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Sunday, June 10, 2012

Florida Backtracks on Standardized State Tests - NYTimes.com

Florida Backtracks on Standardized State Tests - NYTimes.com:


Backtracking on Florida Exams Flunked by Many, Even an Educator

By 
Published: June 10, 2012 2 Comments
SANFORD, Fla. — Bill Vogel, the superintendent of schools in this suburb of Orlando, has always been vigilant about preparing his district for the state tests.
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Roberto Gonzalez for The New York Times
Edlexander Rabassa, a high school sophomore in Orlando, Fla., qualified for college credits but failed a reading competency test.
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All students take practice tests in math, reading and writing in September and December. Heather Flay’s fourth graders at Crystal Lake Elementary keep folders with their test results so they can chart which scores need improving.
“We have them show their folders to their parents,” Ms. Flay said. “They’ll say, ‘This is what my scores were in third grade, this is where I was in September and this is what I’m shooting for.’ ”
Terri Ganey, an English teacher here at Seminole High, 
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All Education Matters: Announcement: All Education Matters Is Expanding and Launching a Radio Show and Magazine

All Education Matters: Announcement: All Education Matters Is Expanding and Launching a Radio Show and Magazine:


Announcement: All Education Matters Is Expanding and Launching a Radio Show and Magazine

by Cryn Johannsen

All Education Matters is expanding! I am pleased to announce that we are launching a radio show and online magazine called Matters of Today. We will laugh at life, hear from new artists, and also have well-rounded discussions on pressing issues of today. Student loans,education, social change, health, career issues, the global economy, and so forth will be covered. I am pleased to say that this endeavor - Matters of Today - is a partnership with my publicist Kathy Horn of Roadrunner Talent and Media. As I said, we will discuss serious topics, but will also emphasize the levity in life. There is a fine balance between good and bad, and Matters of Today will be committed to offering this type of approach. We invite you to join us on this new adventure, and we're sure you will enjoy our lively conversations with amazing guests.

The radio show will launch during the last week of July.
Stay tuned for details and follow us on twitter @MattersOfToday.

If you want to be considered as a guest , please send an email to MattersofToday@aol.com.
Finally, if you have a topic that you want us to cover, please let us know.

Pieter Bruegel, Kermesse (circa 1525 - 69), Kunsthistoriches Museum, Wien




 Homo ludens - we are at are best when we are at play.
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Schools Matter: Research-free language education policy in England

Schools Matter: Research-free language education policy in England:


Research-free language education policy in England

by skrashen
Sent to the Telegraph (UK), June 10.
In “Children will learn to recite poems by heart from age of 5,” (June 10), we are told that schools in England will put greater emphasis on spelling, grammar and phonics instruction in order to insure that children “leave primary school with a strong command of both written and spoken English, with high standards of literacy”.

Education Secretary Gove and his staff are clearly unaware of some very well-established results: (1) studies done over the last 100 years show that spelling instruction has very little effect on spelling accuracy; (2) studies done over the last 100 years show that the formal study of grammar does not improve students’ reading and 
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David Coleman’s 50/50 mandate for literary/informational texts « Parents Across America

David Coleman’s 50/50 mandate for literary/informational texts « Parents Across America:


David Coleman’s 50/50 mandate for literary/informational texts

by leoniehaimson

The following was written Sandra Stotsky, one of the primary authors of the highly-regarded Massachusetts standards for English Language Arts.  Here is an earlier piece by Stotsky on the Common Core standards.
It is amazing that one badly informed person could single-handedly alter and weaken the entire public school curriculum in this country, without any public discussion.  Indeed David Coleman, author of the Common Core standards in English Language Arts, was able to impose his personal preferences on a document called our “national standards.”  Not one legal organization in this country has so far mounted a challenge to the entire series of non-transparent procedures, funding sources, and appointments that gave one person the authority to make national 
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Leaving Things Up To God: On Community Activism and Education [#NN12 Reflection] | The Jose Vilson

Leaving Things Up To God: On Community Activism and Education [#NN12 Reflection] | The Jose Vilson:


Leaving Things Up To God: On Community Activism and Education [#NN12 Reflection]

by Jose

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending Netroots Nation 2012 in Providence, RI as a panelist for “Education as a Right-Wing Wedge Issue” featuring Sabrina Stevens, Martha Infante, and Karran Harper Royal. While on the train towards the festivities, I came across a passage in my current book Malcolm X, A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable, and it continues to shake so much of what I believed about Malcolm. Marable posthumously thumbs his nose at so-called Malcolm scholars, but, more importantly, he inspires us to think of Malcolm’s life in layers and not one of strict demigod orthodoxy.
In light of this weekend’s events, I was particularly struck by the following passage. To give some content, one of 
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Domingo en Oaxaca. « Fred Klonsky

Domingo en Oaxaca. « Fred Klonsky:


Domingo en Oaxaca.

by Fred Klonsky
After the students left the building on Friday, I walked one loop around saying goodbye and exchanging hugs.
Anne had waited at the local Starbucks. I went by to pick her up. We drove to the Park n’ Jet, hopped a shuttle to the United Airlines terminal, and after a four-hour (that was only supposed to be a three-hour) layover at Houston’s Bush airport, we took off to Oaxaca.
Just for a few days.
It was Leigh’s idea to walk out of school and get on a plane to somewhere else.
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Jersey Jazzman: NJDOE: Some Charters Ain't Worth It

Jersey Jazzman: NJDOE: Some Charters Ain't Worth It:


NJDOE: Some Charters Ain't Worth It

by Duke
Oh, dear - looks like sitting on a stage with governor Christie...


... isn't always enough to save your charter school:
State officials have raised questions about a planned charter school in Cherry Hill. 
Regis Academy is scheduled to open in the Ashland area later this year, pending final approval by the state Department of Education. But a DOE official, in a letter to the school’s organizer, said a legal challenge has presented “numerous issues and inaccuracies regarding the school’s application and addenda.” 
Amy Ruck, interim director of the state’s Office of Charter Schools, included no specifics in the letter to Pastor Amir Khan, head of the Solid Rock Worship Center. 
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Unschooled by my Electronic Greek Chorus | Lefty Parent

Unschooled by my Electronic Greek Chorus | Lefty Parent:


Unschooled by my Electronic Greek Chorus

by Cooper Zale
I have already highlighted in several previous pieces the important if not critical role popular music – mostly heard on the radio or played on a stereo – has played in my life. It’s like I’ve lived my life to a soundtrack or with a Greek chorus accompanying and commenting on and informing my life’s context, trials, tribulations and triumphs. Looking back at particularly the first three decades of my life, I can think of no significant developmental moment that does not have a song (or several) associated with and helping facilitate it, a song that I heard frequently at the time with a lyric, a melody line, or a rhythmic gestalt that captured or informed the moment and somehow facilitated my developmental journey. Though I have not read or 
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Gene V Glass: Education in Two Worlds: High Button Shoes and Education Reform

Gene V Glass: Education in Two Worlds: High Button Shoes and Education Reform:


High Button Shoes and Education Reform

As a very young child, I was fascinated by my grandmother’s collection of button hooks. It was the mid-1940s and high button shoes had been out of style for decades. She collected the hooks that were used to pull the tiny buttons through the holes that ran up the sides of the ladies’ shoes back in the early 20th century.
Often made of silver with decorative handles of porcelain or glass, the hooks made for an attractive display.Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, his long-time partner at Berkshire-Hathaway, also had a connection to shoe buttons. Munger’s grandfather had managed to corner the market on shoe buttons back around 1900. The grandfather exercised a virtual monopoly over their production and sale. Emboldened by his business acumen, the old man grew to believe that he not only knew more than anyone about shoe buttons but that he knew more than anyone about anything—and he preached and proclaimed at length on such. Munger and Buffett named the syndrome the Shoe Button Complex, and they 
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The Best Posts On The Weirdest School Reform Story Of The Year (So Far, At Least) | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

The Best Posts On The Weirdest School Reform Story Of The Year (So Far, At Least) | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…:


The Best Posts On The Weirdest School Reform Story Of The Year (So Far, At Least)

by Larry Ferlazzo


There have been some good posts over the past few days about what is clearly — to me, at least — one of the weirdest school reform stories of the year. The Gates Foundation has granted over a million dollars for the testing (and wearing) of “galvanic skin sensors” to see if they could be used “regularly in schools with students and teachers” to measure classroom engagement.
These sensors (which seem to be typically worn as wristbands) measure emotional arousal to stimulation and are used in lie detectors and in the mental health field for biofeedback to help people control stress. They are also used by advertisers and The Church of Scientology (their famous “E-Readers”).
Anthony Cody and Diane Ravitch have written excellent posts on this topic already, so I’ll just link to them in a 
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School Tech Connect: The Universe Has Come Full Circle

School Tech Connect: The Universe Has Come Full Circle:


The Universe Has Come Full Circle

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)
I love Google Alerts. Without them, I would have never stumbled on this little irony.

Here we have a new state employee, whose salary is paid by private donations*, whose job it is to administer the authorization of charter schools that have been declined by locally democratically elected school boards. You can rest assured that the people donating the salary have an interest in charter schools.



And here we have an ad for a private employee, whose salary will eventually be paid by the taxpayers, whose job it will be to grow the privatization of public school management. You can rest assured that the people paying the salary of this individual will have very little voice in the governance of the schools he or she manages to wrangle out of the public system.

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Big Education Ape - Mid Day Banana Break 6-10 #soschat #edreform



Big Education Ape - Mid Day Banana Break


Van Jones Closes NN12 With Pleas to Save Nation . . . and Obama from Tea Party | FDL News Desk

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 4 minutes ago
Van Jones Closes NN12 With Pleas to Save Nation . . . and Obama from Tea Party | FDL News Desk: Van Jones Closes NN12 With Pleas to Save Nation… and Obama from Tea Party by Scarecrow Popout The ghost of the 2008 candidate Barack Obama haunted Netroots Nation 2012 in Providence, Rhode Island. He hovered over every panel — at least the 10 or so panels I attended — and pervaded the general assemblies and closing session in which Van Jones gave the final pitch for progressives not to give up. Obama’s re-election campaign provided a short video in the closing session featuring the Pre...more »

Schools Matter: Pearson's Anti-Social Use of Social Media

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 50 minutes ago
Schools Matter: Pearson's Anti-Social Use of Social Media: Pearson's Anti-Social Use of Social Media by Jim Horn FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE District of Columbia, District of Columbia, United States of America ( Free-Press-Release.com) June 9, 2012 -- Educators, parents, and education activists from around the country cried foul as Pearson, the largest private provider of education-related products and services, blocked educators from voicing their opinion on Pearson’s new website, Parents, Kids, and Testing. The site was part of a campaign created by Pearson to offset its growing wave of... more »

Wiring our Students with Galvanic Response Bracelets? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 52 minutes ago
Wiring our Students with Galvanic Response Bracelets? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher: Wiring our Students with Galvanic Response Bracelets? by Anthony Cody Follow me on Twitter at @AnthonyCody "We are technocrats," Bill Gates recently boasted. What do technocrats believe and do? They think that technology and science provide the answers for the problems we face. Our educational system is today being rewired by technocrats such as Gates, with the active cooperation of the Department of Education, which uses laws such as No Child Left Behind to coerce states, distric... more »

Jersey Jazzman: Has the Ruiz Tenure Bill Changed?

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 55 minutes ago
Jersey Jazzman: Has the Ruiz Tenure Bill Changed?: Has the Ruiz Tenure Bill Changed? by Duke *YARRGGH! Please be scared of me NJ Legislators!* I am withholding judgment until I see the bill itself. But if what the * Star-Ledger* is reporting is true, we may have just seen an enormous breakthrough in the debate on tenure "reform": More than a year after state Sen. Teresa Ruiz began gathering evidence on how to overhaul the state’s century-old teacher tenure law, a bill that would link the job protection to regular evaluations may soon be fast-tracked in Trenton. Ruiz (D-Essex) said ... more »

Nation’s “Leading School Takeover Expert” Calls Connecticut Mastery Test “Not Very Helpful” - Wait, What?

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 1 hour ago
Nation’s “Leading School Takeover Expert” Calls Connecticut Mastery Test “Not Very Helpful” - Wait, What?: Nation’s “Leading School Takeover Expert” Calls Connecticut Mastery Test “Not Very Helpful” by jonpelto For the last six months we’ve seen Governor Malloy and Education Commissioner Pryor stake their careers on tying Connecticut’s Master Test to a new teacher evaluation system that they claim will allow administrators to determine which teachers are doing their job successfully and which need to be removed from the classroom. *In an extraordinary exchange on education expert... more »

Education lobby gets the grease - Worcester Telegram & Gazette - telegram.com

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 1 hour ago
Education lobby gets the grease - Worcester Telegram & Gazette - telegram.com: Education lobby gets the grease Squeaky wheel spurs City Hall Nick Kotsopoulos Politics and the City *3 comments* | Add a comment The fact that the Worcester Public Schools will be able to hire more teachers and school nurses for the next school year is a textbook example of how the squeaky wheel gets the oil at City Hall. Make no mistake about it, had it not been for the concerted efforts of the Citywide Parent Planning Advisory Council, concerned parents of school-age children and members of the Sch... more »

Drummond: Investigate allegations at West Oakland School - Inside Bay Area

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 1 hour ago
Drummond: Investigate allegations at West Oakland School - Inside Bay Area: Drummond: Investigate allegations at West Oakland School By Tammerlin Drummond Oakland Tribune Columnist Posted: 06/10/2012 12:00:00 AM PDT Updated: 06/10/2012 05:13:36 AM PDT Related - Jun 8: - District board members urge investigation of private Oakland school - Jun 5: - A West Oakland church school comes under scrutiny The pastor made me do it. That's what a teenage girl told Will Evans when the California Watch reporter asked her why she was out soliciting donations for a West Oakland chur... more »

PressTV - A future for teachers unions, but only with a fight

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
PressTV - A future for teachers unions, but only with a fight: A future for teachers unions, but only with a fight Sun Jun 10, 2012 4:38PM GMT Share James Cersonsky, Common Dreams “Things are the way they are” in urban schools, Michelle Rhee professes in Waiting for Superman, because “it all becomes about the adults.” While teachers unions generally scoff at this sort of sloganeering, most lack any effective strategy of resistance to the “student”-focused, union-busting, scorched-earth privatization pushed by Rhee and her billionaire colleagues. Chicago’s teachers union, the third l... more »

Mark Naison: A Liberator | United Opt Out National

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
Mark Naison: A Liberator | United Opt Out National: Mark Naison: A Liberator by admin Our Don’t Negotiate campaign is possible due to Liberators – those who do not negotiate with children’s lives. Recently Professor Naison of Fordham University was interviewed on Sky vs Sky. As he states, MSNBC won’t let us speak – but we continue to find a way to share the truth. Thank you Sky vs Sky and please follow Mark Naison at With A Brooklyn Accent . In the words of William Lloyd Garrison, who famously declared in the first issue of The Liberator: “*I am in earnest — I will not equivocat... more »

High Stakes Tests Good for Kids and Taxpayers? This Parent NOT Buying it ! -Response to Tampa Bay Times « Continuing Change

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
High Stakes Tests Good for Kids and Taxpayers? This Parent NOT Buying it ! -Response to Tampa Bay Times « Continuing Change: High Stakes Tests Good for Kids and Taxpayers? This Parent NOT Buying it ! -Response to Tampa Bay Times by gatorbonbc *My response to Tampa Bay Times article entitled, “FCAT Pressure Help Students and Teachers to Achieve” :* *.* *This parent disagrees. You write, “But parents? You are the consumers here. You should insist not only that the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test continues to be administered but that there’s a lot on the line when it is. Beca... more »

HEY, MITT ROMNEY, I HAVE A QUESTION. « Teachers Fight Back

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
HEY, MITT ROMNEY, I HAVE A QUESTION. « Teachers Fight Back: HEY, MITT ROMNEY, I HAVE A QUESTION. by alkleen Whenever Mitt Romney is asked by a reporter to respond to those who criticize him for being rich, he always answers like this,” I’m not going to apologize for being successful, this is America, we honor success.” Hey, Mitt, how come your supporters like the billionaire Koch brothers and your political party is out to destroy unions because union workers’ salaries and benefits are way to “lucrative”? Why are teachers under fire for their unions having gained “lucrative” sala... more »

Geaux Teacher!: LAE ENDORSES JINDAL RECALL EFFORT

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
Geaux Teacher!: LAE ENDORSES JINDAL RECALL EFFORT: LAE ENDORSES JINDAL RECALL EFFORT by noreply@blogger.com (Lee Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT) I met with the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Association of Educators Saturday to encourage their educators throughout the state to support the Recall Bobby Jindal Campaign. Governor Jindal's influence on the media and his misrepresentations to the public make communications throughout the state very difficult. Having the support of this statewide professional organization of educators will be a great asset and will serve to inform teachers ... more »

Not Grading is Awful « Cooperative Catalyst

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 3 hours ago
Not Grading is Awful « Cooperative Catalyst: Not Grading is Awful by Pernille Ripp Cover of The Report Card [image: Cover of "The Report Card"]Cross posted from my own blog; Blogging Through the Fourth Dimension. I am just going to admit it; not grading sucks! Not grading means I cannot assign an average, translate it into a grade and be done. Not grading means I have to have anecdotal evidence to back up my final grade on the report card, anecdotal evidence I have to collect throughout the year and then actually keep in one place. Not grading also means that my students have no... more »

Jersey Jazzman: A Question For the Reformy:

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 3 hours ago
Jersey Jazzman: A Question For the Reformy:: A Question For the Reformy: by Duke Derrell Bradford of the very reformy B4K makes his case on Facebook: Derrell is concerned about the gap between rich and poor kids, and the gap between NJ and "the world." Here's my question: *Is it possible, Derrell, that the gap between the rich and the poor and the gap between the US and the rest of the world are related?* * * * *

Big Education Ape - Morning Wink 6-10 AM Posts #soschat #edreform

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago
*BIG EDUCATION APE - MORNING WINK AM POSTS* Schools Matter: Gates Research Galvanizing Disgust for All Things Gates coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 27 minutes ago Schools Matter: Gates Research Galvanizing Disgust for All Things Gates: Gates Research Galvanizing Disgust for All Things Gates by Jim Horn Diane Ravitch has uncovered a brave new world of research that makes student clickers as ancient as the knickers. Funded by Gates at Clemson U., which sold its soul to the highest bidder some years back, this new world technology tracks student attention levels with bracelets. Nex... more »

Schools Matter: Gates Research Galvanizing Disgust for All Things Gates

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago
Schools Matter: Gates Research Galvanizing Disgust for All Things Gates: Gates Research Galvanizing Disgust for All Things Gates by Jim Horn Diane Ravitch has uncovered a brave new world of research that makes student clickers as ancient as the knickers. Funded by Gates at Clemson U., which sold its soul to the highest bidder some years back, this new world technology tracks student attention levels with bracelets. Next: shock treatments for daydreaming? by Diane Ravitch Yesterday I posted a blog about the Gates Foundation funding research at Clemson University for something c...more »

This Teacher Knows How to Game the GRS Bracelet « Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago
This Teacher Knows How to Game the GRS Bracelet « Diane Ravitch's blog: This Teacher Knows How to Game the GRS Bracelet by dianerav This teacher sent a comment; he or she has figured it out. If the galvanic response skin bracelet will give teachers a high effectiveness rating when students are excited, there is an easy way to game the system and fool the bracelet: *Can this galvanic contraption distinguish between different types of excitement? Sometimes a beautiful new female student joins my class and the young men are visibly excited–about the girl, but not about my thrilling e... more »

Hudson Reporter - Charter school employees to lose retirement benefits Hoboken JC schools protest possible pension losses

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 5 hours ago
Hudson Reporter - Charter school employees to lose retirement benefits Hoboken JC schools protest possible pension losses: Charter school employees to lose retirement benefits? *Hoboken, JC schools protest possible pension losses* byStephen LaMarca *Reporter Staff Writer* Jun 10, 2012 | 229 views | 0 [image: 0 comments] | 2 [image: 2 recommendations] | [image: email to a friend] | [image: print] [image: The Hoboken Charter School (HCS) passed a resolution opposing the draft IRS regulation.] view slideshow (2 images) Several Hudson County charter schools have joined the effort to oppo... more »

The Education Report: Attendance boundary angst in Oakland - San Jose Mercury News

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 5 hours ago
The Education Report: Attendance boundary angst in Oakland - San Jose Mercury News: The Education Report: Attendance boundary angst in Oakland By Katy Murphy Oakland Tribune Posted: 06/10/2012 12:00:00 AM PDT This is a sampling of The Education Report, Katy Murphy's Oakland schools blog. Read more atwww.IBAbuzz.com/education. Follow her at Twitter.com/KatyMurphy. June 7 The Oakland school district might study its school attendance boundaries once again, if the school board approves such a proposal next fall -- but the new lines wouldn't be drawn before the 2013-14 school year, Dav... more »

Missouri Education Watchdog: Bill Gates, Fairy Tales, Technology, High Stakes Testing and the Sunday Education Weekly Reader 06.10.12

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 5 hours ago
Missouri Education Watchdog: Bill Gates, Fairy Tales, Technology, High Stakes Testing and the Sunday Education Weekly Reader 06.10.12: Bill Gates, Fairy Tales, Technology, High Stakes Testing and the Sunday Education Weekly Reader 06.10.12 by stlgretchen The genius-beasts of reform education and their technological "advances" Welcome to the Sunday Education Reader for 06.10.12. Tweets of the week include the oft-dismissed learning discipline of memorization, the joys of using social media in the classroom, the harm to the brain using social media, stress reducing behaviors by stu... more »

Do Not Accept the New Normal « Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 5 hours ago
Do Not Accept the New Normal « Diane Ravitch's blog: Do Not Accept the New Normal by dianerav Since No Child Left Behind began its reign of error a decade ago, the American public has slowly but surely changed its understanding and expectations of schools. We have come to think that every school must “make” every student proficient, and if it cannot, then the school is a “failing” school. We have come to look on schools as “failing” if they enroll large numbers of students who don’t perform well on standardized tests, regardless of their personal circumstances, their language abili... more »

Making Schools about Learning Again « Cooperative Catalyst

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 5 hours ago
Making Schools about Learning Again « Cooperative Catalyst: Making Schools about Learning Again by Paula White I have to say I was one of those kids for whom “school was okay.” I didn’t hate it, but neither did I love it–and I was, and am, a lifelong learner. I like learning, even when it’s hard–I get great pleasure out of figuring something out, gaining new knowledge that I can then use, and then, often sharing it. I like the struggle that comes with solving a puzzle of some kind. I have handheld games (that require strategy to play, such as Othello and Yahtzee) all around my h... more »

Amid a flurry of misspellings, test yourself - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 5 hours ago
Amid a flurry of misspellings, test yourself - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post: Amid a flurry of misspellings, test yourself By Valerie Strauss In the past 10 days or so, we’ve seen some pretty embarrassing misspellings. Mitt Romney’s team was behind the now famous misspelling of the word “America” on an iPhone app (though it is hard not to wonder how many people at Apple missed “Amercia” during the app approval process). Then we learned that diplomas distributed at a (Brendan McDermid/REUTERS)Maryland high school featured a misspelling of the word “program”and had to be rep... more »

Reshaping Teaching through Managerial Use of Student Test Scores | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 6 hours ago
Reshaping Teaching through Managerial Use of Student Test Scores | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Reshaping Teaching through Managerial Use of Student Test Scores by larrycuban *The path of educational progress more closely resembles the flight of a butterfly than the flight of a bullet. Philip Jackson, 1968* Top governmental policymakers and private insurance companies, deeply concerned over ever-rising health care costs and unwilling to rely upon doctors to restrain expenditures, have built structures over the past quarter-century to hold physicians accounta...more »

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Testing contractors bleeding La. schools dry

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 6 hours ago
Schooling in the Ownership Society: Testing contractors bleeding La. schools dry: Testing contractors bleeding La. schools dry by Mike Klonsky John Kennedy, state Treasurer, holds two books listings contracts for the Department of Education. Kennedy spoke with the News-Star Editorial Board on May 23. / Margaret Croft/The News-StarThe Louisiana Department of Education is spending more than $132.9 million with two out-of-state companies for

Real Reform: What we DO want (?) « Cooperative Catalyst

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 6 hours ago
Real Reform: What we DO want (?) « Cooperative Catalyst: Real Reform: What we DO want (?) by iteach4change Easy way to get a new post – paste your treatise from another blog… Yesterday (Sat. 6/9) this was posted on BlueJersey: *“There’s a lot written here about what we don’t like about the right wing education “reform” agenda – the attack on unions, privatization, etc.* *I’m at an education panel at Netroots Nation, and a Rhode Island blogger asked the question what is the progressive reform agenda. Not what we don’t like, but what actions we should be proactively promoting?* *Blue ... more »

More about Our Brave New World « Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 13 hours ago
More about Our Brave New World « Diane Ravitch's blog: More about Our Brave New World by dianerav Yesterday I posted a blog about the Gates Foundation funding research at Clemson University for something called Galvanic Response Skin bracelets. The project will enable researchers at Clemson to work with researchers in the Gates Foundation’s Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project to measure student engagement physiologically. MET is the Gates program to identify the most effective (and ineffective) teachers. It is the heart of the Gates’ teacher evaluation program, into whic... more »

Look To Westchester County To Fight Pearson and the Deformers http://www.southbronxschool.com

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 13 hours ago
http://www.southbronxschool.com: Look To Westchester County To Fight Pearson and the Deformers by noreply@blogger.com (Bronx Teacher) *PEARSON CEO "DAME" MAJORIE SCARDINO*For those who don't know who Janine Sopp is, run do not walk, and check out her blog Change The Stakes. Janine is a parent in Brooklyn, in fact she is not an educator, as well as an artist and she is leading a movement to end testing as we know it. I have spoken and emailed with her a on several occasions and she is smart as a whip and really is quite knowledgeable. I bring Janine up for several reasons tonight. ... more »

Merit Pay for Teachers? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Bribe! « Diary of a Public School Teacher!

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 16 hours ago
Merit Pay for Teachers? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Bribe! « Diary of a Public School Teacher!: Merit Pay for Teachers? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Bribe! by Oldschoolteach COMING SOON? And you know they would! [image: :)] Merit pay, how realistic is it that our pay could actually be tied to test scores? Very realistic! What is merit pay? *Noun :extra pay awarded to an employee on the basis of merit (especially to school teachers)* What “think tank” thought up this idea, maybe the same one that stated that smaller class size doesn’t matter? I am amazed by what people (non-educators) c... more »


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