Friday, December 17, 2010

A failure of imagination — WordPress

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IN 1966, THE UNITED NATION’S INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS DECLARED that “educationis the primary vehicle by which economically and socially marginalized adults and children can lift themselves out of poverty and obtain the means to participate fully in their communities.” That still rings so true, and yet, barriers remain. Even in developed nations, a good education can be hard to find. But there’s also encouraging news on the horizon, and its name is technology, a realm where classrooms need not be physical spaces.

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A failure of imagination

Knitting with Pencils

As a teacher and a mom, education is one of my primary concerns. So the recent scores released by PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) were disheartening to me. I’m not terribly surprised. I’ve been watching the American school system become bogged down with bad ideas, from extending the school day, to piling on meaningless homework, to eliminating anything creative in the curriculum, and let’s not forget the massive failure of innovation and sense that is the No Child Left Behind act. A Bloomberg article quoted that one of the advantages that better-performing countries had over the U.S. was that schools had more autonomy over their curriculum. It flies in the face of a national curriculum, which makes sense. It’s kind of like the government controlling how you run your own family. You’re better equipped to say what your family needs or doesn’t need, and schools should have the same advantage. In my daughter’s school, the length

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Teachers union on reform: Slow down | reform, aurora, illinois - Local News - The Telegraph

Teachers union on reform: Slow down

Comments 5

December 16, 2010 9:53 PM

By ANDREW THOMASON

Illinois Statehouse News

AURORA - Illinois teachers' unions went on the defensive Thursday during an Illinois House of Representatives special education reform committee meeting in Aurora.

The unions gave a failing grade to a proposed plan that expands on the Performance Evaluation Reform Act of 2010, which links teachers' evaluations scores with student performance.

The evaluations currently are set to come online throughout the entire state by 2016. Additional money would be provided to school districts to speed implementation of the teacher reviews under the plan.

Tenure no longer would mean a lifelong position, according to those in support of the proposed reforms.

Failing the evaluations would come with serious consequences, such as stripping teachers of state-granted certifications if they

'Parent Trigger' Petitioners Fend Off Accusations From Compton Unified, McKinley PTA -- Not California Board Of Education - Los Angeles News - The Informer

Parent Trigger' Petitioners Fend Off Accusations From Compton Unified, McKinley PTA -- Not California Board Of Education

By Simone Wilson, Fri., Dec. 17 2010 @ 6:19AM

Categories: Education

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Over the last few days, a lightning storm of hear-say and hyperbole has lit up the sky over two groups of Compton parents. Major media outlets reporting the conflict have tended toward one side or the other, creating a tug-of-war effect beneath the mass confusion.

One group supports the Parent Trigger petition, which -- unless over 50 parents retract their signatures -- willtake McKinley Elementary from the Compton Unified School District and convert it to a Celerity charter school (still state-funded, but independently run). The other insists that McKinley is better off in the familiar hands of the district.

Both sides are claiming the other lied and used intimidation tactics to recruit supporters.

Yesterday morning, Los Angeles Times reporter Teresa Watanabe wrote that the California Board of Education had stepped in, asking the attorney general to "examine

Fire Teachers, Reappoint Rhee!: Legend of the Fall, pt. III | Dailycensored.com

Fire Teachers, Reappoint Rhee!: Legend of the Fall, pt. III

Written by Paul ThomasEducationDec 17, 2010

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After announcing that U.S. education is a complete failure, unlike the Golden Era of the 1950s, on The Colbert Report , former DC chancellor Michelle Rhee has brought her celebrity crisis tour to CNN where she charged, once again, that public education is a failure based on recent PISA scores, ranked internationally.

Since I recently clarified Rhee’s historical incompetence (or bold dishonesty) concerning education in 1950s America, before desegregation and civil rights legislation that changed this country, let’s turn to the claims she made on CNN.

Is U.S. education in crisis? If it is, then we either need to changed the definition of the word or admit that a crisis can last more than a century because every single claim made by Rhee has been tossed at education since the mid-1800s.

About a year ago, a jet crash-landed in the Hudson River. That’s a crisis. The pilot, crew, passengers, and rescue personnel had to take quick and

Was Lisa Hudson's Son Flunked By The System? | Education | Change.org

Was Lisa Hudson's Son Flunked By The System?

by Megan Cottrell

Lisa Hudson says no one ever told her she could appeal the decision. Her son's teacher at Black Magnet Elementary School in Chicago had decided to flunk her son from summer school reading, making him repeat sixth grade.

She never even knew he was having trouble in reading. He had been sent to summer school for low math scores.

Hudson is a part of a group of Chicago parents called PURE - Parents United for Responsible Education - that'slodging a civil rights complaint against the Chicago Public Schools because they say the system overwhelmingly flunks children of color.

PURE executive director Julie Woestehoff says CPS has continued to flunk students by the thousands despite research that shows holding kids back doesn't help them academically and often leads to them dropping out of school at an early age.

TEA confirms cheating allegations in HISD | School Zone | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

TEA confirms cheating allegations in HISD

Investigators with the Texas Education Agency confirmed allegations of staff-led cheating on the TAKS test at Key Middle School last year, according to a TEA memo [pdf].

The agency's letter, sent to the Houston Independent School District late Thursday, said that state officials found "significant evidence" that Key students were helped on the June 2009 eighth-grade TAKS retest in math and/or that some answers had been changed. Agency officials also said they verified other allegations in HISD's own investigative report that found evidence of cheating on other TAKS exams given at Key.

The TEA downgraded Key's accountability rating to "academically unacceptable," but the findings did not lead Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott to downgrade HISD's

This Week In Education: Thompson: If The Gates Report Met Research Standards

Thompson: If The Gates Report Met Research Standards

by john thompson

I wonder how the Gates Foundation's "Learning About Teaching" would be different if the report was required to meet the standards of traditional social science before being peddled to reporters and the public. It would begin with an introduction that objectively provided background information. An early paragraph in the report would explain something like this: "Youth (in grades one through three) are improving their reading comprehension MORE during the months they are in school. However,

Quote: Union "Not The Villains"

by Alexander Russo

We are not the villains of education. We are the solution.

UK Occupations Holding it Down Over Break « occupy california

UK Occupations Holding it Down Over Break

by *

UNITED KINGDOM – Almost 50 university and college occupations have taken place since November 10th. The vast majority of them have now been suspended, or have made plans to leave this weekend. But two of them, that we know of, are planning to stay in over the holiday period: University of Kent Canterbury and Camberwell College of Art (South-East London).

These will need all our solidarity! We encourage all our supporters to get in touch with the occupations or just to go along and show some support.
(via EducationActivistNetwork)

Kent: