Remainders: Public advocate says he’s “disappointed” in Black | GothamSchools

Remainders: Public advocate says he’s “disappointed” in Black | GothamSchools

Remainders: Public advocate says he’s “disappointed” in Black

by Maura Walz

• A second lawsuit is challenging Cathie Black’s appointment. (GS, City Room, State of Politics)
• Bill de Blasio is “disappointed” that Black hedged on where she’d send her kids to school. (Daily Politics)
• Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emmanuel also wouldn’t say where he’d send his children. (WBEZ)
• Is Cathie Black the Mr. Wensleydale of public education? (Accountable Talk)
• A school turnaround specialist argues states should rethink how they spend federal grants. (Mass Insight)
• A Jamaica H.S. teacher argues the city and union are both responsible for the ATR crisis. (Answer Sheet)
• Michelle Rhee wants her new organization to act as a political counterbalance to unions. (WBEZ)
• A documentary on pressures on students is gaining a grassroots following. (Times)
• InsideSchools has posted new reviews to help parents select a middle school. (InsideSchools)

SEIU Chapter Denounces Raids on Activists | Criminal Justice | Change.org

SEIU Chapter Denounces Raids on Activists | Criminal Justice | Change.org

SEIU Chapter Denounces Raids on Activists

by Charles DavisDecember 08, 2010 11:11 AM (PT)Topics: Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Grassroots Activism, War on Terror

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A 5,000-member strong chapter of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Minnesota is formally denouncing the FBI's raids on anti-war activists -- many of them "union members in good standing" -- and calling on President Obama "to order an immediate investigation into the circumstances, motivation and propriety of the judicial and police intimidation of our members and others."

The move comes after the FBI in late September raided a half-dozen homes and offices of prominent antiwar activists in Minneapolis and Chicago, ostensibly as part of an investigation into whether the activists provided "material support" for terrorism, which is defined so broadly as to include counseling State Department-designated terrorist groups to embrace non-violence and, well, stop being terrorists.

Just last week the FBI issued three additional subpoenasto Chicago activists who had recently travelled to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, prompting a call to protest from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, which has labeled the bureau's investigation a "fishing expedition"

The Educated Reporter: What was the best education journalism this year?

The Educated Reporter: What was the best education journalism this year?

What was the best education journalism this year? I'm compiling my second annual list of my favorite education journalism of the year. This has nothing to do with the EWA awards, which I have no role in judging, and which you should enter. If there's something you want to call to my attention, by you ...

If you ever dreamed of firing your kid's teachers and principal... ... move to California, because you can! In general, I am of the belief that we elect people to make decisions for us, and that is democracy enough. So I find California’s reliance on referenda pretty maddening (Hey! Which class of citizens do we feel ...

This Week In Education: Quote: The War On Teaches, Continued

This Week In Education: Quote: The War On Teaches, Continued

Quote: The War On Teaches, Continued * [image: Quote-mark] Blaming us, the teachers, absolves all others of their complicity in the failure to educate our students and relieves them of all responsibility for solving the problem.* - Junia Yearwood, retired Boston public school teacher, ...

Politics: Angry, Ideal-Less Progressives [image: Tumblr_lc34d1O7C61qcokc4o1_500]Wow, there are some mightily peeved progressives out there right now, chewing on the White House for going along with hundreds of billions in tax cut extensions for a measly unemployment insurance extension. ...

Thompson: Digital Learning As A Trojan Horse [image: Trojanhorse] I wish I had tried harder to integrate technology into my teacher-centered lessons. Our schools need more "techno-centrists" who seek to integrate digital learning into their student-centric classrooms. But as Larry Cuban ...

Artifacts: School Dance Guidelines From South Carolina Prom Memories via The Hairpin

TV: More Think Tankers On Game Shows [image: image from farm5.static.flickr.com] Apparently education wonks like to get themselves on game shows. Sandy at Achieve wrote in responding to a previous post about a wonky Jeopardy! participant to say that Program Associate *Morgan Saxb*y has ...

Parent group files lawsuit against NY state for granting Cathie Black schools chancellor waiver

Parent group files lawsuit against NY state for granting Cathie Black schools chancellor waiver

BY RACHEL MONAHAN AND MEREDITH KOLODNER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, December 8th 2010, 2:07 PM

Wenig/AP

Cathie Black speaks to the media at City Hall in New York.

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• Waiver clears Cathie Black to become schools chancellor

A group of parents filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the state for granting Cathie Black a waiver to become schools chancellor.

In an effort to block her appointment, the parents, assisted by civil rights attorney Norman Siegel, filed the petition in New York State Supreme Court and claim that state Education Commissioner David Steiner abused his authority and "acted unlawfully."

Mayor Bloomberg's pick for chancellor needed the waiver because she had no education experience.

Steiner wrongly granted the waiver by

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/12/08/2010-12-08_parent_group_files_lawsuit_against_ny_state_for_granting_cathie_black_schools_ch.html#ixzz17ZAEZWgJ

NEA Prez slams value added. “Look at the work in the classroom.” « Fred Klonsky's blog

NEA Prez slams value added. “Look at the work in the classroom.” « Fred Klonsky's blog

NEA Prez slams value added. “Look at the work in the classroom.”

by Fred Klonsky

As a NY court begins hearing testimony as to whether student growth scores should be released to the press, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel spoke out against the use of so-called value added scores to evaluate the complexity of teacher quality.

Van Roekel was responding to the challenge issued by former NY schools Chancellor Joel Klein. “If you don’t like using test scores to evaluate teachers, come up with something better.”

Van Roekel has done that.

A good teacher evaluation system should begin by examining evidence of a teacher’s preparation, including lesson plans, class assignments and scoring protocols. Teachers might be asked to assemble a portfolio – including videos of classroom discussion and notes or messages from parents.

There should be frequent, independent and thorough observations to determine whether the teacher is meeting high standards for teaching the subject. Finally,

The Answer Sheet - Absent teachers reserve 'crisis' created by Klein, Bloomberg, union

The Answer Sheet - Absent teachers reserve 'crisis' created by Klein, Bloomberg, union

Absent teachers reserve 'crisis' created by Klein, Bloomberg, union

This was written by Marc Epstein, a history teacher at Jamaica High School in New York. It first appeared on Huffington Post. By Marc Epstein When there is evidence of bad public policy, you can safely assume that it took two parties working collaboratively to create the swamp. New York's Department of Education and the teachers' union have found themselves mired down in a dispute over the fates of more than a thousand teachers, many of whom have no assigned teaching position, but continue to collect full-time salaries. This group of teachers is collectively referred to as ATR's, or the absent teacher reserve. Large numbers of ATR's are not instructing students in their licensed areas. Instead they often find themselves working as substitute teachers.

Reclamations Issue III out « occupy california

Reclamations Issue III out « occupy california

Reclamations Issue III out

By *

The Reclamations journal, born in the fall of 2009, has released its third issue. Read it here.

What “Lenon” Trending Tells Us About Wikileaks and Twitter « Student Activism

What “Lenon” Trending Tells Us About Wikileaks and Twitter « Student Activism

What “Lenon” Trending Tells Us About Wikileaks and Twitter

by Angus Johnston

Today is the 30th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon. As I write this, “Yoko Ono” is sixth on Twitter’s global trending topics list, and “Lenon” is fifth.

Neither “Lennon” nor “John Lennon” appears.

Why is this? Is it because more people are misspelling John Lennon’s name than spelling it correctly? No. Far more people are spelling it right than wrong — and a big chunk of those who are spelling it wrong are doing so to

More Lessons for Education “Reformers” « InterACT

More Lessons for Education “Reformers” « InterACT

More Lessons for Education “Reformers”

by David B. Cohen

photo: Tiffany Szerpicki (via stock.xchng)

Quiz time for education “reformers” – what’s missing from the picture at right? Answers to follow – read on.

Over at Huffington Post, Suzanne Tacheny Kubach, the Executive Director of Policy Innovators in Education (PIE) Network, has written a useful reminder to the edreform crowd that there are certain standards they should hold themselves to while pursuing their agenda (“Lessons from Gotham for Education Reformers”). Using as her example the controversies around the recent appointment of Cathie Black as Chancellor for New York City Public Schools, Kubach observes that the leaders of that movement must be more consistent in their views of transparency and in articulating a compelling vision for education.

Kubach’s main concern seems to be winning over the general public, and perhaps more specifically, parents and

Shanker Blog » Why Does Joel Klein Keep Misrepresenting Al Shanker?

Shanker Blog » Why Does Joel Klein Keep Misrepresenting Al Shanker?

Why Does Joel Klein Keep Misrepresenting Al Shanker?

by Eugenia Kemble

Outgoing New York City Chancellor Klein loves to try to wrap himself in the mantle of Al Shanker. He is especially fond of pulling clipped Shanker quotes out of his hat—and out of context—when speaking about his favorite education “reforms.” At first this may seem puzzling, because the ex-Chancellor is disinclined to give either the United Federation of Teachers or its parent organization, the American Federation of Teachers, credit for much of anything except intransigence. It must be an inconvenient truth for Klein that Shanker devoted his life to making both organizations into the strong and aggressive advocates for teachers and teaching that they continue to be.

In “What I Learned at the Barricades,” a December 6 Wall Street Journal column, Klein leads up to his latest Shanker references with a characteristic litany of inaccurate claims – ones that Al would be quick to correct:

First, it is wrong to assert that students’ poverty and family circumstances severely limit their educational potential.” And “Second, traditional proposals for improving education—more money, better curriculum, smaller classes, etc —aren’t going to get the job done.

Really? It’ hard to imagine which barricades Klein learned at. There is plenty of evidence to support the impact of

Whom Do Americans Trust? Nurses…And Teachers!

by Randall Garton

Just a couple months after the prestigious Institute of Medicine urged that nurses be seen as “full partners” in redesigning the American health care system, they have received another vote of confidence, this one from the American public. According to the most recent Gallup poll, for the 9th straight year (and the 11th year in all), the American people ranked nurses as the most honest and ethical workers in the country.

When asked to the rate the ethics and honesty of people in a variety of occupations, 81 percent of those surveyed gave a “very high/high” rating to nurses. Doctors received a very high/high rating from a still respectable of 66 percent of respondents.

Despite being regularly scapegoated by politicians and the media for the past several years, grade school teachers still edged out doctors by 1 percentage point (a statistical tie), with 67 of those polled expressing high regard for the profession. Although this places teachers fairly high on the list of trusted professions—in fourth place, behind nurses (81 percent), military officers (73 percent), and pharmacists (71 percent)—the teacher

Working Class Hero - John Lennon

Guilt, Innocence, and Justice in the Julian Assange Case « Student Activism

Guilt, Innocence, and Justice in the Julian Assange Case « Student Activism

Guilt, Innocence, and Justice in the Julian Assange Case

by Angus Johnston

Last week I argued that some media outlets were publishing stories about the Julian Assange sexual misconduct investigation that seemed to misrepresent both the relevant law and the allegations against him. Despite what you might have read on the web, for instance, consensual sex without a condom isn’t illegal in Sweden.

I didn’t take a position on Assange’s guilt or innocence in that piece, because I don’t have one. I was just trying to make sure that the accusations against him were reported accurately. (Assange is accused of holding a woman down against her will during a sexual encounter, and of failing to comply with her request that he use a condom during sex. He is accused of having sex with another woman without her consent while she slept — again without using a condom.)

When a public figure is accused of misconduct, his supporters are often tempted to minimize the charges against him — to say that the accusations are not merely false, but also unserious. But in this case the accusations are serious. Assange may be guilty or he may be innocent, but he is accused of serious crim

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Observations on local control

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Observations on local control

Observations on local control

by The Perimeter Primate

This issue is all about who allows whom to have power in the society. Anti-local control people don't have a problem with wealthy communities having local control over their school districts. For instance, no one gripes about the local control of Piedmont City Unified (CA), even though the district is labeled “failing” because it hasn’t made AYP since 2003 (median household income = $168,947).

There's probably some dividing line of wealth in a district, above which local control is a non-issue for the anti-local control crowd, but under which they consider it abhorrent. We can't let the unwashed masses make their own decisions and have their own leaders, can we?

And if the complaint is that there is a dearth of strong local leadership talent at the grassroots level, then why