Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Big Education Ape - PostRank Today's 9

DETROIT’S TURN TO BE VIOLATED « Teachers Fight Back DETROIT’S TURN TO BE VIOLATED « Teachers Fight Back DETROIT’S TURN TO BE VIOLATED leave a comment » The Detroit teachers have now been told that despite their contract, their pay will be slashed by 10% and they will have to contribute 25 % of the cost ...

Darling-Hammond: The mess we are in - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post #SOSMarch Darling-Hammond: The mess we are in - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post Darling-Hammond: The mess we are in by Valerie Strauss Stanford University Education Professor Linda Darling-Hammond helped Barack Obama draft his educational plan when he was ...

Your Personal Learning Network - Hispanically Speaking News Your Personal Learning Network - Hispanically Speaking News Your Personal Learning Network [image: Your Personal Learning Network] Who is in your personal learning network (PLN)? Or maybe we should first ask, What is a *personal learning network*? In ...

School Tech Connect: The Unified Theory of Poverty, Testing, and Jobs School Tech Connect: The Unified Theory of Poverty, Testing, and Jobs The Unified Theory of Poverty, Testing, and Jobs by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim) I'm still recovering from the DC heat. Holy cow-- I think my internal organs were parboiled. Was it ...

Dysfunctional Tiny Cities and Dysfunctional Tiny School Districts: The Sorry Story of Central Falls, RI - Dana Goldstein Dysfunctional Tiny Cities and Dysfunctional Tiny School Districts: The Sorry Story of Central Falls, RI - Dana Goldstein Dysfunctional Tiny Cities and Dysfunctional Tiny School Districts: The Sorry Story of Central Falls, RI by Dana Goldstein [image: ...

#sosmarch Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: SOS Think/Do Tank Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: SOS Think/Do Tank SOS Think/Do Tank SOS Institure Workshop (R. Sanders pic) One of the many good things that came out of the SOS conference was a committment from a significant group of attendees to move ahead with, what ...

Inexcusable Inequalities! This is NOT the post funding equity era! « School Finance 101 Inexcusable Inequalities! This is NOT the post funding equity era! « School Finance 101 Inexcusable Inequalities! This is NOT the post funding equity era! *Posted on August 1, 2011* by *schoolfinance101* 3 8 Votes I’ve heard it over and over again ...

Big Education Ape - PostRank Today's 8 Big Education Ape - PostRank Today's *8* #SOSMarch Matt Damon’s Speech to Teachers’ Rally « Diary of a Public School Teacher! Matt Damon’s Speech to Teachers’ Rally « Diary of a Public School Teacher! Matt Damon’s Speech to Teachers’ Rally *I love ...

#sosmarch Teacher: What Save Our Schools march accomplished — and didn’t - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post Teacher: What Save Our Schools march accomplished — and didn’t - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post Teacher: What Save Our Schools march accomplished — and didn’t by Valerie Strauss Veteran teacher Anthony Cody was one of the main organizers of last ...

Diary of a Social Art-tivist Mommy: THE EXPERIENCED TEACHER: The uninvited guest in a youth and money-obsessed nation

THE EXPERIENCED TEACHER: The uninvited guest in a youth and money-obsessed nation

by ART-tivist Mommy

I believe you know you are getting older once you start talking about the 'good ole' days'. When I looked over my notes of what I wanted to blog about today, I saw this judgement directed at me and suddenly, I found myself yearning for a simpler time when experience

Save Seattle Schools Community Blog: Too Complex for a Sound Bite (Even from Bill Gates)?

Too Complex for a Sound Bite (Even from Bill Gates)?

by Melissa Westbrook

Ever the education reformer, Bill Gates told the a National Urban League audience this:

"Let me acknowledge that I don't understand in a personal way the challenges that poverty creates for families, and schools and teachers," the billionaire said at the civil rights group's annual convention. "I don't ever want to minimize it. Poverty is a terrible obstacle. But we can't let it be an excuse.

We know you can have a good school in a poor neighborhood," said Gates. "So let's end the myth that we have to solve poverty before we improve education. I say it's more the other way around: Improving education is the best way to solve poverty."

So first of all, is that a common myth? That poverty has to be solved (or severely curtailed) before education can

The Atlanta Cheating Scandal and the Texas Miracle | Scathing Purple Musings

The Atlanta Cheating Scandal and the Texas Miracle

by Bob Sikes

With revelations coming forth that a cheating scandal has likely been uncovered in Philadelphia, it should come as no surprise that some former teachers are coming forward. Citing Atlanta as the model, former Texas teacher Lauren Bell has come forward to tell her story in a letter to the editor yesterday in the Seattle Times.

Having worked in the Houston Independent School District my first year of teaching, I want Alan Clark to know that I have never forgotten that No Child Left Behind began with “similar lies” [“Similar to ‘Texas Miracle’,” Northwest Voices, July 12].
I brought forth allegations of cheating on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) during

#sosmarch Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » PSAT for 8-2-11: Take the Matt Damon test

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » PSAT for 8-2-11: Take the Matt Damon test

PSAT for 8-2-11: Take the Matt Damon test

by admin

Are you as well-informed about education issues as Matt Damon?

Check out his interview with Gotham Schools here and his SOS March speech here.

Did you know all that? Why is he so smart about school issues? Well, apparently he’s actually really smart. Also, he has a smart mom who is a professor of early childhood education and hangs around with Diane Ravitch.

But all of us can get smart, and we have started hanging around with Diane R., too, at least virtually, by reading her blogs and tweets, right? And we can share them with our friends and family the way Matt’s mom shares

Debt Deal Could Cut K-12 Spending, Poison No Child Left Behind Process

Joy Resmovits Joy.resmovits@huffingtonpost.com Become a fan of this reporter

Public schools around the country averted an immediate spending crisis when Congress voted Tuesday afternoon to pass an 11th-hour deal to raise the debt ceiling and prevent the government from defaulting on its loans.

A default could have increased school systems' capital, borrowing and construction costs, forcing spending cuts in areas closely related to student learning. Schools have already suffered massive cutsin recent years, and lost about 200,000 public education employees, due to the recession and the drying up of stimulus funds.

The debt deal's changes to the Pell Grant program, which helps disadvantaged students pay for college, have been highly publicized, but details of what the debt deal will mean for k-12 education funding

Emergency Decree Cuts Wages for Detroit School Workers | Labor Notes

Emergency Decree Cuts Wages for Detroit School Workers

Jane Slaughter

| August 2, 2011

Detroit school employees, already among the lowest paid in the area, will see their salaries cut even further beginning this month. Students protested in June one of the many school closings and privatizations that have left the district with just 70,000 students. Photo: Jim West | jimwestphoto.com.

Public sector unions predicted Michigan’s emergency manager law would be used to savage their contracts—and now their warnings are proving accurate.

The Detroit school district’s emergency manager, Roy Roberts, is using the near-dictatorial powers granted to him by the March bill to impose a 10 percent wage cut on all 10,000 employees and make them pay more for their health care.

Roberts thoughtfully included his own $250,000 salary in those to be cut.

The law was proposed by newly elected Governor Rick Snyder this winter in order to give appointed financial managers the authority to impose budget cuts in cities, towns, and school districts operating in the red. Snyder’s

This Week In Education: Politics: Who Wrote The Bill Your Representative Just Introduced?

Politics: Who Wrote The Bill Your Representative Just Introduced?

by Alexander Russo

Reform-minded education advocacy groups aren't the only folks to watch out for and worry about at the state legislative level, reports ProPublica in a story package about the shadowy conservative legislative juggernaut known as ALEC. The organization develops, writes, and promotes passage of laws affecting education and pretty much every other issue but its workings aren't always clear or transparent in the states where they're working. It doesn't have a liberal equivalent, according to ProPublica, though some would argue

This Week In Education: Politics: Who Wrote The Bill Your Representative Just Introduced?

Politics: Who Wrote The Bill Your Representative Just Introduced?

by Alexander Russo

Why We Must Keep Tenure - ParentAdvocates.org

Parent Advocates - ParentAdvocates.org

Why We Must Keep Tenure
Peter Lamphere and Rachel Montagano write about their exeriences as well as those of other teachers in New York City where administrators, CEOs and leaders of the New York public school system throw everyone with tenure into the garbage. Children Last is the motto of the "new" Board of Education, an entity in New York City that does not exist, and its' replacement, the Panel For Educational Policy, has no executive or administrative function outside of playing puppet to the puppetmaster, Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Our Experience Proves Tenure Is Not Obsolete
by Peter Lamphere and Rachel Montagano

Mayor Bloomberg’s comments on his Friday radio show that tenure “may have been necessary in the McCarthy era” but is now a relic of the past highlight how out of touch he is with the current realities of the school system.

Bloomberg argued that protection for academic freedom was not necessary for public school teachers because we are “not writing papers about things that are very controversial.” However, in some schools, advocacy for students or for the employment rights of teachers can result

solidaridad: Stop the Criminalization of our Communities

Stop the Criminalization of our Communities

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

Stop the Criminalization of our Communities

Come to the next “Public Safety Walk” and Call for an End to the Safer Cities Initiative

WEDNESDAY, August 3^rd at 5:30pm

Ballington Plaza: 622 S. Wall Street, LA, CA 90014

As most of you know, last summer the City Attorney launched an aggressive assault against organizers and activists who were actively engaged in protest and dissent against human rights violations against immigrants, young people, homeless and very poor people, low-income tenants, transit riders, and other oppressed people in Los Angeles and beyond.

Because of this and other continuing criminalization efforts against our communities, organizations convened/re-convened under the umbrella of the Coalition against State Violence to develop a broad response and provide

Sec. Duncan solicits education experts: they say Rhee's evaluation system should be treated merely as pilot

by admin

Sec. Arne Ducan recently called a principal in a New York City school, Dr. Carol Burris, to solicit her advice regarding the current aggressive campaign to link teacher and principal evaluations to student test scores. In a 8 page follow up letter to Duncan, Dr. Burris and Prof. Kevin Welner, a scholar she has previously collaborated with, put forth highly critical arguments and supporting data on Rhee’s IMPACT evaluation system that refuted her claims of dramatic successes. One policy prescription they recommended is that IMPACT be treated as a

SOS March videos: a compilation

by admin

Click here to see our compilation page of SOS March videos

Posted: 4:07PM, August 2, 2011

All Education Matters: Pell - Official Statement from Campus Progress

Pell - Official Statement from Campus Progress

by C. Cryn Johannsen

AEM has signed several important letters in support of Pell, and I have made a point to spread the word via Twitter and Facebook about the fact that it was on the chopping block.

Campus Progress issued the following statement today:

Campus Progress Statement: Debt Deal Maintains Vital Funding for Low Income Students

WASHINGTON, DC– Campus Progress, the youth outreach arm of the Center for American Progress, released the following statement today in response to the passage of the debt ceiling bill in the Senate:

Home again. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Home again.

by Fred Klonsky

Graphic credit: Chicago Reader, Johnny Sampson

I’m back home in Chicago after 12 days on a road trip through Wyoming.

My wife, her sister, my brother-in-law and I had a glorious time touring through a stunningly beautiful part of our country.

A few days in to the trip, in a place where no internet is available, Ben Joravsky’s story in the Chicago Reader

#sosmarch PSAT for 8-2-11: Take the Matt Damon test « Parents Across America

PSAT for 8-2-11: Take the Matt Damon test « Parents Across America

PSAT for 8-2-11: Take the Matt Damon test

by pureparents

Are you as well-informed about education issues as Matt Damon?

Check out his interview with Gotham Schools here and his SOS March speech here.

But all of us can get smart, and we have started hanging around with Diane R., too, at least virtually, by reading her blogs and tweets, right? And we can share them with our

This Week In Education: Thompson: NCEI Report Shows What All Teachers Really Want

Thompson: NCEI Report Shows What All Teachers Really Want

by john thompson

The National Center for Education Information’s "Profiles of Teachers in the U.S., 2011," reports that there are generational differences in the attitudes of teachers toward performance pay, tenure, and unions. I was struck, however, by many of the beliefsshared by teachers of all ages. Both alternatively certified and traditionally prepared teachers want "more autonomy in what and how they teach." (The number of teachers agreeing with that statement increased from 72% in 2005 to 78% in 2009.) The NCEI also reported "nearly all (96-98 percent) teachers surveyed in 1990, 1996, 2005 and 2011 agree that greater participation in decision-making at all levels would make teaching more a profession." Last but not least, the profile also noted, "almost all the comments written in by numerous survey respondents were expressions of strong

My Very Real Takeaways About the SOS March | The Jose Vilson

My Very Real Takeaways About the SOS March

by JOSE on AUGUST 2, 2011

Allow me to keep it real with you all. Not that I need to ask permission:

1. First, I’d like to thank those of you with encouraging words about my recent speech / poem at the Save Our Schools March in Washington, DC. It’ll certainly be a moment I’ll never forget. For those of you that didn’t get to see the video, both Dan Brown and Jon Becker put versions up on their YouTube accounts. I put up the text for the speech a couple of nights before that magical Saturday. I also

How to Take Our Country Back from the Money Men Who Fund the Tea Party « MomsRising Blog

How to Take Our Country Back from the Money Men Who Fund the Tea Party

by Joan C. Williams

While New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman recently described the Tea Party as an American Hezbollah, Islamic terrorists would not have much clout without their funders in Saudi Arabia and Iran. So, too, the Republican right would be impotent without its behind-the-scenes creators. A small number of incredibly wealthy businessmen — the principle beneficiaries of the Bush tax cuts — have created an ideological machine determined to destroy government. Taking our country back, restoring pragmatism over ideology, and making government function requires making the deep pocket money men (and they are mostly men) visible and identifying their cause with the looting of the country.

The debt limit gridlock is simply the latest episode in a war on government that has been thirty years in the making. Many of us dismissed the genial, misguided Ronald Reagan as an aberration. We saw the Gingrich

Jersey Jazzman: Testing Nation=Anxious Kids

Testing Nation=Anxious Kids

by Duke

Now we're talking:

We forget to think about how it must feel for kids to be solely responsible for teacher’s pay and jobs. How must it feel for students that if they do poorly on a test it will directly affect the teacher that they love? Kids are not stupid, they are aware of what is happening around us, how politicians and “reformers” are asking their test scores be part of something bigger. For this text-anxious child that knowledge would have been the nail in the coffin. People say that with this knowledge students will do even better because they will want to protect their teacher, to show off what they know. No child goes into

Charter Funding / Quality Issues | District 299: The Inside Scoop on CPS

Charter Funding / Quality Issues UNO and the other early-start charters got a JC Brizard appearance and some nice publicity yesterday even as charters are asking for more money and some folks are asking whether charters (and year-round schedules) are really worth it. Charter school ...

Unclear Impact Of Debt Ceiling Deal Nobody really knows what the impact of the debt reduction deal is going to be on K-12 funding from Washington, but like the debate itself the impact may be less than meets the eye. Meantime, states are lining up for NCLB waivers. Below a roundup of ...

Brizard Dumps AMPs AM news roundup: So (A)AMPs is dunzo, and Melissa Megliola-Zaikos is headed to be the chief of the Pershing West network (er, collaborative). Is that a good thing, for the schools and for the system as a whole, or has Brizard endangered one of the ...

Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Debt Deal Could Cut K-12 Spending, Poison No Child Left Behind Process

Emergency Decree Cuts Wages for Detroit School Workers

My Very Real Takeaways About the SOS March