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Friday, January 20, 2012

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top AM Posts 1-20 #edreform #ows


Missouri Education Watchdog: Hansel & Gretel In Teach For America

Missouri Education Watchdog: Hansel Gretel In Teach For America:Hansel Gretel In Teach For Americaby AnngieWe all remember the story of Hansel and Gretel. They got lost in the woods and came across a house made of gingerbread. Facing a candy smorgasbord in the midst of their incredible hunger was too much for them. That was all it took for the evil witch to trap them. Only through their own cunning were they finally able to escape.Today's Gretel is a recent ... more »

hctiB G: Chocolate City | The G Bitch Spot

hctiB G: Chocolate City | The G Bitch Spot:hctiB G: Chocolate Cityby G Bitchoriginally posted Jan. 20, 2006Part of the flak over Nagin’s chocolate city comment (he said it when he testified in front of Congress and no one seemed to notice though that time he did smile as he said it) is that no one has a sense of humor when they are looking for a fight. No one seems to know about the Funkadelic song or that other ... more »

Roundtable Highlights Importance of Fathers’ Involvement in Education | ED.gov Blog

Roundtable Highlights Importance of Fathers’ Involvement in Education | ED.gov Blog:Roundtable Highlights Importance of Fathers’ Involvement in EducationPosted on January 20, 2012 by Guest BloggerCross-posted from Fatherhood.gov.Fathers, uncles, male mentors, grandfathers, brothers, and community leaders recently gathered at the CafĂ© at Chicago Vocational Career Academy in Chicago, IL to share what men can do to increase their involvement and support in the lives of their children—especially their education.The Department of Education (ED) was honored to sponsor the event alongside ... more »

House Bill 2428: The charter school bill | Seattle Education

House Bill 2428: The charter school bill | Seattle Education:House Bill 2428: The charter school billby seattleducation2011House Bill 2428, “An act relating to establishing alternative forms of governance for certain public schools”.That’s a very long way of saying “publicly funded, privately operated charter schools” or the privatization of our public school system.Before I go through this bill line by line, I would recommend listening to a radio show that was on KPFK a while back titled Deception 101: Charter Schools. ... more »

Geaux Teacher!: REFORM OR BUST - JINDAL STYLE!!!

Geaux Teacher!: REFORM OR BUST - JINDAL STYLE!!!:REFORM OR BUST - JINDAL'S VOUCHERSby noreply@blogger.com (Lee Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT)A St. Tammany Parish School Board member asked a question last night after hearing presentations on the Common Core Standards and the new high stakes tests that will be rolled out in 2014 that will be aligned with those standards and will replace our current iLEAP/LEAP tests - and will be the new basis for the Teacher Evaluation System 50% student progress component.Q: ... more »

Shanker Blog » Burden Of Proof, Benefit Of Assumption

Shanker Blog » Burden Of Proof, Benefit Of Assumption:Burden Of Proof, Benefit Of Assumptionby Matthew Di CarloMichelle Rhee, the controversial former chancellor of D.C. public schools, is a lightning rod. Her confrontational style has made her many friends as well as enemies. As is usually the case, people’s reaction to her approach in no small part depends on whether or not they support her policy positions.I try to be open-minded toward people with whom I don’t often agree, and I ... more »

The sad story of Chester Upland. « Fred Klonsky

The sad story of Chester Upland. « Fred Klonsky:The sad story of Chester Upland.by Fred KlonskyIs there a teacher in this country who didn’t wince when they read the story last week of the Chester Upland school district in Pennsylvania. The District is broke, the governor refused help and the union teachers agreed to work for free.Did I mention that Chester Upland mainly serves poor and working class kids?I couldn’t bring myself to Tweet or post about it. My emotions ... more »

Brown wants smaller role for U.S., state in local schools - latimes.com

Brown wants smaller role for U.S., state in local schools - latimes.com:Brown sharply differs from Obama on education policyIn his State of the State address, Brown calls for limits on standardized tests and wants reduced roles for the U.S. and state in local schools.Comments40Share0Gov. Jerry Brown shakes hands with lawmakers after his State of the State address in the Capitol on Wednesday. Brown’s criticism of the growing emphasis on standardized tests has found a receptive audience among California teachers. (Rich ...more »

Viewpoints: Let educators help improve teacher quality - Sacramento Bee

Viewpoints: Let educators help improve teacher quality - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee: "Let educators help improve teacher quality"Viewpoints: Let educators help improve teacher qualitySpecial to The BeePUBLISHED FRIDAY, JAN. 20, 2012California's public education system faces many short-term challenges to advance its mission of preparing all students for a productive future.We have endured budget cuts totaling tens of billions of dollars in recent years, but we cannot pause to wait for an economic recovery; the state and ... more »

RheeFirst! » Federal Department of Education is looking for information on NCLB cheating

RheeFirst! » Federal Department of Education is looking for information on NCLB cheating:Government seeks help to stop teacher-led cheatingfromRheeFirst!byadminWritten by Greg Toppo for The Washington Post. Read theentire article here.“The Obama administration is creating a manual showing how schools can fight teacher-led cheating on standardized tests, asking educators to help stomp out “testing irregularities.”Bob Schaffer of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, an advocacy group, says he wonders why the department is ‘wasting time and money collecting information ...more »

Modern School: Jindal’s Louisiana Privatization Orgy

Modern School: Jindal’s Louisiana Privatization Orgy:Jindal’s Louisiana Privatization Orgyby Michael DunnHuck/Konopacki Labor CartoonsUnder Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s new privatization plan, virtually every student in the Monroe City School System and those in almost 50% of Ouachita Parish Schools would be eligible for vouchers to attend private schools, the News Star reported this week. Experts warn that the number of eligible students could far exceed the available spaces in existing private schools.Jindal's plan provides “scholarships” for low income students currently attendi... more »

Missouri Education Watchdog: GLSEN releases its Curriculum for Elementary Students Aligning with Common Core Standards for English Language Arts

Missouri Education Watchdog: GLSEN releases its Curriculum for Elementary Students Aligning with Common Core Standards for English Language Arts:GLSEN releases its Curriculum for Elementary Students Aligning with Common Core Standards for English Language Artsby stlgretchenLong time readers of this blog know we have been calling for the legislators to provide relief from the implementation of the Common Core standards. If you, as a parent, appreciate your elementary student being taught about LGBT issues through Common Core standards via English Language ... more »

National Sexuality Standards for K -12 for all Public Schools « PWC Education Reform Blog

National Sexuality Standards for K -12 for all Public Schools « PWC Education Reform Blog:National Sexuality Standards for K -12 for all Public SchoolsJanuary 20, 2012 — pwceducationreformYes, you read that correctly. The National Sexuality Standards for K – 12 have been released. Under Race To The Top, (RttT), all states which have signed onto RttT will have to implement instructional materials and programs that meet these Sexuality standards in all of their public schools.Virginia schools will not have to ... more »

Evaluating Our Values - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

Evaluating Our Values - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:Evaluating Our Valuesby Nancy FlanaganGuest blogger Corey Gaber is a first-year resident in a new teacher training and certification program called Urban Teacher Center, teaching middle school Humanities at Baltimore Freedom Academy, a social justice-themed Baltimore City Public School. He has an M.Ed in Mind, Brain and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and is a Community Organizer forIDEA (Institute for Democratic Education in America)."What percentage ... more »

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Sound the alarm! The "activists" are coming

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Sound the alarm! The "activists" are coming:Sound the alarm! The "activists" are comingby Mike KlonskyThe “democratic engagement” faction within civics education has recently re-energized and is pressing hard on schools to push kids into activism. -- Chester FinnFinn (right) and his Fordham crewThe Occupy Movement, the Wisconsin recall initiative, and other signs of increased youth and student activism have education conservatives jittery. Chief among them is think-tanker Chester Finn, head of the right-wing Fordham Institue. His ... more »

Jersey Jazzman: What Are We Ranking?

Jersey Jazzman: What Are We Ranking?:What Are We Ranking?by DukeA while ago, I complained that New Jersey's reformiest lobbying outfit, B4K, was so invested in a narrative of "failing schools" that they ignored our high student achievement and instead focused on measures that had nothing to do with the quality of instruction NJ's kids receive.Much of their assessment came from Education Week's "Quality Counts" report. The 2012 version was just released; naturally, B4K ate it all up once again.They've made ... more »

Charter schools are failing the York community - The York Daily Record

Charter schools are failing the York community - The York Daily Record:Charter schools are failing the York communityJEFF KIRKLANDUpdated: 01/19/2012 11:02:12 AM ESTAs we move from Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday towards Black History Month, the state of public education and its impact on our children's futures should be at the forefront of our discussions and actions.The School District of the City of York has been inundated with requests by various groups to allow them to set up, run or ... more »

All Things Education: Opportunity to Evaluate Teachers

All Things Education: Opportunity to Evaluate Teachers:Opportunity to Evaluate Teachersby Rachel LevyWelcome to Part IV of my response to Governor McDonnell's "Opportunity to Learn" education agenda--we're almost to Friday, folks! On Monday, you read about advancing literacy. On Tuesday, you read about extending the school day/ year. Yesterday, you read my thoughts on expanding school choice in Virginia. Today, I'll share my thoughts about McDonnell's ideas for evaluating, retaining, and recruiting teachers.The "Enhancing Teacher Quality, Strengthening Teacher and Administrator Cont... more »

Modern School: Publicly Funded Schools Becoming Things of the Past

Modern School: Publicly Funded Schools Becoming Things of the Past:Publicly Funded Schools Becoming Things of the Pastby Michael DunnHuck/Konopacki Labor CartoonsPublic education implies that all children will be educated without additional costs to the parents. Of course for this to work, everyone must contribute a little through their taxes, whether or not they have kids.Prior to the anti-tax revolt of the late 70s and 80s and the budget crises of the past several years, the overwhelming bulk of public education ... more »

Report From Diane Ravitch’s Speech Tonight In Sacramento | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

Report From Diane Ravitch’s Speech Tonight In Sacramento | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…:

Diane Ravitch Speaks In Sacramento!

Here are some tweets that Alice Mercer, David B. Cohen, and I sent out during Diane Ravitch's speech at the Sacramento Convention Center tonight, January 20th, 2012. Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, Linda Darling-Hammond, and others also spoke....

    Correction - maybe 2000 people here to hear @DianeRavitch