Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Top-ranked ed states all have union teachers. Rhee's legacy in D.C.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Top-ranked ed states all have union teachers. Rhee's legacy in D.C.:

Top-ranked ed states all have union teachers. Rhee's legacy in D.C.

Former Obama White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, along with another ex-White House aide, Ben LaBolt, supports former CNN anchor Campbell Brown's fight against teacher tenure. 

Once again top-ranked education states have strong teacher unions and have the highest education budgets. Bottom states, mostly non-union and lowest spending. The ranking was based on 12 factors, including student dropout rate, pupil/teacher ratio, test scores, rates of bullying and school safety measures.

Then there's the legacy of union-busting Rhee-form in dead-last D.C. I don't know how or if they figured in D.C.'s cheating-skewed test results. Probably didn't go there.

IS ANYONE SUPRISED that it's former Obama aides picking up where Rhee and Tea Party gobs left off, leading the latest national assault on teachers and public employee unions? I'm not.

We will take the Senate," said the GOP official, who asked not to be named to preserve his business options. "The future is bright for us. Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Top-ranked ed states all have union teachers. Rhee's legacy in D.C.:

Live Long and Prosper...: Making Whoopi

Live Long and Prosper...: Making Whoopi:

Making Whoopi

IT'S IGNORANCE

Ok, so Whoopi Goldberg is 1) either completely ignorant of what "tenure" means to a K-12 teacher or 2) she's been bought by the corporate "reformers" of television land.

Whoopi, for those of you who don't know yet...claims to love teachers (yes, her mother was a teacher), but hates "bad" teachers. So, since "bad" teachers are ruining it for everyone we need to support the legal fight against them and against "tenure" laws which give "lifetime employment" to "bad" teachers. Right? Not quite.

Ken Previti, over at Reclaim Reform, suggests that, instead of cursing her, we should educate her...

In defense of Whoopi Goldberg: She needs to be educated about due process.

Please email, tweet or otherwise contact Whoopi with the correct definition of tenure as you educate her about the scapegoating teachers are having inflicted upon them all across America. She needs massive amounts of our input; please help her understand.

This prompted a heated discussion on Diane Ravitch's blog entry, Ken Previti: In Defense of Whoopi Goldberg. It's a great discussion...have a look.

THE EDUCATION OF WHOOPI

I don't see any problem with trying to educate Whoopi Goldberg in the truth of K-12 tenure...as long as we don't expect it to make a difference.

See, Whoopi might be the "liberal voice" on The View, but that doesn't mean anything when it comes to public education issues.

Democrats, Liberals, and other fellow travelers

• When Barack Obama was running for President in 2008 a lot of us -- not knowing that he had his hands in corporate pockets -- assumed that he would come in and Live Long and Prosper...: Making Whoopi:

Eliminate tenure and it gets a little chilly at school - for the love of learning:

for the love of learning: Eliminate tenure and it gets a little chilly at school:

Eliminate tenure and it gets a little chilly at school

This was written by Tamar Wyschogrod who is a mother, writer, journalist who is from New York but now lives in New Jersey. Tamar blogs here. This post was originally found here.

by Tamar Wyschogrod

Without tenure, every teacher is the pawn and puppet of whoever happens to be the most powerful person in the building today. Without tenure, anybody can shoulder his way into the classroom and declare, ‘You're going to do things my way, or else.’

That’s from the wonderful blog Curmudgucation, written by Peter Greene [if you’re appalled by the attacks on public education that pass for reform these days, you really should follow his blog]. His point is that tenure gives teachers the freedom to do their jobs right, without the threat of dismissal hanging over their heads.

This reminded me of an incident related to me by a math teacher I know. I’m sharing it because I think it illustrates perfectly how tenure’s guarantee of due process empowers good teachers to do the right thing.

The state of New Jersey had recently introduced a required algebra test, and the administration in our district hadn't been very pleased with the results. So they decided to bring a consultant into the high school to make recommendations on boosting the test scores. The thing is, many students don’t take algebra in high school, where it’s a ninth-grade course. Some take it in middle school. In fact, in our district, many students take algebra in eighth grade, and a smaller number in seventh.

So the consultant came in, did his thing, and presented his recommendations to the high school. But the district, presumably in an effort to get its money’s worth out of this consultant, decided that his recommendations should be adopted in the middle school as well. So the fellow was duly trotted out at a meeting of the middle school math faculty, where he proceeded to repeat his dog and pony show.

The thing is, there’s one obvious difference between teaching algebra in high school and teaching it in middle school. Generally, kids taking algebra in ninth grade are not the strongest math students; kids taking it in middle school are. This math teacher, who’d been teaching the middle school’s top math students for years, was appalled by the for the love of learning: Eliminate tenure and it gets a little chilly at school:

8-7-14 Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement"

Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement":

Useful Tweets From #hgseFAM – Harvard Grad School of Ed Family Engagement Institute

[View the story "Useful Tweets From #hgseFAM - Harvard Grad School of Ed Family Engagement Institute" on Storify]

by Larry Ferlazzo / 4min hide  //  save

“More Schools Open Their Doors to the Whole Community”

More Schools Open Their Doors to the Whole Community is a Wall Street Journal article about…community schools. Here’s an excerpt: WYOMING, Mich.—On a recent weekday here, a steady stream of people dropped by one central location for food stamps, family counseling and job ideas—their local school. While instruction has ended for the summer, these classrooms remain open as part of a wider trend arou

by Larry Ferlazzo / 4min 

“D.C. charter school educates parents alongside children”

D.C. charter school educates parents alongside children is a Washington Post article that appeared a few days ago. Here’s an excerpt: The District’s Briya Public Charter School enrolls parents and young children together in the same school, a novel effort to improve children’s prospects by building the skills of those who are closest to them. It’s an approach that an increasing number of researche

by Larry Ferlazzo / 4min 

8-3-14 Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement"

Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement": “An Important Conversation About Race, Parents, School & Poverty”[View the story "An Important Conversation About Race, Parents, School & Poverty" on Storify]by Larry Ferlazzo / 1min Parent Volunteer FormHere’s a potentially useful parent volunteer form posted at the Organized Classroom Blog. Thanks to Joe

by mike simpson / 18h 

8-7-14 The Whole Child Blog — Are You Ready to Go Digital?

The Whole Child Blog — Whole Child Education:

Are You Ready to Go Digital?

How many kids are going to check out a whole set of encyclopedias? With digital, they do it every day, without a second thought. But digital curriculum is not just about a bigger backpack or cramming more content into a smaller container, explained education innovator Hall Davidson in his 2014 ASCD Annual Conference session, "The New Book as the Old Backpack: The Unintended Consequences of Di

by Laura Varlas / 9min 

8-5-14 The Whole Child Blog — Homework in a Flipped Classroom

The Whole Child Blog — Whole Child Education: Homework in a Flipped ClassroomASCD author Aaron Sams explains how flipped classrooms use class time to practice and apply skills learned during prerecorded lectures. Homework becomes classwork, and lectures and other content traditionally presented during class time are viewed outside of class, at home, on a personal device, or in a school-based resou

1 by mike simpson / 21h 

Common Core Advocacy Goes Violent | Truth in American Education

Common Core Advocacy Goes Violent | Truth in American Education:

Common Core Advocacy Goes Violent

Filed in Common Core State Standards by Shane Vander Hart on August 7, 2014 • 0 Comments

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Michael Mulgrew – President of United Federation of Teachers

Nothing says “hey let’s have an open dialogue about Common Core” like a threat of violence.

Michael Mulgrew is the president of the United Federation of Teachers, a union for teachers in New York City Schools, who is apparently passionate about the Common Core State Standards.

New York Daily News reports that during an hour long debate on the Common Core during the American Federation of Teachers Convention last month he said during his remarks, “If someone takes something from me I’m going to grab it right back out of their cold, twisted sick hands and say it is mine, and I am going to punch you in the face and push you in the dirt because this is the teachers!  These are our tools and you sick people need to deal with us and the children we teach.”

Heaven forbid that as a parent I don’t want you to use your tools on my kids.

What a tool.

There was equal passion on the side who opposed Common Core, but they were somehow able to refrain from issuing physical threats.

Ed Notes posted a video of excerpts of the debate including Mulgrew’s remarks that you can Common Core Advocacy Goes Violent | Truth in American Education:

8-7-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum:

Gates to ConnectEDU: Where's Our Dough?

When we last left this story, ConnectEDU, a company that had an interactive program to try to connect middle school students with info on college/career.  From the story in the Wall Street Journal yesterday:In July 2013, the well-known foundation awarded a nearly $500,000 grant to ConnectEDU to develop an interactive program to help students master literacy under the Common Core standards that man

by Melissa Westbrook / 58min 

8-6-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum Week

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Common Core Math; From a Math Professor's ViewThanks to S Parent for bringing this to our attention. From the Wall Street Journal and UC Berkeley math professor, Marina Ratner, I think it is one swell piece of writing that - in a straight-forward manner - explains why Common Core is deeply flawed. Ms. Ratner is professor emerita of mathematics at the University of

by mike simpson / 19h 

8-7-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:

Rating Schools: Use Library Quality

Response to LA Times editoral: Grading California's Schools, August 7More relevant than using outcomes (test scores, graduation rates) in rating schools is an "input" factor: the quality of the library.Study after study shows that that students living in states with better school libraries do better on tests of reading achievement.  California ranks near the bottom of the country in sc

by skrashen / 30min 

Listen to teachers, read the research

Sent to the Jewish Journal, August 7, 2014Ellie Herman ("To save education, listen to teachers," August 6) points out that many of those driving education policy in the US have never taught. The situation is even worse: Education policy makers are also ignorant of educational research: They are unaware that scientific studies published in professional journals provide no support for the

by skrashen / 17min 

Failure at An Early Age

Fourteen years ago Louisiana had the dubious distinction of being the first state in the Union to require elementary school students to pass a state test, the LEAP, to be promoted to the next grade.  Parents, teachers, and principals in high poverty neighborhoods all over Louisiana knew what was coming, and all the "Lean on Jesus" test prep rallies that could be staged by parents and chu

by Jim Horn / 3min

Access to books helps close the reading gap in kindergarten

Access to books helps close the reading gap in kindergartenStephen KrashenFryer and Levitt (2004) examined reading and math test scores in kindergarten and grade 1 from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (about 1000 schools). Their focus was the gap between black and white children.For reading, the difference between black and white children at the start of kindergarten was .40 (where 0 = me

by skrashen / 0min 

8-6-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter: Rahm Slashes Schools to Funnel Cash to Corporate PalsThe reptilian Rahm Emanuel has a conscious strategy to allow profiteers and privatizers to take over Chicago Public Schools, and he is using the money saved by starving the schools and cutting teacher pensions to provide corporate subsidies to his cronies.  David Sirota has the story:Months after Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said b

by mike simpson / 23h 

Kenzo Shibata: What's the Plan for Chicago Public Schools? Look No Further Than Detroit

Kenzo Shibata: What's the Plan for Chicago Public Schools? Look No Further Than Detroit:

What's the Plan for Chicago Public Schools? Look No Further Than Detroit

Detroit Public Schools (DPS) "Emergency Manager" Roy Roberts stepped down from his position on May 2. During his announcement, Roberts said that his instructions when he took the job were to "blow up the district and dismantle it."

"Emergency managers" were tasked with fixing local governments in Michigan after the state declared a financial emergency.

The decimation of public school districts is nothing new in the world of slash-and-burn education reform, but his candidness is extremely rare. The justification for closing neighborhood public schools while opening publicly subsidized, privately profitable charter schools is constantly changing. Currently, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is switching between "utilization" and "achievement" as reasons to close 61 public schools, about 10 percent of the district. These reforms will effectively "blow up" and "dismantle" the district without ever using those words.

What does Detroit have to do with Chicago Public Schools?

Chicago's current schools CEO, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, worked in the Emergency Manager Office in Detroit from 2009 to 2011. During her tenure, DPS closed 59 schools and cut 30 percent of the workforce. Toward the end of Byrd-Bennett's tenure in Detroit as "Chief Academic and Accountability officer," DPS announced its "Renaissance Plan 2012," which included creating 41 charters, making 29 percent of district run by private interests.

CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett and Mayor Rahm Emanuel (AP Photo)

That looks like the perfect canvas for "blowing up" and "dismantling" a district.

Byrd-Bennett has a history of swooping into a district and leaving it dismantled. When leading the Cleveland Public Schools, Byrd-Bennett cut hundreds of teacher jobs and closed Kenzo Shibata: What's the Plan for Chicago Public Schools? Look No Further Than Detroit:

AN OPEN LETTER TO "THE VIEW" FROM BATs! Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:

AN OPEN LETTER TO "THE VIEW" FROM BATs!

Your recent comments, which were perceived as an attack on teachers, have caused commotion within our respective communities. In good faith we would like to believe that you did not intend to attack teachers and we would like to believe that you may actually be supportive of good teachers. However, there were several misconceptions that were expressed during these shows and we would like to address them. 

First, Jenny McCarthy asked “But who is protecting the students?” We would like to make it clear that teachers are, quite often, the last line of defense for students and without our “tenure” (due process) protections, we would be unable to provide this protection without fear of termination. Another point was made regarding teachers having a union and students having no union. We would like to assure you that many of the issues our unions fight for, such as class size limits and safe working conditions are for the benefit and safety of students. The working conditions of teachers ARE the learning conditions for students. There are many other items negotiated by teachers that benefit students including preparation time for teachers. No student deserves to be taught by a teacher that does not have the necessary amount of time to prepare a quality lesson. Due process rights that protect teachers in their positions allow the students to benefit from the longevity, consistency and the experience of teachers that have a vested interest in their school and the surrounding community.

The rhetoric of “bad teachers” has become a direct campaign by the wealthy to target teacher unions. It is important to note that teaching is a predominantly female profession. The perception of “bad teachers” has been greatly exaggerated in media stories as this attack gains momentum. As our assistant manager, Melissa Tomlinson, posted on your Facebook page, “Bad teachers do not have any business being in education. But there is more to it than that. What is a bad teacher for one student, can be a wonderful teacher for another student. What may be a bad teacher could be the result of an unfair job placement because administration is trying to run that teacher out due to Badass Teachers Association:

Limousine Liberal David Boies Wants to Fix Our Schools | John Thompson

Limousine Liberal David Boies Wants to Fix Our Schools | John Thompson:

Limousine Liberal David Boies Wants to Fix Our Schools

They used to be called "Limousine Liberals." Now, dilettantes like David Boies are known as corporate reformers.

Boies has become the kinder, gentler face of the blood-in-their-eye teacher-bashing of Michelle Rhee and Campbell Brown. A board member of Rhee's "astroturf" anti-union StudentsFirstNY, Boies will co-host the Campbell - "I'm blaming the teachers unions" - Brown dog and pony show, the Partnership for Educational Justice.Presumably, the liberal Boies will be more credible in spinning their incredible soundbite - the striking down our fundamental rights is "pro teacher."

Boies is shilling for the decade-long, test-driven, scorched earth campaign that demonstrates its pro-student commitment by imposing nonstop test prep on kids, and crippling teachers' power to resist mandates for soul-killing, bubble-in accountability.

There once was a time when Democrats were the party of the people. Rich and poor persons from all backgrounds formed "big tent" coalitions for equity and justice. Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, the Kennedys, and many others rubbed elbows with working people in struggles for civil rights and economic justice. With deindustrialization and the decline of labor unions, fewer and fewer progressive leaders have any experience in the working worlds where most people live.

Boies joins an unfortunate tradition of some elites posing as working class heroes/civil rights advocates; when Leonard Bernstein and Marlon Brando went slumming and hosted revolutionaries, however, that was merely an embarrassment. Bernstein and Brando, like Bois, were sincere and superbly talented in their own fields. But, they leaped to weird conclusions without looking at realities that they didn't understand.

Boies claims no experience with public school teaching. I don't imagine he actually knows and loves any individual poor students of color. I wonder how many he takes out sailing on his yacht, for instance. But he loves them in the abstract. Not realizing how much harm his agenda would do to actual students, Boies would help drive Limousine Liberal David Boies Wants to Fix Our Schools | John Thompson:

OMG - The Sacramento Bee Editorial Integrity (Better late than not at all?)

To our readers - Opinion - The Sacramento Bee:

To our readers

Published: Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2014 - 5:01 pm

Editorial board member Pia Lopez took a leave of absence earlier this year to help her husband, Jim Read, run for Congress in a Minnesota district where he teaches political science. The Sacramento Bee approved this leave to avoid any conflicts of interest between her role as journalist and her role as political spouse.

Since her return to The Bee, however, we learned that in some email conversations with Sacramento-area sources prior to her leave, Lopez discussed Read’s campaign as she conducted editorial board business. Lopez used her board title and company email for other campaign-related communication as well. She also failed to notify her supervisor of potential conflicts of interest between topics addressed by the board andcampaign donations and support in the Sacramento area.

These activities are incompatible with Lopez’s role on the editorial board. We believe our board journalists must avoid even an appearance of a conflict of interest to protect our credibility and the public trust. Because of this, Lopez and The Bee have parted ways.

The Bee did not alter its editorial positions during this period. But appearances matter, as does any public perception that the favor of the editorial board depended on political contributions to Read’s Minnesota race. It did not, and we apologize if anyone felt otherwise.

Cheryl Dell, Publisher and President

Joyce Terhaar, Executive Editor and Senior Vice President

Dan Morain, Editorial Page Editor

To our readers - Opinion - The Sacramento Bee:

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/06/6610794/to-our-readers.html#storylink=cpy

UPDATE: It's Time to Abandon Zero-Tolerance Discipline | National Opportunity to Learn

It's Time to Abandon Zero-Tolerance Discipline | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity:

New York Owes Its Schools $5.9 Billion in Funding

New York State is $5.9 billion behind on providing constitutionally required funding for its public schools. A new report from the Alliance for Quality Education lays out the stunning gap between what New York schools need and what they're actually getting. New York State is $5.9 billion behind on providing constitutionally required funding for its public schools. A new report from th

4 by jocelyn / 57min 

It's Time to Abandon Zero-Tolerance Discipline

Posted on: Thursday August 7th, 2014

Kavitha Mediratta

The movement to reform harsh, discriminatory school discipline policies in our nation's schools is picking up steam, with calls for change coming from grassroots organizers nationwide all the way up to the US Departments of Education and Justice.

In a recent commentary for Education Week, Kavitha Mediratta of Atlantic Philanthropies writes about the problems in our nation's discipline system – and the cities and communities that are changing things for the better. 

Harsh, zero-tolerance discipline policies were originally implemented with an eye towards making schools safer. Instead they've made school a less welcoming environment for students and teachers: 

"Rather than improving safety in schools, harsh zero-tolerance discipline has far-reaching negative consequences—dramatically increasing the risk of failure, dropping out, and involvement with the justice system. Even worse, these types of severe punishments disproportionately fall on children of color, particularly African-American students, who are three times more likely than white students to be suspended, even for similar types of misbehavior."

School discipline doesn't have to look this way. For example, Mediratta tells the story of Baltimore's dramatic reduction in suspension rates, and their corresponding jump in graduation rates:

"In 2007, the high school graduation rate in Baltimore, a city where the school system serves 85,000 mostly African-American and low-income students, was an abysmal 34 percent. Then Andrés A. Alonso, the chief executive for the city’s schools, took action. He revised the code of discipline to prevent suspensions for less serious offenses and instituted targeted counseling, after-school programs, and academic interventions to help students succeed.

Four years later, the dropout rate had been reduced by more than half. Eighty-seven percent of Baltimore students who began high school the year the reforms were implemented had either graduated or were completing their studies."

How can other cities and states follow Baltimore's example? In June, the Council on State Governments Justice Center released "The School Discipline Consensus Report," an in-depth report on the effects of harsh discipline and alternative policies. You can also check out the OTL It's Time to Abandon Zero-Tolerance Discipline | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity: