Thursday, December 30, 2010

Agitated Education Aggregator Daily

NYC Public School Parents: Bloomberg's double standard

nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com - Is the mayor guilty of a double standard, as he defends the performance of the sanitation workers and fire department, whose ability to fulfill their duties were hampered by the blizzard, and yet h...

leoniehaimson

The Year They Began Calling Poverty and Homelessness an 'Excuse'

huffingtonpost.com - "We don't use poverty as an excuse for low achievement." -- Springfield, Ill. School District 186 Superintendent Walter Milton, Jr.2010 wasn't a very good year for public education -- or public any...

Larryferlazzo

Now, NET-like test for primary school teachers

indianexpress.com - For those aspiring to enter the teaching profession even at the elementary level, the rules are set to get tougher. The Centre has given its nod to new recruitment rules that will require an aspira...

schoolteaching

Big Education Ape: Who Needs an Education Secretary? Maybe Not California - State EdWatch

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Expect lots of announcements in the coming weeks from newly elected governors naming their handpicked education secretaries, usually described as impassioned champions of "reform" (meaning the poli...

coopmike48

A Deferral Is Not a Rejection'

thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com - These past few weeks have brought a combination of really good news and a moderately stressful lack of news. First, I was accepted to the University of Colorado Boulder’s engineering department, al...

DailyABCs

Missing students located under pile of state-mandated testing manuals | theteachingwhore

Missing students located under pile of state-mandated testing manuals

by theteachingwhore

San Sebastian, NEW MEXICO (TWP)

Three missing San Sebastian Middle School students were located after hours of being reported missing by their English teacher Lynn Singleterry. Singleterry, who had been cleaning out a four-drawer filing cabinet full of directives and manuals from the principal, superintendent, and state education department, said they disappeared sometime during second hour.

Local authorities were contacted at the end of 3^rd hour, but a thorough sweep of the school revealed nothing but Billy Roth smoking one of his dad’s cigarettes in the juniper bush by the back door, ten-thousand pieces of gum (2 still in wrapper), and the school secretary hiding from the principal in the custodian’s closet.

Sgt. Dave Langston said, “We figure they probably ran away to avoid taking these tests that are starting up. I know my own son stayed home a few days last year around this time with what he said was a yeast infection.”

Eventually, the children were found when Singleterry’s 7^th hour class noticed movement in the pile of test

This Week In Education: AM News: Textbook Error Mess In Virginia

AM News: Textbook Error Mess In Virginia

by Alexander Russo

Shanghai Schools’ Approach Pushes Students to Top of Tests NYT: Discipline helps explain why the city’s students outperformed those from about 65 other countries... Error-filled textbooks prompt Va. to call for revamped approval process Washington Post: Reports of extensive errors in Virginia social studies textbooks prompted state education officials on Wednesday to propose revamping the approval process to prevent the issuing of flawed textbooks... Change You Can Invest In: Social Entrepreneurship NPR: Small nonprofit groups headed by social entrepreneurs are tackling some of the world's biggest problems. Spurred by a spirit of innovation, the sector has grown to new heights. And both colleges and investors are noticing... Student Wins $1 In Free Speech Facebook Case MSN: The Pembroke Pines Charter High School grad is celebrating the end of a two-year battle over her first amendment rights that started when she declared her AP English teacher, Sarah Phelps, "the worst she ever had" on her Facebook page... Vt. teacher's license lifted for file destruction Boston Globe: A Vermont middle school teacher has had his license suspended for 10 days for intentionally destroying the special education file of a student from St. Albans.

State education board calls for investigation of charter conversion controversy involving Parent Revolution The Argonaut: Top Stories

The Argonaut: Top Stories

State education board calls for investigation of charter conversion controversy involving Parent Revolution

BY GARY WALKER

The California Board of Education has asked the state attorney general to investigate accusations of improper conduct during a proposed conversion to a charter school in Compton where members of the Parent Revolution, an organization that has actively pursued establishing a charter middle school in the Venice /Mar Vista area are involed.

The allegations stem from a recent attempt by the Parent Revolution to institute one of the first uses of the “parent trigger,” a new, somewhat controversial law that allows a majority of parents at a particular school to take over an institution or seek a conversion to a charter.

On Dec. 7, the parent organization, which is led by Ben Austin, its executive director and a former Green Dot Independent Charter board member, teamed up with a group of Compton parents to become the first school to employ the new state law that allows a

YOUR VIEW: Teachers union president has deserted membership | SouthCoastToday.com

YOUR VIEW: Teachers union president has deserted membership

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By BRUCE C. DITATA

Bruce C. Ditata lives in Wareham.

December 30, 2010 12:00 AM

MOST VIEWED STORIES

The first thing a union leader must remember is to protect members from injustice. It is, apparently, the first thing Paul Toner, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, forgot.

At flashpoint is Toner's position — the rank and file have not voted on it — that using test scores from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System is a legitimate measure of a classroom teacher's competency.

Diane Ravitch, a former proponent of high-stakes testing and an assistant secretary of education under George H. W. Bush, speaks to this highly volatile and controversial position in her recent book, "The Death and Life of the Great American School System."

"The problem (is) the misuse of testing for high-stakes purposes, the belief that tests could identify ... which students should be held back, which teachers ... should fired or rewarded, and which schools should be closed — and the idea that these changes would inevitably produce better education," wrote Ravitch. She goes on to say, "... testing (is) not the problem. If testing inspires a degree of loathing, it is because it has become the crucial hinge on which turns the fate of students and the reputations and futures of their teachers."

One of the problems with using the MCAS as a measuring stick of teacher effectiveness is that MCAS, in the opinion of many critics throughout the commonwealth, is a flawed instrument. A list of its debits is long and

Amherst Bulletin | Group seeks to challenge charter school funding

Group seeks to challenge charter school funding

By BEN STORROW Staff Writer

Published on December 31, 2010

A group of Amherst-area officials and residents have launched an effort to ask the state to reconsider the manner in which charter schools are funded, in an attempt to limit the money towns lose when student choose to attend those institutions.

The organizers of the campaign intend to write a warrant article that would be considered by the Town Meetings in Amherst, Leverett, Pelham and Shutesbury, requesting that the state rework the funding formula for charter schools, which are independent public schools that operate under five-year agreements granted by the state's Board of Education.

"My goal is to start a public conversation about charter schools," said Richard Seelig, a Pelham resident, who organized a public meeting last month with Leverett Finance Committee member Nancy Grossman to discuss the subject. "I am

Only A Little Time Left To Recommend Books & Make Predictions | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Only A Little Time Left To Recommend Books & Make Predictions This weekend, I’ll be preparing posts sharing the best education-related books this blog’s readers have read in 2010 and your education-related predictions for 2011. If you haven’t shared your yet, and many have, please go to these posts and leave ...

“Show My Street” Show My Street instantly shows you the Google Maps Street View image of any address you type in, and then gives you a unique url to it that you can share. English Language Learners can pick any place, post the link to it on a student/teacher blog or ...

“Is Subject Matter Expertise Enough for Successful Teaching?” Is Subject Matter Expertise Enough for Successful Teaching? is the title of a recent Walt Gardner post at Ed Week. It covers similar ground — with newer information — to a post I wrote earlier this year that provoked a lot of comments – How Much ...

New Year’s Resources Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Learning About New Year Celebrations: ESL Holiday Lessons has a New Year’s lesson for English Language Learners. New Year’s Around The World is a LIFE slideshow.

The “Special Holiday Emergency Desk” Is Wonderful The “Special Holiday Emergency Desk” is a wonderful application to reinforce vocabulary with English Language Learners, and it’s also a lot of fun for anybody else. You type in the word for just about anything, and a virtual artist “draws” it for ...

“Small Surprise, Big Mood Change” “Small Surprise, Big Mood Change” reports on some studies that show the not particularly surprising find that small positive surprises can improve one’s mood: *…even a tiny positive surprise can improve one’s outlook, albeit temporarily. In an ...

“Finding and using public domain photographs” Finding and using public domain photographs comes from Public Domain Sherpa, and contains quite a few sources of good images that are new-to-me. In addition, the site offers helpful advice on using each source. I’m adding the link to The Best Online ...

“The amazing truth about PISA scores” I have no idea how Alexander Russo found this post, but it’s a good one. It’s titled The amazing truth about PISA scores: USA beats Western Europe, ties with Asia, and offers a great analysis of the recent PISA scores. The blog which published it ...

The Best “Words Of The Year” Features For 2010 There are several “words of the year” lists that come out annually. The might be useful for advanced English Language Learners, but I think they can be more effectively used in Theory of Knowledge classes (plus, they’re fun to read for English ...

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Is poverty just another excuse for low test scores?

Is poverty just another excuse for low test scores?

by Mike Klonsky

It's as if we've returned to the Nixonian era of "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps."

Arne Duncan claims that poverty is being used as an "excuse" and threatens he's lost patience with all those "bad teachers" and "failing schools" who tick off all the reasons why their poor or minority students can't score as high on standardized tests.. He assures us that "poverty is not destiny" and that new privately-run charter schools will overcome poverty's downward push on

Daily Kos: Waiting For SuperFraud

Waiting For SuperFraud

by teacherken

Yep, that title is a play on that of the infamous and intellectually dishonest film "Waiting for Superman" by Davis Guggenheim.

I wish I could take credit for it.

I can't. It was coined by Michael T. Martin, an analyst for the Arizona School Board Association, whom I know from a number of educational lists, and who is known to lurk here - he periodically emails me directly with responses to things I have posted here.

Someone had posted on another, not particularly highly visible, website the contents of something Michael had

The Answer Sheet - Learning the French Revolution with Lady Gaga: Teachers sing history lessons

Learning the French Revolution with Lady Gaga: Teachers sing history lessons

Imagine learning about the French Revolution through a videotaped musical parody of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.” Or about Leonardo da Vinci via a version of The Beatles' "Dear Prudence" as performed by Siouxsie and the Banshees. Or about Mary, Queen of Scots by way of “Jenny from the Block” by Jennifer Lopez. Teachers in Hawaii have found a way to get around the common student complaint that history is dry and boring.

Revisiting Technology Predictions for 2020 | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Revisiting Technology Predictions for 2020

by larrycuban

Steve Jobs while introducing the iPad in San F...

Image via Wikipedia

I just read a list of high-tech tools that have become obsolete in the past decade (e.g., floppies, fax machines). I used many of these myself and remember junking them, saying to myself: hey, these were highly touted, I bought the second- or third-generation version and now I am dumping them (of course, in an ecologically correct manner). Still the number of high-tech machines and applications that hit their expiration date so quickly stunned me.

Then I read another list of high-tech predictions for 2020 that was equally entertaining about the future of schools, well, not schools as we know them in December 2010. This list posted by a high-tech enthusiast who yearns for

2010: InterACT in Review « InterACT

2010: InterACT in Review

by David B. Cohen

[photo: Joey Gannon, via Flickr.com]

We’re counting down the hours until 2011, and the coming year should bring some exciting developments for Accomplished California Teachers, including a new web site, a follow-up report to our teacher evaluation report, and more outreach to California teachers, education policy makers, and the community as a whole. Before we bid goodbye to this year, here are some highlights from InterACT in 2010.

A few of our most popular blog posts (based on total number of views):

Month 3 As a Failing School: The Hatchet Drops (most viewed InterACT post so far)

Thanks for the Test Scores!

Batter Up! A Baseball Lesson in Value-Added

Thank You Notes

Influential blog posts

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