Eduflack: Cutting the Ed Media Out of the Process?

Eduflack: Cutting the Ed Media Out of the Process?

Cutting the Ed Media Out of the Process?

by Eduflack

Your favorite Eduflack has another guestblog over at edReformer. The topic: disintermediation. At last week's Education Writers Association conference, there was a great deal of talk of disintermediation, which carries the applicable definition of cutting the educaiton media out of the ed policy debate by focusing on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and other direct and unfiltered ways to deliver information to key stakeholder audiences.

You can find my full blogpost

Around the Edu-Horn, May 20, 2010

by Eduflack

Cutting out the ed media middle man @edreformer -- http://edreformer.com/2010/05/cutting-out-the-middle-man/

MA may scrap MCAS assessments -- http://tinyurl.com/33j3m2k

RT @ED_Outreach VIDEO: Arne announcing $437M to reward teachers, principals who are getting results for students http://bit.ly/9WgqeW

NAEP TUDA reading scores below national average - http://tinyurl.com/2g2vo2r

Will new DCPS teacher pay deal impact DC charter schools? http://tinyurl.com/33y6sp6

 

RT @douglevin "We’re here to discuss the success of EETT": Stakeholders fight for #edtech fundshttp://ht.ly/1Ny2K

This Week In Education Media: Washington Post's New(ish) "Education Report"

This Week In Education

Media: Washington Post's New(ish) "Education Report"

by Alexander Russo

Not to be outdone by Ezra Klein's snazzy "wonkbook," the education team at the Post has put together a new(ish) Education Report with stories and blog entries (five of each) and started emailing it out to folks who sign up. (Take a look at a sample below.) They've even got an advertiser to help pay for the thing. So far, it's weekly, a sort of "best of." But it could go more frequently in the fall. It started in January, I'm told, as part of an effort to get the best of the Post's education coverage to readers. Long live email. Do you get it? Do you like it? What do you think?

Visits to NY and Boston Underscore Why We Cannot Afford to Lay Off Teachers – ED.gov Blog

Visits to NY and Boston Underscore Why We Cannot Afford to Lay Off Teachers – ED.gov Blog

Visits to NY and Boston Underscore Why We Cannot Afford to Lay Off Teachers

Two days in two cities and five school visits provided Secretary of Education Arne Duncan opportunities to meet students, teachers, administrators, and community leaders and have engaging conversations about the importance of saving teacher jobs and quality public schools, including charter schools.
New York

Secretary Duncan spent the day in Brooklyn, New York, where he visited classrooms at Kings Collegiate Charter School, Public School (PS) 65, and PS 241.

On Tuesday, May 18, Secretary Duncan spent the day in Brooklyn, New York, where he visited classrooms at Kings Collegiate Charter School, Public School (PS) 65, and PS 241. At Kings Collegiate, the Secretary spoke to fifth-graders and congratulated them on their success. Last year, Kings Collegiate’s sixth-graders scored 100% proficient in math and 96% proficient in language arts.
At PS 241, he was joined by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein. Before visiting classrooms, the officials held a press conference during which the Secretary highlighted the $23 billion requested as emergency funds to avert layoffs of teachers and educators across the country.
Boston
Teachers are the heart of education, and in Boston on Wednesday, May 19, Secretary Duncan had ample opportunity to thank teachers for their commitment and dedication and to discuss the Department’s commitment to elevating the teaching profession.

Secretary Arne Duncan visited Lesley University, two elementary schools, and had conversations with Boston's Educators of the Year.

During his commencement speech to the graduates of Lesley University, Duncan remarked that “teaching is one of the few professions that are not just a job or even an adventure—it’s a calling.” Why is it, then, that teachers are so poorly rewarded? He remarked that “it is a national embarrassment that elementary education is the lowest or second-lowest paid college major in the nation.”
This discussion about the important role of the effective teacher continued throughout the day as he visited Beachmont Elementary School in Revere, Mass., and Josiah Quincy Elementary School in Boston. At Quincy Elementary, 2nd and 3rd graders performed a traditional Taiwanese dance in celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The day in Boston ended with conversations with Boston’s Educators of the Year.
Just last week, Secretary Duncan urged Congress to pass a pending $23 billion jobs bill that would save 256,000 teaching positions. His two days, in Brooklyn and in Boston, provided an “in the trenches” view of why the nation cannot afford to lay off teachers, the heart of our nation’s learning.

Three Schools Spared, 4,997 To Go – Addressing Teacher Seniority � The Quick and the Ed

Three Schools Spared, 4,997 To Go – Addressing Teacher Seniority � The Quick and the Ed

Three Schools Spared, 4,997 To Go – Addressing Teacher Seniority

by Rob Manwaring

Last week a superior court judge in Los Angeles ruled to stop seniority based layoffs at three schools in LA Unified that were decimated by last year’s layoffs. We highlighted one of the schools, Markham Middle School, in a recent report on restructuring the federal school improvement process (See past post for detail on Markham). This school recently underwent a “School Turnaround” – one of the four models the federal government is supporting with its $3 billion investment in School Improvement Grants. Under this model, the school hires a new principal, and then lets all of the teachers at the school go, and then the teachers reapply for their jobs. Some are rehired, and some are not. As a result of this process, the Markham Middle school staff consisted of largely young energetic teachers. Unfortunately, this was a group of young energetic teachers without much seniority in the district. So, when LA Unified started to give out layoff notices last spring most of the Markham staff were given notice, and in the end around 2/3rds of their staff were laid off. Needless to say the school has not done very well since then and still has not been able to fill those

The Educated Reporter: The greatest feature story ever.

The Educated Reporter: The greatest feature story ever.

The greatest feature story ever.

by Linda Perlstein

At the EWA conference last week I told someone I would send them the link to my favorite piece of journalism ever. Of course I have forgotten who. So, whoever you were—and even if you are not them—read this piece, “The Peekaboo Paradox,” by Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post. It is about a children’s birthday party entertainer. Here is where one is tempted to say, “Yet it is about so much more.” Except that it’s not. I mean, this particular children’s entertainer has a gambling problem, an organization problem and some lingering ghosts,

Rick Hess is doing my job for me ...

by Linda Perlstein

... by shooting education reporters some story ideas and other food for thought. I have been really interested in the degree to which teachers unions are or are not realistic proxies for the actual views of actual teachers,  so #3 and #8 resonate especially. And given that reading yet another story about KIPP or Green Dot might make my eyeballs burst, #2 intrigues me as well.

San Diego schools making little headway - SignOnSanDiego.com

San Diego schools making little headway - SignOnSanDiego.com

San Diego schools making little headway

BY MAUREEN MAGEE, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

THURSDAY, MAY 20, 2010 AT 7:51 A.M.

SAN DIEGO — San Diego’s fourth- and eighth-graders made modest gains on a federal reading assessment administered in the nation’s largest urban school districts, according to data released Thursday morning

At least one expert believes the “relatively flat” performance may have something to do with the churn of superintendents in the San Diego Unified School District.

“San Diego has kind of been stuck. It hasn’t been moving very much lately compared to some of the other urban districts like Atlanta , New York andDistrict of Columbia,” said David Gordon, a member of the governing board that steers the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). “Improvements in reading have been made where there is consistent and stable leadership and focused professional development.”

San Diego is searching for its fourth schools chief in less than five years and the district has earned a reputation for fostering difficult relationships between its superintendents and school board.

Consistency with leadership, curriculum and teaching is a trend among urban districts that have made the most gains in reading scores, said Gordon, who is also the Sacramento County superintendent of schools.

In 2009, San Diego Unified’s eighth-graders were in the national spotlight for their impressive gains in math scores administered by NAEP. But progress in math, Gordon said, does not always rely as heavily on administrative consistency.

The release of the “Nation’s Report Card” shows results of reading tests taken by fourth- and eighth-graders last academic year in 18 big-city districts.

Administered by NAEP, the “Trial Urban District Assessment” tests students on their ability to comprehend,

Only 10 percent of Latino dropouts gets a GED | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Only 10 percent of Latino dropouts gets a GED | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Only 10 percent of Latino dropouts gets a GED

by Gustavo Martínez on May 20 2010 Posted in Social justice in education

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Latinos remain at the bottom of educational achievement both locally and nationally. This worsens when one finds out that the alarming dropout rate comes along with low GED attainment.

Barely 1 in 10 Latino dropouts have a General Educational Development (GED) credential, according to a report the Pew Hispanic Center released last week.

The relatively low level of GED credentialing among Hispanic high school dropouts is especially notable because Hispanics have a much higher high school dropout rate than do Blacks or Whites. Some 41 percent of Hispanics age 20 and older in the United States do not have a regular high school diploma, versus 23 percent of comparably aged Blacks and 14 percent of Whites.

Recently-arrived Latino immigrants don't fare as well as native-born Latinos in this matter; only 5 percent of those dropouts who recently immigrated to the United States have a GED compared to 21 percent of their U.S.-born counterparts.

Some 52 percent of foreign-born Latino adults are high school dropouts, compared with 25 percent the native born. And among Hispanic dropouts, some 2

Folsom Cordova school district joins lawsuit against state - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Folsom Cordova school district joins lawsuit against state - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Folsom Cordova school district joins lawsuit against state

by mgutierrez@sacbee.com (Melody Gutierrez)

Folsom Cordova Unified School District is one of nine districts that jointly filed a lawsuit today against the state of California asking that the current education finance structure be declared unconstitutional.
The California School Boards Association, California State PTA, Association of California School Administrators and a group of more than 60 individual students and families are also a part of the coalition that filed the lawsuit.
The case, Robles-Wong, et al. v. State of California was filed this morning in the Superior Court of California in Alameda County. The plaintiffs are asking the state to scrap its existing finance system and properly fund the education programs required by the state.
The lawsuit comes at the same time grassroots groups representing thousands of California low-income

Jaywalking With LAUSD - Perdaily.com

Jaywalking With LAUSD - Perdaily.com

Jaywalking With LAUSD

by Leonard

Did you ever have the experience of thinking you heard something before, but you just couldn't quite place where and when you heard it? That's the way I have been feeling about the nondescript orwellian edspeak that all of us in public education continue to be tormented with. And then, it finally occurred to me where the logic defying statements like "No Child Left Behind" and "all [illiterate] students are going to college" really come from. In 1979, Peter Sellars played an idiot savant -- emphasis on the idiot -- in the movie Being There. Chance the Gardner has people ascribe to him great insight, when the simpler and more reasonable interpretation is that Chance the Gardner is just a moron.

The epiphany that LAUSD is being run by Chance the Gardner clones, who are not really bad as much as they are banal people, is a truth that is painful to accept when one realizes that in dealing with LAUSD leadership, there is no there there. For these folks heading LAUSD, their work is not a profession, but rather a job that it takes everything they have just to memorize the slogans they continue to repeat like a catachism where questions are followed by answers to be memorized, but please don't have any expectation that these public education leaders actually understand what the hell they are talking about. This ah ha moment explains why we

Schools Matter What Educators Are Learning From Money Managers

Schools Matter

by Kenneth Libby

Warning: do not read this Forbes piece if you recently finished eating:

What Educators Are Learning From Money Managers
Daniel Fisher, 06.07.10, 12:00 AM ET

Brownsville Elementary School in Brooklyn is surrounded by neighborhoods with the highest murder rates in New York City. But inside the charter school at 10:30 a.m. everything is tranquil. Dressed in identical uniforms of green polo shirts and khakis, students walk carefully along tape strips in the halls before sitting down at their desks. Except for controlled bursts of excitement, as when a teacher asks kids to yell out their goals for a lesson, classrooms are hushed in concentration. Children perform tasks like organizing papers on their desks and placing pencils next to their books with precision.
The emphasis on polite manners and discipline is straight out of the 1930s. Except for what

Dr. D. Rigour Is Baaack: Commie Core Standards? - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

Dr. D. Rigour Is Baaack: Commie Core Standards? - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

Dr. D. Rigour Is Baaack: Commie Core Standards?

Commie Core Standards?

Will Connecticut Students Learn How To Skin Gators &
Mississippi Students Love Arugula With Their Raspberry Vinaigrette?

by Dr. D. Rigour
Thought Leader Extraordinaire Humor


State Governors have convened again to bring in a system of Common Core Standards across the country so that all children will be taught exactly the same thing in English and Math from kindergarten through high school.

(And not, in my mind, coincidentally the major beverage companies have simultaneously announced a plan to remove sugary sodas from schools! The terrifying logic from the fizzy drink giants is that, as the national body of students, deprived of corn syrup, lapses into a countrywide coma brought on by conformist doses of Pythagorean theory and non- rhyming poetry those same Governors will plead with them to reenter the schools and supersize the portions doled out to induce a level of ADHD suitable to the new learning challenge.)

Feast your eyes on the draft of the Common Standards in English! Page after page of detailed specifications for what teachers must teach and students must learn. Reading this is such a delightful way to spend my time because no one else will, and that very fact, my friends, will confirm my stature as being smarter than everyone else in the room.

Schools Matter: "The best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans"?

Schools Matter: "The best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans"?

"The best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans"?

by Kenneth Libby

It wasn't that long ago that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan claimed hurricane Katrina was "the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans". Duncan's disgusting comment might have held some weight if the claim was actually true (although it would still be remarkably insensitive), but multiple scholars have raised questions about the so-called "recovery" of the NOLA schools. Most recently, the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota released a report, "The State of Public Schools in Post-Katrina New Orleans: The Challenge of Creating Equal Opportunity," which challenges the narrative of a miraculous recovery in the NOLA schools. It's certainly a must-read. Here's the executive summary:

Charter schools in New Orleans have been hailed as the silver lining to Hurricane Katrina. The state of Louisiana used the hurricane as an opportunity to rebuild the entire New Orleans public school system, and launched the nation’s most extensive charter school experiment. This report evaluates how this experiment has fared in providing quality education to all students of the public school system regardless of race, socioeconomic

AP-Univision Poll: Hispanic discrimination high

AP-Univision Poll: Hispanic discrimination high

By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer

Thursday, May 20, 2010

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(05-20) 08:37 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --
Who's discriminated against in America? More people say Hispanics than blacks or women — and it's far from just Hispanics who feel that way.
An Associated Press-Univision Poll found that 61 percent of people overall said Hispanics face significant discrimination, compared with 52 percent who said blacks do and 50 percent who said women.
The survey also underscored how perceptions of prejudice can vary by ethnicity. While 81 percent of Latinos said Hispanics confront a lot or some discrimination, a smaller but still substantial 59 percent of non-Hispanics said so.
It is not unusual for members of a group to feel they face more prejudice. In this survey, that was especially true when people were asked about "a lot" of discrimination. Fifty-five percent of Hispanics but only 24 percent of non-Hispanics said Hispanics encounter that.
"I see it in people's faces, in the way they react," said Raymond Angulo, 66, a Mexican-born U.S. citizen and retiree from Pico Rivera, Calif. "It's gotten somewhat better, but it's still there. I feel like it's never going away."
However, Jason Welty, a lawn care specialist in Indianapolis who is not Hispanic, said he has seen little evidence of the problem despite working frequently with Hispanics.
"They're treated by most of our clients and the people we work with just like anybody else," said Welty, 30.
The AP-Univision Poll compiled the views of 901 Hispanics, which were compared with the results of a separate AP-GfK survey of the general population.
Attention on whether Latinos are singled out for unfair treatment has intensified since last month, when Arizona enacted a law requiring local police to ascertain the citizenship

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/05/20/national/w083737D51.DTL&type=education#ixzz0oUmwghcU

Colorado District Revolutionizes Salary Schedule, Or Does It? � The Quick and the Ed

Colorado District Revolutionizes Salary Schedule, Or Does It? � The Quick and the Ed

Colorado District Revolutionizes Salary Schedule, Or Does It?

by Rob Manwaring

For virtually every school district in the country teacher pay depends upon a teacher’s years of experience (steps) and some measure of educational attainment (columns). Harrison School District Two in Colorado made national news when it announced their new salary schedule which moves away from the step and column approach. There proposal appears to be a perfectly rational and balanced approach. See the charts below for more details. The district will conduct evaluations, incorporate outcomes, and consider level of educational experience. This data will annually be assessed to determine whether a teacher advances to the next pay level gets a raise, or advances to the next job description (gets a promotion). Presumably over time, teachers would receive a cost of living adjustment even if they stay at the same salary tier. Teachers will initially be placed on thin the new salary tiers with plenty of room to grow. If a teacher receives three consecutive poor evaluations, the teacher can go down a level.
What is shocking to anyone who doesn’t work in education, is that this a major innovation in teacher

A Brief History of 20th Century K-12 Education in America (Expressed as a Function)

by Forrest Hinton

Thanks to my colleague Kris Amundson’s compass of creativity, I happened to stumble upon this nifty blog that expresses complex life phenomena and relationships on simple index cards. Here’s my first shot at being a copy-cat.