Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

A low level clerk gets booted for double payment to Cami Anderson’s friend | Bob Braun's Ledger

A low level clerk gets booted for double payment to Cami Anderson’s friend | Bob Braun's Ledger:

A low level clerk gets booted for double payment to Cami Anderson’s friend




Cami Anderson, the hermit superintendent of the Newark schools, exonerated herself of any wrongdoing in the illegal giveaway of thousands of dollars to an  old friend and former assistant who managed to draw checks from school districts in two different states. Anderson, Gov. Chris Christie’s agent in the district, did it apparently by blaming the scam on some low-level payroll bureaucrat who is no longer employed by the district.
“So he took the hit for everything?”  asked Phil Sellinger, a member of the Newark school board whose members tried unsuccessfully Tuesday night to find out exactly how Anderson arranged to have Tiffany Hardrick, a $175,000-a-year assistant superintendent, obtain more than $12,000 in compensation from Newark while she was working as schools superintendent in Forrest City, Arkansas, after she quit.
The “he” to which Sellinger referred was the director of payroll who left Newark after the double payment to Hardrick was revealed in an audit conducted by the state Department of Education.
Anderson has not appeared at a school board meeting since January of 2014, blaming that year’s mayoralty campaign–now more than a year old–for not wanting to come to board meetings because they had become too political. Instead, she had another $175,000-a-year assistant, Vanessa Rodriguez, explain–sort of–how A low level clerk gets booted for double payment to Cami Anderson’s friend | Bob Braun's Ledger:

PARCC Technical Advisor Says PARCC Is an “Evolving Enterprise” | deutsch29

PARCC Technical Advisor Says PARCC Is an “Evolving Enterprise” | deutsch29:

PARCC Technical Advisor Says PARCC Is an “Evolving Enterprise”



On May 5, 2015, the Colorado Board of Education (CBE) held a special meeting about the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test. The meeting included the following panel as noted on the CBE website:
Dr. Lorrie Shepard, Dean, College of Education, University of Colorado Boulder
Dr. Kevin Welner, Director, National Education Policy Center (NEPC), Professor, University of Colorado Boulder
Dr. Derek Briggs, Professor and Program Chair, Research & Evaluation Methodology, University of Colorado Boulder
Dr. Sandra Bankes, Vice Chair, El Paso County Republican Party
Discussion by one of the PARCC panelists noted above, Derek Briggs of the University of Colorado (Boulder) and member of the PARCC Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) is the focus of this post.
Here is a brief description of the PARCC TAC:
The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) advises PARCC as it develops a next-generation assessment system to ensure the assessments will provide reliable results to inform valid instructional and accountability decisions. The TAC is responsible for providing guidance on assessment design and development, and the research agenda of the consortium. The TAC meets three times a year.
Some unidentified individual/organization produced this 21-page, partial transcript of the meeting; the excerpt appears focused on Briggs’ commentary about PARCC but includes other speakers present at the meeting. (The audio archive can be found here.) The transcript comes with the following PARCC-sympathetic disclaimer:
This document has been transcribed in part, and is intended to be word-for-word accurate. Like PARCC, it should be considered an evolving enterprise, 
PARCC Technical Advisor Says PARCC Is an “Evolving Enterprise” | deutsch29:

Peg with Pen: My Comment on PBS NewsHour's Opt Out Coverage

Peg with Pen: My Comment on PBS NewsHour's Opt Out Coverage:

My Comment on PBS NewsHour's Opt Out Coverage


William Brangham,

Thank you for covering Opt Out tonight. I'd like to clarify a few things that I truly wish would be made known to the public. First, Opt Out has been around for quite some time. My own personal involvement began over four years ago when I founded United Opt Out National along with five other individuals. United Opt Out National recognized back then that it was necessary to refuse these tests in order to stop the privatization of public schools. No data = no profit.

Now, the stakes have become much higher as there are so many tests tied to various levels of legislation (early childhood legislation, 3rd grade retention legislation, high school graduation, etc.). Opt out has become essential if we are to halt the test and punish system that is permeating every level of public education. Opt Out is essential if we wish to save the cornerstone of our democracy, our public schools. Currently, I watch children in kindergarten get labeled as failures at the age of five; it's hard to believe that our society has become conditioned to accept such punitive measures. We watch third grade students get held back due to one test. We watch charters kick out students who do not test well. Now, the testing is so extreme that we never stop testing. This year I counted three weeks at my elementary school in which my work with children was not interrupted by tests. Only three weeks. From January to May we did nothing but test.

The year was essentially over in Jan. due to the many tests and the exhausting interruptions that made it impossible to create any continuity whatsoever in my district. See here:http://www.pegwithpen.com/2015...  My school has a free/reduced lunch rate of approximately 78% and over 40 languages represented among our students. The children at my school are tested more than children in affluent areas due to language and due to lacking food, healthcare, and literacy rich environments at home. We struggle weekly to provide 180 food bags to our children who do not have enough food to eat over the weekend. When our 
Peg with Pen: My Comment on PBS NewsHour's Opt Out Coverage:

Big Education Ape: PBS News Hour Video: “What galvanized standardized testing’s opt-out movement” | Larry Ferlazzo’... http://bit.ly/1F9HPJj

Perspective: Gauging impact of Gates' $100 million Hillsborough schools grant (w/video) | Tampa Bay Times

Perspective: Gauging impact of Gates' $100 million Hillsborough schools grant (w/video) | Tampa Bay Times:

Perspective: Gauging impact of Gates' $100 million Hillsborough schools grant (w/video)





The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation may not view our country's stressed public schools as full of Neanderthal teachers trying to bash knowledge into bored, thick-skulled students. Yet the foundation's leaders do consider most U.S. schools terribly outdated, technologically deficient and bureaucratic morale-suckers in need of overhaul.

That's why the foundation decided to try to help.
Just a quarter of U.S. public high school graduates possess the skills needed to succeed academically in college. That statistic should terrify this country, given the aggressive rise of economic competition and rapidly improving education elsewhere in the world. Left unchecked, we are slipping in the global race to sustain a quality workforce.
That's a big reason why the Gates Foundation's $100 million grant to the Hillsborough County public school system is so compelling. The grant is wrapping up Year Four of a seven-year partnership between the Seattle-based foundation and Hillsborough schools. It's clearly a team effort. To get the Gates grant, Hillsborough has committed to match the foundation's $100 million. The goal: to improve student achievement by rethinking how best to support and motivate teachers to elevate their game during the adoption of the Common Core curriculum and beyond.
To gauge the partnership's progress, the Tampa Bay Times recently sat down at Blake High School in Tampa with Vicki Phillips and MaryEllen Elia. Phillips is the visiting Gates Foundation education leader, a former secretary of education and chief state school officer for the state of Pennsylvania, And here's the real street cred. She's a former school superintendent and middle and high school teacher.
Elia is not only completing her ninth year as Hillsborough's school superintendent. She also has emerged as a prominent figure in the broader Tampa Bay educational and economic development communities.
Nine years running the same school system is commendable. Especially in Florida where public schools rarely receive adequate attention or funding. Florida spends roughly half per pupil compared to New York or Connecticut. And Florida teachers remain among the poorest paid in the nation.
Contrast Elia's longevity in Hillsborough with Pinellas County, which has had four superintendents in the same nine years — Clayton Wilcox, Julie Janssen, John Stewart and now Mike Grego.
Let's be clear. The Gates Foundation picked Hillsborough County from among a national pool of applicants to receive such generous funding and a partnership role because the school system already was doing innovative things. Hillsborough also demonstrated a willingness to look at itself in a Gates-supplied mirror and change how it operated — if better ways to teach could be found.
According to Elia and Phillips, Hillsborough's education mission is to support innovation that can improve K-12 public schools and ensure students graduate high school ready to succeed in college. Accomplish that, says Elia, and the regional workforce becomes a strong economic selling point to businesses looking for quality employees.
"Great quality education is what draws businesses and people to a community," Phillips agrees. "The things MaryEllen is talking about is not just pushing more science and math but about asking students: 'Can you critically think and problem-solve?' "
When Hillsborough County and Tampa economic development officials are pitching this area to businesses looking to expand, education is no longer an afterthought.
Increasingly, business leaders want to know how dynamic the area school system is, not only for hiring sharp workers with 21st century skills but to gauge whether their own children should attend.
"We are at the table and part of those discussions," Elia said. "Hillsborough is one of the districts identified five years ago to get a very large grant from the Gates Foundation. Does that open eyes? Yes, I would say so."
So now that we're past the halfway point in this Gates-Hillsborough project, what's working so far to help Perspective: Gauging impact of Gates' $100 million Hillsborough schools grant (w/video) | Tampa Bay Times:



Hillsborough school leaders search for clues to lagging graduation rate

TAMPA — Trying to improve Hillsborough County's lagging graduation rate, acting superintendent Jeff Eakins started with a question: What is keeping kids off the stage?

PBS News Hour Video: “What galvanized standardized testing’s opt-out movement” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

PBS News Hour Video: “What galvanized standardized testing’s opt-out movement” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…:

PBS News Hour Video: “What galvanized standardized testing’s opt-out movement”



 What galvanized standardized testing’s opt-out movement is the title of a segment on tonight’s PBS News Hour.

Speaking on the Criminalization of Black Youth | The Jose Vilson

Speaking on the Criminalization of Black Youth | The Jose Vilson:



Speaking on the Criminalization of Black Youth





A few weeks ago, The New America Foundation had me and a few other luminaries (shout out to Nikole Hannah-Jones!) speak on the criminalization of Black youth in our schools. As the only classroom teacher, I felt passionately about throwing down the hammer whenever I got the mic, as you’ll see below. It’s worth the sitting in case you weren’t there. Just as awesome was that friends Sabrina Stevens  and Aurelia Flores brought their babies and families to the packed house.  So blessed.

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 5/26/15


SPECIAL NITE CAP 


CORPORATE ED REFORM





CURMUDGUCATION: Joy, Data and Jumbo Shrimp
CURMUDGUCATION: Joy, Data and Jumbo Shrimp: Joy, Data and Jumbo ShrimpSir Michael Barber is the Big Cheese of Pearson (Motto: All Your School Are Belong To Us), and he recently decided to celebrate Oxymoron Day by delivering a speech entitled "Joy and Data."While that speech spurred some twitter snark, nobody who wasn't actually in the room ever got to hear it. Barber is like that; he do
Climbing Rungless Ladders | WagTheDog
Climbing Rungless Ladders | WagTheDog:Climbing Rungless LaddersTalk with most ed reformers about the importance of the Common Core and many will bring up the need for higher learning standards and more academic rigor in the classroom.Unfortunately, misguided and poorly designed implementation efforts have resulted in many disadvantaged students being subjected to “grit building” learning activitie
Chicago Teachers Union | CTU to lead picket before Board of Ed meeting calling for end to charter expansion
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After Duval charter school closes, many ask: Where's the money? | jacksonville.com
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How Common Core tests are scored: PARCC and Pearson graders can shoot for 60 answers per hour | cleveland.com
How Common Core tests are scored: PARCC and Pearson graders can shoot for 60 answers per hour | cleveland.com: How Common Core tests are scored: PARCC and Pearson graders can shoot for 60 answers per hourWESTERVILLE, Ohio – Grading a student answer each minute could easily be overwhelming for the 121 graders at Pearson Inc.'s Ohio scoring center for the new Common Core exams from PARCC.But this op
Gary Rubinstein’s Blog: I’ll Huffman and I’ll Puffman and I’ll Blow Your District Down | National Education Policy Center
Gary Rubinstein’s Blog: I’ll Huffman and I’ll Puffman and I’ll Blow Your District Down | National Education Policy Center: Gary Rubinstein’s Blog: I’ll Huffman and I’ll Puffman and I’ll Blow Your District DownKevin Huffman was the first Teach For America alum to become a state education commissioner.  Despite having only taught for two years between 1992 and 1994 and having had no role related to
Hawaii Teachers Union Reformers: Old Guard Rejected Election “Because They Didn’t Like” Results - Working In These Times
Hawaii Teachers Union Reformers: Old Guard Rejected Election “Because They Didn’t Like” Results - Working In These Times: Hawaii Teachers Union Reformers: Old Guard Rejected Election “Because They Didn’t Like” ResultsThis post first appeared at Labor Notes.Remember the Hawaii teachers who in 2012 led a statewide work-to-rule campaign against low pay? This spring they won the top three spots in the
Proposed Changes to Education Act Undermine Civil-Rights Protections for New Majority of Students | Commentary : Roll Call Opinion
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California Districts Not Focused on Needs of English Learners
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Making it rain tests: Are the new Common Core exams invalid? Inaccurate? | Cloaking Inequity
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Hillsborough School Board member: Firing Superintendent MaryEllen Elia is a good deal
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Breaking: Ex-Superintendent of Hillsborough County, Florida, Will Be Named New York State Commissioner | Diane Ravitch's blog
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CURMUDGUCATION: Standards: Agreements and Assurances
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Geaux Teacher!: Accountability is the Soup du Jour #flipbese
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Encinitas parents are upset over facial recognition software on school-issued iPads. Page 2 of 2 | UTSanDiego.com
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Educators and Parents Demand Less Testing … and Lawmakers Listen - NEA Today
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Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: A 'Mussolini' for the schools?
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Why Do We Separate the Teacher From the Tech? | My Island View
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Eli and Edythe Broad Build a Museum for Their Art Collection - WSJ
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Berkowitz w/Barack Obama on School Choice, School Vouchers and racial profiling: On cable tonight | Public Affairs with Jeff Berkowitz
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At Smoky Hill High School, Common Core and tests not always easy sell - The Denver Post
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Standardized tests in Pa. making it difficult for some to become a teacher | PhillyVoice
Standardized tests in Pa. making it difficult for some to become a teacher | PhillyVoice: Tests in Pa. hinder African-Americans who want to teachMinority students finding entry to teacher prep programs blocked by testsSOURCE/WWW.LINCOLN.EDU Lincoln University phased out its undergraduate education program, in part, because not enough students were passing the PAPA test.With two educators as parent
Editorial: APS board blows off bill for standardized tests | Albuquerque Journal News
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Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 5/25/15
SPECIAL NITE CAP CORPORATE ED REFORMThe Washington Teacher: Principal Bullying in DC Public Schools: Our Hidden Little SecretThe Washington Teacher: Principal Bullying in DC Public Schools: Our Hidden Little Secret:Principal Bullying in DC Public Schools: Our Hidden Little SecretPrincipal Bullying in DC Public SchoolsBy Candi Peterson, WTU General Vice PresidentA great deal of attention has been g

FLIP THE 
LOUISIANA BOARD OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION 
( BESE)

Big Education Ape: FLIP THE LOUISIANA BOARD OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ( BESE) http://bit.ly/1JKBCtL #flipbese