Friday, December 17, 2010

NYC Public School Parents: Gates-funded charter school "compact" vs. the real thing

Gates-funded charter school "compact" vs. the real thing

by Leonie Haimson

Bob Hughes of New Visions and James Merriman of the NYC Charter Center, beneficiaries of gobs of Gates money, join together in the Daily News to praise the one-sided Gates-designed “compact” signed by Chancellor Klein as well as the leaders of other districts around the country who receive Gates money. Nice little self-appreciation club, guys.

Real parents and other stakeholders were as usual left out of the discussion.

Not mentioned in the “feel-good” oped is how the actual “compact” requires that NYC continue to provide charters space in district buildings – which has sparked controversy and bitter battles as district public school children are increasingly squeezed out of their own schools, into basement rooms or even hallways.

As usual, the heedless charter lobby continues to be their own worst enemy, as resentment against charter

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Miguel del Valle: "Agenda must be a neighborhood agenda."

Miguel del Valle: "Agenda must be a neighborhood agenda."

by Mike Klonsky

New Chicago 2011 UIC Forum, December 14, 2010

Popout

Queens Teacher: The Real Problem With Cathie Black

The Real Problem With Cathie Black

by Queens Teacher

The Real Problem With Cathie Black

by Steve Nelson
Head of Calhoun School in Manhattan

The recent appointment of Catherine Black as Chancellor of New York City schools has ignited a firestorm of protest.

Black's appointment is just the latest expression of the surrender of America's educational system to corporate interests and mores. Educational policy is increasingly affected by the heavy purses of folks like Bill Gates and Eli Broad, both of whom use philanthropy as a sledgehammer to weaken unions, privatize schools and further advance the culture of data-driven pedagogy.

Broad, in a recent Huffington Post column, defended Black's appointment by citing the alleged successes of non-educators in superintendent roles. Most were prominent business managers, although Broad included two-star Air Force general, John Barry. Among those cited was Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who presided

How To Quantify Culture? Explore 500 Billion Published Words - Copy / Paste by Peter Pappas

How To Quantify Culture? Explore 500 Billion Published Words

by Peter Pappas

My "how-to" for using Google's "Books Ngram Viewer" - a free online research tool that allows you to quickly analyze the frequency of 500 billion names, words and phrases as they appeared in the digitized books contained in scanned books published between 1500 and 2008 in English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese and Russian.

School Tech Connect: Citizen-Lobbyists

Citizen-Lobbyists

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

If you're following the ed "reform" situation in Illinois right now, you'll note that there's a bizarre, suddenly-salad committee meeting out in the Borealis right now with a hugely right-wing agenda on collective bargaining, tenure, evaluations, etc. It's like Michelle Rhee scribbled for an hour on a tablecloth at Chucky Cheese, and then Michael Madigan used the tablecloth as the agenda for this committee.

Anyway, I've been following @IEANEA from the scene; it's quite informative. If people wonder where their dues dollars go, I can tell you. They go toward representation like we're getting today in front of this committee. And I'm not even a member!

Anyhoo, you should also contact your state representative about this committee, because it's going to rubber

D.C. students have few good choices — Joanne Jacobs

D.C. students have few good choices

by Joanne

In 2009-10, 12,000 Washington, D.C. students transferred from a school that failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress. But only 29 percent found an opening at a “higher-proficiency” charter or district-run school, concludes Choice Without Options, an American Enterprise Institute study. Almost three-fourths of transfers “made a school choice that can be described as choosing the bad over the worse or the unknown over the known.”

Washington, D.C., has an environment that, on the surface, is ripe with school choice. Last year, 70 percent of all public school students attended a school other than their zoned neighborhood school; nearly 40 percent attended public charter schools and another 30 percent attended selective magnet schools or traditional public schools using the out-of-boundary application process. Residents of D.C. can apply to more than ninety public charter schools and more than

This Week In Education: Reform: Nine Reasons "Everyone" Hates The Parent Trigger

Reform: Nine Reasons "Everyone" Hates The Parent Trigger

by Alexander Russo

Here are some of the reasons why the coverage of the parent trigger in Compton is skewing against the petitioners who want to do a conversion turnaround and hand the building over to Celerity: (1) Turnarounds of any kind are high-risk, uncertain propositions that cause a lot of displacement and collateral damage. (2) People -- educators -- are really angry and feel scapegoated by the recent reform trends (value added, removing charter caps, etc). (3) Current reforms haven't (yet?) proven to be any more

The Educated Reporter: Center for Education Reform attempts to flood the zone.

Center for Education Reform attempts to flood the zone.

by Linda Perlstein

If comments to your news articles become flooded by a new, probably articulate commenter who really, really loves charters and vouchers, the new managing editor of the Center for Education Reform’s “Media Bullpen” is probably doing his or her job. I am not clear on what exactly this endeavor is going to look like, but the one thing

Damn Good Education Daily

Hoover Experts Strike Out « InterACT

accomplishedcaliforniateachers.wordpress.com - photo: Jawed Karim (commons.wikimedia.org) Eleven “education experts” at the Hoover Institution have recently offered up their review of the Best and Worst in American Education, 2010, and totally ...

CohenD

At House education reform hearing parents come armed with data. « Fred Klonsky's blog

preaprez.wordpress.com - An observer at today’s House Committee on Education Reform called to tell me that one of the odd things about the affair was it was a speaker representing parents who was among the few people who g...

fklonsky

AG asked to pursue ‘trigger’ complaints

toped.svefoundation.org - By State School Board President Ted Mitchell intends to ask the state Attorney General’s Office to investigate charges of harassment and intimidation of Compton Unified parents who have petitione...

jfenster

California Board of Education seeks investigation of Compton charter campaign

latimes.com - The state Board of Education will ask the attorney general to investigate complaints of misconduct surrounding a parent petition drive to turn over a struggling Compton elementary school to a chart...

KennethLibby

The Best Sites For Figuring Out What To Do If Delicious Shuts Down

larryferlazzo.edublogs.org - Dec 16 2010 Larry Ferlazzo The Web is abuzz today with what appear to be fairly solid rumors that Yahoo has made a decision to shut-down the popular Delicious social bookmarking site. At the time I...

Job candidate sues UK, claiming religion cost him the post | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal

Job candidate sues UK, claiming religion cost him the post

BY PETER SMITH • PSMITH@COURIER-JOURNAL.COM • DECEMBER 10, 2010

No one denies that astronomer Martin Gaskell was the leading candidate for the founding director of a new observatory at the University of Kentucky in 2007 — until his writings on evolution came to light.

Gaskell had given lectures to campus religious groups around the country in which he said that while he has no problem reconciling the Bible with the theory of evolution, he believes the theory has major flaws. And he recommended students read theory critics in the intelligent-design movement.

That stance alarmed UK science professors and, the university acknowledges, played a role in the job going to another candidate.

Now a federal judge says Gaskell has a right to a jury trial over his allegation that he lost the job because he is a Christian and "potentially evangelical."

“The record contains substantial evidence that Gaskell was a leading candidate for the position until the issue of his religion or his scientific position became an issue,” U.S. Senior District Judge Karl