I’ve been on the road and missed posting a Public Schools Action Tuesday suggestion last week, so here are two for the price of one from materials prepared for our SOS march workshops:
Action steps for a better ESEA here.
Action steps to fight high-stakes testing here.
And just to give you a hint about at least one place I’ve been, here’s a fine essay about the need to treat
District Deputy Chief of Accountability Fran Newburg discussed the District's review of 2009 PSSA results at a press event Monday.
An internal School District review of suspicious 2009 standardized test score results at 28 city schools has yielded no firm evidence of cheating, officials announced Monday.
Thirteen of the schools had results that warrant more intensive investigation, officials determined. But they declined to identify the schools and said the District is awaiting more data, including any irregularities from subsequent testing years, and requesting further assistance from the Pennsylvania
[We] looked into the school auditorium to discover that the Gabriella Charter School had moved its entire front office into the Logan auditorium. That includes desks, sofas, file cabinets, end tables and
I would like to see school boards targeted for change by all the eager education reformers. People like to say that change should start at the top, and yet the form and structure of most school boards has remained the same for many years.
These are some areas of change that need to happen with school boards.
1. The majority of members must have had at least ten years of actual teaching experience. Retired teachers would make excellent school board members.
2. School board members should have to meet certain minimum requirements in order to run for election. It would be nice if they themselves actually were successful when they were in school. I’ve served under several
For those who have never used the phrase or understood what ‘A Day Late and A Dollar Short’ means, click here because I am trying to keep this post short so that my ire doesn’t increase as I write. Let’s see how I do….
My adventures with the local district last year were….let’s say ‘interesting.’ I wrote about my experiences with the elementary PTA, the lack of servicesprovided to Title I students by the high school, the non-school choice options, etc., etc., etc. Two weeks ago, before I attended the Open House at the elementary school, I promised myself to leave the house with a positive and open attitude. And I did! I don’t usually have issues with the elementary level bureaucracy, as I learned a long time ago to just bypass the principal and go straight to the county office. I even decided to let them slide on the photo mix-up for my two girls last year: One was a 1st grader and the other one was a 4th grader. Their pictures got switched in the yearbook. Granted, they are sisters and they do resemble each other. Oh yeah, the youngest is slightly taller than the oldest. But damn, if a kid tells you that she
Written by ‘Phoenix Woman’ for the Mercury Rising blog. Read the original here.
“Whenever for-profit education deformer (um, I meant “reformer” — no I didn’t) and adviser to Republican governors Michelle Rhee finds herself in trouble — a situation that is increasingly common as the owners of the national media outlets finally get over their bonding with Ms. Rhee over their shared hatred of unions and start noticing the fudging of facts and data, even in her own life history — her reaction of choice is to try to distract with a volley of twenty-seven-tits-for-a-tat attacks. She or her surrogates don’t bother to address the issue — likely since they know that they can’t win on an honest and strictly factual accounting thereof — so instead they play “Kill the Messenger“.
Case in point: The rapid-fire shillery of her chief mouthpiece,
gfbrandenburg.wordpress.com - In the 7th grade, there are some small increases in pass rates in both the charter schools and the regular public schools. One wonders why there are increases in this grade level but not in any of ...
DianeRavitchsirotaforschools.com - This week, a Denver District court temporarily halted Douglas County’s attempt to use vouchers to divert already-depleted public school resources into private schools. In the decision, the judge de...
DianeRavitchnap.edu - In recent years there have been increasing efforts to use accountability systems based on large-scale tests of students as a mechanism for improving student achievement. The federal No Child Left B...
DianeRavitchnytimes.com - In December, the chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents, Merryl H. Tisch, announced a new program: 13 research fellows would be selected to advise the education commissioner and the 17-m...
DianeRavitchmediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com- August 14, 2011, 7:28 pm By MICHAEL CIEPLYLOS ANGELES — When last seen in these pages, in late 2009, the Hollywood power agent Tom Strickler had forsaken fame, fortune and his position as a partner...
mikeklonskyDianeRavitch This is a terrific blog. Even some billionaires think they shd pay more taxes: http://t.co/Q04VWN88 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
coopmike48 Judge denies request to block Indiana voucher program » Local Education » The Herald Bulletin - http://t.co/z4JSwRO8 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
coopmike48 Read Save Our Schools March NEWS ▸ today's top stories via @alnbctnetwork @goodideafolks@edu_traveler ▸ http://t.co/4XmJWyp#sosmarch #p214 seconds ago · reply · retweet · favorite
detnews.com - Last Updated: August 12. 2011 1:00AM The Detroit News The federal government's No Child Left Behind experiment has failed, and at great cost. Rather than reincarnate the program, Washington should ...
DianeRavitchtnr.com - The Obama administration is pursuing a second round of its education reform agenda. The first round was "Race to the Top," which created a competition among states for extra federal grants that wou...
DianeRavitchedweek.org - Published Online: August 15, 2011 ByElisa Crouch, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MCT)St. Louis More charter schools are outperforming the city's struggling school system than ever before, but huge achiev...
mikeklonskyblogs.edweek.org - The Obama administration steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the problems with ED's "backdoor blueprint" waiver strategy or the ugly precedent that it's trying to set. But those with even a glimmer ...
DianeRavitchmichaelklonsky.blogspot.com - Maureen Dowd on Mitt Romney "Of the corporation, by the corporation, for the corporation. We the corporation. Corporations who need corporations are the luckiest corporations in the world. Powe...
fklonskyheraldbulletin.com - August 15, 2011 Anonymous Associated PressMon Aug 15, 2011, 06:15 PM EDTINDIANAPOLIS — A judge Monday declined to halt Indiana's broad new school voucher program, allowing the law to remain in effe...
coopmike48preaprez.wordpress.com - From the Rockford Register Star:Illinois House leaders say they still are working on legislation that would ease the state’s crushing pension burden, although they are closed-mouthed about what tho...
mikeklonskynj.com - Since taking office last year, Gov. Chris Christie has aggressively wooed businesses by cutting red tape, boosting tax incentives, trimming taxes — and giving their leaders a front-row seat when di...
leoniehaimson
nytimes.com - This has been a clarifying week for the 2012 election. Thursday’s Republican debate reminded everyone why Mitt Romney is the front-runner, as his rivals left the former Massachusetts governor more ...
leoniehaimson
anarchish.blogspot.com - As I got back from my medical this morning E Wing was on lock down. From floor 4 I could hear shouting and screaming, banging of prison doors. It was a right kerfuffle. “You're fucking dead, mate” ...
leoniehaimsonlarryferlazzo.edublogs.org - Aug 15 2011 Larry Ferlazzo(NOTE: Apologies to the fine Shanker Blog for “stealing” most of this blog’s title from them Be sure to read their post and subscribe to them, too!) The issue of attractin...
coopmike48
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - NYTimes.comStop Coddling the Super-RichBy WARREN E. BUFFETTPublished: August 14, 2011RECOMMENDTWITTERSIGN IN TO E-MAILPRINTREPRINTSSHAREOmahaEnlarge This ImageKelly B...
coopmike48nytimes.com - Omaha OUR leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too,...
mikeklonskynytimes.com - Omaha OUR leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too,...
leoniehaimsonnews.firedoglake.com - I could barely suppress a laugh when reading about Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan begging Tim Geithner to settle the foreclosure fraud issue so they can get out from under their liability. As Y...
coopmike48
nytimes.com - NO wonder they are called conveniences. Flush toilets swirl human waste down the drain quickly and neatly. But the convenience comes with a rising price for all that follows the flush — a cost that...
fklonskycbsnews.com - (CBS News) More than a year after the largest oil spill in U.S. history, researchers studying the Gulf of Mexico are finding that more fish are sick, and they're trying to figure out exactly why. ...
coopmike48boston.com - PULLMAN, Wash.—Misha Manuchehri slowly picks her way through plots of barley, wheat and peas. Every so often, the graduate student in crop science at Washington State University stoops to pluck an ...
coopmike48leoniehaimsonmikeklonskycoopmike48
