Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Modern School: Rick Snyder Likes It Longer, Harder, Faster and Cut

Rick Snyder Likes It Longer, Harder, Faster and Cut

by Michael Dunn

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder confirmed Tuesday that he wants to impose a merit pay system for teachers. The Detroit News suggested that his goal was to reward excellent teachers to keep them in the classroom, rather than seeing them move into higher-paid jobs in school administration. Since few teachers successfully move into administration, Snyder either has a very delusional sense of this “problem” or he believes there are very few “excellent” teachers who deserve merit raises.

Considering that he plans on slashing K-12 funding by $470 per student, there will be a lot less money available to pay teachers. Therefore, when he talks about “merit pay,” what he is really talking about is pay cuts for the majority of teachers, and salary stability for “excellent” teachers. However, excellent teachers will have to become much more excellent to keep their meager

Gates & Broad Purchase LAUSD One Boss At A Time

by Michael Dunn

Los Angeles Unified School District new superintendent, John Deasy, has hired five new over-priced administrators at a time when LAUSD is slashing jobs and educational services and faces a $400 million deficit. The new administrators will be partially funded by philanthropists, particularly the Broad and Gates Foundations, according to the Los Angeles Times. The school board approved all five administrators in a closed door session.

Not surprisingly, Deasy chose the appointments to increase teacher accountability and support the creation of more charter schools. Both goals are consistent with the Broad/Gates agenda of privatizing public school systems and exerting greater managerial control over teachers. Furthermore, many of the new administrators, as well as some of the returning ones, have

KOCH BREAK News | www.kochwatch.org

News | www.kochwatch.org

Thom Hartmann: Atlas Shrugged - bizarre philosophy at work WATCH ON YOUTUBE:

Forbes: More Questions Of Koch Brothers’ Fingers In Scott Walker’s Wisconsin Pie As ‘Jason’ Identity Revealed? *April 22, 2011-* In the piece posted here on Wednesday entitled, “What Is Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Not Telling Us About Financial Stress Test Legislation”, I recounted the story of a Wisconsin private security guard, Lance Gosnell, who claims ...

Forbes: What Is Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Not Telling Us About Financial Stress Test Legislation? *April 20, 2011-* On Saturday, I posted a piece here on The Policy Page entitled, “Governor Scott Walker Reportedly Planning Financial Martial Law In Wisconsin.” The article was based on allegations being made by a number of Wisconsin based ...

Ravitch: When reformers reject data they don’t like - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Ravitch: When reformers reject data they don’t like

By Valerie Strauss

This was written by education historian Diane Ravitch for her Bridging Differences blog, which she co-authors with Deborah Meier on the Education Week website. Ravitch and Meier exchange letters about what matters most in education. Ravitch, a research professor at New York University, is the author of the bestselling “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” an important critique of the flaws in the modern school reform movement.

Dear Deborah,

One of the most interesting books I have read in recent months is Dan Ariely’s “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions .” I was particularly interested in Chapter 5, where he explains the difference between social norms—where people act because they

Duncan Fields Tough Questions in Community Forum - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Duncan Fields Tough Questions in Community Forum

By Alyson Klein on April 27, 2011 4:02 PM | No comments |

Congress is moving slowly on renewing the No Child Left Behind Act (I think we can all agree the Senate has blown its Easter deadline). But U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is still trying to get suggestions from the field, and grease the wheels for renewal, by holding community forums with lawmakers back in their home districts.

Today, for instance, he was at John F. Kennedy High School in Montgomery County, Md., along with Montgomery County Superintendent Jerry Weast, whose district was nominated for the Broad Prize in Urban Education. Also on hand: Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat who represents the district in Congress.

The questions from the community were pretty tough.

*A parent noted that Maryland had won a federal grant in the Race to the Top competition and would use part of the money for tests in line with a nationwide push for common academic standards. She asked what would happen when

Out of Left Field: Massachusetts House Votes to End Collective Bargaining for Public Workers - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

Out of Left Field: Massachusetts House Votes to End Collective Bargaining for Public Workers

by E.D. Kain

In a surprise move yesterday, House lawmakers in Massachusetts voted overwhelmingly to strip public workers of their collective bargaining rights over healthcare decisions. The move would strip police officers, teachers, and other municipal workers of their bargaining rights over changes made to healthcare benefits, including premiums, co-payments and other benefits.

The really surprising thing is that Massachusetts is a deep-blue state, and the House is controlled by Democrats. Far from the Tea Party governments of Wisconsin and elsewhere, Massachusetts has one of the most progressive healthcare systems in the country, thanks to former governor Mitt Romney.

Even so, the House voted 11-to-42 to strip healthcare bargaining from public workers. The move was

Pink Slips In The Golden State

Rheelink

Christina Giguiere earned a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential and M.A. in Teaching at UC Irvine. While teaching first and third grade in Irvine Unified, she obtained a MS in Reading and Reading Specialist Credential and is passionate about literacy. Christina returned to UCI in 2007 to work as the Multiple Subject Credential Program Coordinator. In this role she fosters innovative partnerships with district and schools where the credential candidates are completing their student teaching. She implements professional development for elementary teachers and teaches courses about health, classroom management, lesson planning, assessment and education policy.
I loved reaching into my mailbox at school, thinking about what I might find: The

Three Printers Refuse LGBT Student Publication, Citing F-Word, Images of Cross-Dressing - Campus Progress

Three Printers Refuse LGBT Student Publication, Citing F-Word, Images of Cross-Dressing

Posted by David Spett

April 27th, 2011

SOURCE: Courtesy of Fusion Magazine

The spring 2010 issue of Fusion, published a year ago, depicted partial male nudity on its back cover and in a six-page spread inside. The publisher of the issue, Freeport Press Inc., said the "questionable content wasn't highlighted" and that it should not have been published.

Voucher Legislation Being Pushed in 35 States « Larry Miller's Blog

Voucher Legislation Being Pushed in 35 States

by millerlf

Privatization of public education dollars being sought by expanding vouchers.

Republican governors and lawmakers are pushing for a major expansion of voucher programs, efforts that in some cases seek to give taxpayer money for private school tuition to a much larger swath of the population, including middle-income families.

Many of those legislative endeavors come as no surprise, given that GOP candidates for state office made historic gains across the country last fall, in many instances after promising to expand school choice—a longtime priority for many Republicans.

But the proposals put forward this year are notable both for the diversity of strategies they use in attempting to

See Paul Ryan Confronted By Voters in Kenosha Yesterday

by millerlf

To see a clip of Ryan’s town hall meeting in Kenosha along with other Republican town hall meetings where the public is confronting the lies, go to the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDR5YDo9C_E&feature=related

This Week In Education: Best Blogs: Debating Jeb Bush's Importance

Best Blogs: Debating Jeb Bush's Importance

by Alexander Russo

[What'd I miss?] On the Road with Jeb Bush Education Next: We learn that Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education received $2.9 million in 2009 from the Gates and Broad foundations, “among others."... A Waiver for Tougher Standards?: Thompson Publishing: So the district is implementing what they argue are more difficult assessments based on a more stringent standard... Testing For Thee, But Not For Me Mother Jones: Why does Walker want to do away with the requirement that students in tax-supported voucher schools take the same tests as students in tax-supported public schools?....Group ranks top 120 community colleges The Lookout: The analysis and resulting list are part of an initiative to improve graduation rates.. Making New Standards Matter in Classrooms Education Sector: Neither will make much of a difference in what gets taught or learned unless teachers get the support, resources and encouragement they will need to incorporate them into their daily practice... Flash: School reform ‘won’t fix everything’ Joanne Jacobs: Are reformers ignoring the problems of poor kids by trying to get more effective teachers in high-poverty schools?... The Teacher-Parent Berlin Wall Michael Goldstein: As you read the seven visions from The Futures of School Reform project, here is one I don’t think you will see: tearing down the Berlin Wall that separates parents and teachers...

Video: Old Diane Debates New Diane

Via Jay Greene, who notes that New Diane has tweeted nearly 15 times a day since she joined Twitter 600-plus days ago.

School Tech Connect: Rev. Calvin Morris-- The School To Prison Pipeline In Chicago

Rev. Calvin Morris-- The School To Prison Pipeline In Chicago

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

Here's Rev. Calvin Morris, and I should have linked to this earlier, describing the flip-side of the accountability movement: the school-to-prison pipeline. The two phenomena are inextricably connected. If you want to inch up the very lowest standardized test scores, one way to do it is to segregate your school population away from the most difficult-to-teach kids and then focus "like a laser" (a reformer's cliche) on data, data, data, which is usually done through some form of regimentation.

The consequence of that, is that the remaining public schools, which also have to raise reading and math scores continuously, and which accept everyone, also have to get a lot more regimented, a lot more laser-ish. They have to start expelling and suspending at astonishing rates, because you really can't be a data laser while you're also trying to help the kids who need the most help in just surviving, and there are armies of those kids out there.

So there's a trade-off there. Like Rev. Morris says, the new mayor is all about graduation rates; he doesn't

Schools Matter: Against Evaluating Massachusetts Teachers Using Student Test Scores

Against Evaluating Massachusetts Teachers Using Student Test Scores

by Jim Horn

I recently posted on the national push by the U. S. Chamber of Horrors put teacher evaluation by test score into every state, even the bluest states. Corporate control is a post-partisan issue simply because the SCOTUS decision allowing unlimited political spending by corporations makes them necessary to any politician. They own the game, and they will continue to own it until that decision is overturned or until we have a Constitutional amendment.

And so today the State Board of Ed passed in a hurried, confused, and insulting way a proposition to put in place a new evaluation scheme using test scores to evaluate teachers. By the way, the state board of Ed is so business friendly that they hate to be called the state board, preferring instead the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. No state, no board. Both bad.

The AFT chief dipdog was there to declare his victory in strong-arming the membership to support this travesty,

The Dictators are coming, The Dictators are coming,

We Party Patriots » Blog Archive » 132 Cities, 26 Townships and 16 Villages Eligible for Takeover Under Snyder’s Financial Martial La

132 Cities, 26 Townships and 16 Villages Eligible for Takeover Under Snyder’s Financial Martial Law

Please note that the criteria were farmed from an old law, PA 346 of 1966. Yes, 1966. Now, I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that in the past, these criteria were used to not only help struggling communities, but to enable enterprise incentives. Why does that matter? Because the criteria definitely were not intended to diagnose a failing municipality, which makes it far more likely that more Michigan municipalities would land on this list than if more appropriate criteria were used.

Political Ruminations last weekend revealed the list of Michigan cities, townships and villages eligible forEmergency Financial Management under Governor Rick Snyder’s highly unpopular EMF law. Even folks close to the situation appear in shock at the number of cities deemed Eligible Distressed Areas, partially because the criteria for such a classification date back to 1966 (!) and partially because some of them are

The Rhee and Scott Walker tag team set to appear at a Tea-Party backed convention

by admin

Michelle Rhee and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, big stars in the ultra-right wing firmament, will be featured at the arch-conservative American Federation for Children’s summit on May 9^th in Washington, DC. Rhee haspublicly supported Walker’s education agenda.

AFC is closely linked to Tea Party figures and funders, the Koch Brothers, and currently employs a member of the Koch-backed Wisconsin Prosperity Network. It openly advocates for the end of public education. Wisconsinites received robo-calls from AFC this year urging voters not to support the recall of eight ultra-

solidaridad: UTLA May 1st Teachers Press Conference! Teachers, we need you!!

UTLA May 1st Teachers Press Conference! Teachers, we need you!! *"I have seen UTLA representation at these type of events, coalition meetings, and other such organizing for over a decade. I've NEVER seen an Alliance for a Better Community, LAPU/Parent Revolution, or Families in Schools banner at any immigrant ...

Fielding a local reporter's questions about Camino Nuevo Charter Corporation's designs on CRES #14 *By every account: legal, moral, and ethical, CNCA should be required to serve every child in my community. By allowing them to dodge the requirement as a school in our attendance boundary to provide a Mainstream English program, we allow CNCA to ...