Hyatt workers hit the street. On strike!
NBC:
Union workers at an undisclosed Chicago-area Hyatt hotel are
Friday, September 3, 2010
Hyatt workers hit the street. On strike! � Fred Klonsky's blog
Hyatt workers hit the street. On strike! � Fred Klonsky's blog
Queens Teacher: If Your School Has Everyday Math
Queens Teacher: If Your School Has Everyday Math
If Your School Has Everyday Math
Parent Pundit
January 25, 2005
If your school has Everyday Math
If your school uses Everyday Math, you should be extremely watchful. Everyday Math is problematic because it is a language-intensive-based program that
•stresses the use of calculators,
•wants the kids to come up with their own ways to solve the problems
•doesn't teach the traditional algorithms (the multiplication and division methods that they teach break down
January 25, 2005
If your school has Everyday Math
If your school uses Everyday Math, you should be extremely watchful. Everyday Math is problematic because it is a language-intensive-based program that
•stresses the use of calculators,
•wants the kids to come up with their own ways to solve the problems
•doesn't teach the traditional algorithms (the multiplication and division methods that they teach break down
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Daily Kos: Seattle Teachers' Union Rolls Back Education "Reform" Tide
Daily Kos: Seattle Teachers' Union Rolls Back Education "Reform" Tide
Seattle Teachers' Union Rolls Back Education "Reform" Tide
by NWTerriD
Thu Sep 02, 2010 at 01:16:47 AM PDT
Wednesday afternoon the Seattle teachers' union (SEA) achieved a huge victory over the proponents of what is popularly (and erroneously) known as "education reform."
After many, many hours of hard negotiations, the SEA negotiators achieved a tentative contract with the district. What is remarkable about this contract is that:
* Teachers' final evaluations will not depend on student test scores.* Teachers' jobs will not depend on student test scores.* Teachers' pay will not depend on student test scores.This tentative agreement was reached despite intensive efforts by the Broad-Foundation-connected superintendent to insert test scores into all three of the above areas.
The contract will not be final unless it is ratified by the SEA general membership Thursday evening, but the SEA Board and the Representative Assembly (building reps) have voted to recommend ratification.
Sacramento Press / Johnson aims to link city services with schools
Sacramento Press / Johnson aims to link city services with schools
Johnson aims to link city services with schools
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said Thursday he is organizing an effort to link city services with Sacramento school districts.
At a press conference at American Lakes Elementary School in Natomas, Johnson laid out a plan for how local schools can benefit from a relationship with city government.
Sacramento schools and the city should explore methods to share city facilities and to boost public safety and after-school efforts for schoolchildren, he said.
“We’re talking about the need to create a partnership in a way that we have not done in the past,” Johnson said to an audience that included a group of third graders.
City Hall and the school system need to bolster their relationship because both entities are experiencing
Newark students start school year amid series of changes | NJ.com
Newark students start school year amid series of changes | NJ.com
Newark students start school year amid series of changes
Published: Thursday, September 02, 2010, 8:55 PM Updated: Thursday, September 02, 2010, 9:09 PM
NEWARK — When Newark school district’s 39,000 students began their first day of classes today, they began a school year already full of change.
The district has 20 new principals this year and all students at the 74 schools must now wear school uniforms for the first time. Ninety teachers received new assignments while 200 educators were laid off. And two days before school started, the district’s superintendent learned the state would not renew his three-year contract.
A spokesperson for Superintendent Clifford Janey, however, said the city’s education chief will run the district until his contract expires at the end of the school year.
"Things are changing under Dr. Janey and they must change," said Valerie Merritt, a spokeswoman for the district, which is the largest in New Jersey and has been managed by the state since 1995. "We cannot operate the same way and expect different results. That’s insane."
CATALYST CHICAGO :: Cover Stories
CATALYST CHICAGO :: Cover Stories
A revolving door for charter teachers
Catalyst’s analysis of employee lists for charter schools confirms what some charter observers have long suspected: High teacher turnover is the norm.
August, 2010
Charter schools had to replace an average of more than half of their teachers between 2008 and 2010, a turnover rate on par with some of the most troubled district-run schools.
Experts say that high teacher turnover is associated with a school in turmoil and that instability often hampers student performance.
Of the 10 charter schools with the highest turnover, only one—LEARN Charter—had the majority of its students score at or above the state average on the ISAT.
Chicago’s charter teacher turnover—from an
Search Related Stories
August, 2010
Charter schools had to replace an average of more than half of their teachers between 2008 and 2010, a turnover rate on par with some of the most troubled district-run schools.
Experts say that high teacher turnover is associated with a school in turmoil and that instability often hampers student performance.
Of the 10 charter schools with the highest turnover, only one—LEARN Charter—had the majority of its students score at or above the state average on the ISAT.
Chicago’s charter teacher turnover—from an
NorthJersey.com: Virtual Jersey: The firing of the education commissioner
NorthJersey.com: Virtual Jersey: The firing of the education commissioner
Virtual Jersey: The firing of the education commissioner
THE RECORD
THE governor fired his education commissioner, Bret Schundler, over mishaps with the state’s Race to the Top application. What’s the fallout?
DuHAIME: It has been news during a relatively slow time in August. Ultimately, the fallout is more political hay that the other side is trying to make out of this. In the long term, it’s not going to change the governor’s focus on education reform. Bret Schundler is a smart, capable guy who was an ally when it [came] to education reform. In this instance, unfortunately, he made a mistake on the form and then I think compounded that mistake in terms of his miscommunication with the Governor’s Office, to put it mildly.
FOX: I find it interesting that Mike is somehow blaming Democrats for raising
“Diversity of Preparation” � The Core Knowledge Blog
“Diversity of Preparation” � The Core Knowledge Blog
September 2nd, 2010
The Core Knowledge Blog
“Diversity of Preparation”
by Robert PondiscioSeptember 2nd, 2010
At the Chronicle of Higher Education, Emory University professor Mark Bauerlein takes upa piece E.D. Hirsch, Jr. and I wrote in the American Prospect a few months back titled “There’s No Such Thing as a Reading Test.” The essay explained why, contrary to popular belief, reading is not an all-purpose, transferable skill, and argued for a domain-specific approach to reading instruction and assessment.
But a commenter on Bauerlein’s Brainstorm blog wants to know why the professor is taking up the issue at all. The piece, after all, was in an issue of the Prospect concerned with getting kids to read by third grade. What does this have to do with higher
As primary nears, a charter school opponent’s story evolves | GothamSchools
As primary nears, a charter school opponent’s story evolves | GothamSchools
As primary nears, a charter school opponent’s story evolves
With the Democratic primary a few weeks away, the battle over a West Harlem senate seat — turned charter school proxy war — is heating up.
On NY1 last night, Senator Bill Perkins and challenger Basil Smikle debated Perkins’ support for charter schools. Perkins accused Smikle of being too cozy with charter school supporters (”We all know that it’s the hedge fund charter movement that has initiated his candidacy, with the support of course of the New York Post,”
California schools to receive federal boost - Inside Bay Area
California schools to receive federal boost - Inside Bay Area
| |
Bursting the Bubble Tests – ED.gov Blog
Bursting the Bubble Tests – ED.gov Blog
Bursting the Bubble Tests
Secretary Duncan, state education leaders and ED staff spoke to reporters today to announce $330 million in grants to develop better student assessments.
Almost everywhere Secretary Duncan goes, complaints about “bubble tests” bubble up. Teachers are usually the first ones to bring up their issues with the ways states currently assess their students. We heard these criticisms over and over on our recent “Courage in the Classroom” tour.
“The number-one complaint I heard from teachers is that state bubble tests pressure teachers to teach to a test that doesn’t measure what really matters,” Arne said on a call with reporters this afternoon where he announced $330 million in grants from the Race to the Top program so states can develop a new generation of more sophisticated assessments. The grants aim to give teachers the assessments they’ve been asking for—tests that measure students’ critical thinking and other higher-level skills, gauge student growth over the course of a school year and provide ongoing feedback to teachers so they can adjust their approaches.
What’s unique about the Race to the Top assessment grants is who gets them—not individual states, but large coalitions of states that will work together to develop common assessments measuring college and career readiness. Sharing the work will save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, Arne said.
“Fifty states doing this individually (as they have historically done) has made no sense, whatsoever,” he said. All together, the 44 states in the funded coalitions, along with the District of Columbia, serve 85 percent of the nation’s public school students—and states not participating in a consortium are free to use the assessments that are developed.
The new generation of tests—Arne dubbed them “Assessments 2.0″—will be aligned to the higher standards that were recently developed by governors and chief state school officers and have been adopted by 36 states. The tests will assess students’ knowledge of mathematics and English language arts from third grade through high school. The assessments will be ready for use by the 2014-15 school year.
These more advanced assessments will replace tests currently in use and shouldn’t result in more time devoted to testing. “These tests will give us the tools to get better and smarter,” said Gene Wilhoit, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers. In addition, he said, the tests will be “more thoughtful and more connected” to the more streamlined college- and career-ready standards that states have developed together.
- Read the Department’s news release announcing the winners of the assessment competition.
- Review the assessment competition’s applications and reviewers’ scores and comments.
- Read Secretary Duncan’s Sept. 2 remarks on assessments to Achieve’s American Diploma Project meeting.
- Listen to Secretary’s Duncan press call about the announcement.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)