School Tech Connect: In Which Gary Stager Confirms My Genius

School Tech Connect: In Which Gary Stager Confirms My Genius

In Which Gary Stager Confirms My Genius

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

Yes, I stole this image.

Part of what I do in my 9-5 gig is worry about how to develop training that addresses curriculum concerns in every discipline while also addressing the NETS for Students. I always struggle with this--- much as I struggled throughout the 90's with Illinois learning standards in language arts, which I found vapid, technocratic, and basically pointless. (Apologies to the standard-writers.) Nobody who every became a passionate reader or an effective writer ever consulted a list similar to the Illinois Learning Standards.

In an excellent, funny post, Gary Stager puts into so many words the idea that I've been trying to formulate around the NETS:

Well done, Rumproast. I couldn't have said it better myself. The NETS does nothing for me-- I can't backward design from these standards; I can only design activities that teach the things I think are important, and then play shoehorn-the-standard so that my i's are dotted. Does anyone else feel this way?

It's Probably "Not The Right Time..."

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

Kirk's senate office apparently isn't set up yet; nobody's answering the phones and the voice mail is full. If I could have made contact today, this is what I would have said:

Dear Senator Kirk:

I am one of your constituents in Illinois. I'm calling today to ask you to vote for the Dream Act. I support this legislation; it's the right thing to do for young people who want to contribute to our country. If you choose to vote against the Dream Act, please let me know why--- and if your reason is that "now is not the right time" for the Dream Act, then will you please explain

Report Picks Apart Race to Top Scoring - State EdWatch - Education Week

Report Picks Apart Race to Top Scoring - State EdWatch - Education Week

Report Picks Apart Race to Top Scoring

by Sean Cavanagh

A new analysis argues the Race to the Top competition used flawed and inconsistent scoring, and that federal reviewers should have applied more uniform standards in judging the applications for federal cash.

The review by The New Teacher Project also argues that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan should have intervened to look at and possibly overrule individual states' scores from independent reviewers—even though the organization acknowledges such a move might have led to charges of political favoritism.

The New Teacher Project, a nonprofit that works to improve instruction among disadvantaged students, advised both winning and losing states in the $4 billion competition. A number of advocates were surprised to see states such as Louisiana and Colorado among the losers (both of which were helped by the TNTP) despite those states going further than many of their rivals in approving new laws aimed at improving teacher evaluation, a priority in

Tense Mood At U of Puerto Rico As Police Occupy Campus for First Time in Three Decades « Student Activism

Tense Mood At U of Puerto Rico As Police Occupy Campus for First Time in Three Decades « Student Activism

Tense Mood At U of Puerto Rico As Police Occupy Campus for First Time in Three Decades

by Angus Johnston

Last night, just before midnight, riot police occupied the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras. Studentsprotesting a major tuition increase had ended a 48-hour strike shortly before. According to one source liveblogging events as they occur [Original|Translation], police “seized control” of the university early this morning. Ten of the university’s eleven campuses were shuttered for two months earlier this year by a student strike.

This is the first time in nearly thirty years that state police have been brought onto the grounds of a University of Puerto Rico campus. As one columnist [Original|Translation] writes this morning,

The university administration has thrown in the towel regarding the possibility of achieving a mediated solution to the conflict. … For decades, there has been a consensus in the country, which no one had

California at a crossroads - SignOnSanDiego.com

California at a crossroads - SignOnSanDiego.com

California at a crossroads

BY CHARLES B. REED,

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2010 AT MIDNIGHT

When you begin to assess our state’s economic and educational landscape, you will survey a scene that is bleak at best. You may find yourself asking: What happened to the golden age ofCalifornia, a time when our state’s higher education system held promise for every student, and the middle class flourished? Aside from the intractable budget problems that plague our capital, our higher education priorities have become inexcusably twisted, offering a more predictable future for an inmate behind bars than for a high school senior.

This transition to a new governor and Legislature puts California at a crossroads. They must now decide if we will continue on the same path to throw good money after bad or if we will establish new priorities that direct us toward a more successful future. The voters were clear this year; we don’t need new taxes, we need common-sense allocation of our existing resources.

Over the past 10 years, the state Health and Human Services Agency has seen its budget grow by 41 percent and corrections has grown by 72 percent, but higher education’s share – California State University and the University of California – has grown by a meager 0.8

Senate Education Committee to hold tenure hearing - NorthJersey.com

Senate Education Committee to hold tenure hearing - NorthJersey.com

Senate Education Committee to hold tenure hearing

Thursday, December 9, 2010
LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY DECEMBER 9, 2010, 7:54 AM

BY LESLIE BRODY

THE RECORD

STAFF WRITER

Charges to revoke tenure were filed against 35 of the 231,000 New Jersey school district employees for inefficiency, incapacity or misconduct in 2008, according to the state Department of Education.

The result: Four teachers and one custodian were fired, 16 kept their jobs and 14 agreed to resign or retire.

Figures like this will form the backdrop of a hearing on tenure held today by the

Here's why China is beating the U.S. in education – amFIX - CNN.com Blogs

Here's why China is beating the U.S. in education – amFIX - CNN.com Blogs

Here's why China is beating the U.S. in education

Posted: 09:18 AM ET

Elizabeth Mayo - elizabethmayo
Filed under: Education

According to the latest Program for International Student Assessment, known as PISA, a ranking of 15-year-old students from around the world found that students in Shanghai outscored kids from across the world in reading, science and math.

Students in the U.S. came in 14th in reading, 17th place in science and 25th for math.

Why are the U.S.'s efforts at reforming education failing, and what are Chinese students doing to succeed?

Oakland's Immigrant Youth Pay $80/Month to Get to School | Immigrant Rights | Change.org

Oakland's Immigrant Youth Pay $80/Month to Get to School | Immigrant Rights | Change.org

Oakland's Immigrant Youth Pay $80/Month to Get to School

by Lauren Markham

Oakland International High School in Oakland, California, serves recently-arrived immigrant students who need to learn English and prepare for college. It has become a central source of support for Oakland's immigrant community and will, this year, graduate its first full senior class. But of the approximately 300 students at OIHS, 75 are seriously sweating it this year. Not because of their grades, or the high school exit exam, or their final projects, though — instead, these kids are wondering how they'll pay for

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: L.A. UNIFIED, CHARTERS SIGN COMPACT: One benefit is access to low-interest loans

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: L.A. UNIFIED, CHARTERS SIGN COMPACT: One benefit is access to low-interest loans

L.A. UNIFIED, CHARTERS SIGN COMPACT: One benefit is access to low-interest loans By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess | http://bit.ly/e9AB92 Posted on 12/08/10 - Los Angeles Unified and charter schools continue to fight in court over access to district buildings, but on Tuesday, they hit the reset button on other areas of their ...

TEACHERS IN LA HABRA HIT THE PICKET LINE + LA HABRA TEACHERS STRIKE OVER PAY, BENEFITS CUTS + more from the LA Times/LA Now | http://lat.ms/fkyTuD December 8, 2010 | 9:39 am - La Habra City School District teachers went on strike Wednesday and picket in front of Walnut Elementary School in La Habra. The teachers are protesting a 2% pay reduction and ...

Accuracy of new dropout rate in question | Thoughts on Public Education

Accuracy of new dropout rate in question | Thoughts on Public Education

Accuracy of new dropout rate in question - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

The state Department of Education reported a sizable uptick in the dropout rate this week, leading to speculation that school budget cuts, the high school exit exam, or – choose your speculation – was to blame. But there was enough noise in the data to call into question the validity of the increase, let alone [...]

PACE’s David Plank on how new assessments will measure and shape learning - by admin

by admin

Pop

The Answer Sheet - Kohn: Remember when we had higher standards? Neither do I

The Answer Sheet - Kohn: Remember when we had higher standards? Neither do I

Kohn: Remember when we had higher standards? Neither do I

This was written by Alfie Kohn, the author of 12 books about education and human behavior, including "The Schools Our Children Deserve," "The Homework Myth," and the forthcoming "Feel-Bad Education . . . And Other Contrarian Essays on Children & Schooling." He lives (actually) in the Boston area and (virtually) at www.alfiekohn. This post appeared on Kohn's Huffington Post page. By Alfie Kohn "In recent years, parents have cried in dismay that their children could not read out loud, could not spell, could not write clearly,” while “employers have said that mechanics could not read simple directions. Many a college has blamed high schools for passing on students . . . who could not read adequately to study college subjects; high schools have had to give remedial reading instruction to boys and girls who did not learn to read properly in elementary schools…" On and on goes the devastating indictment

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Dream Act passes in the House

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Dream Act passes in the House

Dream Act passes in the House

by Mike Klonsky

"Oh, my God, I don't know if I'm going to sleep tonight!" said Francisco Curiel, 18, an undocumented high school senior who left Mexico to join his mom in N.Y. three years ago.

It was the first time in the 10-year legislative history

Student tuition protests rock Europe

by Mike Klonsky

As parliament votes on higher tuition fees thousands of students, part of the National Campaign Against Fees and

DREAM Needs a Miracle « Student Activism

DREAM Needs a Miracle « Student Activism

DREAM Needs a Miracle

by Angus Johnston

Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) was always going to be a tough get for the DREAMers. Though she voted for the bill three years ago she’s up for re-election in 2012, her home state just elected a Republican governor, and she’s worried about a possible Tea Party primary challenge. Add to all that the fact that she’s made something of a career of raising and then dashing Dems’ hopes on close votes, and it wasn’t hard to predict what was likely to happen.

Last night, according to a statement published on the conservative National Review website, Snowe made it official.

“Millions of illegal immigrants could attempt to become legal residents as a result of this proposal, according to

5:05 AM (1 hour ago)

British Parliament to Vote Today On Huge Tuition Fee Hike

by Angus Johnston

It’s one o’clock in the afternooon in London as I write this — eight in the morning in New York — and a parliamentary vote is expected within hours on the British government’s unprecedented proposal to raise tuition fees at UK universities to as high as £9000 (more than $14000) a year.

The plan has drawn massive protests throughout Britain over the last month, and more are already underway today. The country’s governing coalition, led by the Conservative Party and joined by the Liberal Democrats, has an 80-vote majority in the House of Commons, but announced defections and abstentions have already considerably reduced that margin on this vote.

Schools Matter: Tainted Paint in the PISA Picture?

Schools Matter: Tainted Paint in the PISA Picture?

Tainted Paint in the PISA Picture?

by Jim Horn

If you thought that Bloomberg was the favorite to win the latest Totalitarian Capitalist Award for test score engineering, you would be wrong. This year it must go to China, whose preposterously amazing first year test scores on PISA demonstrates, hands down, that the Chinese government's totalitarian capitalists are light years ahead in test cheating:

. . . .The scores are based on a scale, with 500 as the average. Two-thirds of the students score between 400 and 600. In math, for example, students from Shanghai scored an average of 600. . . .

Hmm. Of course, China has an insurmountable advantage based on a 1,200 year history of perfecting cheating on civil service exams, which guaranteed throughout history as PISA scores do now whether your family

Democratic Education for Social Justice, a talk by William Ayers (VIDEO) | Democratic, Community-Based Education

Democratic Education for Social Justice, a talk by William Ayers (VIDEO) | Democratic, Community-Based Education

Democratic Education for Social Justice, a talk by William Ayers (VIDEO)

by Democratic Education

William (Bill) Ayers & Dana Bennis at 2003 International Democratic Education Conference

William (Bill) Ayers is a school reform activist and Distinguished Professor and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago (retired). His latest books (just released!) are To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher (3rd edition) and To Teach: The Journey in Comics with Ryan Alexander-Tanner.

Bill spoke at the 2003 International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC), Thursday, July 17 at Russell Sage College in Troy, NY. The topic for his speech was “Democratic Education For Social Justice.”

You can download the audio version of this talk and sixteen others from the conference atwww.democraticeducation.com/idec2003

Trusting Democracy at the School Board Level - Bridging Differences - Education Week

Trusting Democracy at the School Board Level - Bridging Differences - Education Week

Trusting Democracy at the School Board Level

by Deborah Meier

Dear Diane,

Your blog on Tuesday is a powerful statement. We are, I do believe, in a fight over the most fundamental building blocks of democracy.

Alas, many of my best friends are wary about democracy when it gets local. But as someone (Thomas Jefferson, in fact) once said—to paraphrase: The only protection a democracy has against ignorance is education itself. Knowledge shall set us free and all that. But it gets hard when it becomes difficult to trust any of the sources of information to which we have access. Democracy requires a full range of sources, so that it's hard to fool all the people all the time. It needs adults who were educated themselves in decision-making, not bubbling in the "proper" answer. I get overwhelmed by clichés when I start down this path of argument. Forgive me!

It's hard these days to draw out from friends what forms of democracy they are willing to "trust"—not to make the right decision, but to make legitimate decisions. All the smart people seem to agree: not school boards!

Why not school boards? And, I literally mean boards that oversee particular schools or a small cluster of schools.

Not enough people vote in them is one excuse. We could decide on a quorum? Or we could accept responsibility for bringing those numbers up. Or we could agree that those sufficiently interested constitute the

The State of Pre-K in the States «

The State of Pre-K in the States «

The State of Pre-K in the States

December 9, 2010 by Irene Sege

Photo: Michele McDonald for Strategies for Children

Yesterday Pre-K Now, a campaign of the Pew Center on the States, released “Votes Count: Legislative Action on Pre-K Fiscal Year 2011,” its annual report on the status of pre-kindergarten in the 50 states. “Despite widespread fiscal distress,” Pew’s news release stated, “leaders of both parties in a majority of states supported high-quality pre-kindergarten investments in FY11, increasing total funding slightly, by just over 1 percent, to $5.4 billion.”

A total of 26 states and the District of Columbia protected pre-kindergarten from budget cuts, Pre-K Now found. Of these, 15 states and the District of Columbia

Sylmar assemblyman introduces bill that would include test scores as part of teacher evaluations - LA Daily News

Sylmar assemblyman introduces bill that would include test scores as part of teacher evaluations - LA Daily News

Sylmar assemblyman introduces bill that would include test scores as part of teacher evaluations

By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer

Posted: 12/08/2010 06:14:53 PM PST

State Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes of Sylmar introduced a bill this week that would require school districts to use test scores as part of their teacher evaluations.

By making it state law to include test scores in the evaluation process, Assembly Bill 5 would help school districts avoid lengthy negotiations with teachers unions that vehemently oppose the idea.

What the legislation wouldn't do is dictate exactly how much weight the test scores are given or how they will be used to make hiring and firing decisions.

"This bill is about creating an evaluation system that supports and improves teaching by giving teachers and administrators a proper evaluation," Fuentes said.

Current California Education Code does not ask district administrators to give teachers extensive feedback.

"This bill is not about firing the bad or praising the best...," Fuentes said. "The consequences will have to be

Conditions of Education in California | Conditions of Education in California

Conditions of Education in California | Conditions of Education in California

THE DOUBLE DISAPPOINTMENT OF QEIA

By David N. Plank | 09:16 AM | Categories: Finance

The California Teachers Association has released preliminary findings from their ongoing evaluation of the Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA). The initial findings are generally positive, but their release is an occasion for disappointment rather than celebration, for two reasons.

The first is that the implementation of QEIA coincided with the unprecedented fiscal calamity that has engulfed...

Read Full Post »

DEC 3RD, 2010

CA EDUCATION POLICY UPDATE

By Mona Vakilifathi | 05:27 PM | Categories:

The initial results for the Quality Education Investment Act QEIA was heavily discussed this week, namely for its positive effects for low-performing schools. According to theSI&A Cabinet Report, 488 California schools in this study achieved an average 63 point increase on their...

Read Full Post »

DEC 1ST, 2010

THE PITFALLS OF SITE-BASED BUDGETING

By David N. Plank | 11:39 AM | Categories: School & District Reform

An article in the San Francisco Chronicle over the weekend makes it clear just how hard it will be to make the distribution of resources in California’s education system more equitable. The article describes a controversy in the Albany USD, where the three elementary schools are raising money from...

Schools Matter: Poverty has a huge impact on American PISA scores

Schools Matter: Poverty has a huge impact on American PISA scores

Poverty has a huge impact on American PISA scores

by skrashen

Poverty has a huge impact on American PISA scores

“Two countries with similar levels of prosperity can produce very different results,” Ángel Gurría, the O.E.C.D. secretary general, said in a statement on Tuesday. “This shows that an image of a world divided neatly into rich and well-educated countries and poor and badly educated countries is now out of date.” (New York Times,

solidaridad: DFER Reactionary Gloria Romero Jumps on the Hostile Takeover Bandwagon in Compton

solidaridad: DFER Reactionary Gloria Romero Jumps on the Hostile Takeover Bandwagon in Compton

DFER Reactionary Gloria Romero Jumps on the Hostile Takeover Bandwagon in Compton

Barr's parent organization gave... a grass-roots visual... And his paid staffers hit the right rhetorical notes... while identifying themselves to reporters and officials only as parents. — Howard Blume (Los Angeles Times)


Here's my comments on Howard Blume and Teresa Watanabe's latest glowing, gushing piece on everyone's favorite corporate school privatizers.

Good to see the reactionary pro-corporate Gloria Romero side with of parents that signed the petition and utterly ignore the wishes of parents and community members that opposed it. Why did you want to "prevent opposition" Senator? Is it because giving the parents all the facts and multiple choices instead of a hand picked single choice would have prevented the well heeled Vielka McFarlane from increasing her market share? Or is it that you and your fellow wealthy elitist Ben Austin felt those parents weren't capable of making informed decisions outside of those you already made for them?

Can't wait to see the DFER 990 filing to see how well Romero is