for Speak

Eva Moskowitz, Harlem Success And The Political Exploitation Of Children | Edwize

Eva Moskowitz, Harlem Success And The Political Exploitation Of Children | Edwize

Eva Moskowitz, Harlem Success And The Political Exploitation Of Children

May. 31, 2011
7:06 pm
by Leo Casey
No Comments

Filed under:Education

As educators, one of our defining beliefs is the principle that we do not use the students entrusted in our care as a vehicle for promoting and accomplishing our political agendas. We hold to this core value even when the political agendas we are pursuing involves causes that will better the lives of those young people, such as full funding for day care centers and schools. When communities and families send their young to us to be educated, they trust that we will exercise the authority given to us as teachers responsibly: we do not manipulate young people into political action they do not fully understand, but educate them into the skills and knowledge of democratic citizenship, in order that one day they will be prepared to make and act on their own informed choices of political action.

So when Eva Moskowitz and her Harlem Success Academies turned out students and parents to support the closing of district schools at the February meetings of the Panel for Educational Policy, many of us present were shocked at the way in which 5 year old and 6 year old children were sent to the microphones to speak words they clearly did not understand, put into their mouths by adults

GOP says healthier school lunches cost too much - LA Daily News

GOP says healthier school lunches cost too much - LA Daily News

GOP says healthier school lunches cost too much

By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press

Posted: 05/31/2011 03:32:04 PM PDT

Updated: 05/31/2011 03:35:18 PM PDT

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans are pushing back against Obama administration efforts to promote healthier lunches, saying the Agriculture Department should rewrite rules it issued in January that would make school meals healthier. Republicans say the rules are too costly.

The legislation is expected to be approved by the House Appropriations Committee Tuesday.

The bill also questions a government proposal to curb marketing of unhealthy foods to children and urges the Food and Drug Administration to limit rules requiring calorie counts be posted on menus.

The overall spending bill would cut billions from USDA and FDA budgets, including for domestic feeding programs and international food aid.

Chris Crawford, a spokesman for Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Jack Kingston, a Georgia Republican, said that Republicans are concerned with the cost of many of the Obama administration proposals and that the proposals may be overregulation.

Crawford said the marketing guidelines, released last month, are "classic nanny-state overreach." Though the

PAA endorses the Student Bill of Rights « Parents Across America

PAA endorses the Student Bill of Rights « Parents Across America

PAA endorses the Student Bill of Rights

May 20, 2011 No Comments ›› pureparents

The education “reformers” have been trying their darndest to get the nation to ignore the real crisis in American education: resource inequality.

Thanks to Representative Chaka Fattah of Pennsylvania, we have an opportunity to get school reform back on track and do the one thing that will make a real difference, especially for the most at-risk children.

Rep. Fattah has re-introduced a bill that he originally filed back in 2002. The Student Bill of Rights is a powerful statement of what we adults owe our children, and what we must demand from our lawmakers and officials.

It’s the accountability bill that the “standards and accountability” folks don’t want to see passed.

The Student Bill of Rights puts it this way:

The standards and accountability movement will succeed only if, in addition to standards and accountability, all schools have access to the educational resources necessary to enable students to achieve. Raising standards without ensuring adequate and equitable access to educational resources may, in fact, exacerbate achievement gaps and set children up for failure. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2001-2002, the United

LAUSD- "I Don't Have to Show You Latinos No Stinking Education" - Perdaily.com

LAUSD- "I Don't Have to Show You Latinos No Stinking Education" (LAUSD: "No tengo para demostrar que los latinos no apesta Educación") - Perdaily.com

LAUSD- "I Don't Have to Show You Latinos No Stinking Education" (LAUSD: "No tengo para demostrar que los latinos no apesta Educación")

by Leonard Isenberg

(Mensaje se repite en Español)

(For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post)

At the root of public education's generational failure to educate Latino and Black students in this country is the unrelenting not so subliminal message that these young people are inferior and cannot learn.

While it was bad enough when this kind of pernicious racism was practiced exclusively by Whites against Latinos and Blacks, what now makes it worse are institutionally de facto racist entities like the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), which have succeeded in co-opting elements within the Latinos and Blacks

Detroit Looks To Charters To Remake Public Schools : NPR

Detroit Looks To Charters To Remake Public Schools : NPR

Detroit Looks To Charters To Remake Public Schools

by LARRY ABRAMSON

This story is the first in an ongoing series on education overhaul in Detroit

The Detroit Public School system hopes to convert dozens of schools into charters in the next year or so in a last-ditch effort to cut costs and stop plummeting enrollment.

The plan faces tremendous skepticism from a generation of parents and teachers frustrated from previous reform efforts.

No one has ever done what DPS is trying to do: turn more than 40 schools into charters, some in just a few short weeks.

Greg Richmond of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers says that when the city first approached him with this idea, he hesitated.

"I was concerned when I first heard about Detroit's idea of starting a large group of

Michelle Rhee and the Machine - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

Michelle Rhee and the Machine - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

Michelle Rhee and the Machine

by E.D. Kain

Michelle Rhee’s brash style and take-no-prisoners approach to school reform in D.C. won her some admirers in the press and the education reform movement, but made her a pariah for teachers’ unions and the D.C. political establishment. It was hardly a surprise that when Adrian Fenty lost his mayoral re-election bid, Rhee went down with him.

I had mixed feelings about Rhee when she was still chancellor, and I have mixed feelings about her now. But I thought her two-track option was a really good idea, allowing young teachers to enter the system without tenure but with a much better salary upfront. I would make that bargain if I were a teacher, and I suspect many other would-be teachers might also.

Richard Whitmire has a long post up at Huffington Post defending Rhee from a number of accusations that have

Reforming Teacher Pay to Attract New Teachers - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

Reforming Teacher Pay to Attract New Teachers - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

Reforming Teacher Pay to Attract New Teachers

by E.D. Kain

In keeping with the thrust of my last post, I want to cast a skeptical eye on Dana Goldstein’s latest column. In it, Dana points to this paper from the National Center on Education and the Economy. Dana focuses a great deal on the way in which other nations, like Finland, expect a good deal more training and professionalism from their teachers:

Finland, for example, requires all teachers to hold a master’s degree in education and at least an undergraduate major in a subject such as math, science, or literature. Finnish teacher-education programs also include significant course work in pedagogy—exactly the sort of instruction former New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein recently called useless. All teacher candidates must write a research-based master’s dissertation on an issue in education policy or teaching practice, and will then spend a full-year as a student teacher reporting to an experienced mentor.

But the report actually has a lot more to say about attracting new teachers into the profession. It talks about the problems with current compensation models which tilt overall teacher compensation toward retirement benefits

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Teacher pension grab bill killed -- for now

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Teacher pension grab bill killed -- for now

Teacher pension grab bill killed -- for now

by Mike Klonsky

How do we know? Ty Fahner told us so

Fahner

Under pressure from hundreds of thousands of people (including me) who made phone calls and sent emails, IL legislators pulled the plug on a bill that would have increased the amount current public employees would have to pay for their pensions. The great lesson in all this is that if you don't hit it, it won't fall. This was a victory for the grass roots forces inside and outside the teacher and public employee unions against a vicious assault on teachers and public schools.

I am glad that the forces of darkness revealed themselves this time, in a statement announcing the withdrawal of SB 512 signed by none other than House SpeakerMichael Madigan, House Minority Leader Tom Cross, and Ty Fahner, the president of the anti-union Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, saying the issue is dead until the legislature’s fall veto session.Why would Ty Fahner be signed on to such a statement, you may ask? Who elected Ty Fahner and the Civic Committee to

Daily Sound — GUEST COLUMN: Assemblyman Das Williams spotlights achievements after 5 months in Sacramento

Daily Sound — GUEST COLUMN: Assemblyman Das Williams spotlights achievements after 5 months in Sacramento

GUEST COLUMN: Assemblyman Das Williams spotlights achievements after 5 months in Sacramento

By DAS WILLIAMS -- MAY 31, 2011

Each morning begins with the sound of metal poles clanking, drums beating, protesters yelling, or speeches booming from Capitol Park. The most interesting was a few weeks ago when I woke up to a high pitched whine, which I dimly remembered was a signal of war and alarm, and slowly realized was an air raid siren.

I got out of bed and said to myself, “oh, that must be the teachers.” Thousands of classroom teachers, including a score from our area, were in town to highlight the state of emergency that public education is in and what could happen to our schools if we do not extend the current tax rate as the Governor has proposed. I roll into the shower, put on the suit – required attire on the floor e

very day, which is less than ideal for this central coaster -, and walk across the street to the Capitol to debate anywhere from twenty to one hundred bills a day.

Some of the bills do absolutely nothing, but express nice sentiments. Many are vital for the future of job creation, energy independence, and protection of the environment. To be a part of establishing one of the toughest energy efficiency standards in the nation; a mandate that would require 33 percent of the state’s energy to come from renewable sources is a rush for me. It is an extension of the work we started in the city of Santa Barbara by setting one of the most aggressive renewable energy programs in the state. Being a

Is the U.S. doing teacher reform all wrong? - Ezra Klein - The Washington Post

Is the U.S. doing teacher reform all wrong? - Ezra Klein - The Washington Post

Is the U.S. doing teacher reform all wrong?

By Dana Goldstein

There is good reason for education reform efforts to focus on teaching. We know that although about two-thirds of the achievement gap can be explained by family poverty, teachers are among the most important in-school factors that effect student learning, with some teachers being better than others at helping children progress. We also know that most teachers are given cursory and unhelpful evaluations (if they are evaluated at all) and that tenure makes it difficult to remove bad teachers from the classroom.

To address these problems, many American education reformers spent the past decade demanding that districts and states get tough with teachers and provide them with more prescriptive advice on how to improve their practice. The political results are the new state lawswritten in response to the Obama administration’s Race to the Top grant program, some of which base up to 51 percent of a teacher’s evaluation

EDUCATION: The other side of charter schools - News Articles - Rochester City Newspaper

EDUCATION: The other side of charter schools - News Articles - Rochester City Newspaper

EDUCATION: The other side of charter schools

By Tim Louis Macaluso on May 31, 2011

Total Recommendations (0)

Leave A Comment
Read Comments (4)

After a public meeting about opening two new charter schools in the city ended last Thursday, a public meeting concerning the proliferation of charter schools began. Duels over charter schools are occurring across the country.

The first charter schools were created in the mid 1990's, said Shawgi Tell, an associate professor of education at Nazareth College at the latter meeting, and there are now more than 5,400 charter schools in 39 states. They are opening at an explosive pace regardless of what the evidence shows about their effectiveness, he said.

Tell was a co-speaker to parents and educators at School Without Walls. His forthcoming book, "Charter School Report Card," is the result of his research on charter schools and education governance.

Charter schools are often promoted as incubators for innovation: settings where new approaches to education can be tested and then transferred to traditional public schools. But critics contend there is little meaningful crossover or collaboration. And charter schools on the whole, they say, are sometimes not any better performance-wise than the schools they are supposed to help improve.

"We now have two systems of education plagued by problems," Tell said.

And if charter schools enrolled the same percentages of special-education students as most urban schools, they would close, he said. The literature shows, Tell said, that charter schools that do enroll special- education