4-29-13 Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement"

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

“Parental Advice To Education Policy Makers”

Parental Advice To Education Policy Makers is a good article by Jeff Bryant. Here’s an excerpt: Instead of empowering parents to feel they are part of their children’s education and engaging them in school governance, we are making parents feel that their input doesn’t matter and their children’s education destinies are no longer in their control.

2 by Larry Ferlazzo / 17min 

4-26-13 Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement"

Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement": “Protecting Classrooms From Corporate Takeover: What Families Can Learn from Teachers’ Unions”Protecting Classrooms From Corporate Takeover: What Families Can Learn from Teachers’ Unions is a good article in YES Magazine that was written by Amy Dean. It’s gives a number of very good examples of teachers unions working with

by mike simpson / 9h 

John Kline Takes Arne Duncan To Task Over Special Education Funding:

John Kline Takes Arne Duncan To Task Over Special Education Funding

Posted: 04/29/2014 4:10 pm EDT Updated: 04/29/2014 4:59 pm EDT

 Educational funding for students with disabilities became the subject of yet another heated partisan argument with no resolution at a budget hearing Tuesday, after Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) attacked Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on the subject.

"What I've been asking for is a commitment to increase funding for special education," said Kline, who chairs the House Education & the Workforce Committee. "It's a shortcoming that Republicans and Democrats have had … and we need to work together to increase that funding. When I travel to schools … the thing they want most … is for the feds to step up and increase [their] commitment to that increased funding."

"You've got over a dozen new programs ... but you don't have any increased funding that's available for special education?" continued Kline, who has repeatedly attacked the Obama administration on this point.

Duncan disagreed with Kline's characterization of the administration's 2015 budget request, saying that it increases special education funding by $100 million. The budget proposal calls for a spending increase of 2 percent for education compared to the previous year. Overall, the request, released in March, highlights measures favored by President Barack Obama, such as a much-touted preschool expansion and a competition to "redesign" high schools. It also includes a revamped "Race to the Top" competition with a specific focus on educational equity.

But some key programs -- including Title I, the main source of federal money for educating students who live in poverty, and most pieces of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA -- would get no new money under the proposed budget.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which was enacted in 1990, specifies that Congress pay states up to 40 percent of the average amount, beyond average public school expenditures, that the states spend on each student with disabilities. However, the closest Congress got to this funding level was in 2005, when it hit 18.5 percent of the average, and in 2009, when the one-time economic stimulus boosted payments. Sequestration worsened the situation, leading some parents to wonder John Kline Takes Arne Duncan To Task Over Special Education Funding:

Assembly Public Safety Committee Testimony - Year 2014 (CA Dept of Education)

Assembly Public Safety Committee Testimony - Year 2014 (CA Dept of Education):

Assembly Public Safety Committee Testimony

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson's testifies on Assembly Bill 1432 at the State Capitol in Sacramento on April 29, 2014.

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Good morning, Assembly Member Ammiano (chair) and Assembly Member Melendez (vice chair). Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.

I'm here as a teacher—a parent and grandparent—and as State Superintendent of Public Instruction to share my support for Assembly Bill 1432.

Nothing is more important than the safety of our children. As you know, school employees feel a genuine responsibility toward the children they serve—and for more than their education—for their safety and wellbeing. School employees are often the first to observe changes in students, both subtle and dramatic, including injuries, depression, and more.

Indeed, school employees are classified as mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse—and rightly so. They work with children every day and so are in a key position to identify and report abuse.

Assembly Bill 1432 would help ensure school employees have the tools needed to accomplish this. It requires their employers to train them in how to identify signs of abuse and neglect and report them.

California has had child abuse reporting laws on the books for more than five decades. These statutes have evolved over the years and have expanded the number and nature of mandatory reporter groups.

However, the law has never required that they receive any training—which does a disservice both to school employees and to the children they strive to protect.

This bill also ensures support for the local educational agencies providing this training. It requires my California Department of Education to work with the state Office of Child Abuse Prevention and the Department of Social Services to develop information and guidelines on mandatory reporter training.

And, importantly, it requires the training to specify that failure to report is a misdemeanor punishable by jail time and a fine.

I've worked over the years to put measures in place to improve school safety. Our efforts to keep children safe must also include giving adults the tools they need to protect them.

For these reasons, again, I am in full support of Assembly Bill 1432. Thank you.

Questions: Communications Division | communications@cde.ca.gov | 916-319-0818 

Do Androids Dream of Computer-Graded Essay Tests? | Gatsby In L.A.

Do Androids Dream of Computer-Graded Essay Tests? | Gatsby In L.A.:

Do Androids Dream of Computer-Graded Essay Tests?

 In a recent opinion piece in The New York Times, “When the Circus Descends,” David Brooks derided opponents of Common Core Standards, implying that they were clownish ideologues on the far left and far right making “hysterical claims and fevered accusations.” But as I visit classrooms across the city talking to teachers about the Common Core, I don’t hear any hysterical claims or fevered accusations. I do hear one deep concern:

That the test will be a disaster.

Here’s the thing: I haven’t talked to anybody—anybody!—who objects to the actual Common Cores Standards. The Standards are incredibly general; basically, they value the processes of analytical reasoning, reading, writing, speaking and listening. Teachers I’ve talked to are excited about pushing their students to read  thoughtfully and support their claims with evidence.  In other words, the Standards are like the education version of Peace, Love and Understanding. Who could possibly object?

The problem is that we are about to test the standards—and people do not like the tests.The teachers on the East Coast who are protesting, the children fleeing classrooms in tears, the parents forming an “Opt Out” movement are not a bunch of ideological clowns. They are angry because this new Common Core test, which has been implemented sight unseen by almost any teacher or principal, may have enormous power over their future Do Androids Dream of Computer-Graded Essay Tests? | Gatsby In L.A.:

Russ on Reading: Arne Duncan to Washington State, "No Waiver for You!"

Russ on Reading: Arne Duncan to Washington State, "No Waiver for You!":

Arne Duncan to Washington State, "No Waiver for You!"

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's decision to rescind the NCLB waiver from Washington state is an act of such monumental stupidity that it would be laughable, if it did not have the potential for such a negative impact on children, parents and teachers. Arne is in a snit because the Washington state legislature failed to pass a law tying teacher evaluation to standardized test scores, one of the conditions of this waiver.

Let's back up a little to gain a full appreciation of this ludicrous action. Everyone with any knowledge of the Bush era No Child Left Behind law knows that the goals laid out in that law were impossible to meet. The law requires schools to meet "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) toward proficiency in language arts and math as measured by standardized tests for a variety of student sub-groups including minority students, special education students and English language learners. The percentage of students required to meet AYP steadily increased across ten years and is 100% for 2014.

Obviously, a target of 100% proficiency was and is pie in the sky. No one could reach it and everyone knew it, including the crafters of the law who said the goals were "aspirational." That is why so many states were anxious to Russ on Reading: Arne Duncan to Washington State, "No Waiver for You!":

Public School Supporters: Attack via Restraining Order for Freedom of Information Request? | Reclaim Reform

Public School Supporters: Attack via Restraining Order for Freedom of Information Request? | Reclaim Reform:

Public School Supporters: Attack via Restraining Order for Freedom of Information Request?

Posted on April 29, 2014

by Ken Previti

Here is a stark and scary reminder of just how the corporate education reform industry’s tentacles reach into the public policy making process. In this case, a senior official with the charter school advocacy group ConnCAN corresponding – on a state account – with the Governor’s Director of Communications about a potential restraining order to stop Freedom of Information requests that are producing “negative press” for the corporate education reform industry.

[Background Info: Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy (D), Illinois candidate for Lieutenant Governor Paul Vallas, and Illinois Governor Pat Quinn (D) who personally chose Vallas are serving the same financial interests of the financiers of Tea Party extremist governors who are selling-out public schools and our children. Read more HERE. -KP]

Malloy administration considered “restraining order” to stop FOI requests?

In what may be the single most bizarre development yet in the Malloy administration’s war on teachers and public education and their ongoing commitment to secrecy, a recent Freedom of Information request has produced an email between Governor Malloy’s Director of Communications and a senior official from ConnCAN, the charter school advocacy group, in which they discuss what appears to be the Malloy’s administration’s effort to get a restraining order to prevent FOI requests about Malloy’s education reform efforts.

In the email to Governor Malloy’s Director of Communications, ConnCAN’s Jordan Public School Supporters: Attack via Restraining Order for Freedom of Information Request? | Reclaim Reform:

4-29-14 The Whole Child Blog — IED Pulse Poll Results: Which "Future of Schooling" Prediction Is Coming True? — Whole Child Education

ED Pulse Poll Results: Which "Future of Schooling" Prediction Is Coming True? — Whole Child Education:

Russell Quaglia: From Dreaming to Doing

Post written by Laura Varlas How would you rate your ability to put your dreams into practice? How would you rate your students? Aspirations—having goals and being inspired in the present to pursue them—challenge us to match our dreams with actions, explained Russell Quaglia at his lively 2014 ASCD Annual Conference general session. But for many students, he added, aspirations get lost in the limb

by Whole Child Sympo... / 9min 

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

ED Pulse Poll Results: Which “Future of Schooling” Prediction Is Coming True?

April 28, 2014 by Whole Child Symposium

Post written by Kit Harris, ASCD Research

ASCD continually seeks to provide solutions to the challenges that face educators of all levels. A recentASCD SmartBrief ED Pulse poll sought to explore which of the predictions of a 2001 OECD report its readers felt were actually emerging.

More than a decade ago, a report (PDF) on the future of schooling by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) outlined several predictions of where schooling was headed. These predictions were divided into three major scenarios, the "status quo extrapolated," a "re-schooling" scenario, and a "de-schooling" scenario. Within each scenario, there were several options about the future of education. This report has been used widely to inform policy debate and professional development in many countries.

Two of the trends rose to the top, chosen as the ones closest to coming true, with each garnering about a third of the respondents: that there is increased involvement of the private sector in running schools(34 percent), originally part of the "status quo extraploated," and teachers leave the profession en masse; satisfaction with education drops (31 percent), originally a "de-schooling" scenario. Interestingly, these two scenarios were the two that were re-classified after the original report came out. The first one (mass market) became a "de-schooling" scenario and the second one (mass meltdown) became a separate "crisis-situation" category.

Following these two, there was one more choice that was selected by a substantial percentage of the respondents: that federal and state departments maintain primary control of school systems (25 percent), another "status quo extrapolated" element. The other options were not selected by more than 10 percent of these readers.

This survey question was included in ASCD SmartBrief, a free daily e-mail news service that provides summaries and links to major education stories and issues, which has more than 215,000 subscribers. Using ED Pulse, the weekly online poll, data was collected from 487 readers, starting on April 17, 2014. Online surveys do not provide a random sample, as participants are self-selected, meaning that a margin of sampling error cannot be calculated or quoted. In addition, the population and sample are limited to those with access to computers and an online network. However, online surveys have been shown to produce results that have proven to be reliable predictors of outcomes, including election results. If you have a question on education that you would like to see addressed in a future ED Pulse poll, feel free to submit it in the comment section below, along with any other comments.

Kit Harris is the marketing research lead at ASCD. The quantitative and qualitative research work done is in support of strategic initiatives in marketing, membership, product/program/service development, and conferences/meetings. Harris started her career in Chicago at a marketing research firm, then moved to D.C. to serve as the research director at advertising agency Earle Palmer Brown & Associates. Prior to coming to ASCD, she ran her own research firm.

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Follow the Whole Child Symposium conversation here on the blog, share your thoughts in the comments and by e-mail, and pose your questions on Twitter using the hashtag #WCSymposium2014.

Learn more at www.ascd.org/wcsymposium.

Back to Basics: From Quick Fixes to Sustainable Change

School improvement conversations usually focus on quick fixes, those strategies thought to make immediate improvements to student achievement. While this model may work well for some, kids (and their teachers) remain unconvinced because their needs were never really considered to begin with—just their test scores. Even so, schools are encouraged to implement these overly simplistic strategies in s

by Kevin Parr / 16min 

4-28-14 The Whole Child Blog — Improving Schools: Back to Basics—Struggling with Semantics — Whole Child Education

Improving Schools: Back to Basics—Struggling with Semantics — Whole Child Education: THE WHOLE CHILD BLOGImproving Schools: Back to Basics—Struggling with SemanticsApril 28, 2014 by Sean Slade"Back to the basics." It's a phrase that's tossed around much but has varying definitions depending on the speaker and audience. For some, "back to the basics" means focusing on

by mike simpson / 23h 

4-29-14 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):

Zimmer: Congratulations for Caputo-Pearl, Thanks for Fletcher

Board Vice President Steve Zimmer The LA Unified School Distirct issued a statement from board vice president, Steve Zimmer, on the election of Alex Caputo-Pearl as president of UTLA, the teachers union: “I want to congratulate Alex Caputo-Pearl, and his team of candidates upon their election to the leadership of the nation’s second-largest teacher union, local United Teachers Los Angeles. “Throug

1h 

JUST IN: Caputo-Pearl wins decisively for UTLA president

Mr. President: Alex Caputo-PearlPhoto–LA Times Alex Caputo-Pearl was declared the new UTLA president today as he overwhelmed incumbent Warren Fletcher in the second-round of voting, the LA teachers union announced today. After outpolling Fletcher 2-1 in the first round, Caputo-Pearl beat him by more than 4-to-1 in the runoff, with 5,801 votes (80.18 percent) to Fletcher’s 1,434 (19.82 percent). In

2 by Michael Janofsky / 24min 

Commentary: Another test, but what is it, exactly?

In a recent opinion piece in The New York Times, “When the Circus Descends,” David Brooks derided opponents of Common Core Standards, implying that they were ideologues on the far left and far right making “hysterical claims and fevered accusations.” But as I visit classrooms across the city talking to teachers about the Common Core, I don’t hear any hysterical claims or fevered accusations. I do

by Ellie Herman / 13min 

LA Times endorses McKenna for District 1 board seat

Via Los Angeles Times | By the editorial board The seven candidates for the District 1 seat on the Los Angeles Unified School Board include several teachers, a reality-show contestant and a former member of the board. The one who stands out, though, is former principal and district administrator George McKenna. In 1985, years before “school reform” became a buzz phrase, McKenna was profiled in Peo

5min hide  //  save

LA Schools’ maintenance budget trails other large districts

Via KPCC | By Annie Gilbertson The Los Angeles Unified spends the least on maintenance and operations of California’s largest school district, according to new analysis by a district committee. The committee, which oversees bond money used for major repairs, argues the district should increase maintenance spending to avoid more costly work from deterioration created by compounding problems. “If yo

5min 

Morning Read: News on graduation rates and fidgety boys

California graduation rate rises, but achievement gap remains Commentary: Let’s assume, at least for discussion, that maximizing high school graduation rates is – or should be – the primary goal of any public school system. A corollary assumption, of course, is that a system’s diploma is meaningful, that it indicates the graduate is prepared to enter the workforce or seek post-high-school educatio

2 27min 

4-28-14 LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District)

LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District): SEIU 99 president ‘still thinking’ about LAUSD board seatBarbara Torres, president of SEIU Local 99, is “still thinking about running” for a seat on the LA Unified School Board against incumbent Bennett Kayser despite concerns raised by the union’s executive director, says her campaign manager Lewis Myers

by mike simpson / 22h 

4-29-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:

CorpEd Profiteers and Privatizers on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Over Test Refusal

NEWSWashington PostMalloy: CT could lose money if many students opt out of standardized testsThe CT MirrorGov. Dannel P. Malloy said Monday that federal law restricts students from opting out of taking standardized tests, and if the state were to give students ...Flag as irrelevantMinneapolis Star Tribune (blog)Superintendent responds on test opt-outsMinneapolis Star Tribune (blog)Superintendent r

by Jim Horn / 58min 

Defending the Indefensible in the Late Days of the Testing Orgy

The testing madness is underway this week in Tennessee, where a week of TCAP counts 15-25 percent of a student's grade and 35-50 percent of a teacher's evaluation for the other 195 days of the school year.  Is that reason enough for 3rd graders to be vomiting and having nosebleeds on their test booklets this week? But the insanity does not stop there.  The State of Tennessee is funding the use of

2 by Jim Horn / 38min 

4-28-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter: Poll of the uninformedPublished in the San Francisco Chronicle, April 28, 2014"Most in state approve of policy shifts in education," April 24: Yes, 69 percent of Californians polled said they liked the Common Core standards after hearing a brief statement about them. The statement said only that they "are designed to ensure that students graduating from high school h

by mike simpson / 21h 

Education a new defining issue for 2016 GOP class - US News

Education a new defining issue for 2016 GOP class - US News:

Education rising as issue among 2016 GOP class; standards now a metaphor for government reach

FILE - This March 19, 2014 file photo shows former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush speaking at an education forum in Nashville, Tenn. Battling “the soft bigotry of low expectations” with national education goals was former Republican President George W. Bush’s campaign mantra. But many of his party’s would-be successors are calling for just the opposite of government-set rules, splitting the party over education policy as the GOP class of 2016 presidential hopefuls takes shape. Jeb Bush, who supports a national education policy, and Rand Paul, who abhors the idea, personify the divide. Forty-four states voluntarily participate in standards developed in part by GOP governors. (AP Photos/Erik Schelzig, File)

Associated PressApril 28, 2014Leave a Comment SHARE

By THOMAS BEAUMONT, Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — Raising U.S. educational expectations through national goals was a priority for Republican President George W. Bush. But many of his would-be successors in the GOP are calling for just the opposite of government-set rules, and it's splitting the party as the GOP class of 2016 presidential hopefuls takes shape.

Just six years after Bush left office, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul last week referred to a set of state-created standards, called Common Core, as a national "curriculum that originates out of Washington." That kind of statement stokes outrage among grass-roots conservatives, who are still incensed with the Obama administration over the 2010 health care law.

It also happens to be untrue: Forty-four states voluntarily participate in Common Core standards developed in part by Republican governors. And some other potential GOP presidential candidates support the standards and are objecting to the red-meat rhetoric designed to fire up the party's most fervent supporters.

"We cannot expect our children to compete with the best in the world when we have no standards or dumbed-down standards," former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the former president's brother, said at an education conference in Arizona last week.

In the meantime, education is rising as a GOP priority, if only as a proxy for a larger internal party debate over government's proper scope.

"This is a microcosm of the heart and soul of the Republican Party," said Chad Colby, a former top Republican National Committee spokesman who is now with the pro-Common Core group Achieve. "High education standards are too important to our economy and international standing to be derailed by ideological purists with no alternative plan."

Five years ago, a bipartisan group of governors and staff of the National Governors Association began collaborating with the Council of Chief State School Officers on shared higher standards, as a political alternative to the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind law.

No Child Left Behind, Bush's signature domestic policy achievement won congressional approval with bipartisan support. It requires annual testing, publication by districts of performance data of student Education a new defining issue for 2016 GOP class - US News: