Monday, July 26, 2010

Rise & Shine: Test inflation rate at 20 percent, Tisch says | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Test inflation rate at 20 percent, Tisch says

by Philissa Cramer

News from New York City:

Merryl Tisch said the “inflation rate” on state tests has been around 20 percent. (Post)
A lot of money and jobs have hinged on the flawed test scores. (Daily News)
The Times says promised state testing reforms are exactly what parents and students need.
City principals are already working on incorporating new national standards. (GothamSchools, WNYC)
In an era of test prep, Head Start pre-Ks say fewer of their students get into gifted programs. (Times)
About 40 percent of students at a new East Harlem charter school need special education. (Daily News)
The identity of the state’s university system is at a crossroads. (Times)
Many students assigned to summer school are not attending. (GothamSchools, Post)
The S.I. teen allegedly killed by his mother was supposed to get counseling at school but didn’t. (Times)
Five students at Millennium High School said a school drinking fountain made them sick. (Daily News)
PS 72’s new rooftop soccer field was paid for by Manchester United, the British soccer team. (WSJ)
Nathan Quinones, chancellor from 1984 to 1987, has died. (AP)
The Post says the fact that only 20 city schools are on the SURR list shows mayoral control is working.
Unlike Dallas, New York City does not have a central textbook depository. (Times)

And beyond:

Students are trying to turn the roof of the country’s oldest school into a garden. (Boston Globe)
Maryland is ending the longstanding practice of letting teachers preview state tests. (Washington Post)
New York University is going to provide intensive support for seven schools in Newark. (Times)
D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee fired hundreds of teachers deemed low-performing. (Times, AP)
The Daily News and Post say Joel Klein should follow Rhee’s lead and fire more teachers.
Portland, Ore., is looking to New York City as a model for reducing its dropout rate. (Oregonian)
Some aren’t happy that low-performing Jersey City, N.J., has a highly paid superintendent. (WSJ)

Schools Matter: IRA recommends Powell's, ignores school libraries

IRA recommends Powell's, ignores school libraries The IRA recommends Powell's, ignores school libraries Long allergic to the idea that libraries are important, the International Reading Association IRA managed to include a brief mention of "local libraries" at the end of this article in the latest IRA ...

Students are different. Or are they? This was also published in IRA Inspire. The International Reading Association supports rigid and rigorous language arts standards that insist that all students follow the same path and take the same tests at the same time. It does not recognize ...

I read it because it's beautiful This was published in IRA Inspire, sent out on the internet from the International Reading Association. It is very ironic that an IRA publication defends literature in this way, when the IRA has enthusiastically supported the standards movement and the ...

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Blog U.: When Tenure Disappears: Walking Away from the Ivory Towers - University of Venus - Inside Higher Ed

When Tenure Disappears: Walking Away from the Ivory Towers

By Mary Churchill July 25, 2010 9:30 pm

When William Julius Wilson wrote When Work Disappears in 1996, he wasn’t saying that work was actually disappearing. He was saying that work as urban poor folks had known it had been forever changed – factory jobs with benefits had all but disappeared. Today, new positions at factories receive thousands of applications and people are willing to move their families halfway across the country for a full-time job with health insurance. I grew up in a GM family in Flint, Michigan. My father worked night shifts on the line. When he died in 1984, his annual salary was in the $50k range and our family had amazing health benefits. Those jobs have disappeared.

Twenty years later, I earned my PhD and entered a surprisingly similar job market with what seemed like a handful of tenure-track positions receiving hundreds of applications. Tenure-track positions are disappearing. Changes in both of these sectors are the result of changes in the economy and the nature of work. The company is no longer loyal to us and we are no

The Grown-up Brain and Us
By Joshua Kim July 25, 2010 9:19 pm

What if the real purpose of education should be to prepare our brains to function well throughout our lifespan? What if our explicit goals shift from creating brains that can operate well in the economy (or whatever other institutional missions we promote), to the goal of fostering cognitive reserves? What if promoting healthy brains was the best mechanism for creating productive citizens, and all the other values we believe in as educators and educational institutions were best served in service of the brain?
I'm starting to come to the conclusion that the brain, our brains, is a theme that should cut

On Education - Equity of Test Is Debated as Children Compete for Gifted Kindergarten - NYTimes.com

Equity of Test Is Debated as Children Compete for Gifted Kindergarten

Yana Paskova for The New York Times

From left, Laisha Mendez, 5, Amaya Taylor, 4, and Kellie Pierre, 4, at the Bloomingdale Head Start program in Manhattan.

By MICHAEL WINERIP

Published: July 25, 2010

REPRINTS

Teachers at the Bloomingdale Head Start program in Manhattan tell Alexis Stewart that her 4-year-old son, Chase, is bright.

Readers' Comments

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“He knows about different fish, different birds, different species,” Ms. Stewart said. “He’s on it.”

Chase took the city test for the public schools’ gifted and talentedkindergarten program, but missed the 90th-percentile cutoff, she said.

Ms. Stewart, a single mom working two jobs, didn’t think the process was fair. She had heard widespread reports of wealthy families preparing their children for the kindergarten gifted test with $90 workbooks, $145-an-

Module 9 Assignment | Reflections on Teaching

Module 9 Assignment

by alicemercer

As part of my assignment for my technology coordinator class, I’m asking readers who are in the following positions (or hoping to be) to help me out:

Technology Coordinator
Technology Coach
Technology Integration Specialist
Some other job working with teachers to use technology in the classroom

The extraordinary story of Shirley and Charles Sherrod. � Fred Klonsky's blog

The extraordinary story of Shirley and Charlies Sherrod.

by preaprez

I received this in the mail from Rabbi Arthur Waskow today and I thought it was worth sharing.
Dear chevra –
The extraordinary story of Shirley Sherrod that has emerged so publicly over the last several days has reminded me of an extraordinary moment I lived through that involved the man who became her husband, Rev. Charles Sherrod.
In 1963, Charles Sherrod was one of the leaders of SNCC––the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which was the vanguard for civil rights activism in the South. Like several other SNCC activists, he came for several months to the Institute fior Policy Studies, a very new Washington center for progressive thought and

The Best Resources For Learning About Genocide | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

The Best Resources For Learning About Genocide With the verdict today by the United Nations tribunal investigating genocide in Cambodia, I thought it would be timely for me to both collect several previously-posted “The Best…” lists related to genocide, and to add additional links to events not ...

Hmong Proverbs Many Ideas Open The Way is a book sharing Hmong proverbs. The author has a short slideshow with some proverbs and images at his website. I’ve placed the link on my website under Hmong. I’ve also added it to The Best Websites To Learn About The Hmong.

Part Two: Answers To “What Are You Going To Do Differently Next Year?” Yesterday, I shared Part One of this post. Six weeks ago I shared that I was going to start thinking about what I was going to do differently in the next school year, and I invited readers to also share their answers to the question: “What are you ...

Avoiding labor strife, teachers agree to contracts - Boston.com

Avoiding labor strife, teachers agree to contracts

July 25, 2010

Text size – +

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Teachers in communities throughout Rhode Island are agreeing to new contracts and avoiding labor battles with cash-strapped school districts.

In addition, teacher union officials say they have not heard much dissent in school districts that have yet to work out new contracts for the coming school year.

In districts that settled early or added a year to contracts in force, teachers made concessions to keep their jobs.

Coventry, Little Compton, New Shoreham, Pawtucket and West Warwick had teacher contracts due to expire this summer and all settled early. Others have

School Board Member

Waiting for Superman': a review

"Waiting for Superman"

Last week I was invited to a screening of "Waiting for Superman," a new education documentary that has attracted a lot of attention--it should be released in theaters in late September. 2010 seems to be the year of the "edumentary," with several films documenting various problems in the U.S. educational system.
I'm torn about how I feel about "Waiting for Superman," which is the highest-profile of the year's documentaries. Made by Davis Guggenheim, a filmmaker who won an Oscar for the climate documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," it's entertaining, with great characters and subject matter that I, at least, find riveting. It's an open question whether the moviegoing public will find education reform as compelling as melting polar ice caps, but based on the early buzz and the reactions of the audience I saw, it should do well. The man sitting next to me actually cried out in disbelief at several points; as the lights came up, many people pulled out their cellphones to text the word "Possible" to an address displayed on the screen. (Some kind of pledge to recommend the movie to friends, I think).

But the movie is also manipulative, over-simplified, and in the end, misleading about where the

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/rnorton/detail?blogid=184&entry_id=68320#ixzz0ui5Sw1ET

Zed urges Hindus worldwide to honor sacred guru-sishya relationship on Guru Purnima

Zed urges Hindus worldwide to honor sacred guru-sishya relationship on Guru Purnima

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed has sent greetings to one billion Hindus worldwide on the occasion of Guru Purnima.

In a statement in Nevada (USA) today, Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged Hindus to pay due respects and express gratitude on this auspicious day to the guru/gurus to honor this sacred relationship.

Rajan Zed further says that guru is a highly revered spiritual teacher/master/preceptor in Hinduism who helps remove the ignorance of the seeker and who leads one from darkness to light. The guru-sishya (teacher-disciple) relationship lies at the heart of traditional Hinduism. Guru is often allied with the divine. Even Arjuna formally asked Lord Krishna to be his guru in ancient Hindu scripture Bhagavad-Gita (Song of the Lord).

This day is also held sacred to the memory of celebrated rishi Vyasa, arranger of Vedas, and the compiler of Puranas andMahabharata.

Hinduism is oldest and third largest religion of the world and moksha (liberation) is its ultimate goal.

Common Core Standards: Hardly an Evidence-based Policy � Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Common Core Standards: Hardly an Evidence-based Policy

by larrycuban

The reform-bound train has left the station and is rolling across the country. Twenty-eight states have adopted the new “common core” English and math standards and both liberals and conservatives are on board. But there is little evidence in the caboose to support either the policy or its goal.

Even as pundits and policymakers say the national standards train will pick up more states (Virginia, Texas, and Alaska don’t want to get on board now), the sweet promise of that reform to finally end the perpetual (or is itmanufactured?) crisis surrounding U.S. schools beckons. But, and you knew there was a “but” coming, as the train hurtles across both “red” and “blue” states, serious questions about adopting voluntarily national curriculum standards and evidence for embracing those standards have to be asked.

Presidents H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush have sought national goals such “common core” standards so that the U.S. would be better able to compete with Asian and European for global markets. Now,President Obama has reaffirmed that goal. In a talk to the nation’s governors he said:

“[Asian nations] want their kids to excel because they understand that whichever country out-educates the other

“Using film and moving image to enrich ESOL teaching and learning” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“Using film and moving image to enrich ESOL teaching and learning”

by Larry Ferlazzo

Using film and moving image to enrich ESOL teaching and learning is a very nice listing of different ways to use film with English Language Learners. It was written by Cormac Conway and Michaela Salmon.

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