Sunday, August 18, 2013

A Scandal That's Exposing Ugly Truths About the School Privatization Agenda | Alternet #CHEATS4Change

A Scandal That's Exposing Ugly Truths About the School Privatization Agenda | Alternet:

A Scandal That's Exposing Ugly Truths About the School Privatization Agenda

The recent scandal ousting Florida's top education official shows the privatization movement is about profits.


 
Paradoxes come in all different forms, but here’s one that perfectly fits this Gilded Age: The most significant lesson from the ongoing debate about American education has little to do with schools and everything to do with money. This lesson comes from a series of recent scandals that expose the financial motives of the leaders of the so-called education “reform” movement — the one that is trying to privatize public schools.
The first set of scandals engulfed Tony Bennett, the former Indiana school superintendent and much-vaunted poster boy for the privatization push. After voters in that state responded to his radical agenda by throwing him out of office, he was quickly hired to lead Florida’s education system. At the same time, his wife not-so-coincidentally landed a gig with the Florida-based Charter Schools USA, a for-profit company that not only has an obvious interest in Bennett 

Associated Press Propaganda: What the AP Survey Really Shows | deutsch29

Associated Press Propaganda: What the AP Survey Really Shows | deutsch29:

Associated Press Propaganda: What the AP Survey Really Shows

August 18, 2013


On August 17, 2013, the Associated Press (AP) announced that a survey they conducted in June and July 2013 found that not only do parents really like standardized tests– they approve of the high-stakes usage of such tests and believe that the number of standardized tests administered is “about right”:
Often criticized as too prescriptive and all-consuming, standardized tests have support among parents, who view them as a useful way to measure both students’ and schools’ performances, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. Most parents also say their own children are given about the right number of standardized tests, according to the AP-NORC poll.
The release of this propaganda is certainly strategic timing given the recent New York debacle of Mayor Bloomberg’s aligning Common Core assessments to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and flunking most New York schoolchildren by design.
It is also interesting to note that at the same time the AP was conducting its survey, 

inBloom’s actual Dear John Letter to John White: (It’s not me, it’s you) | Crazy Crawfish's Blog

inBloom’s actual Dear John Letter to John White: (It’s not me, it’s you) | Crazy Crawfish's Blog:

inBloom’s actual Dear John Letter to John White: (It’s not me, it’s you)

Posted on August 18, 2013



Sometimes life hands you stories that are simply better than any cheap fiction you can pick up from a newsstand or checkout line. Take for example this on-again-off-again “data sharing” relationship between Iwan Streicheicenberger, CEO of inBloom, (a data piracy and reselling outfit masquerading as a non-profit student-centric organization) and John White, student data pimp, (masquerading as a state Superintendent of Education.)
At first, Iwan and inBloom were avidly pursuing a relationship with John White and John White didn’t even know they existed when he first rolled into town. Before long though, over a few leisurely dinners, John was being wooed by Peter Gorman, Iwan’s Cyrano d’ Bergerac over at Wireless Generation (the authors of the inBloom database run by Iwan) the air beneath his wings, and his recharger.
If you are available for dinner on Wednesday night, I would love to take you and discuss Broad school reform and other issues but no pressure on that either. I know how precious 

Peg with Pen: My Opt Out/Refusal Letter for 2013-2014

Peg with Pen: My Opt Out/Refusal Letter for 2013-2014:

My Opt Out/Refusal Letter for 2013-2014


Sam - who has never taken a standardized test

Dear ---,

My name is Peggy Robertson and my son, Sam, will be attending --- High School tomorrow as a freshman. He is beyond excited! We are equally as thrilled to have Sam become a part of the --- HS family. I was so impressed at orientation with the focus on community as well as academics. I feel very lucky to have Sam at a school which allows him to express himself in so many ways. He will be in the orchestra and is gearing up for his first cross country meeting tomorrow.

I wanted to let you know that I am one of the founders of United Opt Out National, the movement to end corporate education reform. We focus intensely on supporting parents in opting out/refusing any high stakes and low stakes tests that are used to privatize public education. Sam will not be participating in any of these tests. I know that --- has the TCAP this year as well as MAP. I wasn't sure if there were any other tests being used, any test prep, and/or any surveys. I also wasn't sure if --- HS has a program similar to Reading Counts, which Sam opted out of at --- last year and completed book reports for his teacher instead. Sam will have a copy of this letter in his backpack to share with teachers if needed. Are there any other tests that Sam and I need to be aware of?

I refuse to allow Sam to participate in these tests for many reasons. Foremost, I refuse because they are using these tests to fail children, teachers, schools and communities all over the country, and ultimately, they are being used to dismantle the public school system. I also refuse these tests because I believe Sam's teachers are professionals who are able to determine Sam's strengths, attempts and next steps. These tests are unnecessary.  I trust --- High School teachers and know that they will be able to support Sam every step of the way. I do ask that Sam be allowed to read or engage in other learning activities during testing times.

I am also a public school teacher and I have a deep appreciation for all that you do for --- High School students. Have a wonderful school year.

Best,
Peggy Robertson
www.pegwithpen.com
www.unitedoptout.com 

Sacramento Press / Open Letter to Mayor Johnson and City Council - Do Not Repeal the Superstore Ordinance

Sacramento Press / Open Letter to Mayor Johnson and City Council - Do Not Repeal the Superstore Ordinance:

Open Letter to Mayor Johnson and City Council - Do Not Repeal the Superstore Ordinance

by Michael Murphy, published on August 18, 2013 at 4:21 PM


I have lived in Central City for over 25 years. I have had the pleasure of watching my neighborhood grow organically throughout the years. Small businesses have blossomed. We calmed the traffic. We created Second Saturday, which promotes local artists and artisans, and made many other positive changes during those years. Midtown was not the celebrated neighborhood that it is today.
This ordinance was a reaction to an ill-conceived plan by Westfield Mall to bring a Wal-Mart at the Downtown Plaza. Westfield’s Roseville Galleria gets Tiffany’s and Downtown Sacramento gets Wal-Mart. Residents reacted and the City Council listened and enacted the big box ordinance.
I believe that an Economic Impact Analysis (EIA) with a wage benefit analysis component is critical for a community. It protects our local business community. It allows small businesses the opportunity to weigh in and allows the community a chance to make sure a big box store compliment our community. It also studies a host of other issues such as wage and benefit analysis, environmental issues, traffic, an exit strategy, and a host of other issues.
The wage and benefit analysis is a true indicator as to whether a big box store will truly benefit the community. An EIA compares how many jobs a big box store will create vs. how many a big box store will destroy, it gauges whether there will be a net benefit for the community. The wage and benefit analysis takes the EIA a step further by comparing a net gain for the city as to revenue generated vs. revenue lost.
While there are hundreds of studies that show how big box stores negatively 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The case against Algebra II

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The case against Algebra II:

The case against Algebra II

    I'm reposting in full, this excellent Harper's piece by Nicholson Baker who has lots to say about Arne Duncan, Common Core standards, corporate reform, Race to the Top, and cold-war type educational competition.  
    To read it on-line at Harper's website, you will have to buy a year's subscription which I've alreay done on my Kindle. I am re-posting the whole piece here onSmallTalk, hoping that some others who dearly care about the future of public education, will read it and spread the word. Thanks to my friend Deb Meier for turning me on to Baker's provocative piece which she mentions quite favorablyon her own blog
    ESSAY — From the September 2013 issue of Harper's

    Wrong Answer

    The case against Algebra II

    by Nicholson Baker
    In 1545, Girolamo Cardano, a doctor, a wearer of magical amulets, and a compulsive gambler, published a math book in Latin called Ars Magna. The "great art" of the title was algebra. When Cardano was done, he knew he had come up with something huge and powerful and timeless; on the last page was the declaration, written in five years, may it last as many thousands. The equations in Ars Magna looked very different from the ones we are familiar with -- here, for instance, is how Cardano wrote the solution to x3 + 6x = 20: 
    Rv: cu. : R108 p : 10m : Rv :cu. R108m : 10 
    But the algebraic rules Cardano described and codified are variants of the techniques that millions of students are taught, with varying degrees of success, today. That's what’s so amazing and mysterious about the mathematical universe. It doesn't go out of date. It's bigger than history. It offers seemingly superhuman powers of interlinkage. It's true. Mathematics, said a professor named James Byrnie Shaw in 1918, is a kind of ancient sequoia of knowledge, rooted in the labors and learning of the dead:
    Its foliage is in the atmosphere of abstraction; its inflorescence is the outburst of the living imagination. From its dizzy summit genius takes its flight, and in its wealth of verdure its devotees find an everlasting holiday. 
    Then why, if math is so great and timeless and beautiful, do millions of people hate it so much? In particular, why do so many high school students hate algebra? On an opinion-gathering website called Amplicate, 86 percent of recent respondents registered a hatred for algebra -- putting it near the top of Amplicate's list of disliked high school subjects, just below geometry. Grant Wiggins, an educational consultant and former teacher, told me it was a "nasty gatekeeper course": the compulsory Greek grammar of the modern era. Lots of students love math, of course. It comes easily to them, or it doesn't come easily but they are willing to put in the hours and they enjoy the 

Teachers pay more out of pocket for their kids - NBC News.com

Teachers pay more out of pocket for their kids - NBC News.com:



Teachers pay more out of pocket for their kids

DALY CITY, CA - AUGUST 13:  School teacher Liza Gleason shops for back to school supplies at a Target store August 13, 2008 in Daly City, California. ...
File photo of school teacher Liza Gleason shopping for
back to school supplies at a Target store August 13, 2008 in Daly City, California.
Teachers are paying more of their own money for supplies and even clothes and food for schoolchildren.
A second-year pre-kindergarten teacher at Salem Elementary School in Apex, N.C., Hannah Martin makes about $34,000 a year and in her spare time takes as many babysitting jobs as she can get.
Martin, who rents a room in a house she shares with four other women, said the work outside her classroom is necessary if her students are to have the school supplies they need.
"I only have $100 from the school for the whole year to buy supplies, and it's not enough," 23-year-old Martin said.
"I do the babysitting to help get money to buy toys and books," she said. "I even had to buy shelves and a stool for the kids to stand on to wash their hands at the sink. I spent about $500 on supplies last year, and It definitely hurts my own pocketbook."
With school budgets across the country slashed, Martin is part of a growing number of teachers spending more of their own money for school supplies, according to a recent survey from insurance firm Horace Mann, which focuses on products for educators.
The problem has reached near-crisis levels, especially in states like North Carolina.
"We're letting our teachers know how rough the situation is," said Eric Moore, a fiscal accountant at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. "We've only got about 35 percent of our past 

Nite Cap 8-18-13 #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2 #Cheats4Change


James Baldwin said it best: 

"For these are all our children, and we will profit by or pay for whatever they become."


A BIG EDUCATION APE NITE CAP


TODAY

8-18-13 Seattle Schools Community Forum
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NYC Educator: Arne Duncan Sics His Flying Monkeys on Diane Ravitch
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Prisons, Post Offices and Public Schools: Some Things Should Not Be For Profit - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher
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Hispanic Parents Protest Demolition of Public School's Fieldhouse in Pilsen | HispanicallySpeakingNews.com
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What Right Does the US Department of Education Have to “Monitor” Diane Ravitch ? | Raginghorseblog
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Martin Luther King's Address at March on Washington August 28, 1963. Washington, D.C.
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Trayvon Martin Foundation | The Official Website
Trayvon Martin Foundation | The Official Website:
Morning Wink 8-17-13 AM Posts #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2 #Cheats4Change
BIG EDUCATION APE - MORNING WINK  AM POSTSTODAY8-18-13 Wait, What? - Working to educate, persuade and mobilize through "perceptive and acerbic" observations about Connecticut Government and PoliticsWait, What? - Working to educate, persuade and mobilize through "perceptive and acerbic" observations about Connecticut Government and Politics: Promoting good test taking? No I call it child abuse!Cate
8-18-13 Wait, What? - Working to educate, persuade and mobilize through "perceptive and acerbic" observations about Connecticut Government and Politics
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Progressive Talking Heads Not Talking About California School Success And Opportunity Act | Justice For All
Progressive Talking Heads Not Talking About California School Success And Opportunity Act | Justice For All: Progressive Talking Heads Not Talking About California School Success And Opportunity ActBy: Autumn Sandeen Friday August 16, 2013 9:20 am Tweet   It’s kind of sad, really. Progressive talking heads on cable television aren’t talking about Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA) signing AB 1266, the School
8-18-13 Ed Notes Online
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Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: Logan Square Rally Today to Support Our Public Schools.Logan Square Rally to Support Our Public Schools Sunday, August 18 4:00 PM Logan Square Monument Milwaukee & Logan Join parents, students, educators, community organizations, activists, and local elected officials as we rally and call on Mayor
8-18-13 Schools Matter @ The Chalk Face
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YESTERDAY

Beware of “Everyday Mathematics” | deutsch29
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8-17-13 teacherken at Daily Kos
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What Is and Is Not Fair | Connected Principals
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8-17-13 Ed Notes Online
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Nite Cap 8-17-13 #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2 #Cheats4Change
James Baldwin said it best: "For these are all our children, and we will profit by or pay for whatever they become."A BIG EDUCATION APE NITE CAPTODAYThe Mismeasure of Education – SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACEThe Mismeasure of Education – SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE: The Mismeasure of EducationJULY 16, 2013 BY JIM HORN 9 COMMENTSLast updated July 27, 2013.  The book is now available at online