State Sen. Velmanette Montgomery on steps of City Hall today
State Senator Velmanette Montgomery of Brooklyn and Assemblymember David Weprin of Queens announced they were introducing a new bill that would end mayoral control, by taking away his supermajority on the Board of Education, now called Panel for Educational Policy.
The Board would continue to have 13 members: five appointed by the borough presidents, all public school parents; and four appointed by the mayor, one a public school parent. Four would also be appointed by the City Council: One a representative of a college or university; one a member of a parent's organization; one a member of a Parent's Educational Council [CEC?]; and one at large.
The Weekly Update for the News and Views You Might Have Missed
Some of our state representatives are not asleep at the wheel.
On Friday I posted information regarding two bills that are up for public hearings this coming week. That same day three of our representatives questioned the motives of the legislators who were dropping these ludicrous and expensive bills.
And we do not need an alternative - the alternative is what we once did and can still do - real learning assessed through portfolio, project, performance and more.
Teacher friends, we must make sure this message is clear - teachers know how to assess - mainstream media via the corporations and ALEC have created mass amnesia - they seem to have forgotten that teachers once upon a time actually assessed their learners. Isn't this convenient? Without teachers viewed as capable of assessing, how quickly the shift to teacher as technician will occur.
The general public keeps asking - but without the tests - how will we know? The reporters say, but is there an alternative? Oh dear oh dear what will we do???? Pearson? Can you help us???
Teachers - remind them of what you know how to do.
They have left the teacher completely out of the discussion - this is intentional. Remind them that we are HERE
Like many people this season I enjoyed the heartwarming story of how Christianity’s message was spread using the Christmas Carrol The Twelve Days of Christmas. There are a lot of seemingly secular holidays and traditions in our society that have a Christian tradition behind them. In the middle ages Christians throughout Europe were persecuted and in many countries the teaching of Christian doctrine was forbidden. The Christians of the time being men and women of good faith looked for a way to pass the story of Christ’s resurrection down to their children.
The day which the Europeans called Candlemas Day was full of symbolism. For those of you that need a refresher, on February 2nd the groundhog comes out of his burrow and looks around. If he sees his shadow
In a public statement released today, more than sixty educators and researchers [UPDATE: now more than 250], including some of the most well-respected figures in the field of education, pledged support for the boycott of the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test initiated by the teachers at Garfield High School in Seattle, calling the action a “blow against the overuse and misuse of standardized tests.” Among the signers of the statement are former US Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, author Jonathan Kozol and professor Nancy Carlsson-Paige. While the MAP test is used exclusively for rating teachers, “the test’s developers (the Northwest Evaluation Association) have noted the inappropriateness of using tests for such evaluations” the educators wrote.
“We’ve had more than a decade of standardized testing,” Ravitch said, “and now we need to admit that it’s not helping.” She added: “By signing this statement, I hope to amplify the voices of teachers who are saying ‘enough is enough’.”
“On Martin Luther King Day, we celebrate people who are willing to take personal risks to act according to their conscience,” Lewis said. “The teachers at Garfield High School are taking a stand for all of us.”
New York City public school teacher and doctoral student Brian Jones drafted the statement last week and
One school district in Washington is looking to put a copyright on everything created by their employees or students, which means they would own new lesson plans, an app created in a computer science class, or even just your everyday homework. The Washington Post's Ovetta Wiggins reports Prince George’s County Board of Education is raising eyebrows for their proposed new policy. As it stands, the policy is quite clear in its intentions:
“Works created by employees and/or students specifically for use by the Prince George’s County Public Schools or a specific school or department within PGCPS, are properties of the Board of Education even if created on the employee’s or student’s time and with the use of their materials,” the policy reads. “Further, works created during school/work hours, with the use of school system materials, and within the scope of an employee’s position or student’s classroom work
A reader writes:
Shakedown Artists
A number of billboards have gone up recently in LAUSD board member and candidate for re-election, Monica Garcis’s district two months before school board elections. They read, ‘ Dream Big – Arts education fuels creative thinking’ and include a picture of a thirteen year old Monica Garcia. This billboard was funded by LA Fund (lafund.org), a non-profit group founded in 2011 by her political allies LAUSD Superintendent and former Deputy Director of Education for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, John Deasy and Megan Chernin. One of the LA Fund projects is Arts Matter which was started in response to the deep cuts to arts education in Los
EduShyster has discovered a brilliant program for highly effective teachers who don’t plan to hang around for very long. Read it and get a good laugh, as you always do when you read EduShyster.
Here is the sales pitch: Do you dream of CRUSHING the achievement gap but aren’t sure that a 14 hour work day is right for you? Are you MAD passionate about training the next generation of test takers but worry that you lack the hand gestures to keep a large class of minority students on task? Reader: I’ve got excellent news. Thanks to our excellent and innovative friends atMATCH Education you can test drive your dream with absolutely no obligation to buy.
Diane Ravitch's blog: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Why Does Minneapolis Have So Many Segregated Charter Schools? by dianerav Minneapolis is one of America’s prettiest cities in one of its most beautiful states. But it has an ugly secret. It has a charter sector that has resurrected segregation. Myron Orfield of the University of Minnesota Law School regularly tracks segregation in the Minneapolis-St. Paul schools. He says that seeing the charters–one white, one black–in the same neighborhood, feels like the Jim Crow era in the Deep South. Orfield estimates...more »
CSCOPE is a customizable, online curriculum management system aligned with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). CSCOPE's high quality curriculum, assesment, and instructional components assist schools in meeting the high standard of rigor and relevance required in the TEKS and STAAR assessments.
CSCOPE has come under intense scrutiny from Texas legislators, parents and educators because of the cost, the curriculum, the necessity for online infrastructure in the schools, the fact CSCOPE is copyrighted and the taxpayers do not have the right to access the curriculum taught their children. The school districts/teachers do not have the right to teach other curricula other than what is mandated in
If I could buy a Super Bowl ad I would hire Matt Damon to describe the importance of public education and the harm of high-stakes testing. If I could buy a Super Bowl ad I would ask Jon Stewart to use his gift of humor and biting sarcasm to point out how the current state of education reform is a bipartisan disaster. If I could buy a Super Bowl ad I would inquire if Steven Colbert would use his satire to publicize the irony of rank amateurs making education policy in the United States.
Those gentlemen would be great, but I would do what Doritos has done the last two years: run a contest.
So…. If I could buy a Super Bowl ad I would
Common sense dictates that the School District should be looking for opportunities to close crumbling schools that are half-empty and underperforming. In a cash-starved system with a shrinking population and aging facilities, we can’t afford not to.
Officials acknowledge that closing schools is painful but say that once we get through it, we’ll all be better off with a streamlined system – and the District will be poised to improve its fortunes.
Unfortunately, reality does not match that narrative. Many of the schools on the closings list don’t neatly fit the crumbling, half-empty and low-performing profile. A dozen are more than two-thirds full. Several are high performers academically, and others are on an upswing.
To families faced with losing their schools, officials have been unable to offer
- MEDIA ADVISORY – “We demand quality assessment!”
Wear Red on Wed for Ed! Scrap the MAP! *Join the event on Facebook!*
Supporters will hold meetings, press conferences, rallies, take photos, and wear red to show support Contact:scrapthemap@yahoo.com For more info, visit: http://scrapthemap.wordpress.com/ What: Educators, Students, Parents and supporters of Public Education nation-wide will take action in support of Garfield High School teachers and all teachers in Seattle Public Schools refusing to administer the MAP test.
Teachers at Garfield High School and other Seattle Public Schools have gained national attention and support for their stand against the Measure of Academic Progress, for its invalidity, waste of time and resources and its scandalous arrival to Seattle. We call on supporters of public education nationwide to participate in actions in their locale to show their support for our effort to Scrap the MAP. Supporters will hold meetings, rallies, take photos, and wear red to show support on February 6th.
As the nation-wide day of protest grows, we will send updates to the media with all the cities and organizations who are participating. When: Wednesday, February 6th, 2013 Where: All over the nation! In Seattle actions will take place at participating schools, including Garfield, Orca, Chief Sealth, and Center School. Some of the prominent organizations and individuals that have expressed their support for the Seattle MAP test boycott: National Education Association (NEA) President Dennis Van Roekel, American Federation of Teachers (AFT), San Diego Education Association, UTLA Board of Directors, Parents Across America, Des Moines, Iowa Education Association, Diane Ravitch, Garfield High School PTSA, Garfield HS Associated Student Body, Dr. Wayne Au, Dexter Tang, President of Seattle Student Senate, Matt Damon & his mother Dr. Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Seattle Education Association (SEA), The SEA Substitute Association, and Social Equality Educators (SEE).
The UFT is getting ready to hold elections. The big mystery, supposedly, is who will win? Will it be Unity/ New Action, or upstart MORE? Well, it's not such a big mystery that no one has ever defeated Unity except Mike Shulman, or that Unity now co-sponsors him and New Action for a few seats on the UFT Executive Board. Nor is it a mystery that the overwhelming majority of chapter leaders are committed to support Unity/ New Action.
What I'd like to see is a discussion of issues rather than personalities and stereotypes. Will that be possible? Lately, when this blog takes a position against UFT leadership, I get responses calling me an egomaniac and comparing my viewpoint with Fox
By now, many Texans are familiar with the backlash against the over-testing of our students in public schools. Most of this backlash has focused on the amount of tests being given and the amount of time, energy and resources being spent on “teaching to the test” as opposed to our students mastering and retaining the information.
Another issue has just surfaced that has caused significant concern about our testing and accountability system. Of all places, this concern arose on craigslist.org. If you aren’t familiar with craigslist, it is an online classified advertising service where you can buy and sell almost anything. But, that’s not the troubling part.
On November 29, 2012, Pearson Testing ran an advertisement in Austin looking for people to help
You offered thousands of dollars to teachers and principals who brought up their schools’ test scores. Did you ever consider that it would encourage some to cheat?
Teachers have integrity. And if money was the motivating factor, they wouldn’t be in education.
Michelle, if money isn't a motivating factor for teachers, why would you
“Any other profession that had that kind of turnover would look at working conditions, would look at salaries and other things surrounding the teaching environment,” said Joel Westheimer, university research chair and professor at the University of Ottawa’s faculty of education. “Instead, in education, we bring up talk about testing teachers and linking their pay to the students’ performance. I mean, can you imagine Microsoft suffering a crisis because there were not enough programmers going into the profession and leaving after the first five years? Would (the company’s) response be to increase salaries, recruit better people, change working conditions so that they could work in different places, have free soda and free lunches? Or would it test them?” [emphasis mine]
I take cold comfort in the knowledge that the Canadians are ruining the profession of teaching as badly as we Americans are.
A compilation of news articles about charter schools which have been charged with, or are highly suspected of, tampering with admissions, grades, attendance and testing; misuse of funds and embezzlement; engaging in nepotism and conflicts of interest; engaging in complicated and shady real estate deals; and/or have been engaging in other questionable, unethical, borderline-legal, or illegal activities. This is also a record of charter school instability and other unsavory tidbits.
Couldn't Find Your Own Special Charter School Scandal Just Type the name of your city or charter school in the box below
