Hite suspending seniority rules for September, going to Supreme Court | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Hite suspending seniority rules for September, going to Supreme Court | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Hite suspending seniority rules for September, going to Supreme Court

by Dale Mezzacappa on Mar 24 2014 Posted in Letters

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With labor negotiations stalled, Superintendent William Hite said Monday that he intends to impose a system for assigning teachers to schools next year that eliminates seniority as a factor and instead gives principals the power to fill all vacancies and assemble staff.

“It is our intention to implement a range of work-rule reforms, and these include teacher assignment and transfer, layoff and recall, staffing levels, leveling, and the use of prep time,” Hite said in an interview.

The District is filing a motion asking the state Supreme Court to affirm its legal right to make such changes unilaterally, Hite said.

Come September, “all openings ... will be filled through the site selection process,” Hite said. Now, only some positions – about half, Hite said – can be filled that way. Under the contract that expired in August, schools had to vote each year to become or remain a “site selection” school.

Since the ability of schools to choose site selection was introduced in the 2002 contract, dozens of schools have chosen to do so.

The rules will also give principals “flexibility” to use teachers’ daily 45-minute preparation period for professional development or instructional activities, meaning group discussions of student performance data, teaching methods, and other matters. Currently, principals have no control over individual teacher-prep periods, but some buy "extra" preps for the purpose of teacher meetings and 

Blogging: Who Should, and Why | My Island View

Blogging: Who Should, and Why | My Island View:

Blogging: Who Should, and Why

March 24, 2014 by tomwhitby

If there is one subject that most bloggers have written about, it is probably the act of blogging. I know for me, as well as many of my blogging friends, it is nothing like we imagined before we were immersed in the “blogosphere”. Bloggers start their blogs for many different and personal reasons. One step common to all however, is that it does take an act of courage to publish that first blog post.

When I first started, I thought that I would do apiece here and there for a little while, but that I would eventually run out of things to say. Three years later, after 237 posts, I am still waiting for that time to arrive. My areas of interest include education and social media. I guess as long as each of those areas continue to evolve, I will always have something to write about.

Another factor that affects what I blog is the continuing change in the audience. In order to access blog posts, a reader must be involved in some way with technology. That is a growing audience especially among educators. Most people use technology in everyday life, but more and more, educators are using technology for professional development in larger numbers. In order to access the most relevant information on the profession of education, educators are relying more on blog posts for relevancy. Many thought leaders and education authors are blogging their thoughts to share, test, and try out new ideas in education.

Twitter, which is considered to be micro-blogging, has lured many people to blogging. It limits the author to 140 characters, but it does however, enable one to blast out ideas for quick responses. Success on Twitter leaves some people with a need to do more. There are ideas that need to be placed in 

State Launches Field Tests - Year 2014 (CA Dept of Education)

State Launches Field Tests - Year 2014 (CA Dept of Education):

California Schools Set to Launch Trial Run of New Generation of Assessments

LOS ANGELES—The Smarter Balanced Field Test will launch Tuesday, marking an important milestone in California's transition to a new assessment system as it assesses technological capacity and the quality of test questions, and helps students and teachers prepare for next year's first operational test, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said today.

"Over the next three months, students, teachers, and administrators will gain valuable hands-on experience in a new era of student assessments," Torlakson said. "With more than three million students participating, this is the largest field test of its kind in the nation. It is a challenging transformation, but our schools are rising to that challenge with a great sense of excitement and determination."

Field testing begins Tuesday and runs through June 6. By the end, more than three million students in school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools will have had a chance to try the new system.

This "test of the test" will serve multiple purposes—foremost gauging the accuracy and fairness of the test questions ahead of the new assessments becoming operational next year. Across the nation, more than 20,000 assessment questions and performance tasks will be evaluated to determine which work well and which need to be improved. Test questions are aligned with the Common Core State Standards adopted by California in 2010 to encourage critical thinking, complex problem solving, and deeper knowledge of subjects.

"I am particularly interested in hearing teachers' views on the questions and their appropriateness for the students they work with every day," Torlakson said.

The field test also serves as a barometer of technology capability, allowing the state and local educational agencies to assess computer availability and server capacity to prepare for the new testing in spring 2015. Furthermore, teachers will be able to observe the computer savviness of their students.

"This field test gives us the opportunity to prepare our students for success," Torlakson said. "The STAR program served us well for years, but the world has changed, and our schools also have to change the way they teach and test their students."

The field test, which will cover English-language arts and mathematics, will take place between March 25 and June 6, with districts testing within assigned six-week windows during this time frame. All students in grades three through eight will participate, as well as a sample of students in grades nine and ten and most eleventh graders.

The test will be about 3½ hours long, and no paper and pencil version will be offered during the field test. There will be no student, school, or district scores produced from this administration of the assessment.

Additional information may be found on the California Department of Education Spring 2014 Smarter Balanced Field Test Web page.

For previous news releases on the new assessments, please see:

• More Than Three Million Students Set to Take Modern Assessments Next Month 2-18-14.
• State Expands Field Tests of New Common Core-Aligned Assessments 11-21-13.
• Governor Signs AB 484 to Remake State's Student Assessment System 10-2-13.
• Assessment Overhaul Supports Statewide Transition to Common Core 9-4-13.
• Smarter Balanced Practice Tests Launched 5-29-13.
• More than 1,100 California Schools Taking Part in Pilot Test of Computer-based assessments 2-20-13.
• State Superintendent Tom Torlakson Proposes New Statewide Testing System 1-8-13.

# # # #

Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

3-24-14 The Whole Child Blog — Whole Child Education

Lead the Next Change in Education — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

Lead the Next Change in Education

March 24, 2014 by ASCD Whole Child Bloggers

If you could change one thing about education, what would it be? How do you engage other educators? Are you ready to lead?

ASCD Emerging Leaders are accomplished educators with 5–15 years of experience who are highly involved in ASCD and the education community as a whole. The two-year program is designed to prepare younger, diverse educators for potential influence and ASCD leadership. ASCD now enrolls more educators in each class than ever before and includes an Emerging Leaders grant opportunity that will award selected participants in their second year of the program with grants of up to $2,000. All emerging leaders in the program are provided with opportunities to pursue various leadership pathways, including serving on committees, hosting networking events for educators, advocating for sound education policy, and contributing to ASCD publications.

Are you or someone you know interested in becoming an ASCD Emerging Leader? Applications for the class of 2014 are open until April 1. Learn more at www.ascd.org/emergingleaders.

Staff Morale in the Middle

One of the 16 characteristics of an effective school for students ages 10–15 is that teachers, learners, and building leaders should be using multiple assessments to gauge success. Data is collected to gauge learning and instructional success, but there is one other piece of data that also needs to be assessed, analyzed, and acted upon in the middle level: morale. While sometimes elusive, morale i

by Dru Tomlin / 1h 

 

3-22-14 THE WHOLE WEEK @ The Whole Child Blog — Whole Child Education

The Whole Child Blog — Whole Child Education: THE WHOLE WEEK @ The Whole Child Blog March Is Middle Level Education MonthWhole child partner National Association of Secondary School Principals has joined with other organizations, including the Association for Middle Level Education, the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform, and the National Association of Elementary Principals, to dec

by mike simpson / 15min 

3-24-14 LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD

LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District):

Vergara trial ends with a flurry of objections; closings Thursday

Eric Hanushek “Evidence is closed,” Judge Rolf Treu pronounced from his seat in Superior Court today, thus drawing the curtain on two months of testimony in Vergara v. California. Since Jan. 27, lawyers representing nine students-as-plaintiffs and their adversaries — the state and its two powerful teachers unions — the California Federation of Teachers and the California Teachers Association — hav

1 by Vanessa Romo / 2h 

Smarter Balanced Field Tests around CA starting tomorrow

As California gets ready to transition to a new assessment system, the state is set to rollout its Smarter Balanced Field Test starting tomorrow. As part of the field test, the state will be examining technological capacity and the quality of test questions, while helping students and teachers prepare for next year’s first operational test, said Tom Torlakson, State Superintendent of Public Instru

1 by Yana Gracile / 38min hide  //  save

SEIU Local 99 starting process to endorse District 1 candidate

SEIU workers on the job SEIU Local 99, one of the most powerful and influential unions in the LA Unified School District, is holding an exclusive forum next week for union members to meet the candidates running for the open District 1 board seat. With more than 30,000 cafeteria workers, special education assistants, custodians, bus drivers and others, the union is offering its members an opportuni

by Yana Gracile / 2min 

One district’s spending priority under local control: social workers

Via EdSource | By John Fensterwald One of the first school districts to finish a draft of the spending and accountability plan required by the state’s new school funding law is proposing to hire social workers to deal with the effects of troubled home lives, cyberbullying and other social and emotional issues hobbling students’ ability to concentrate and learn. The 24,000-student East Side Union H

3 3h hide  //  save

Morning Read: Common Core computer tests begin this week

Ready, set … California schools finally start new computer test this week The new Common Core tests are one of the biggest transitions in state public education in recent memory. California schools have spent nearly two years preparing for this moment: buying computers, upgrading internet access and in some cases hiring extra IT workers. But parents shouldn’t worry too much. Results this year don’

2 3h  

3-22-14 This Week in LA - School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD

LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District):‘Union Power’ wins big but most UTLA members didn’t voteUITLA’s election drew only 23 percent of the membership UTLA is headed in a new direction —  mostly veering to the left. Despite a low turnout, Union Power candidates claimed victory today, with wins in nearly every leadership position within UTLA, th

by mike simpson / 16min 

3-24-14 Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement"

Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement":

“Chicago Public Schools had the law on its side, but wisdom was nowhere to be found”

A few days ago, I posted about the inappropriate actions by the Chicago Public Schools in interviewing elementary schoolchildren — without parental permission — about a standardized test boycott (see I Don’t Get A Sense That The Chicago School District Has A Clue About Parent Engagement). Now the Chicago Sun Times has published an editorial on it, which they’ve titled Terrible idea to interrogate

2 by Larry Ferlazzo / 58min hide  //  save

New Book & Research On Parent Involvement, & It’s Potentially Very Unhelpful

Don’t Help Your Kids With Their Homework is the title of an article in The Atlantic by Dana Goldstein. It describes research shared in a new book, The Broken Compass:Parental Involvement With Children’s Education by two professors which, at least according to Dana Goldstein, questions most the effectiveness of what most of us would typically consider parent involvement/engagement. Based on what Th

5 by Larry Ferlazzo / 58min 

“School funding reforms spark push to get parent input”

School funding reforms spark push to get parent input is a new article at Ed Source describing what districts are doing to hear from parents about funding priorities (it’s a requirement of California’s new funding formula). It sounds like most districts are doing a fair amount of work. However, I’ve got to wonder how many of them — if any — are doing it with a long-term parent engagement strategy

2 by Larry Ferlazzo / 58min 

3-22-14 Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement"

Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement": I Don’t Get A Sense That The Chicago School District Has A Clue About Parent EngagementFollowing the backlash from closing huge numbers of neighborhood schools and making it difficult for parents to opt-out of standardized testing, you’d think that the Chicago school district would have learning something about the importan

by mike simpson / 5min 

The Common Core: Are They Even Really Standards? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

The Common Core: Are They Even Really Standards? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

The Common Core: Are They Even Really Standards?

By Anthony Cody on March 24, 2014 12:10 PM

The original sin, the fatal flaw, the hamartia of the Common Core has been defined, at last, with scientific precision and unimpeachable reference.

Diane Ravitch this morning has revealed the basic accepted process for the setting of national standards, and the process leading to the Common Core violated just about every step.  

The origins of the Common Core have been hotly debated over the past couple of years. It is remarkable that something so recently born could still be subject to such a wide variety of birth stories. I wrote last fall: 

Perhaps because Common Core standards originated in a secretive process, and were adopted with little public discussion, their origins have become a subject of great interest among educators. As with ancient mythology, we care about where things come from, because the method of creation can reveal the nature of the creator, and the intentions at work.

 But the true origins of the Common Core have always been clear, in spite of all the post-hoc arm-waving. I know, because I wrote about the process as soon as it was announced back in July of 2009:

So who makes up the two Work Groups? Of the 25 individuals on the two teams, (four people are on both) six are associated with the test-makers from the College Board, five are with 

New Report Highlights Increased Use of School Spending on Police: 20,000 CA Students Arrested in 2009-2010 | Classroom Struggle

New Report Highlights Increased Use of School Spending on Police: 20,000 CA Students Arrested in 2009-2010 | Classroom Struggle:



New Report Highlights Increased Use of School Spending on Police: 20,000 CA Students Arrested in 2009-2010

 This new report by the Black Organizing Project / Labor Community Strategy Center is a must-read, as it presents data on the role of police officers in schools and shows how this statewide problem can be addressed by the Local Control Funding Formula. In one school year, over 30,000 California students were referred to police, with at least 20,000 students being arrested, and over 90% of them being youth of color. The report shows how this increase in the criminalization of youth is directly tied to school spending. School budgets across the state have been increasingly devoted to school police and security at the expense of vital support and educational services. For example, Oakland Unified School District spent over $6.5 million on its school police department in 2012-2013, but less than $1 million for counselors. in Los Angeles Unified School District, the police/security budget was substantially more than thecombined budgets for their arts program, psychologists, the Office of Civil Rights, instructional aides, psychiatric social workers, parent involvement, and career technical education.

The report also offers a series of recommendations for how the Local Control Funding Formula could be used to shift funding away from police and towards proven alternatives for increasing academic achievement and school safety (pp. 12-13). Such measures include smaller class sizes, well-rounded curricula, the expansion of ethnic and cultural studies, improved teacher support, more afterschool programs, and enhanced student/staff relationship building.

For the full report, read here: http://www.blackorganizingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/LCFF-POLICY-BRIEF-FINAL-VERSION-3-20-2014.pdf

Flipping, Follow Up, Modeling, and Reflection | Connected Principals

Flipping, Follow Up, Modeling, and Reflection | Connected Principals:

Flipping, Follow Up, Modeling, and Reflection

by Dwight Carter • March 24, 2014 • 0 Comments

At Gahanna Lincoln High School, several teachers have implemented the Flipped Classroom model. They and Assistant Principal, Aaron Winner (@aaronwinner), shared their Flipped experiences at our January staff meeting and the response was very positive. Their presentation was a well-organized, engaging, and reflective of their learning.

Whenever I get a chance, I ask staff about how things are going, especially during informal conversations. I’ve recently asked about professional development needs and a number of times I heard a similar response, “We love all the presentations at staff meetings, but there is no follow up. We get excited about what we see and hear, but we aren’t given any time to try it or to came back later to talk about it.” I appreciate their feedback because they expressed a desire to learn, so I need to provide the conditions for that to take place. This caused me to peruse my notes from the book, 10-Minute In-Service by Todd Whitaker (@Todd) and Annette Breaux (@AnnetteBreaux). I knew I had to do something to address the concerns of  a lack of time and a lack of follow up. 

My Dean of Curriculum, Tia Holliman (@Ms._Holliman) and I discussed this in great detail as our March staff meeting approached because I wanted to do more than just talk about the Flipped Classroom as an effective instructional strategy, I wanted to model it. I noticed there is a significant amount that I or others talk at our staff during this time as opposed to us interacting, engaging each other in meaningful conversation, or participating in learning 

Study Shows Common Core Actually Slows Improvement | Missouri Education Watchdog

Study Shows Common Core Actually Slows Improvement | Missouri Education Watchdog:

Study Shows Common Core Actually Slows Improvement

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There is a Michigan State University study done by Schmidt and Houang in 2012 that is often sited as justification of Common Core Standards effectiveness at improving student performance in math. The study looked at student scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 2009 of states whose standards were close to Common Core and those whose standards were very different. The study’s first conclusion was that there was a correlation between alignment to CCSSI standards and improved performance on the NAEP. An update of that study throws that correlation out the window.

If you have done your homework on Common Core you know that the basis for the standards was the American Diploma Project which produced a final report in 2006 on college and career ready standards based on their economic analysis of growth business sectors in five states.  Thirty five states signed on as ADP Partners. Those states began work early to migrate their standards closer to those of the ADP. The ADP only had end of school competencies so there was virtually no alignment to CCSS for the early grades because those standards were not included in the ADP competencies. However, by 2009, the year that the MSU study looked at for NAEP scores, there were several states who could be said to have good alignment to Common Core even though the CCSS standards would not be officially completed for another year. The study initially showed a correlation between those states and higher NAEP scores. This was used as evidence that CCSS math “deserved to  be seriously implemented.” [William H. Schmidt and Richard T. Houang, “Curricular Coherence and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics,” Educational Researcher 41, no. 8 (2012): pp. 307.]  If you would like to read an explanation of all the