Sunday, June 30, 2013

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 6-30-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

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Bruce Fuller Gives NCTQ Report on Teacher Prep an F

Bruce Fuller has been conducting research on education policies in Texas, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere for many years. His published work is careful and peer-reviewed.
Here he analyzes the recent report of the National Council on Teacher Quality and finds it woefully weak. To begin with, it looked only at inputs (catalogs and syllabi), not outputs like whether teachers got jobs as teachers 

Badass Teachers Website Is Activated

A message from Mark NAISON:
Here’s the link to our new website!
SUNDAY MASSIVE LAUNCH PARTY!!
OFFICIAL WEBSITE IS UP AND RUNNING!
A BADASS THANK YOU TO REBEKAH CORDOVA AND TEAM FOR ALL THEIR AMAZING WORK!!
http://www.badassteacher.org
Mark D Naison
Professor of African American Studies and History
Fordham University
“If you Want to Save America’s Public Schools: Replace Secretary of Education Arne Duncan With a Lifetime Educator.” http://dumpduncan.org/

Secretary Duncan: Skip This Conference

Jersey Jazzman reported yesterday that the three keynote speakers at the National Charter Schools Conference are Joel Klein, rapper Pitbull, and Arne Duncan.
Blogger Mother Crusader did some research and

Your Gift for Today: A Favorite Poem

This poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins is one of my all-time favorites.
I first read it in college and decided to memorize it. When I was feeling down, I would take walks around Lake Waban and recite it out loud. I don’t know if it made me feel better, but it was my ritual.
This poem is about death and life, fear and hope. Is this “informational text”?
Spring & Fall: to a young child
Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?

The Vallas Record in Philadelphia, Revisited

Although Paul Vallas is often credited by the mainstream media as having “saved” Chicago, Philadelphia, and New Orleans, these districts remain unsaved. Of the three, Philadelphia is in the worst shape today, its finances in shambles, desperately underfunded, neatly 4,000 teachers and other staff laid off, schools under threat of closure or privatization, students with little or no access to the arts and the other essentials of a basic education.
Here is a

Rachel Levy: To Opt Out or Not?

I am a few days late posting this good essay by Rachel Levy. Here she debates whether to opt out her children from Virginia’s state testing.
Levy has a terrific blog, and you should read it whenever possible or subscribe. She is one of our best thinkers today writing about education issues.
She knows that everyone is caught up in the same snare, and she doesn’t want to cause problems for her 

The BTA Launches New Media Today

Having sprouted nearly 20,000 members in barely two weeks, the distinguished Badass Teachers Association prepares for the long haul. Mark NAISON writes:
“Today, with the Official Launch Party for the group Logo, the youtube channel, and the opening of the BAT Store, members of the Badass Teachers Association will see how hard the administrators of this group have worked to create an organizational structure built for the long, hard, struggle to take back our profession and our schools from the profiteers, hustlers and opportunists who have marginalized our voices and deluged our schools 

A Teacher’s Plea to Bill and Melinda Gates

This teacher hopes that Bill and Melinda read this comment:
Dear Bill and Melinda,
I truly believe you started with good intentions. As mature adults who make mistakes, it is time to recant your initial perspective.
I’ve taught 4th and 5th graders in an inner city school for the past 17 years. What fun we used to have. Back 

Chicago Schools Get Good Coverage in UK, Not in Chicago

An article in the Guardian, a British newspaper, sympathetically explains the plight of students, parents, and communities that are adversely affected by the mass closings of dozens of elementary schools in Chicago.
One of the schools to be closed is Mahalia Jackson, which has a program for hearing-impaired children. When 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG Diane Ravitch's blog 6-29-13 #thankateacher #EDCHAT #P2
Diane Ravitch's blogLISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOGDiana Senechal Has Fun with the Danielson Rubricdianerav at Diane Ravitch's blog - 14 minutes agoSatire alert! Diana Senechal tries her hand at satirizing the Danielson rubric, which seems to have taken the nation’s schools by storm. Join her as she ventures into the Low Inference Room.The Academic Credentials Problem: V

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 6-29-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 5 minutes ago
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Gary Rubinstein: Another Miracle School Bites the Dust by dianerav The New York Daily News found another of those “miracle” schools that, on examination, isn’t. Gary Rubinstein is a master debunker of miracle schools, and his antennae went up when he read about a charter school in the South Bronx where almost every student graduates. The Daily News wrote: “Of the 66 12th graders at Hyde Leadership Charter School, 62 graduated — a 95% rate that crushes the citywide... more »

Diane in the Evening 6-29-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Sexist Rapper Will Speak at National Charter School Meetby dianeravIf you were a rapper who made millions by insulting women with vulgar lyrics and treating them as sex objects, what’s your next logical move?Why, open a charter school! It is easy if you live in Florida, where anyone can open a charter.And then you will be invited t