7-4-14 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online:

Dissecting Moaning Mona Davids

Moaning Mona Davids has switched sides more times than a tennis ball.... and burned more bridges than the retreating German army..... Ed Notes Local 372 President Santos Crespo Jr. fired [Mona] Davids in December, then sued her in January, claiming she failed to turn over passwords to databases containing confidential information about the union’s members and its contacts.... NY Post, Feb. 10, 201

by ed notes online / 9min 

7-3-14 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online: Have a SAFE 4thWorse than Michelle Rhee: Teachers and public schools have a shocking new enemyIsn't it time for teacher unions to issue a Declaration of Independence from the Democratic Party? Thomas Jefferson for AFT president. Again thanks to Jeff Kaufman for coming up with this article by Jeff Bryant writing at Solon. Note that our fearless union leaders keep sucking at the tea

by mike simpson / 30min 

About that StudentsFirst tweet… | teacherbiz

About that StudentsFirst tweet… | teacherbiz:

About that StudentsFirst tweet…

https://twitter.com/StudentsFirst/status/484839932007964672

It never shocks me when StudentsFirst says something ridiculous, but this tweet I came across yesterday is particularly laughable.  

The tweet itself is a quote from an Alexander Russo blurb (which is in direct response to a Politico article) that compares StudentsFirst’s campaign spending to that of the NEA and AFT and their state affiliates.

So to mislead people and attempt to vilify teachers’ unions like they usually do, StudentsFirst chose to tweet Russo’s assertion that, “reform money, however new and on the rise it may be currently, remains substantially less than teacher union money.”

Um, NO. What?? No no no no no. No.

First of all, Russo’s post refers specifically to campaign contributions fromone reform organization (SF)–yet he makes an inaccurate and irresponsible leap: that StudentsFirst’s campaign contributions are the only funds behind the “reform” movement–and, further, that StudentsFirst is the only“reform” organization. Let’s be clear: campaign contributions and reform About that StudentsFirst tweet… | teacherbiz:

7-4-14 Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement"

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

“How to end homework for moms”

How to end homework for moms is a very helpful article that appeared recently in The Washington Post. In it, former National Principal of The Year Mel Riddile provides some good advice to teachers about the kind of homework to give that will be helpful to students and promote a positive feelings from parents.

by Larry Ferlazzo / 8min 

“Family Writing Project: Sanctuary and Source of Support”

Family Writing Project: Sanctuary and Source of Support is a very interesting article about joint parent/student writing projects The National Writing Project is supporting in Phoenix. They’re doing it with English Language Learners and their families. Here’s a short excerpt: The initial idea for this program stemmed from Tracey’s belief that her second grade students, although placed in a shelter

by Larry Ferlazzo / 8min 

“The Road Map Project” Looks Like An Intriguing Parent Engagement Effort In Seattle Area

The Road Map Project looks like an intriguing parent engagement effort in the Seattle area. You can read a guest opinion piece about it in the Seattle Times here and a short summary at Eureka Alert. I’d love to hear more about it from people working on it there….

by Larry Ferlazzo / 8min 

Guest Post: Parent Engagement In Scotland

I recently wrote a post titled Proposal to Let Principals Levy Fines On “Bad Parents” In Britain – That Sure Will Help Develop Parent Engagement about a ridiculous idea by Ofsted (which I believe is roughly equivalent to the U.S. Department of Education). Eileen Prior, who is head of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, a small, parent-led charity dedicated to supporting positive parental involvem

by Larry Ferlazzo / 8min hide  //  save

Study: “School Access and Participation: Family Engagement Practices in the New Latino Diaspora”

‘School Access and Participation: Family Engagement Practices in the New Latino Diaspora’ is the title of a new research study by Rebecca Lowenhaupt. It seems to be behind a paywall, but you can read a quite extensive summary here. Here’s an excerpt: In recent years the ‘Latino Diaspora’ has spread to states in the Midwest and Northeast, which have relatively little tradition of serving the needs

by Larry Ferlazzo / 8min 

Double Standard Alert For British Parents

I’ve written quite a bit lately about the ridiculous policy in England that fines parents when they take their kids out of school during class for a vacation or family event. Parents are now understandably upset that a headteacher (principal) was granted two weeks off during the school year…to go watch the World Cup.

by Larry Ferlazzo / 8min 

7-4-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: “‘There Are So Many Inspirational Teachers Out There’: An Interview With Meenoo Rami”‘There Are So Many Inspirational Teachers Out There’: An Interview With Meenoo Rami is my latest post over at Education Week Teacher. This summer, I’ll be alternating between publishing thematic compilations of past posts and sharing interv

by mike simpson / 7min 

UPDATE: AMERICAN CLASS SCHEDULE 2014

AMERICAN CLASS SCHEDULE 2014 

Upper Class

Middle Class

MY PLACE 

Proudly Sponsored by

Emergency! Please Send an Email Protesting Injustice to Children | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!

Emergency! Please Send an Email Protesting Injustice to Children | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!:

Emergency! Please Send an Email Protesting Injustice to Children

Filed under: American Injustice,Immigration — millerlf @ 2:35 pm 

Emergency!! Minutemen and other right-wing groups are mobilizing to stop more busses of children in Murrieta, California.

Please send an emergency protest email to Murrieta, California at:

mymurrieta@murrieta.org

Tell the citizens of Murrieta to stop blocking busses filled with children and women who have risked their lives to try and make a better life.

• Tell them to stop disrespecting immigrants and to stop calling the children “diseased.”
• Tell them to oppose suffering and inequality everywhere it exists.
• Tell the citizens of Murrieta to welcome these children with open arms and to stand up for justice!

To see the NBC report of events in Murrieta go to:

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/immigration-border-crisis/murrieta-braces-more-immigration-protests-n147956

Frankly My Dear… | WagTheDog

Frankly My Dear… | WagTheDog:

Frankly My Dear…

 

Many people have commented on David Coleman’s infamous statement at a 4/28/11 Common Core conference in NY:

“As you grow up in this world, you realize people really don’t give a sh#@ about what you feel or what you think.”

Coleman’s dismissal and disapproval of personal reflections is also apparent in the Common Core teacher training video; “Preparing for Close Reading with Students” as evidenced by the following exchange at 16:40 in the video…

Coleman: He moves to this very philosophical treatise on just and unjust law and what does it mean. And I think for students that’s very exciting cause he, I think the question of whether to follow a law is pretty interesting to them. What rules can they break, what rules can’t they break?

Gerson: And who’s rules are they?

King: But again, that’s one of those challenges right, because kids are gonna want to take that off into a conversation about rules and rule breaking…

Gerson: This uniform is an unjust law

King: Right, right…exactly, exactly. Again I think the discipline that you’re calling for is so important to stick with the text, stick with King’s argument, and try to avoid going too Frankly My Dear… | WagTheDog:

Fraud, embezzlement in charter schools nationally resonate with problems in Connecticut - Courant.com

Fraud, embezzlement in charter schools nationally resonate with problems in Connecticut - Courant.com:

Hustlers Cash In On Charter School Craze

 Colin McEnroe

To Wit

7:30 p.m. EDT, July 3, 2014

If I showed you the headline "Weak Charter School Laws Enable Scams, Insider Dealing," you'd probably assume it's the latest shoe to drop in the unfurling scandal of FUSE, the punch-drunk charter school group attempting to run schools in Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport and — coming this fall! — Baton Rouge, where folks are getting nervous reading all those Connecticut stories.

But relax. It's not FUSE. That headline is from the Detroit Free Press, and it chronicles patterns of double-dealing by Michigan charter school companies, like the one where two insiders from one charter company bought a parcel of land and sold it to their own school for $50,000 more, pocketing the difference.

But it could just as easily have been from Pennsylvania, home of at least three massive charter school scandals including the story of two charter school executives who diverted $860,000 from the school to prop up other private projects while the school went without textbooks and paychecks bounced.

Or Minnesota, where a charter school executive embezzled $1.3 million over five years to pay for a lavish lifestyle while the school canceled field trips and ran out of supplies.

Or California, Ohio, Arizona. This stuff is happening everywhere. The best master document is "Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud and Abuse," by the Center for Popular Democracy and Integrity in Education — but the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Education issued a similar report, and the Free Press just published a multi-part series documenting rip-offs and under-performance in Michigan charter schools.

The message is always the same: The essential concept behind the charter school movement is that, freed from the three Rs — restraints, rules and regulations — these schools could innovate and get the kinds of results that calcified, logy public schools could only dream about. And they do … sometimes.

But handing out uncountable millions to operators who would be given a free hand was also like putting a big sign out by the highway that says "Welcome Charlatans, Grifters, Credential-Fakers, Cherry-Pickers, Stat-Jukers, Cult of Personality Freaks and People Who Have No Business Running a Dairy Queen, Fraud, embezzlement in charter schools nationally resonate with problems in Connecticut - Courant.com:

 

Charter Schools - Dividing Communities since 1991

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS WEBSITE

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

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.

Keep checking

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS

Be sure to check out two other Great blogs:

-THE BROAD REPORT (as in Eli)
-THE PERIMETER PRIMATE

California's education leaders - AWOL again - SFGate

California's education leaders - AWOL again - SFGate:

California's education leaders - AWOL again

Peter Schrag

Updated 11:41 am, Thursday, June 5, 2014

• 
  Johanna Paraiso is an English teacher at Fremont High School in Oakland, one of three Bay Area schools named in the lawsuit over the time poor and immigrant students spend learning. Photo: Michael Short, The Chronicle

There's no way to know how many California schools deny poor and immigrant children enough class time with competent teachers to give them the education that the California Constitution supposedly guarantees.

A major civil rights suit filed in Alameda County Superior Court last week names seven such schools - three of them in the Bay Area. But if Mark Rosenbaum of the ACLU, one of the lead lawyers in the case, is correct, there may be hundreds.

The suit was filed on behalf of 18 students at Castlemont and Fremont high schools in Oakland, Nystrom Elementary School in the West Contra Costa Unified School District, and two schools each in Los Angeles and Compton (Los Angeles County).

The case, Cruz vs. California, echoes the similar Williams case filed 14 years ago, but it focuses on an issue that Williams barely touched: the damaging denial of time for real instruction for some of California's academically neediest kids. But without saying so, it also casts serious doubt on Gov. Jerry Brown's effort to shift more control over schools from the state to the locals.

It's hard to believe that there are even seven Cruz schools in 21st century America, schools where:

-- Students are assigned endless hours of "inside work experience," cleaning classrooms, copying material, and doing other flunky work for teachers and administrators because there are no classes for them.

-- Students are "taught" week after week by a string of demoralized and inexperienced substitutes.

-- There are no mental health counselors - and often no counselors at all - to deal with the trauma of the shootings and other violence just outside the school door and where, for those and similar reasons, absenteeism and tardiness sometimes leave first-period classes with as few as five of the 25 students who are supposed to be there.

-- Because of the lack of support and miserable conditions, many teachers quit halfway through the school year, and sometimes sooner, and students' classes and courses are constantly shuffled to deal with the gaps.

But what may be even harder to believe is the pretense of state school officials, beginning with Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, who's devoted much of his four years in office to campaigning for re-election, that they didn't know about any of this and California's education leaders - AWOL again - SFGate: