Friday, December 3, 2010

Diann Woodard: School Reform or Permanent Underclass?

School Reform or Permanent Underclass?

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The recent spate of resignations by heads of school districts in Chicago, Washington and New York City who advocate the so-called business model of school reform has predictably been followed by new appointees as ill-prepared for the challenge of improving student performance as their predecessors.

The common theme in the message of these departing chancellors and the politicians who appointed them is that controversy equals success, with little or no evidence to support the rhetoric, an increasingly disturbing trend among policy elites who are joined at the hip by their neo-liberal proclivities for privatizing public services and

NJ Spotlight | The Clock is Ticking for Teacher Effectiveness Task Force

The Clock is Ticking for Teacher Effectiveness Task Force
Behind closed doors, committee reviews research and interviews experts, with draft report slated for March 1

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By John Mooney, December 3 in Education |1 Comment

With no small task at hand -- and not much time -- a dozen or so educators, advocates and academics have begun gathering regularly in the administrative offices of North Brunswick schools to come up with a way to evaluate teachers and principals across the state.

The members of Gov. Chris Christie’s Educator Effectiveness Task Force, along with state department staff, met on Wednesday for more than five hours, beginning to draft a report to submit to Christie by March 1.

The members appointed by Christie in what was a controversial selection process in itself and have each signed confidentiality agreements.

But their chairman said yesterday that the group has already begin reviewing research and talking to experts, in and out of state. Some early attention has been paid to Delaware’s evaluation system

Daily Kos: For What It's Worth

For What It's Worth

by teacherken

If you think some people here are disappointed - or far worse - at the administration on a number of fronts, what you are seeing starting to become public from members of both the House and now Senate Democratic caucuses is just the tip of the iceberg. The anger among the electeds is palpable, which might be why it is now more frequently exploding into public view.

While I do not always agree with some of my friends among the electeds, I have to say that I am beyond frustrated, albeit for different reasons.

I have been disappointed and then frustrated, and now I am becoming angry.

In saying that I in no way diminish the very significant accomplishments of this term:

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: NEW OVERSEER FOR CHARTERS URGED: State board too consumed by charter petitions

NEW OVERSEER FOR CHARTERS URGED: State board too consumed by charter petitions By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess | http://bit.ly/eY6GyP Posted on 12/02/10 • Charter schools have become a time sink for the State Board of Education, with a third of its time spent dealing with schools serving 5 percent of California’s students. ...

CTA CITES QEIA’s BIG IMPACT: Is it teacher leadership or smaller classes? By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess | http://bit.ly/exHvg6 12/01/10 • Over the past three years, API scores have increased significantly for the bottom 20 percent of California schools, despite ongoing budget cuts. But they’ve risen even higher overall ...

CONGRESS SENDS SCHOOL NUTRITION BILL TO OBAMA By The Associated Press | http://bit.ly/fTc0Hb December 2, 2010 – Washington - More children would eat lunches and dinners at school under legislation passed Thursday by the House and sent to the president, part of first lady Michelle Obama's campaign to ...

STUDY LOOKS AT TURNOVER IN CHARTER PRINCIPALS: "You’re Leaving? Sustainability and Succession in Charter Schools" Report Roundup by By Mary Ann Zehr in Ed Week | http://bit.ly/gG2NO9 December 1, 2010 -- Seventy-one percent of charter school leaders say they plan to leave their schools within five years, raising questions about the stability of the culture of ...

CHARTER SCHOOLS AND OTHERS SUBMIT PLANS FOR CONTROL OF NEW AND STRUGGLING L.A. SCHOOLS Howard Blume in LA Times/LA Now | http://lat.ms/gyoPBY December 2, 2010 | 2:11 pm - Four dozen groups will vie for control of 10 new campuses and three existing schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The applications, which were due ...

Calif. tops nation in English language learners | California Watch

Calif. tops nation in English language learners

by Joanna Lin

Joanna Lin

Students learning English speak more than 150 languages nationwide. The challenges schools face in teaching these students may be most evident in California, which hosts the most English language learners in the country.

The number of English language learners is growing across the country, representing one in four California students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, according to the Migration Policy Institute, an independent research group.

In an analysis of 2008-09 state education reports [PDF], released Wednesday, the institute found that Spanish was the predominant language for the vast majority of California's 1.5 million English language learners.

Green Chemistry rules draw toxic reaction

by Joshua Emerson Smith

Joshua Emerson Smith

Environmentalists are accusing the Schwarzenegger administration of gutting a landmark California law designed to reduce the number of harmful chemicals in consumer products.

Expectations were set high when the Green Chemistry Initiative was created two years ago and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger predicted it would move "California to the forefront of the nation and the world" in cutting harmful

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Bits & Pieces

Bits & Pieces

by Mike Klonsky

Out of the closet: Michelle Rhee dropped her Dem cover. The Waiting for Supermanhero and Broad Academy grad has joined Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott's T-Party team.

Scott was elected last month to succeed Gov. Charlie Crist (I), who had quit the Republican Party to make an unsuccessful run for U.S. Senate. Florida, with one of the nation's most closely watched school systems, won a $700 million Race to the Top grant from the Obama administration to improve education. Crist vetoed a bill this year that would have expanded teacher merit pay. (WaPo)

^^^^^^^

FairTest's Monty Neil posts an interesting response to the the Ravitch/Finn debate over at NDSG group.

For quite some time Checker Finn of Fordham Foundation has been one of if not the most important ideologue and strategist for neoliberal ed 'reform' (deform). In a reply to Diane Ravitch's Wall St Journal op ed of a few days ago, Finn redefines 'local control' as form of the market, a

The Answer Sheet - Time to pay attention to a reform that works

Time to pay attention to a reform that works

My guest is Marci Young, director of Pre-K Now, a project of the nonprofit Pew Center on the States that advances high-quality, voluntary pre-kindergarten for all 3 year olds and 4 year olds. By Marci Young There’s an education reform strategy that has 50 years of solid research behind it, with proven results that demonstrate how to improve student achievement. It’s a solution backed by both political parties to help narrow the achievement gap, increase high school graduation rates and reduce crime and delinquency. It’s an investment proven to yield up to $7 for every public dollar invested, paying dividends to families, school districts and taxpayers. It’s voluntary, high-quality pre-kindergarten. Decades of research reveal that most of a child’s brain development takes place before age five. When young children miss out on experiences during this critical time that maximize their immense learning potential, pernicious achievement gaps emerge among children of

NYC Public School Parents: NY1 on the Deny the Waiver coalition rally

NY1 on the Deny the Waiver coalition rally

by Leonie Haimson

Check out the great statement by Patrick Sullivan, Manhattan member from the Panel for Educational Policy. Other newsclips at Gotham Schools, DNA Info, and Gotham Gazette. See photos here.

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Thursday, December 2, 2010

Seattle Public Schools community blog: Newt Speaks

Newt Speaks

by Melissa Westbrook

This from a speech Newt Gingrich gave on what should be done in American schools:

10. Insist on paying great teachers a lot more and releasing bad teachers before they can cripple the future of the children they serve.

12. Insist on reasserting American Exceptionalism by having every student in taxpayer-financed schools, whether K through 12 or in the state college and university systems, have a brief course annually on the Declaration of Independence, its assertion of self-evident truths, and its declaration that we are endowed by our

Michelle Rhee Rick Scott transition: Florida Gov.-elect Rick Scott names Michelle Rhee, Washington, D.C.'s former schools chancellor, to an 18-member education transition team. - OrlandoSentinel.com

Rhee leads Scott's education team

Washington, D.C.'s former schools chancellor tops list of 18 leaders to governor-elect's transition team

Governor-elect Rick Scott announced Thursday that he has formed a transition team of education and community leaders to help him create "a new education system for a new economy."

Topping the list is Michelle Rhee, the controversial former chancellor of Washington D.C. schools who has become something of a rock star in the world of education reform. Sharply critical of teacher tenure, she butted heads with the teachers union and fired or forced out hundreds of educators and other employees before she resigned recently.

She also closed dozens of failing schools.

The vast majority of the people named to Scott's education transition team — there are 18 of them — are from Florida, and some have been called upon by previous governors for guidance.

For example, Jonathan K. Hage, the president of Charter Schools USA, one of state's largest providers of charter schools, has

Queens Teacher: Fight for NYC Schools Is Just Beginning

Fight for NYC Schools Is Just Beginning

by Queens Teacher

Fight for NYC Schools Is Just Beginning
Alan Singer
Social Studies educator, Hofstra University

As much as I enjoy agitprop (political theater), agree with Mattera and the Greens, and think Bloomberg, Black, and the Hearst Corporation are fair targets, the issues here run much deeper. Under Bloomberg, government in New York City is authoritarian, arbitrary, and non-responsive to the populous. It is as if Bloomberg were a very wealthy king whose money gives him the power to buy whatever he wants and force it down our throats.

The educational experts who reviewed Cathy Black's lack of credentials are a good example. They either worked for Bloomberg before, may work for him later, or work for a non-profit receiving generous Bloomberg donations. Let us see how many of them express outrage that New York State Educational Commissioner David Steiner ignored their advice and acceded to Bloomberg's demands.

So far, not one of the eight has spoken publicly. The stakes are too high. You play the game, you go along, and you end up making big bucks working for Bloomberg in the private sector, working for his foundation, or working for one of the other edu-capitalists. When Joel Klein leaves the New York City

Schools Matter: Ravitch TKO's Finn in first round

Ravitch TKO's Finn in first round

by skrashen

Chester Finn's response to Diane Ravitch (http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/index.cfm?issue=614#a6624)assumes that American schools have failed. Not so. Evidence for failure, according to Finn, includes "The weak and generally stagnant academic performance of most American school kids, our scandalous achievement gaps, the country’s sagging performance vis-à-vis other countries …".

Test score performance of American children is not all that "stagnant." NAEP math scores for 9 and 13 year olds have improving steadily since 1973 and reading scores for 9 year olds have been improving since 1971. Other groups show no decline (Finn would call this "stagnant," others might call this holding steady).

Achievement gaps and our less than spectacular scores on international tests are the result of poverty: Middle-class American children attending well-financed schools outscore nearly all other countries. Our overall scores

The Education Celebrity Tour: Legend of the Fall, Pt. II | Dailycensored.com

The Education Celebrity Tour: Legend of the Fall, Pt. II

by Paul Thomas

The U.S. is floundering at the bottom of international comparisons of education, and what makes this worse is that in the grand ol’ 1950s, the U.S. was at the top—at least that is one story offered by Michelle Rhee on a recent episode of the Colbert Report.

Like the discussion of Waiting for Superman by John Legend on Bill Maher’s Real Time, the celebrity tour of Rhee, who recently lost her job as chancellor of schools in DC, raises some real problems about not only what our self-appointed educational leaders are saying about education, but also how our so-called left-wing media helps (directly and indirectly) to perpetuate misinformation about our education system—misinformation that is being promoted to mask the real issues about poverty in our culture that the political and corporate elite do not want to face.

Rhee, in her interview with Colbert, makes several sweeping claims about schools, and as is the nature of contemporary media (recognizing, of course, that Colbert is satire), she is allowed to make those claims without

The Classroom is a Factory, But What's the Product? - Copy / Paste by Peter Pappas

The Classroom is a Factory, But What's the Product?

This morning I read Bob Barsanti's powerful commentary "The Classroom Is Not a Factory" Education Week (12/1/10).

"Everything I needed to know about modern teaching, I learned in a factory. In the summer of my 18th year, I made plastic drink stirrers on the night shift at Spir-It Inc.... Many of the current reforms in education aim to turn the schoolhouse into that plastic-products factory. .. The machinery heats and molds our children, then stamps, bags, and packages them to a professional uniformity."

So What's the Real Product?

I agree with Barsanti that schools have been turned into factories. But they don't produce students, they just work there. In truth, schools are factories that harness the labor of students to toil at a bubble-test assembly line producing "achievement" data.

Schools mask the child labor with noble mission statements that claim they are

Remainders: Black “doesn’t work for the city yet,” mayor says | GothamSchools

Remainders: Black “doesn’t work for the city yet,” mayor says

by Anna Phillips

Bloomberg says Cathie Black isn’t a public servant yet, so her school visits aren’t public. (DN)
The Awl slams the Department of Ed’s press strategy for Black’s debut. (The Awl)
A student skips schools, but dazzles subway riders with his math skills. (GS Community)
A teacher finds that a classroom problem he’d solved has reappeared this year. (GS Community)
Rubert Murdoch’s new media project may employ Klein’s education knowledge. (CNBC)
Surveying the work of Generation Klein 9th graders, a teacher doesn’t see progress. (NYC Educator)
Students and staff at Sheepshead Bay HS are protesting the school’s possible closure. (Ed Notes)
New York has fewer students than Texas, but similar numbers of special ed students. (Flypaper)
Education credentials aside, is Black even prepared to manage the DOE? (More Thoughtful)
NJ Gov. Christie is ordering another district to lower its superintendent’s salary. (WSJ)
Massachusetts, Ohio, and other states are seeing districts opt out of RttT. (EdWeek)
House voted up a bill that would increase free meals in schools, improve nutrition. (WaPo)

An Open Letter to Educators

Schools Matter: Scott's Transition Team: Rhee, Bakke, Kirtley, Hage, etc

Scott's Transition Team: Rhee, Bakke, Kirtley, Hage, etc

The ever-perky princess of education deform appeared on theColbert Report last night, and, unfortunately, Stephen continued to disappoint when it comes to skewering corporate school propagandists. The interview - neither enlightening nor entertaining - was a great way for Rhee to generate some positive PR in the wake of her ousting from the DC schools.

But Michelle is undoubtedly keeping herself busy. And it looks like she'll be focusing on Florida now that Gov.-elect Rick Scott has appointed her to his education transition team. Here's the rest of the list, courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel:

Michelle Rhee – Former Chancellor, Washington, DC Schools

Patricia Levesque – Executive Director, Foundation For

Obama Welcomes New Governors - NYTimes.com

Obama Promises to Work With Governors on Education, Economy

By PETER BAKER

“I think it’s time for all of us to make sure that we’re working together,” President Obama said to the newly elected governors at the Blair House luncheon.

Drew Angerer/The New York Times“I think it’s time for all of us to make sure that we’re working together,” President Obama said to the newly elected governors at the Blair House luncheon.

President Obama hosted a luncheon on Thursday for newly elected governors across the street from the White House at Blair House, where he promised to work closely with them to fix the economy and improve education over the next two years.

But while Ohio’s incoming Republican governor, John Kasich, was among the nearly two dozen state chief executives at the lunch, the Democrat he beat in November, Gov. Ted Strickland, was not left out in the cold. In fact, he got a personal visit with the president hours earlier in the Oval Office, the only governor singled out for such special attention.

Mr. Strickland has been an energetic ally for Mr. Obama in an important

New in-school disciplinary academy draws praise, raises questions | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

New in-school disciplinary academy draws praise, raises questions

by Benjamin Herold

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Wilfredo Cruz is seated in the back of his 8th grade English class, scanning the room.

When he spots another student with his head down, Wilfredo whispers the boy’s name, trying to get his attention.

Last year, this would have been the start of trouble. As a 7th grader at John B. Stetson Middle School, Wilfredo would often simply walk out of class to wander the halls. He was suspended multiple times and given detention countless others, for offenses ranging from writing graffiti on school property to fighting to bringing a BB gun to school.

He was not alone – there were 54 “serious incidents” reported at Stetson last year, including 21 assaults on staff and 20 assaults on students.

This year, however, things are different – for Wilfredo and for Stetson.

When Wilfredo gains the attention of the sleepy student in his English class, he tersely tells the boy to sit up straight. Wordlessly, the student complies. The teacher continues her lesson without interruption.Photo: Benjamin Herold
"I went into school thinking it was nothing different except the uniforms," says ASPIRA Stetson 8th grader Wilfredo Cruz, 13. "But nothing is the same as last year. I actually feel like I am learning something."
Photo: Benjamin Herold
"I went into school thinking it was nothing different except the uniforms," says ASPIRA Stetson 8th grader Wilfredo Cruz, 13. "But nothing is the same as last year. I actually feel like I am learning something."

“I couldn’t get [Wilfredo] to stay in his class last year,” marvels Principal Renato Lajara. “But

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