Seattle Schools Community Forum: The Color of Money (A Coloring Sheet)

Seattle Schools Community Forum: The Color of Money (A Coloring Sheet):

The Color of Money (A Coloring Sheet)

 From TRAP (Teacher Retention Advocate Parents):


Is the Washington State Legislature REALLY planning to ignore the McCleary Ruling for another session? Is the House and Senate - once again - refusing to uphold their paramount duty to fully funding public education?

Here at TRAP Headquarters, the Legislature's continued defiance of the Constitution makes our blood boil. In fact, we think it's a crime. 

 Funding public education should be JOB ONE this legislative session. 

Olympia, TRAP is putting you on notice. The Color of Money - McCleary Crime Scene Coloring Contest is our contribution to the funding fight. We plan to drawing attention to the longest running - public education destroying - crime spree this state has ever seen. 

Governor Inslee says fix this mess by 2017. TRAP says: Fully Fund McCleary Now!

Download this black and white coloring sheet and sent it to your legislator (or to the address listed and they will be delivering them to Olympia. )  
‪#‎colormeshamed‬ ‪#‎ignorethis‬

CURMUDGUCATION: More Common Core Business Panic

CURMUDGUCATION: More Common Core Business Panic:

More Common Core Business Panic

High Achievement New York, a group of Gates-funded Common Core pushing business types, is back in the new chicken littling the hell out of rejecting the Core.

This time they've managed to get Crain's New York business magazine to pass along their terrified concerns! "Oh nos!" they declaim. "If states try to replace the Core, there will be a big expensive debacle."

“Chaos ensued in both Indiana and Oklahoma after repealing the standards, creating a nightmarish situation for confused teachers and lowering the bar for students,” it claimed, adding that Indiana students now spend 12 hours per year taking standardized tests, up from six previously.

Human sacrifice. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria. Run away! Run away!

You can read the report here (at least for now) in its fourteen-page glory. It depends on all the same old baloney that HANY and other Core-pushers have been repeating. Heck, HANY tried this CURMUDGUCATION: More Common Core Business Panic:

This pediatrician is working to save 9,000 young lives in Flint, Mich. - The Washington Post

This pediatrician is working to save 9,000 young lives in Flint, Mich. - The Washington Post:

This pediatrician is working to save 9,000 young lives in Flint, Mich.

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, whose research helped call attention to lead contamination in tap water in Flint, Michigan, is leading a group of experts that is developing a strategy to minimize the health effects on children(Sean Proctor/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP) LOCAL TELEVISION OUT; LOCAL INTERNET OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT (Sean Proctor/AP)

As federal, state and community leaders grapple with the immediate challenge of providing Flint, Michigan with safe drinking water, the pediatrician who unearthed evidence of lead in the city’s water supply is now focused on long-term efforts to reduce the health impact on an estimated 9,000 Flint children.

“We cannot sit back and wait 20 years to see the consequences of lead poisoning in our schools and in our criminal justice system,” said Mona Hanna-Attisha, director of pediatric residency at Hurley Children’s Hospital, who in September led a group of doctors urging Flint to stop drawing tap water from the Flint River after finding elevated lead levels in the blood of young children.

Hanna-Attisha, 39, who also is an assistant professor of pediatrics at Michigan State University, is leading a committee of experts to develop a strategy that would mitigate the impact of lead exposure on thousands of children under age 6.

The state’s chief medical executive said this week that all children who consumed the city’s water since April 2014 are considered to have been exposed to lead, a neurotoxin that affects the development of the brain and nervous system. Lead is particularly damaging to children under 6 because the brain shows rapid growth in the early years of a child’s life.

Exposure may have been heightened during three periods when city officials This pediatrician is working to save 9,000 young lives in Flint, Mich. - The Washington Post:

CURMUDGUCATION: Free College, Charter Schools, and Irony

CURMUDGUCATION: Free College, Charter Schools, and Irony:

Free College, Charter Schools, and Irony

Yesterday's New York Times included a Room for Debate argument over free college, plugging into one of the few education related issues that (some) of the Presidential candidates have been (sort of) willing to (kind of) talk about. The debate unleashed a hurricane of irony from the commenters on the "anti" side.

Here's Andrew P. Kelly from the American Enterprise Institute arguing that "The Problem Is That Free College Isn't Free." Kelly argues that free college is a "flawed policy," because rather than being free "it simply shifts costs from students to taxpayers." If "public generosity" doesn't keep pace, then colleges won't be able to keep pace with the level of students, and they'll have to make cuts to meet their budgets.

Second, Kelly argues, " free college plans assume that tuition prices are the main obstacle to student success," and ignores other obstacles to student college success, like students who aren't fully prepared or who lack the personal resources to fully follow through.

Weighing in against free college is also our old buddy Mike Petrilli from the Fordham Institute, arguing that this would be "A Needless Windfall for Affluent Voters and State Institutions."

Nothing in life is truly free — but don’t tell that to dogmatic liberals and their pandering politicians, CURMUDGUCATION: Free College, Charter Schools, and Irony:

Mandating Common Sense—21 School Reforms that Need to Go

Mandating Common Sense—21 School Reforms that Need to Go:

Mandating Common Sense—21 School Reforms that Need to Go

 Gov. Chris Christie just vetoed a mandate for New Jersey children to get recess. A lot of people–including me–are not happy with this decision. He obviously thinks school boards should determine how much recess students should get, but does he realize the problem with recess? Recess is a heated topic with parents across the country. If he wants to be President he should know about it.

It is abusive not to allow students several recess breaks a day.

But one also has to admit, it is strange that so many terrible reforms in this country have reached the point where we need mandates to correct what should be common sense.

Here are 20 examples of terrible school reforms that make most people stop and think–REALLY?

1. Withholding recess from young children (even middle school).
2. Administering bubble tests to kindergartners.
3. Making kindergarten the new first grade.
4. Insisting everything a child learns must be aligned to a test.
5. Idolizing testing and believingMandating Common Sense—21 School Reforms that Need to Go:

Penn & Teller's Teller on How to Be an Effective Teacher - The Atlantic

Penn & Teller's Teller on How to Be an Effective Teacher - The Atlantic:

The Art of Teaching

One half of the entertainment duo Penn & Teller explains how performance and discomfort make education come alive.

 Education, at its most engaging, is performance art. From the moment a teacher steps into the classroom, students look to him or her to set the tone and course of study for everyone, from the most enthusiastic to the most apathetic students. Even teachers who have moved away from the traditional lecture format, toward more learner autonomy-supportive approaches such as project-based and peer-to-peer learning, still need to engage students in the process, and serve as a vital conduit between learner and subject matter.

Teachers are seldom trained in the performance aspect of teaching, however, and given that every American classroom contains at least one bored, reluctant, or frustrated student, engagement through performance may just be the most important skill in a teacher’s bag of tricks.

I asked Teller, a former Latin teacher and the silent half of the magical partnership known as Penn & Teller, about his years as an educator, and the role performance played in his teaching. Teller taught high school Latin for six years before he left to pursue a career in magic with Penn, and in the forty years since, the duo have won Emmys, Obies, and Writer’s Guild Awards, as well as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As our conversation meandered through Catullus, Vergil, Shakespeare, and education theory, he explained why he believes performance is an essential, elemental aspect of effective teaching.

The first job of a teacher is to make the student fall in love with the subject. That doesn’t have to be done by waving your arms and prancing around the classroom; there’s all sorts of ways to go at it, but no matter what, you are a symbol of the subject in the students’ minds.

As that symbol, Teller argued, the teacher has a duty to engage, to create romance that can transform apathy into interest, and, if a teacher does her job well, a sort of transference of enthusiasm from teacher to student takes place. The best teachers, Teller contended, find a way to teach content while keeping students interested. “If you don’t have both astonishment and content, you have either a technical exercise or you have a lecture.” Teller’s educational philosophy is rooted in the philosopher A.N. Whitehead’s “rhythm of education,” a theory Penn & Teller's Teller on How to Be an Effective Teacher - The Atlantic:

Nominate High Schools for Elite List – Cloaking Inequity

Nominate High Schools for Elite List – Cloaking Inequity:

Nominate High Schools for Elite List

 How about some good news in your inbox today? The National Education Policy Center is seeking to recognize “Schools of Opportunity,” a recognition of top high schools across the nation. The application deadline is February 3 and is rapidly approaching. Here is their press release:

BOULDER, CO (January 19, 2016) – High schools from across the nation are now submitting applications to be recognized as part of the Schools of Opportunity project of the National Education Policy Center. The project recognizes public schools for what they do to give all students the chance to succeed, rather than turning to test scores to determine school quality. The application deadline is February 3, 2016. The Schools of Opportunity project highlights schools that use research-based practices to close the opportunity gaps that result in unequal opportunities to learn, in school and beyond school. For example, although schools cannot directly integrate neighborhoods by race and class, they can do their best to integrate classrooms by race and class. And although it is difficult for schools to increase learning resources in neighborhoods or homes, they can ensure that rich, engaging learning opportunities are provided to all students while they are in school. The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), housed in the CU-Boulder School of Education, designed the Schools of Opportunity project as a way to highlight the nation’s best schools and practices. The project is led by NEPC director and CU-Boulder School of Education Professor Kevin Welner, and Carol Burris, director of the Network for Public Education, who was the 2013 New York State High School Principal of the Year. Each state’s effort will also be assisted by a team of evaluators, including New York State Regent Betty Rosa and Vermont State Board of Nominate High Schools for Elite List – Cloaking Inequity:

John Thompson Pop quiz: Which of these education scenarios is fiction? - NonDoc

Pop quiz: Which of these education scenarios is fiction? - NonDoc:

Pop quiz: Which of these education scenarios is fiction?

Student name: Pat Reader
Class: NonDoc.com remedial studies
Test: Mid-term education policy exam
Instructor: Dr. John Thompson

Question 1:  Which of the following scenes is fiction?

A)  A combat veteran takes over teaching for an elementary school class that had been taught by a string of substitute teachers. Through high expectations, project-based, hands-on learning and differentiated instruction, she turns around the school’s most disruptive student. The student’s lengthy misconduct file is ultimately expunged.

B)  Even though the high-profile Success Academy’s “No Excuses” charter school chain claims it doesn’t “push out” students who make it more difficult to post test score increases, a Success principal’s “Got to Go” list is revealed by the New York Times. Another Success principal “told teachers not to automatically send annual re-enrollment forms home to certain students, because the school did not want those students to come back.’ A school lawyer allegedly described one misbehaving student’s withdrawal as a ‘win’ for the school.” When PBS News Hour asked whether kindergarten students are too young to be suspended, Success responded by revealing the confidential records of a Pop quiz: Which of these education scenarios is fiction? - NonDoc:

TIME's cover on Flint: 'The Poisoning of an American City'

TIME's cover on Flint: 'The Poisoning of an American City':

TIME's cover on Flint: 'The Poisoning of an American City'

TIME released their latest cover on Thursday, and it highlights the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan.

The cover reads, "The Poisoning of an American City. Toxic water. Sick kids. And the incompetent leaders who betrayed Flint."

More News Headlines

• Governor's emails show debate over blame for Flint water
• Lead poisoning is not only a problem in Flint
• How to donate water, volunteer to help Flint residents
• View here: Gov. Rick Snyder releases his emails regarding Flint water
• Obama tours auto show, pledges help for Flint's water crisis

The article is written by Josh Sanburn. You can read it here, with a TIME subscription.

Corrosive water from the Flint River has caused lead to leach from old pipes into homes. Tests have shown high levels of lead in some children's blood.

President Barack Obama has declared an emergency in Flint, qualifying the city for $5 million. Gov. Rick Snyder is seeking a federal disaster declaration, which would bring more.

Special section: More coverage of the Flint Water Crisis

Snyder has released his 2014/15 emails regarding the Flint water crisis. You can view them below orhere.

Snyder emails on Flint water

Associated Press writers Ed White in Detroit; Tammy Webber in Chicago; John Flesher in Traverse City, Michigan; and Jesse Holland in Washington contributed to this report.

 TIME's cover on Flint: 'The Poisoning of an American City':