The Fordham Institute’s Misinformation About Missouri Standards & Common Core | Missouri Education Watchdog

The Fordham Institute’s Misinformation About Missouri Standards & Common Core | Missouri Education Watchdog:

The Fordham Institute’s Misinformation About Missouri Standards & Common Core

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Should “conservatives” align themselves with Arne Duncan’s educational reforms which include Common Core support?

The Fordham Institute is now framing itself as the organization giving voice to “Conservatives for Common Core“. Michael Brickman of Fordham was interviewed on a Warrenton, MO radio station, KWRE on Thursday.  You can listen to the interview at the end of the article in two parts.  Here is the gist of the interview:

• He describes Fordham as “right of center”, he is conservative and supports the Common Core
• Any conservative who doesn’t support them is “misinformed”
• He contends that Missouri had low standards and Common Core will create more honesty with parents as they will have a true measure of what students are learning
• He hopes Missouri goes “up” in its standards and not “down” via the process set forth in HB1490
• He is a big supporter for states’ rights and doesn’t believe this is an issue in which the Federal government is intrusive in state policy
• The arguments against Common Core are a distraction in education reform rights
• Data privacy is another issue that doesn’t have anything to do with CCSS.  If CCSS disappears tomorrow, data gathering would still occur (he doesn’t mention the fact that if CCSS disappears, the common data sets will disappear also, making data gathering and comparison meaningless on a national level….he quickly turns the narrative back to “it’s just standards”…..but it’s not.  The Common Core Standards are needed to set “the foundation for the broader system of the broader college and career ready agenda: course requirements, assessments, data and accountability systems“.  From Achieve pdf about the standards circa 2010):

(click on graphic to enlarge)

• He focuses the discussion back to reading Shakespeare and learning content.  (The radio station host has a daughter who is a teacher and he notes that schools increasingly have to have a level playing field and asks about that….)
• Brickman responds by saying that in many schools, self esteem is the goal vs student learning.  Have students succeed first.  (What he doesn’t expound on is this: who decides what The Fordham Institute’s Misinformation About Missouri Standards & Common Core | Missouri Education Watchdog:

Lawmakers open to brief reprieve from big payments for teacher pensions | EdSource Today

Lawmakers open to brief reprieve from big payments for teacher pensions | EdSource Today:

Lawmakers open to brief reprieve from big payments for teacher pensions

May 22nd, 2014 | 4 Comments | 
By John Fensterwald

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Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to immediately start paying off the $74 billion shortfall in funding for teacher pensions was, for school districts that would bear the brunt, the big May budget surprise. On Thursday, two key lawmakers responded to districts’ calls for total relief next year by urging legislators to meet them halfway.

CalSTRS’ defined benefit plan for teachers and administrators, now two-thirds funded, would reach 70 percent of funding in 2024 and full funding in 2046, under Gov. Brown’s plan. Source: CalSTRS.

Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, and Sen. Norma Torres, D-Pomona, who chair committees looking into the pension issue, endorsed an alternative payment plan proposed by the California State Teachers Retirement System. Instead of paying $350 million to CalSTRS in 2014-15, which is the increased amount Brown proposed, school districts would pay half that. They would make up the difference with higher payments in future years. The alternative plan would leave intact the key elements of Brown’s plan to eliminate CalSTRS’ deficit, which he outlined in the revised state budget.

During a two-hour hearing in Sacramento, education groups generally praised Brown’s overall division of responsibility among school districts, teachers and the state for making the CalSTRS pension program for teachers and administrators whole at the end of 30 years. But they said that the plan to start phasing it in on July 1 caught them unaware just when they were completing the planning process under the state’s new Local Control Funding Formula. In January, Brown had suggested higher payments would begin in 2015-16; districts built their budgets around those Lawmakers open to brief reprieve from big payments for teacher pensions | EdSource Today:

They don’t make Family Values the way they used to. | Reclaim Reform

They don’t make Family Values the way they used to. | Reclaim Reform:

They don’t make Family Values the way they used to.

Posted on May 23, 2014by Ken Previti

When a billionaire runs for governor and spends his own mega-bucks on ads to proclaim his beliefs and the beliefs of his wife, who takes part in those ads, people expect some form of honesty no matter how shallow the statements may be.

The fact that he was married before, had a “paramour” – a term used in his divorce proceedings – had children ages, six, four and one years of age during this period, later married his non-paramour who claims to be a Democrat who contributes to the Tea Party – a woman who was set to marry another man when Bruce came along – and manages to use his connections to block and hide his past from the Chicago Tribune and evenWikipedia, and…

No this is not a soap opera in spite of seeming like one.

Bruce Rauner, the Republican Tea Party candidate for Illinois governor, wants to close public schools, fire teachers, mandate even more high stakes testing, cut pensions for grandmothers and other assorted old people, and break the oath of office he has not even taken yet to protect the US and state constitutions which safeguard citizens from these cuts – well, he is the epitome of the arrogance of super-wealth which allows him to claim one set of things while doing the opposite.

Read more HERE and HERE.

Family values? Rauner doesn’t even posses common human decency.

Two questions:

Why would any woman vote for Rauner?

Why would any man vote for Rauner?

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By the way, did you know that Rauner’s firm, while personally lead by him, was involThey don’t make Family Values the way they used to. | Reclaim Reform:

Sponsor a Student!: Inform Your Policymaker Why Vouchers Have Failed | Cloaking Inequity

Sponsor a Student!: Inform Your Policymaker Why Vouchers Have Failed | Cloaking Inequity:

Sponsor a Student!: Inform Your Policymaker Why Vouchers Have Failed

WE NEED YOUR HELP! Do you believe in public education? Do you want US policymakers to understand why decision makers in Chile have now judged vouchers to be problematic after 30 years of universal implementation? Do you have frequent flier miles you can donate? Sponsor a grad student today!

This summer, I along with eight UT-Austin graduate students will travel to Santiago, Chile with Professor Julian Vasquez Heilig to conduct field research that will result in a policy brief, op-eds and a peer-reviewed academic paper detailing recent changes in Chile’s market-based education policy proposed this past April by Chile’s current Education Minister Nicholas Eyzaguirre.

Background: A Seachange for Voucher Policy

After two years of intense student protests, Minister Eyzaguirre indicated that current President Michelle Bachelet’s administration will propose an overhaul of the education system. The student movement in Chile has demanded regulation of the market-driven Chilean educational system and the strengthening of public education, but it is unclear why and how these transformations are going to take place.  Our research seeks to understand and derive lessons from the process and implementation of Chilean educational reform.

Chile’s three decades of implementation and very recent pull back from vouchers can help inform U.S. educational
policymakers as vouchers— an old idea once used to fight desegregation in the US South— are once againSponsor a Student!: Inform Your Policymaker Why Vouchers Have Failed | Cloaking Inequity: 

What’s Testing Season? | My Island View

What’s Testing Season? | My Island View:

What’s Testing Season?

May 23, 2014 by tomwhitby

Recently, the editors of Edutopia were considering a theme for their bloggers to blog about concerning testing. In order to keep things timely, they needed to find out when most schools were being affected by standardized tests. It was a reasonable consideration, worthy of a responsible examination of the subject. It was the question posed to the bloggers however, that set me off about our evolved approach to these standardized tests. When is your Testing Season?

Every standardized test has a date or two or three that it is to be administered, but the question was not what are the dates of the standardized tests in your school. The idea that any school would have a “testing season” is enough to drive an advocate for authentic learning to skip taking his scheduled life-saving medications in order to stay on task completing a post about this culture of testing that we have allowed to develop. Every state has its own schedule for tests and a list of grades to take them. New York was at one time considering testing from Pre-K to 2nd grade as well all as the other grades. How does anyone get behind testing toddlers? Testing as it stands now begins in New York at 3rd grade. Here is a site that outlines what each state requires for their Standardized testing. Standardized Testing State By State, Standardized Tests Are Here to Stay

The thing that has really gotten me bothered is this culture change in education. It is no longer about the learning, but rather it is all about the testing. We no longer view the test as an assessment tool of learning to adjust lessons to meet the needs of each student. It has become a means to manipulate data to affect factors beyond that of just student learning. Standardized tests are certainly not the best form of student learning What’s Testing Season? | My Island View:

5-23-14 The Whole Child Blog — Transforming Schools to Become Innovation Ready — Whole Child Education

Transforming Schools to Become Innovation Ready — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

Transforming Schools to Become Innovation Ready

May 23, 2014 by Whole Child Symposium

Post written by Laura Varlas

Because tests don't require connection and collaboration, classroom education is being driven in one direction, while technology enables creation, curation, and connection.

Educators are up against a global achievement gap, Tony Wagner explained in his 2014 ASCD Annual Conference session, "Graduating All Students 'Innovation Ready.'" That is, the gap between the skills students need and the skills that are driven by the testing culture dominating U.S. education.

"Increasingly, we have one curriculum—test prep," Wagner said. "Cheap multiple choice tests say nothing about career, work, citizenship, or learning readiness, let alone teacher effectiveness."

Despite this disconnect between what students need and what influences school curriculum, Wagner is encouraged that for the first time, the skills students need for work and for citizenship are converging. Wagner called these skills the "seven survival skills" and discussed how they can reorient education to graduate all students innovation ready.

The seven survival skills are

1. Critical thinking and problem-solving: Asking really good questions.
2. Collaboration across networks and leading by influence: Education is still one of the most isolated, modern professions. Wagner wondered, how are we, who work alone so much of the time, going to teach our kids to collaborate?. How do we teach kids to appreciate differences, among mixed teams? "Innovation is a team sport; isolation is the enemy of improvement."
3. Adaptability and agility: Wagner asked attendees to contrast this ideal with the regularities of school, "where this year looks a lot like last year."
4. Initiative and entrepreneurship: Wagner said setting stretch goals and failing at most is more valuable than setting a low, achievable bar. "Innovation demands that you take risks, fail, and learn from those Transforming Schools to Become Innovation Ready — Whole Child Education:

5-22-14 The Whole Child Blog — Creating a Better Tomorrow Today in the Middle Level: Lessons from Donald Sterling and the Los Angeles Clippers — Whole Child Education

Creating a Better Tomorrow Today in the Middle Level: Lessons from Donald Sterling and the Los Angeles Clippers — Whole Child Education: THE WHOLE CHILD BLOGCreating a Better Tomorrow Today in the Middle Level: Lessons from Donald Sterling and the Los Angeles ClippersMay 22, 2014 by Dru TomlinMost of us know the story by now. Donald Sterling, the former owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, was recen

by mike simpson / 17h 

5-23-14 Jersey Jazzman: "One Newark": A Market For "Lemons"

Jersey Jazzman: "One Newark": A Market For "Lemons":

"One Newark": A Market For "Lemons"

I've got a new brief over at the NJ Education Policy Forum out today about One Newark. As usual, I present my geekspeak-free (mostly) version of this brief here.

Here's the background: Cami Anderson, the state-appointed superintendent of Newark, has put out a plan to restructure the district's schools. Bruce Baker* and I have written a lot about the flaws in this plan, called One Newark: see here, here and here for our critques. The central problems are:

• Certain schools were targeted for closure, "renewal" (where all of the staff is fired), or takeover by charter management organizations (CMOs), but the sanctioning of these schools, which are supposedly "ineffective," seems to be arbitrary and capricious.
• Newark Public Schools clearly did not take student characteristics into account when rating the schools' effectiveness. In other words: they don't seem to care that a school with many kids in economic disadvantage, or who don't speak English at home, or have special needs, has a far tougher job than a school that doesn't serve as many of these kids.
• The sanctions under One Newark are applied unequally under race and class lines: more kids who are black and economically disadvantaged will see their schools sanctioned, and more teachers who are black and teach the poorest students will lose their jobs.
• To be frank: NPS does not appear to have a very good command of statistical methods. But even when judged by NPS's own criteria, the plans they offer make no sense.

This last one is the focus of the new brief, and it relates to how NPS is "selling" Newark's

- See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2014/05/one-newark-market-for-lemons.html#sthash.ljEFlLKi.dpuf

5-18-14 Jersey Jazzman

Jersey Jazzman: Chris Christie: Lying Liar, or Completely Clueless?Give The Auditor, the Star-Ledger's weekly political insider column, credit for catching Chris Christie's latest lie - although, in my opinion, this merits much stronger language:Gov. Chris Christie joined an exclusive club last week — governors who get shellacked with six downgrades of their state’s credit rating. The only other m

1 by mike simpson / 22h 

5-23-14 Wait What?

Wait What?:

Wait What? 

Union Leader says Pelto is anti-union?

In recent weeks, one political pundit called me a “union stooge,” while the former Democratic Party Chairman, John Droney, referred to me as a “liberal ideologue.” But this morning, in a “What the _____” moment, the President of SEIU 1199NE, the great union that represents 19,000 Connecticut health care workers issued a press release attacking […] The post Union Leader says Pelto is anti-union? ap

4 by jonpelto / 57min 

5-22-14 Wait What?

Wait What?: Wait What? Democratic State Central Committee’s legacy of using donations to fight pro-public education DemocratsOne of the newer Wait, What? readers raised a question in the comment section of the blog this week.  They took offense when one of the blog’s longest standing, and most respected readers, realsaramerica pointed out that Governor Dannel “Dan” Malloy and the State Democrats d

by mike simpson / 22h 

With A Brooklyn Accent: We Are All Craig Charvat: Defend the Free Speech Rights of a Great Long Island Teacher!

With A Brooklyn Accent: We Are All Craig Charvat: Defend the Free Speech Rights of a Great Long Island Teacher!:

Why It's Time to Go Green- A Guest Pot By Laurel M. Sturt

In the last decade, the Democratic party has become increasingly indistinct from the Republican, both parties in virtually impervious thrall to the siren of money. As exacerbated by the Citizens United and McCutcheon Supreme Court decisions, the--for all intents and purposes--wholesale prostitution of both parties to special interests has forced the true agenda of today’s elected officials into th

by Mark Naison / 28min 

We Are All Craig Charvat: Defend the Free Speech Rights of a Great Long Island Teacher!

 

Craig Charvat, the Social Studies Teacher from Center Moriches High School who made headlines all over New York State for denouncing the Common Core Standards, and refusing to accept evaluations based on Common Core tests, has been removed from his classroom.

The grounds for doing this were his refusal to participate in Professional Development sessions related to Common Core, which he felt were a waste of time, and for allegedly inciting students to rebellion, charges based on a recording of one of his class sessions in which he was leading a discussion about the American prison system!

The latter charge is the one most disturbing to me. Can you imagine Administrators enlisting student to surreptitiously tape their teachers during a class room discussion? That violates every rule of Administrative ethics I have ever heard of and is a deadly threat to the freedom of expression of every teacher.

I am calling on every teacher I know, from nursery school right up through to the University to write the people responsible for personnel decisions in the Center Moriches School District to demand that Craig Charvat be restored to his classroom and the secret taping of teachers be repudiated as a violation of With A Brooklyn Accent: We Are All Craig Charvat: Defend the Free Speech Rights of a Great Long Island Teacher!:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Are Prosser teachers 'gaming the system'? Or is this reporter gaming them?

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Are Prosser teachers 'gaming the system'? Or is this reporter gaming them?:

Are Prosser teachers 'gaming the system'? Or is this reporter gaming them?

"If anyone out there has been in Prosser for more than a second, they would see that you can't make a Prosser teacher do anything they don't believe in." -- Prosser teacher Maria Magdalena

After reading Ted Cox's piece (Prosser Staff 'Gamed' CPS Survey, Gave H.S. Leaders Inflated Marks: Sources) in DNAinfo yesterday, I had to use breathe-in, breathe-out techniques for anger management.

For one thing, I love Prosser Career Academy, where I used to coach basketball. Despite its relatively high achievement record and talented (CTU members) faculty and staff, the school, like so many others in Chicago, has become the target of privateers. The neighborhood has a burgeoning Hispanic population and the city's charter operators see it as a potential market and prime territory for expansion. There's even a new privately-run Noble charter school now under construction right across the street from Prosser, despite protests from parents and community residents. Freshman students at Prosser have told me that they've been receiving phone calls at home from charter people, trying to recruit them away from Prosser.

Protest at Noble charter school site

I hate to see teachers or principals unfairly debased or accused of high crimes and misdemeanors in the media and left with no voice in their own defense. That's exactly how I felt after reading Cox's piece. It wasn't just that he was surmising what teachers probably would do if confronted with a high-stakes survey. We can all do that. He was actually making accusations which could lead to charges of unethical behavior.

Using only hearsay and unnamed sources and without Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Are Prosser teachers 'gaming the system'? Or is this reporter gaming them?:

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit 5-23-14

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit:

“WE TRUST THAT THE BOARD OF EDUCATION INTENDS TO EXECUTE ITS DUTIES IN A TRANSPARENT AND EQUITABLE MANNER”: Letter of reappointment of Stuart Magruder to the Bond Oversight Committee

from the AIA/LA “ When the passage of Proposition 39 in 2000 led to the provision of the Education Code that required that the Board of Education appoint all BOC members, we and the other stakeholders agreed to the Memorandum of Understanding between the District and the BOC that, while the formal appointment would be done by the Board as a receive and

by smf / 1min 

‘If you don’t like the criticism, fire the critic 3!”: L.A. UNIFIED BOARD REFUSES TO REAPPOINT MEMBER OF OVERSIGHT PANEL + smf’s 2¢

by Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/1pjc8aO School board member Tamar Galatzan, shown here with Supt. John Deasy last year, was one of the staunchest supporters of the original iPad plan. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) May 22, 2014, 901 PM  ::  The Los Angeles Board of Education this week acted against a critic of its controversial iPad program by refusing to reappoint

by smf / 16min 

“If you don’t like the criticism, fire the critic 2!”: OUSTED OPPONENT OF LA SCHOOLS iPAD FIGHTS TO REGAIN SEAT ON OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE

ALSO SEE: “If you don’t like the criticism, fire the critic!”: SCHOOL BOARD BLOCKS APPOINTEE CRITICAL OF iPADS | http://bit.ly/1sU4iVd BASED ON ED REPORTER HOWARD BLUME's TWITTER FEED, A MAJOR STORY IS COMING FROM THE LA TIMES: @howardblume: ●Next week's meeting of school bond oversight committee has new agenda item: Stuart Magruder, the nominee Board of Ed

2 by smf / 15h 

MAY 21

“If you don’t like the criticism, fire the critic!”: SCHOOL BOARD BLOCKS APPOINTEE CRITICAL OF iPADS

Posted on  LA School Report by Vanessa Romo | http://bit.ly/1sU4iVd May 20, 2014 4:00 pm  ::  What is normally a routine, no-questions-asked formality for the LA Unified School Board hit a snag today. Board Member Tamar Galatzan opposed the reappointment of Stuart Magruder, an outspoken critic of the use of bond money for iPads, from the School Construction Bond Oversight Committee (BOC). The

by smf / 2d 

L.A. Unified Hires Respected D.C. Principal To Lead Arts Education

Long-rumored hire to fill never-advertised job  is agreed-to in secret closed Board of Ed session, Third time (at least) is the charm for bringing art educator Rory Pullens to L.A. HOWARD BLUME | LA Times | http://lat.ms/1i3GXLA The leader of one of the nation’s top arts high schools has accepted a position in charge of arts education for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Rory

by smf / 2d 

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit 5-21-14

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: “If you don’t like the criticism, fire the critic!”: SCHOOL BOARD BLOCKS APPOINTEE CRITICAL OF iPADSPosted on  LA School Report by Vanessa Romo | http://bit.ly/1sU4iVd May 20, 2014 4:00 pm  ::  What is normally a routine, no-questions-asked formality for the LA Unified School Board hit a snag today. Board Member Tamar Galatzan opposed the reappointment

by mike simpson / 8min