Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, October 30, 2015

Comprehensive Common Core survey sent to teachers, principals | EdSource

Comprehensive Common Core survey sent to teachers, principals | EdSource:

Comprehensive Common Core survey sent to teachers, principals


Every superintendent and principal in California, along with 7,000 teachers statewide, received an extensive questionnaire this week asking for their perspectives on how well the rollout of the Common Core State Standards has been handled.
The nonprofit research agency WestEd is conducting the survey with the blessing of  State Board of Education President Michael Kirst and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson. Results will be tabulated in summary form and won’t be identifiable by school, district or county office of education.
“Our goal is to have a better view about implementation from the perspective of teachers, principals and superintendents,” Kirst said.‎ “These results will help inform decision-making, especially about professional development and additional support needed.”
The survey, the most comprehensive to date, will parallel similar questionnaires in other states, including Florida, Massachusetts and New York, providing cross-state comparisons.
The 17-page questionnaire to teachers, estimated to take 15 minutes to fill out, asks teachers to identify and rate the forms in which they’ve received support in the Common Core – including online materials, training, textbooks, and Comprehensive Common Core survey sent to teachers, principals | EdSource:

Success Academy Founder Calls ‘Got to Go’ List an Anomaly, Except for all those other times- The New York Times

Success Academy Founder Calls ‘Got to Go’ List an Anomaly - The New York Times:

Success Academy Founder Calls ‘Got to Go’ List an Anomaly



Big Education Ape: Success Academy parent's secret tapes reveal attempt to push out special needs student - NY Daily News... http://bit.ly/1N0DVqv

Eva S. Moskowitz, the founder of the Success Academy charter school network, said on Friday that a list singling out children under the heading “Got to Go” was an anomaly and that the network did not have a practice of pushing out students it saw as difficult.
Ms. Moskowitz said that as soon as the network learned about the list, Success Academy quickly reprimanded the principal who had created it.
The list included the names of 16 students. It was created in December at the direction of Candido Brown, who had just become the principal of Success Academy Fort Greene.
Ms. Moskowitz said the school, which then went through second grade, had severe disciplinary problems. Mr. Brown previously said in an email that he believed he could not turn the school around if the 16 students remained.
Success Academy is New York City’s largest charter school network and serves mostly black and Hispanic students, who perform much better on state tests than the citywide averages. The network’s critics have long argued that it achieves those results in part by weeding out weak or difficult students, and the list appeared to lend some validity to those accusations.
Ms. Moskowitz, who spoke on Friday at a news conference, said that the list existed for only three days before Mr. Brown was admonished and that he changed course. Nonetheless, nine of the students on the list eventually left the school.
Parents of four of them said that school or network employees told them that the school was not right for their children and that they should withdraw. They described repeated suspensions, multiple daily phone calls and frequent demands to pick their children up from school early, which made their lives difficult and in some cases contributed to their decisions to leave.
Ms. Moskowitz, a former member of the City Council, said the fact that the network chastised Mr. Brown so quickly showed that his actions did not reflect the network’s approach.
“A mistake was made here, and I take personal responsibility as the leader of this organization,” she said.
“But I take credit for the fact that we acted swiftly to address the mistake,Success Academy Founder Calls ‘Got to Go’ List an Anomaly - The New York Times: 

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 10/30/15



CORPORATE ED REFORM





Common Core and Corporate Colonization: The Big Picture | educationalchemy
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Senate Bill 740 prohibiting charter schools from receiving any funding for nonclassroom-based instruction unless the SBE determines its eligibility for funding
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Obama regrets “taking the joy out of teaching and learning” with too much testing | I AM AN EDUCATOR
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"The Beast Side" and "Chasin' the Gram" | John Thompson - Linkis.com
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New State Programs Place the Emphasis on Training High-Quality Teachers - The Atlantic
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Foundations fund L.A. Times’ education reporting. A conflict? - The Washington Post
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Mathematica, CRPE, and CREDO Condemn Online Charter Schools in Three-Agency Report | janresseger
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School Board Recall Vote Divides Colorado County | Al Jazeera America
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NYC Public School Parents: FERPA complaint from Fatima Geidi to US Dept of Education re Eva Moskowitz violation of student privacy
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Schools Matter: Asshat!
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55 kids in a class? Typical at some Oregon online schools | OregonLive.com
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Education Reform’s Very Bad Week
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Florida teacher's 'deeply personal' resignation letter goes viral
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Obama administration weighs in on transgender bathroom debate - Yahoo News
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Damning Report Shows How Charter Schools Dump Struggling Students: Gothamist
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Education reformer fired for suggesting radical change
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Saving Students From A Shattered System: Debates and the standardized test.
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Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 10/29/15
CORPORATE ED REFORMPAA responds to President Obama’s letter on testing | Parents Across AmericaPAA responds to President Obama’s letter on testing | Parents Across America: PAA responds to President Obama’s letter on testingOn Monday, President Obama published an open letter to parents and teachers about testing.The letter introduced his administration’s new Testing Action Plan which is supposed t