Friday, December 24, 2010

Mike Klonsky: Can the Philanthropic Billionaire and the President of the AFT find common ground?

Mike Klonsky

Educator, Author of "Small Schools: Public School Reform Meets the Ownership Society"

Posted: December 24, 2010 12:35 PM

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Can the Philanthropic Billionaire and the President of the AFT find common ground?

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"You know, a quarter of our teachers are very good. If you could make all the teachers as good as the top quarter, the U.S. would soar to the top of that comparison." -- Bill Gates

Someone should probably point out to Mr. Gates that his statistical approach to teacher evaluation doesn't allow for all teachers to be as good as the top quartile. If they were, there would still be a top and a bottom 25 percent as there is in any other field. There's nothing wrong, of course, with trying to raise the bar on teacher quality or trying to attract and retain good teachers within the public school system. But if Gates' reform strategy is to make all teachers equal in skill, he's barking up the wrong tree.

Gates reveals more of his misunderstanding of the teaching profession and school reform in general in a Newsweek interview given jointly with American Federation of Teachers president

NYC Makes Small Schools Out of Large | NewsHour Extra: Video ClipBoard | PBS

Posted on December 24, 2010

NYC Makes Small Schools Out of Large

Summary

In the past decade, graduation rates in New York rose 10 percent. School reform in New York City, led by schools chancellor Joel Klein, is seen as a model for other urban areas facing high dropout rates and dangerous schools.

One of Klein's strategies is to replace large, over-crowded schools with small specialized schools where principals and teachers can better look after each student. He has closed 26 "dropout factory" schools where less than half the students graduated.

Justin Martinez is a good example of how the reforms work. Two years ago, Martinez started ninth grade in a crowded school where students had to stand or sit on the teacher desk because there were not enough chairs. The final straw was when he was threatened with a gun by gang members in the hallway. He ran from the school and never returned.

Instead, he enrolled in Williamsburg Prep, which has 500 students, compared to 2,000 in his old school. Martinez says that everyone knows each other in his new school, he feels safe

Omss-Poem: Christmas Cards of Robert Frost - Article

Christmas Cards of Robert Frost - Article

Biography
"I can't help wishing I could send you one,
In wishing you herewith a Merry Christmas."

So ends the first of Robert Frost's Christmas "cards," chapbooks printed annually by Spiral Press from 1929 to 1962. Each year, Frost would select a poem, often writing an original piece for the occasion, and send it to his friends and loved ones—and his publisher's friends and loved ones. Now collectors' items, these annual cards started out simply as a way for Frost to honor the winter season with a poem.

As reported in the New York Times, Joseph Blumenthal, who headed Spiral Press from 1926 to 1971, had been working on a separate edition of Frost's poetry in 1929 when, without the poet's knowledge, he printed 250 copies—for his wife and a small group of colleagues—of a letterpress chapbook of Frost's early poem "Christmas Trees." When the poet saw the

Achieving QEIA Schools

School Tech Connect: Lady O Lady

Lady O Lady

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

Merry Christmas, all.

Popout

It's hard to keep up with this thing on vacation, but I'm going to redouble my efforts. Meanwhile I've been out of the classroom now for four years, or six, depending on how you count them, and I have to say this: it's a totally different world when you don't have to decompress from teaching 8th graders. I not only have my evenings and

Banned in New York! Read it here. The student play Mayor Bloomberg doesn’t want you to see. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Banned in New York! Read it here. The student play Mayor Bloomberg doesn’t want you to see.

DECEMBER 24, 2010

by Fred Klonsky

Declassified: Struggle for Existence (We Used to Eat Lunch Together)

Conceived of by students from Jamaica High School and Queens Collegiate High School in the Actor’s Workshop at Queensborough Community College.

Characters:

Mom
Antigone
Ismene
Newscast
School Official
Student 1
Student 2
Office Assistant

Official NORAD Santa Tracker

Welcome to NORAD Tracks Santa

All the preparations for this year are in place! Choose a language to receive updates from the North Pole and discover surprises in the Kid's Countdown Village.

US returns items taken from MIT researcher, ACLU says - The Boston Globe

US returns items taken from MIT researcher, ACLU says

By Vivian Ho

Globe Correspondent / December 24, 2010

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The electronic possessions of an MIT researcher who is a supporter of the soldier alleged to have given classified information to WikiLeaks were returned to him Wednesday, seven weeks after the US government confiscated them, the American Civil Liberties Union said yesterday.

David House, 23, returned to his Cambridge home Wednesday to find a box with the laptop, digital camera, and USB drive that were taken from him by Department of Homeland Security officials on Nov. 3 at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. House had been reentering the country after a trip to Mexico.

According to the US Customs Services Detention Notice and Custody Receipt for Detained Property, his belongings were detained for a simple border search. House, however, said he was questioned about his involvement with US Army

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