Thursday, December 13, 2012

Big Education Ape - SPECIAL Mid Day Banana Break 12-13-12 #soschat #edreform




Big Education Ape - Mid Day Banana Break




Teacher Tips for the Impending Apocolypse

As I'm certain you all know, the world is due to end a week from tomorrow. Not only that, but if the UFT does not agree to an evaluation that AFT President Randi Weingarten just labeled "junk science," Mayor Bloomberg will impose draconian cuts on the school system, just because he can. After all, mayoral control means he can do what he wants, when he wants, how he wants, and if you don't like it, you can just take a hike, pal.

Me, I'm giving a test on Friday. This makes perfect sense to me. I mean, why waste our last day on earth teaching things that, let's be realistic now, will only be of use for less than 24 hours? Better to take a good measure of what we've done so far. Now here's the beauty part. Everyone knows how traumatic it is to fail a test. But no one will fail this test, because guess what? I'm not spending my last hours on earth grading tests.

Plus, Friday is my department's test day. I'm a team player, and I want to make sure my kids are not burdened 

Northwest Philly reacts to Philadelphia school closings proposal

by staff at NewsWorks, a Notebook news partner
This story will be updated throughout the day.
Northwest Philadelphia is home to six of 37 schools which the School District has proposed to close by the end of the school year.
The schools slated to close are Germantown High School, Theodore Roosevelt Middle School and Robert Fulton Elementary, which are located in Germantown. Also on the list are John F. McCloskey and John L. Kinsey elementaries in West Oak Lane and Jay Cooke Elementary in Logan.
The closings would affect more than 2,600 students in Northwest Philadelphia.
The School Reform Commission, which has the final say in the matter, is expected to make its decisions in March.
As word of the proposal filtered out into the community, many shared their reactions with NewsWorks.
Word was just getting out about the projected school closure when children were arriving for classes on Thursday.
Photo Credits: 
Brad Larrison for NewsWorks
read more

Response: Rhee Org. Claims Support For Collective Bargaining

image from 4.bp.blogspot.comStudentsFirst has sent along this collection of quotes and newspaper articles for you to chew through, each of the purporting to show that Rhee and StudentsFirst support collective barginging and have done so several times in the past.
It's worth noting that SF's first comment on the this topic this week got at the substance of some of the Rhee comments below -- that focusing on collective bargaining and union issues is a distraction, not a central part of the Rhee agenda for making schools better. Actions speak louder than words, I can imagine the labor side of this argument saying.  Most of the items collected below are rhetorical, rather than campaign donations or introduction of legislation.  Most of those listed in the previous post focus on actions.
Read on, make of it what you will. Compare this list to the previous one. I'm just passing notes between AFT and


Speak out about the school-to-prison pipeline

Yesterday, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin convened a hearing on the “school-to-prison pipeline,” a way of describing the way some school policies and practices may simply push students – particularly low-income students and students of color – out of school and into jail. Zero tolerance policies, school closings, high-stakes testing, and other factors contribute to this devastating situation. This was an unprecedented hearing, and, unlike the panels of corporate reformers we more often see gathered to share their positions, this time … 

To The Superintendent and the Seattle School Board:

The parents and communities of SPS are worried.  You know that, right?

You are already enrolling kindergarteners and students new to SPS and soon will be have open enrollment.  What can you seriously tell people about what schools will be where and what will be offered?

There are many, many things that are in flux, in question and downright hazy.  And they have been for a long time.

There are many details but it boils down to a few key things:

- Program placement.  This drives almost everything done in our district.  Enrollment, facilities, what types of 


Ten Ten Wilshire event this Sunday — Robert D. Skeels for LAUSD 2013

Please join #LAUSD board candidate Robert D. Skeels this Sunday for a 1010 Wilshire Blvd Rooftop Fundraising Reception. j.mp/VAthxV
— Diane Ravitch (@DianeRavitch) December 13, 2012
Join us for an evening of conversation on educational policy on the spectacular 1010 Wilshire rooftop. Meet the board candidate who has been endorsed by many nationally renowned education experts including: Dr. Diane Ravitch, Susan Ohanian, and Dr. Stephen Krashen.
Sign up on facebook or www.robertdskeelsforschoolboard.org
Rooftop Fundraiser for Robert D. Skeels for LAUSD 2013


Connecticut’s leading education reform PR flack (spokesman) heads for the border…


Tags: 
First came Achievement First, the large charter school management company that was co-founded by Governor Malloy’s Commissioner of Education, Stefan Pryor. The people who were the financial backers of Achievement First then created ConnCAN and ConnAD, the two lobbying and advocacy groups designed to support the effort to shift more state funds to Achievement First [...]
(Read more...)


All Aboard the Rephorm Train to Memphis

That scent in the air isn’t Memphis-style barbecue but the rich bouquet of education rephorm.
Today our tour of the rephormiest places in America takes us south, to good old Memphis, Tennessee. That unmistakable scent wafting through the air isn’t dry ribs slow cookin’ in a pit, but the rich bouquet of education rephorm. Reader: I give you the Achievement School District, a bold experiment in excellence and innovation that will take the bottom 5% of students in Tennessee and catapult them straight to the top 25%. What’s the ASD’s secret recipe? Take old, failing schools and replace LIFO lifers with fresh, new teachers and administrators. Now add high expectations, toss in a bushel of buzzwords — and don’t forget the spin. Presto chango — Elvis has left the building.
Less than a year into the New Orlean’s style rephorm-over, the Achievement School District’s numbers are off the charts. By numbers, I’m referring NOT to student test scores at the 6 ASD schools —they ranked in the 16th 


Swooshes and Balances: Oregon's 21st Century Governance


Co-chairs Barnhart, Burdick and Berger and members of the Joint Interim Committee on Economic Development,

I am here on behalf of the Emergency Coalition Against Austerity and the affinity groups to which I belong: Tax Fairness Oregon and Oregon Save Our Schools.

The foremost reason this committee should oppose the Economic Impact Investment Act is because secret deals are decidedly undemocratic.  The democratic process demands a thoughtful debate. Having a public hearing to both introduce this bill and its amendments will not allow this.

But I will elaborate further on why this bill is bad. According to classical economic theory, Say’s Law states, “Supply creates its own demand.”[1] Accordingly, profit-seeking businesses will hire job seekers willing to work