Teachers Don't Suck !: An Interesting Article Referenced on FB

Teachers Don't Suck !: An Interesting Article Referenced on FB:

An Interesting Article Referenced on FB

by Walt S.

I wonder if the "assignee" will be related to politically connected parties? I wonder if Booker, Joe D, Cerf or our Governor fit anywhere into this picture??  Just asking !

 

Op-Ed: A Call for Fairness in School Options

All our children deserve quality schools, and quality education within them

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By Junius Williams, Esq., August 1, 2012 in Opinion |4 Comments

In law school, we were taught to evaluate contracts, including leases, looking at the interests created and protected within the four corners of the document. Using this approach we can see which party has the most power by determining the dominant interests, despite public proclamations to the contrary. Through this lens and looking at a recently state superintendent approved long-term lease 

Urban Ed: My Kid; the Born Teacher

Urban Ed: My Kid; the Born Teacher:

My Kid; the Born Teacher

I just wanted to share this completely true story. 

So I'm sitting in the theater with my four year old 15 minutes before the movie -Ice Age 4- is about to start  I'm eating popcorn, drinking soda and watching my daughter look around the theater. Suddenly, and almost out of nowhere, she proclaims a new rule.

"Dad. No more popcorn until the movie starts, ok?"

Huh? I didn't want to hear to that. There was nothing else to do until the movie started and the popcorn was all nice and warm and buttery. Besides, she's four! So I did what most adults do -I 

Food for thought: This summer, Oakland libraries are serving free lunches to children, five days a week - ContraCostaTimes.com

Food for thought: This summer, Oakland libraries are serving free lunches to children, five days a week - ContraCostaTimes.com:

Food for thought: This summer, Oakland libraries are serving free lunches to children, five days a week

By Katy Murphy Oakland Tribune

Posted:   08/03/2012 12:05:53 PM PDT

Updated:   08/03/2012 02:05:44 PM PDT

 

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Oakland Public Libraries free lunch program

Erika Ozuna, right, and her brother Hector, 1, receive a free lunch from volunteers Adrienne Carter, her mom Diane Carter, both of Oakland, and Cynthia Naton, left to right, at the Cesar E. Chavez Branch of the Oakland Public Library in the Fruitvale District of Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012. (Jane Tyska/Staff)

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• Summer lunch statistics, by county

OAKLAND -- This summer marked a first for library branch manager Peter Villasenor: Not a single child has asked him for lunch money.

They no longer need to. From Monday to Friday, children eat for free at 10 of the Oakland Public Library's branches, from Eastmont to Temescal, through a unique partnership between the Oakland Public Library, the city and the Alameda County Food Bank.

On Wednesday, Villasenor sat at one of the small tables in the children's section of the Cesar Chavez branch in East Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood -- a bustling, cheery place decorated with elaborate masks and colorful garlands of papel picado.

"The library's evolving with the times," Villasenor said. "If we have the space here and we have the volunteers, why not 

Oakland school closure savings estimate is missing something - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools

Oakland school closure savings estimate is missing something - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools:

Oakland school closure savings estimate is missing something

Friday, August 3rd, 2012 at 10:39 am in 1 Comment

photo by Jane Tyska/Oakland Tribune


In June and again in July, I asked the Oakland school district for a breakdown of the net savings from the five elementary school closures, taking into account the conversion of one of those schools — Lazear Elementary — into an independently run charter school.
Unlike the other two charter conversions, Lazear became a charter simply so it could remain open, so the fiscal impact of that change — the loss of enrollment and per-student funding — is inextricably tied to the decision to close it in the first place.
I’ve yet to receive a response for my request, specifically, but the district has produced a cost-savings analysis that’s left me scratching my head. Reading the document, which estimates a $2 million annual savings from the five school closures — as advertised last fall — it’s as if the Lazear conversion never happened.
In fact, the analysis lists a $490,000 savings for Lazear — when, just a few months ago, the superintendent and 

An Urban Teacher's Education: SOS Conference 2012 Day 1

An Urban Teacher's Education: SOS Conference 2012 Day 1:

SOS Conference 2012 Day 1

by James Boutin

I am back this year for the Save Our School Conference at the Marriott Wardman hotel in Washington, DC. I found last year's conference very inspiring, and wrote about it here, here, and here.

The format was a little different this year. Starting on a Friday afternoon, and jumping straight into sessions, I first attended a session about confronting the issue of race with students in the classroom. There, having been presented with a number of scenarios in which race might come up in an elementary classroom, I had the opportunity to hear thoughts on race and pedagogy from Deborah Meier, Katie Osgood, Jesse Turner, Leo Casey, Susan DuFresne, and Mary Beth Tinker.

There was one scenario, taken from a real classroom with real 

Whole Child Network Schools Embark on a New Adventure — Whole Child Education

Home Page — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD APPROACH

Each child, in each school, in each of our communities deserves to be healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. That's what a whole child approach to learning, teaching, and community engagement really is.

LEARN MORE »

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

Whole Child Network Schools Embark on a New Adventure

July 24, 2012 by ASCD Whole Child Bloggers

The 10 schools from across the continental United States and Guam chosen to participate in ASCD's Whole Child Network kicked off their efforts last week with ASCD in Alexandria, Va.

READ MORE »

Getting the Results You Want

July 18, 2012 by ASCD Whole Child Bloggers

Baruti Kafele is concerned with the "attitude gap" in students.

READ MORE »

Your Summer PD: Aligning Health and Education

July 13, 2012 by Klea Scharberg

Gain insight into ways to better align health and education in school settings through these presentations from the Whole Child Virtual Conference.

READ MORE »

Breaking News: Utah State Board of Education Votes to Pull Out of SBAC | Truth in American Education

Breaking News: Utah State Board of Education Votes to Pull Out of SBAC | Truth in American Education:

Breaking News: Utah State Board of Education Votes to Pull Out of SBAC

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Shane Vander Hart

The Utah State Board of Education’s meeting today had common core testing on the agenda.  Sources tell me that the Board has voted to pull out of their testing consortium – the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC).  SBAC had received Race to the Top funding in order to provide assessments based on the Common Core State Standards.

Their governance document says any state wanting to leave the consortium can do so without cause, but they must comply with the following exit process:

1. A state requesting an exit from the Consortium must submit in writing its 

Back to School: Learn to Say Thank You in Ten Languages #30DaysofGOOD - GOOD Projects - GOOD

Back to School: Learn to Say Thank You in Ten Languages #30DaysofGOOD - GOOD Projects - GOOD:

Back to School: Learn to Say Thank You in Ten Languages #30DaysofGOOD

 

Things are easier said than done, or so the old adage goes, and we couldn't agree more. That's why we do 30 Days of GOOD(#30DaysofGOOD), a monthly attempt to live better. This month we're going "Back to School" and committing to learn something new every day.

All of my friends have at some point mentioned wanting to learn another language. They usually have the same excuses as I do for not pursuing it. No time for it. I’m too old to start now. It’d be crazy 

Schools Matter: Christie Bows to the Billionaires: Public Schools to Go the Highest Bidder

Schools Matter: Christie Bows to the Billionaires: Public Schools to Go the Highest Bidder:

Christie Bows to the Billionaires: Public Schools to Go the Highest Bidder

by Jim Horn

Through filing of a FOIA request, the Education Law Center in Newark has obtained the Broad Plan for privatizing schools in New Jersey where least resistance will be offered--poor schools.  The plan is being passed around by Cerf's henchmen in the Ed Department, as they try to stay ahead of legislation that could put restrictions on this planned economic bonanza for Wall Street aspirants who are not smart enough to operate there, but not dumb enough to miss out on a feeding frenzy if the Christie/Broad alliance holds.  From NJPR: 

The New Jersey Department of Education is moving forward with a reform plan 

HechingerEd Blog | Round-up of leading thinkers on parent-trigger laws

HechingerEd Blog | Round-up of leading thinkers on parent-trigger laws:

Round-up of leading thinkers on parent-trigger laws

Parents in Adelanto, Calif., scored a victory for advocates of the “parent-trigger” law last week. The law allows public-school parents who gather signatures from a majority of their peers to transform a school into a charter. They can also opt to remove a consistently failing school’s staff or close the school entirely.

(To read more about the development, see these stories from the Los Angeles Times and Colorlines.)

A judge deemed that organizers in Adelanto had gathered valid signatures from more than 50 percent of parents. The decision marks the most successful execution of the law to date, although the school district can still appeal.

First introduced in California two years ago, so-called “parent-trigger” laws have since spread to other states. There are now variations on the law in Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas.

The Adelanto school in question, Desert Trails Elementary, had been classified as low-performing for years. Compared to schools with similar demographics, Desert Trails falls in the bottom 30 percent 

What’s the big deal about Blogging? « My Island View

What’s the big deal about Blogging? « My Island View:

What’s the big deal about Blogging?

by tomwhitby

A short time ago I attended a meeting where members of a college English department were doing a presentation to the faculty about their writing program. As I listened to about a 30-minute presentation of the types of writing required by this program, it became obvious to me that two words in this presentation of a college writing program were never uttered. They were two words that as an educator I come in contact with almost every day. Two words that have changed the way information is exchanged. The two words, never mentioned, have transformed the publishing industry. The two words have revolutionized journalism. These two words have moved authentic learning to the fore in writing classes across the country, or rather the world. These professors of writing had developed a program which by all accounts was very effective, but overlooked and did not even mention either of the two words that had changed forever how society views and consumes and disseminates the written word in the 21^st Century. Obviously, someone did not do their homework, or maybe 

Daily Kos: Whose Justice?: The Other and the Middle-Class Cocoon

Daily Kos: Whose Justice?: The Other and the Middle-Class Cocoon:

Whose Justice?: The Other and the Middle-Class Cocoon

by

plthomasEdDFollow

On August 2, 2012, I wore my James Baldwin t-shirt to celebrate his birthday. The back of this black shirt is emblazoned with Baldwin's face in gold print and this saying:

"The law is meant to be my servant and not my master, still less my torturer and my murderer." -- James Baldwin. The Nation. July 11, 1966.

This small act on my part to recognize a brilliant and marginalized radical intersected with two other coincidences of my life—completing Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy (popularly known in the U.S. as The Girl series, beginning with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and beginning Kathleen Nolan's ethnography on zero tolerance policies in urban schools, Police in the Hallways.

While the mesmerizing narrative of Larsson's novels, specifically the character Lisbeth Salander, 

All Education Matters: Mark Kantrowitz Argues That Six-Figure Debt Is Uncommon

All Education Matters: Mark Kantrowitz Argues That Six-Figure Debt Is Uncommon:

Mark Kantrowitz Argues That Six-Figure Debt Is Uncommon

by Cryn Johannsen

Mark Kantrowitz claims that six-figure debt is a rarity, and says that journalists are sensationalizing the problem. While it might be true, based upon his findings, that there is not a huge percentage of people with that sort of student loan debt, the fact remains that we are in a full-blown crisis. Journalists and activists are not the only ones who acknowledge the crisis. Higher education policy analysts, politicians, and other experts recognize the problem. More importantly, those who are being crushed by their debt, and also realizing that their window of opportunity for financial security in the future is narrowing, know all too well that the crisis is worsening. Those stories matter.

Furthermore, there is no debate that the dramatic increase in default rates on student loans is worrisome.  This 

Florida’s For-Profit Charter Schools and Pro-Voucher Groups Have Merged | Scathing Purple Musings

Florida’s For-Profit Charter Schools and Pro-Voucher Groups Have Merged | Scathing Purple Musings:

Florida’s For-Profit Charter Schools and Pro-Voucher Groups Have Merged

by Bob Sikes

Coming off last weekends story by Mary Ellen Klas which showed how the RPOF allocates campaign cash to the chosen ones, is an Orlando Sentinel story by Aaron Deslatte detailing how pro-voucher school privatization groups are taking donations from for-profit charter school operators to bankroll state candidates.

TALLAHASSEE –  The Florida arm of a school-voucher group raising big bucks from charter schools is sending out some positive mail for Rep. Scott Plakon, a Longwood Republican in one of the highest-profile House contests this year against Democrat Karen Castor Dentel.
The Florida Federation for Children, a state arm of the national school-choice group called the American Federation for Children, has spent close to $200,000 this summer — most of it on direct-mail pieces assisting Republican legislative candidates who support expanding school-voucher programs and charter-schools.
The mailer says nothing about Plakon’s party affiliation, which is probably by design given the 

Schools Matter: Why e-learning industry is enthusiastic about the standards. & other comments

Schools Matter: Why e-learning industry is enthusiastic about the standards. & other comments:

Why e-learning industry is enthusiastic about the standards. & other comments

by skrashen

Standards lead to more creativity? Standards are popular with educators? Why e-learning industry is enthusiastic about the standards.

Comments on a NY Times article: Common Core Standards Boon to E-Learning Industry, by Hiten Samtani. Published in the NY Times, available at http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/08/03/common-core-standards-boon-to-e-learning-industry/
Here are my comments, which I attempted to post on the NY Times Schoolbook Website. Not sure they made it on to the website.

1. CONTRADICTION: more uniform educational standards will lead to more creativity.

2. “The standards are popular with educators and education officials.” They are only popular with those who (1) 

USSA’s Student Power Turn « Student Activism

USSA’s Student Power Turn « Student Activism:

USSA’s Student Power Turn

by Angus Johnston

Every year the United States Student Association’s National Student Congress delegates must approve the Association’s campaigns for the year — establishing priorities for what the group will work on between then and the next Congress. Voter work and federal higher ed policy are locked in as perennials by USSA’s governing documents, but everything else is up for grabs.
This year seven of thirteen proposed campaigns made it through the delegates’ first round of vetting, but in the second round attention quickly focused on just three. Two of them — student loan forgiveness and support for the DREAM Act — had been approved unanimously in the first round, and drew little criticism in the second.
The third, “Legislating Shared Governance,” was where things got interesting.
Crafted by activists from Wisconsin, a state where students have a statutory right to participate in college and university governance, the proposal called on USSA to conduct a national analysis of “campus and statewide

What the Chick-Fil-A Protests Tell Us About Students and the Campus

by Angus Johnston

I was quoted pretty extensively in this morning’s Inside Higher Ed story on campus protests against Chick-Fil-A, and one of the nice things about being interviewed by a sharp journalist is that it prompts you to articulate things you wouldn’t ordinarily have occasion to say.
A lot of what I write is in response to specific circumstances, and for a particular audience, and because of all that some basic stuff often goes unspoken. Here’s an example from the IHE piece:

Arne Duncan: Will the Secretary of Education Stay or Go If Obama Is Reelected? - Yahoo! News

Arne Duncan: Will the Secretary of Education Stay or Go If Obama Is Reelected? - Yahoo! News:

Arne Duncan: Will the Secretary of Education Stay or Go If Obama Is Reelected?

Takepart.com – Wed, Aug 1, 2012

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Education secretaries are seldom household names.

Arne Duncan, the current secretary, is no different. While the man on the street in Peoria may not know Duncan, plenty of opinions exist about the man, known as a policy pragmatist, in the education world.

Some critics want Obama to ditch Duncan if he is re-elected in November. Others praise Duncan, the eighth education secretary since Jimmy Carter created the cabinet position in 1979, saying he has done a good job under trying circumstances.

More: New Report Blasts Poor Retention Rate for Teacher

Obama picked Duncan, a long-time friend, soon after he was elected president in 2008. From 2001 until then, he worked as chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools.

“When it comes to school reform, Arne is the most hands-on of hands-on practitioners,” Obama said when announcing Duncan’s appointment. “He’s not beholden to any one ideology, and he’s worked tirelessly to improve teacher quality.”

That same day, Duncan said, “It [education] is the civil rights issue of our generation.”

Duncan already had foes from his Chicago days, particularly those who disapproved of his successful 

Campbell Brown and Michelle Rhee: Another Odd Couple « Diane Ravitch's blog

Campbell Brown and Michelle Rhee: Another Odd Couple « Diane Ravitch's blog:

Campbell Brown and Michelle Rhee: Another Odd Couple

by dianerav

Leonie Haimson is a leading parent activist in New York City and a co-founder of Parents Across America, which keeps tabs on the depredations of the corporate reformers.
Here is Leonie’s take on l’affaire Campbell Brown. One would think that Michelle Rhee and her organization StudentsFirst would be wary of getting too deep in the weeds with the issue of sexual misconduct. Yet they seem to want to exploit it to the full in a fact-free fashion.
The text of Leonie’s commentary follows, in full:
Campbell Brown was the first witness chosen to testify at the Cuomo Commission hearings last week,  all about 

What Happens Now in Detroit?

by dianerav

The Michigan Supreme Court decided that the petitions for a referendum on the emergency manager law are valid, and the referendum will happen in November.
In the meanwhile, the judges said, the EM’s powers are suspended.
Detroit has an emergency manager. What happens there, this teacher wonders:
(I’m a teacher in Michigan.)  It also leaves hanging what will happen to Detroit Public Schools, which are currently being run by an Emergency Financial Manager.  The EFM fired all teachers (requiring them to reapply for their jobs), imposed a 10% pay cut on all teachers, removed class size maximums from the contract (allowing up to 60 students per class at the secondary level), and more.  Since these measures were imposed under a law which has now been suspended and whose fate won’t be decided until well after the new school year 

Common Core: A Bonanza for E-Corps « Diane Ravitch's blog

Common Core: A Bonanza for E-Corps « Diane Ravitch's blog:

Common Core: A Bonanza for E-Corps

by dianerav

A story in the New York Times says that the e-corporations are salivating over the Common Core State Standards.
They foresee the opening up of a multi-billion industry, with more tests, more online resources, more stuff to sell to schools complying with the Common Core.
The standards are indeed a boon for the edu-biz entrepreneurs.
It turns out that Joanne Weiss, chief of staff to Secretary Arne Duncan, was right when she predicted that the standards would open up vast new markets. She wrote:
The development of common standards and shared assessments radically alters the market for innovation in 

Michigan Court OKs Referendum on Emergency Manager Law

by dianerav

Opponents of Michigan’s emergency manager law want the law repealed as anti-democratic.
Well, it does allow an appointed person to overrule any decisions made by elected bodies, which does seem anti-democratic on its face.
They gathered 200,000 signatures, 40,000 more than the law requires to get a referendum on the ballot.
Supporters of the emergency manager law argued that the petitions were in the wrong font size and should be

A Teacher Explains It All to Campbell Brown

by dianerav

Campbell Brown, as we have recently learned, doesn’t like the teachers’ union.
She wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal asserting that the union protects sexual predators in the classroom.
She thinks that the arbitration process, by which an accused teacher gets a chance to defend against accusations, is rigged to favor the union.
She thinks that when the union and the New York City Department of Education jointly agree on the name of an arbitrator, the arbitrator will be biased in favor of the union and will seek to please the union by protecting sexual