Wednesday, September 29, 2010

School Tech Connect: Watch Anthony Cody In Action

Watch Anthony Cody In Action

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

You should actually just go read this and watch the video. Anthony Cody lays out Jason Felch of the LA Times, who was on the team that decided which teachers in LA were ineffective according to the value-added approach, and then they published that data by teacher name, thereby assigning human faces to a horrible misinterpretation of test score data. A distraught teacher recently took his own life.

My question is actually for Susan Rasky. If the LA Times is having such a difficult time staying in business, why

Rise & Shine: Still no contract for city and teachers union | GothamSchools

Rise & Shine: Still no contract for city and teachers union

by Philissa Cramer

The city and its teachers union still can’t agree on a new contract after a year of talks. (NY1)
Some parents and teachers support Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed new tenure policy. (NY1)
New Jersey’s governor also wants to change tenure rules in that state. (Times)
Chancellor Klein defends Bloomberg’s proposed tenure rules. (Post)
Bloomberg gave four stars to “Waiting for ‘Superman.’” (Post)
School construction is keeping the city’s construction industry afloat right now. (WSJ)
The principal of PS 90 on Coney Island was reprimanded the way she spoke to teachers. (Daily News)
The teacher in hot water for blogging about her sex-for-hire past got tenure while blogging. (Post)
The Post says she’s an example of why the city needs tenure reform.

Governor vetoes bill to reject Texas curriculum - San Jose Mercury News

Governor vetoes bill to reject Texas curriculum

By ROBIN HINDERY Associated Press Writer

Posted: 09/28/2010 05:59:57 PM PDT

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday vetoed a bill seeking to prevent a revised social studies curriculum approved in Texas from being taught in the nation's largest public school system.

The state Board of Education already has an adequate curriculum review process, and a further layer of scrutiny would be "duplicative and unnecessary," Schwarzenegger said in his veto message.

The bill, SB1451, would have required the board to look out for any of the Texas content as part of its standard practice of reviewing public school textbooks, and then submit its findings to the Legislature.

The Texas school board adopted standards in May asserting that the country's Founding Fathers were guided by Christian principles. The changes also minimize Thomas Jefferson's role in world and U.S. history because he advocated the separation of church and state, and require that students learn about "the unintended consequences" of affirmative action and Title IX, the federal law that bans gender discrimination in education

Schools Matter: Write Rachel

Write Rachel

by Jim Horn

1 person liked this

My letter to Rachel Maddow, the best chance on Microsoft-NBC to get someone on screen to counter the media blitzkrieg from the oligarchs. Please copy this one, or write you own today to Rachel@msnbc.com:

Dear Rachel:

During this week's wall to wall promotion of "Waiting for Superman" and the corporate solutions emanating from that film (the ones paid for by Gates, the Waltons, and the rest of the "Billionaire Boys Club" (Ravitch, 2010)), I and millions of others are waiting, instead, for some coverage of the public educators' and parents' position

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: 5 Reasons to Implement Student-Involved Energy Audits and Improvements in K12 Schools

5 Reasons to Implement Student-Involved Energy Audits and Improvements in K12 Schools

by coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher)

Image by PNNL - Pacific Northwest National Laboratory via FlickrVampires in the Classroom?
No, I'm not writing about Twilight, although my teenage daughter would definitely approve.
We're discussing conducting a school wide energy audit as part of the module I do on Excel spreadsheets. By purchasing voltage meters that tell us how much energy each device consumes and evaluating some of the new reduced energy consumption power

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Audit hints at future district problems | EdNewsColorado

Audit hints at future district problems

by Todd Engdahl

More and more school districts may be forced to dip into reserves to cope with shrinking funding for schools, the state’s school finance chief and a new state audit warned Tuesday.

Vody Herrmann, assistant commissioner of education, told the Legislative Audit Committee, “I do believe we’ll see an increase in the number of districts” spending down their fund balances to cover operating costs.

Herrmann spoke during a hearing on a new report that tracks the fiscal health of state school districts.

Staff in the state auditor’s office reviewed three years of audits of the state’s 178 school districts, in this case,

Beaverton parents and teachers raise questions about releasing students early | OregonLive.com

Beaverton parents and teachers raise questions about releasing students early

Published: Tuesday, September 28, 2010, 4:44 PM Updated: Tuesday, September 28, 2010, 4:52 PM

Wendy Owen, The Oregonian
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Several Beaverton parents told the school board Monday night that they're concerned about plans to release students early one day a week to allow teachers to collaborate on instruction.

They weren't the only ones: teachers also raised questions about early release.

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"Teachers don't have enough information to weigh the challenges to the potential benefits," said David Wilkinson,Beaverton Education Associationpresident.

Teachers cited their concerns in their responses to a recent Beaverton Education Association survey, Wilkinson said.

Teachers also raised questions about the district's plan to try early release

Bee Live - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

The Bee presents California governor’s debate 2010: Jerry Brown vs. Meg Whitman

Schwarzenegger blasts big oil, defends climate law | abc7news.com

Schwarzenegger blasts big oil over Prop 23

Monday, September 27, 2010

TAGS:

arnold schwarzenegger, global warming, santa clara, politics, mark matthews

Mark Matthews
More: Bio, E-mail, News Team

SANTA CLARA, CA (KGO) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is blasting the backers of an effort to suspend the state's landmark global warming legislation that signed it into law four years ago.

California's global warming law AB32 is a big part of Schwarzenegger's legacy. He is campaigning to stop Proposition 23, the November ballot measure that would suspend AB32.

The governor told the Commonwealth Club audience that oil companies Valero and Tesoro are spending millions to promote Prop 23 with a bogus jobs argument.

"Does anyone really believe that these companies out of the goodness of their black oil hearts are spending millions and millions of dollars to protect jobs?"

City parents call NBC’s education week programs biased | GothamSchools

City parents call NBC’s education week programs biased

by Anna Phillips

Class Size Matters director Leonie Haimson, surrounded by other city parents, criticizes NBC's "Education Nation" programming today.

A group of city public school parents blasted NBC today for its week-long special programming on education, saying that the network has kept parents and skeptics of education reform off the air.

The network is running a series of televised interviews and panel discussions it is calling “Education Nation” all this week. Parents gathered today outside of the “Learning Plaza” the network has built at Rockefeller Center to complain about the series’ line-up of speakers, which is dominated by politicians, officials and philanthropists.

“Parents are offended about the way in which NBC has refused to invite a single NYC public school parent onto any of their panels,” said Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters. “Instead, the network

Remainders: A high school science teacher named a “genius” | GothamSchools

Remainders: A high school science teacher named a “genius”

by Elizabeth Green

A high school science teacher is among the MacArthur genius award winners. (Curriculum Matters)
In LA, Diane Ravitch gets big cheers with her criticism of Duncan, Oprah, Gates. (YouTube)
On Brian Lehrer, Mulgrew calls the mayor’s announcement on NBC a “publicity stunt.” (WNYC)
How can Mark Zuckerberg give away $100 million when Facebook isn’t public yet? (NYT)
Arguing that “Superman”s suggested solutions are “unimaginative and rather derivative.” (Startl)
One story that got cut from “Superman”: the drafting of the Green Dot-UFT contract. (HuffPost)
NJ Gov Christie’s ed reforms: make firing teachers easier, reform tenure. (Bloomberg)
The IBM high school could mean a new grade 14 and 16 get added to the list. (CityRoom)
Shelly Silver lends his support to expanding Millennium High School downtown. (DNA Info)
A WSJ columnist calls out Obama for not taking a side in the D.C. mayor’s race. (WSJ via Russo)
Matt Lauer weirdly described a preschool as providing “tough love,” but did it? (Early Ed)
And we are launching a jobs board! The first 40 jobs posted will be free. (GothamSchools)

New Jersey's Chris Christie Touts Education Agenda - State EdWatch - Education Week

New Jersey's Chris Christie Touts Education Agenda

by Sean Cavanagh

Arguing that his state is spending too much money on schools and getting too few results, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vowed Tuesday to push for major changes in education, including proposals to judge teachers by student achievement.

The Republican governor is "challenging the system," his office argued in a statement, though it appears that a number of his agenda items will need the backing of state lawmakers to become reality.

Christie campaigned for office last year on promises to expand charter schools and increase school choice.

He has also voiced support for merit pay, and in touting his education agenda on Tuesday, he said he wants to "reward innovative and effective teaching," and "put student achievement at the center of educator evaluations." Teachers should be judged on their classroom work, he said—not seniority.

Those ideas may not get a winning reception from the New

Jerry Moore: No Child Left Behind law isn’t rooted in reality - Pontiac, IL - Pontiac Daily Leader

Jerry Moore: No Child Left Behind law isn’t rooted in reality

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By Jerry Moore

GateHouse News Service

Posted Sep 28, 2010 @ 05:53 PM

Western suburbs —

Most school administrators, teachers and staff members are not looking forward to 2014.

That’s the year when, according to the federal No Child Left Behind law, all students in all public school districts must meet the proficient level on the state assessments used for adequate yearly progress. Specifically how AYP is calculated varies by state, but the one constant is its mandate of 100 percent compliance.

Nobody in public education today takes issue with this goal. But the expectation that any district will achieve it seems unrealistic, many educators have said. If one student has a poor showing

Uncle Sam wants you: In a classroom with a protractor. | Get Schooled

Uncle Sam wants you: In a classroom with a protractor.

2:35 pm September 27, 2010, by Maureen Downey

The feds want to recruit 10,000 teachers in science, technology, engineering and math over the next two years.

From the US DOE:

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan today launched a national teacher recruitment campaign during a live MSNBC broadcast as part of the NBC Education Summit in New York. The campaign features a new web sitededicated to providing information and resources for students and prospective teachers — including a new interactive “pathway to teaching” tool designed to help individuals chart their course to becoming a teacher.
“With more than a million teachers expected to retire in the coming years, we have a historic opportunity to transform public education in America by calling on a new generation to join those already in the classroom,” said Secretary Duncan. “We are working with the broader

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