Monday, October 4, 2010

Mike O'Brien: The Next Step After Superman: Making Education's Moment a Movement

The Next Step After Superman: Making Education's Moment a Movement

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Chances are you will have a conversation about the state of American education this month. If so, that is a phenomenal accomplishment for the education reform movement (if not, you better get in the game!). Last year, less than 1 percent of all news stories covered education issues. But not this month. Education is having its moment in the national spotlight.

How did this happen? Bright spots of progress have produced real reasons for optimism. Twenty years of charter school investment has produced a cohort of high-performing operators, silencing any reasonable argument that a world-class education is not possible for all students, in all places. We have a federal administration that has focused on what works, replaced politics with pragmatism

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Blaming teachers is the easy way out - Letters to the Editor - The Buffalo News

Blaming teachers is the easy way out

Let me start by saying that I am not a teacher. It really bothers me when I hear or read about how easy teachers have it. Students’ underachieving probably has more to do with the students’ attitude and home life than the teacher taking a day off or not teaching properly. Are parents concerned about their child’s grades and behavior? Are they reading with their child, and checking his homework? Are they backing up the teacher and holding their child accountable, or are they singing the “not my child” song?

Classrooms are filled to the max. Students come unprepared, uninterested and, on top of that, are disrespectful and disruptive to the teacher and their classmates. Teachers work more than a six-hour day. They arrive early, stay late and bring their work home with them. They stay after school for parent conferences, open houses and a variety of after-school and weekend school functions.

They spend plenty of their own money for classroom supplies. They are our children’s teacher, counselor, mentor and friend. It is a highly rewarding profession, but it is also emotionally and mentally exhausting.

Budget cuts affect the staff, supplies and resources that are needed in the

How Americans spread the wealth - St. Petersburg Times

How Americans spread the wealth

By Robert Trigaux, Times Staff Writer

Amid raucous political debate over tax cuts for the rich and who owns most of America's wealth, university researchers have found at least one reason why we suffer such bruising public policy stalemates in this country.

When it comes to wealth inequity in the United States, we just don't know what we're talking about.

Two professors, psychologist Michael Norton from Harvard Business School and behavioral economist Daniel Ariely at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, surveyed more than 5,500 Americans who had been chosen at random to create a nationally representative sample. Those surveyed were asked to do two things.

First, they had to estimate the current distribution of wealth in the United States. And second, they were asked to "build a better America" by spreading the nation's wealth among five quintiles, poorest to richest, based on their own, ideal or optimal level of inequality.

Key findings appe

Barack Obama to spotlight education - Carol E. Lee - POLITICO.com

Barack Obama to spotlight education

Barack Obama meets students at Julia R. Masterman School in Philadelphia. | AP Photo

The W.H. says education reform is "a fundamental difference" between Barack Obama and Republicans. | AP PhotoClose

By CAROL E. LEE | 10/3/10 5:06 PM EDT

The White House will focus on education this week as an economic issue and political wedge that contrasts Democrats and Republicans, senior administration officials said Sunday in a conference call with reporters.

“The issue of education and reforming education so we can be more competitive in the long term is a fundamental difference between President Obama and Republicans,” said White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer. “The Republican pledge that was unveiled a few weeks ago would include the largest cut in education in history. ... We think that is inexcusable

Queens Teacher: I Heart Leonie Too!!!

I Heart Leonie Too!!!

by Queens Teacher

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Class Size Matters Leonie Haimson gives us the truth about comparisons of our schools to Finland's and the difficult task many of our teachers have in this country.

The Human Pursuit of Learning in the Education Industrial Complex | Lefty Parent

The Human Pursuit of Learning in the Education Industrial Complex

by Cooper Zale

Following up on my piece yesterday that called out the “Education Industrial Complex”, I want to talk more about the impact of this hugely hierarchical and bureaucratic leviathan and its impact of the very personal, naturally self-initiated process of learning. These mega institutions that exercise such control over us rather than facilitating our own initiative (though well intentioned) I see as remnants of an ancient world view of external authority (which I call “Patriarchy”) that I see as an obstacle towards our human development in the direction of a a more evolved “Circle of Equals”.

To set the context again for this follow-up, I want to go back to Dave Chandler’s words that I think capture the

The Washington Teacher: Let The WTU Races Begin !

Let The WTU Races Begin !

by The Wash. Teacher

We Want Your Vote !
Even though the May 2010 of WTU officers election was hindered by the current 'Hold Over' union presidentdue to his failure to turn over the necessary documents to the American federation of Teachers (AFT), Washington Teachers' Union members will finally be able to elect a new union president and a slate of officers.

According to AFT , ballots will be mailed to members mid-

Bera for Congress Day of Action

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS: KIPP Gaston College Preparatory

KIPP Gaston College Preparatory *KIPP FAILS TO STAND UP FOR ITS REPUTATION*, September 30, 2010, The Daily Herald (Roanoke Rapids, NC) …As many have undoubtedly already heard, 10 KIPP football players have been suspended for Friday’s game for their role in a fight last week on ...

Northeast Academy Charter School *CHARTER SCHOOL'S GIFT-CARD OFFER IN STUDENT-ENROLLMENT DRIVE ILLEGAL*, October 2, 2010, The Denver Post (CO) A Denver charter school broke a new state law by offering families $400 worth of gift cards if they brought new students to the school ...

McKeel Charter School System *MAREADY DEFENDS MCKEEL'S POLICIES; MCKEEL CHARTER SUPERINTENDENT DEFENDS POLICIES AND PRACTICES,* October 1, 2010, The Ledger (Lakeland, FL) LAKELAND | McKeel Charter School System has no control over which students are admitted to its three ...

Discovery School of Tulsa *The following news story is an example of the teacher salary practices at other Gulen charter schools. As reported by a former teacher at one of the NJ charter schools: “The school had my credentials and previous salaries, promised the same, and ...

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