Thursday, January 13, 2011

The Hype About Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey - Technorati Politics

The Hype About Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey

Author: Ismaila Goudiaby
Published: January 12, 2011 at 1:57 pm

The arrogance of Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey is beyond belief. I was watching him today on Morning Joe, still defending his decision to go on vacation to Florida while his state was about to get hit by a massive snow storm.

His argument remains that he made to his kids a promise that he wasn't going to default on. His family comes first, and after all, he argues, he was able to get the job done directing his team of collaborators from his vacation spot using his cellular phone, as opposed, for instance, to the Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, who was there but couldn't get the job done.

NYC Teacher Stats to Go Public, Plus D.C.'s Michelle Rhee Gets (More) Political - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

NYC Teacher Stats to Go Public, Plus D.C.'s Michelle Rhee Gets (More) Political - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine: "NYC Teacher Stats to Go Public, Plus D.C.'s Michelle Rhee Gets (More) Political
Katherine Mangu-Ward | January 12, 2011

New York teachers have been suing to keep their performance stats on the QT, but a judge ruled this week that value-added data, which compares student test score at the beginning and end of their time in a teacher's classroom to rate her performance, should be free:

The ruling would allow the New York City school district to release performance rankings for more than 12,000 of its teachers to the media outlets that have requested the information....

The rankings at issue in this court case—called the teacher data reports (TDRs)—were developed four years ago for more than 12,000 of the city’s 80,000 public-school teachers"

States' Rights and States' Wrongs on School Reform - TIME

States' Rights and States' Wrongs on School Reform

By Andrew J. Rotherham

Getty Images

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States are the toast of Washington again. Tea Partiers and the incoming Republican majority in the House of Representatives idealize them. When Congress read the U.S. Constitution last week, the 10th Amendment — the one reserving power to the states — was an applause line. Of course, celebrating states and localism is nothing new. More than 150 years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville declared that it is "the political effects of decentralization that I most admire in America." More recently, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis hailed states as "laboratories of democracy." But when it comes to education, we shouldn't lionize states when they're too often failing to fix our

Preschool is absent from Daniels' education agenda | The Indianapolis Star | IndyStar.com

Preschool is absent from Daniels' education agenda

Experts say funding for early ed is crucial; GOP says state can't afford major push

Gov. Mitch Daniels and legislative leaders are pushing a multifaceted plan for education reform, but experts say a crucial ingredient is missing: early childhood learning.

Instead, Daniels' reform priorities, which lawmakers will debate in the coming weeks, aim to evaluate teachers and principals based on student performance, allow parents to use state tax dollars for private schools and expand school choice options.

"All of those things are helpful, but none of them by themselves has a big impact," said Steve Barnett, co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

"Of all the things you could do, preschool probably has the largest

NJ Spotlight | Star School Reformer’s Quick NJ Stop Leaves People Talking

Star School Reformer’s Quick NJ Stop Leaves People Talking
Michelle Rhee's celebrity turn in Trenton, a statement of solidarity or a distraction from Christie’s controversial education record?

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By John Mooney, January 13 in Education |1 Comment

Credit: (Governor's Office/Tim Larsen)

Was Michelle Rhee’s high-profile visit to Trenton this week a powerful statement that puts New Jersey in the national forefront of school change? Or was it a political prop for the governor to distract his critics, as one Democratic leader claimed?

From her fans to her foes, Michelle Rhee’s presence at Gov. Chris Christie’s State of the State address on Tuesday sparked plenty of reaction and conjecture to the role she may play in the future for New Jersey and nationwide.

In the chair next to governor’s wife for the half-hour speech, Rhee sat smiling as Christie heaped praise on her like nobody else in the Assembly chamber.

"No one in America has been more clear that we must change our public education system -- from one that caters to the feelings of adults to one that prepares our children for the 21st century," the governor said.

"Michelle, thanks for coming today, and I want you to count New Jersey among those who are finally putting our students first," he said.

The Bully Pulpit

It may not be the last New Jersey has seen of Rhee as she takes to a national bully pulpit with her new advocacy group StudentsFirst, launched this winter

“A Day in the Life of a Parent Coordinator” | Engaging Parents In School...

“A Day in the Life of a Parent Coordinator” A Day in the Life of a Parent Coordinator is a nice, short audio slideshow from the National Education Association. Take two minutes of your time to check it out…

New Book On Parent Engagement A Cord of Three Strands: A New Approach to Parent Engagement in Schools is a new book being published by Harvard Education Press in March. It’s worth checking out the link. Anne T. Henderson speaks very positively about it, and that’s good enough for ...

Another Useful “Parent Trigger” Article Emily Alpert, a San Diego reporter on education issues (whose articles I like a lot), has written a good, short article on the parent trigger. It’s definitely worth reading…

“Parents as Teacher-Evaluators: The Care Test” Parents as Teacher-Evaluators: The Care Test is a post from my of my favorite bloggers, Renee Moore. Here’s how she ends it: *Caring is a qualification that should be part of every teacher’s evaluation, and parents may be our best tool for measuring ...

Parent Trigger Advocate Removed From CA State Board Of Education Yesterday, newly-elected Governor Jerry Brown made major changes to the California State Board of Education, including removing Ben Austin, the primary advocate of the parent trigger law. You can read all about it at a post by John Fensterwald. ...

“How Duncan Stayed Out Of “Trigger” Debate” Well, it appears that one of my predictions for the new year might be true — the Obama Administration is trying to reconcile a bit with teachers. Read Alexander Russo’s short post about how Ed Secretary Duncan has managed to stay out of the debate on ...

What In The World Are They Doing In Newark? Remember that $1 million they were spending in Newark to pay canvassers to find out from residents what they thought should happen in schools? The effort that I questioned in previous posts as a big waste of time since no long-standing relationships ...

California Parents Organize The Sacramento Bee published an article today about two Northern California parents groups merging — Parents Band Together To Support Public Schools.The two groups — one in theSan Francisco areaand the other in Sacramento – will be called Educate Our ...

“Building Positive Relationships with Parents in School-Age Programs” Building Positive Relationships with Parents in School-Age Programs is a short article that offers some good basic advice. It’s a PDF document that I found by chance online. It’s worth a look.

“Should Parents Have a Voice in Teacher Evaluation?” Should Parents Have a Voice in Teacher Evaluation? is a pretty thoughtful response by a blogger in Ed Week to a newspaper editorial advocating just that. It’s definitely worth a read….

Parent Trigger Supporters Attack PTA, Compare Schools To Batterers The Los Angeles Weekly, a big supporter of the parent trigger law, has just published a story that indicates that parent trigger supporters seem to be going over the edge… In the article, they are not only attacking teachers and their unions, but ...

More On Newark I’ve previously posted about my deep skepticism about the parent outreach efforts that are being done in Newark with the recent huge grant that was received. Here are some recent articles about the effort that have appeared in the media: A Deeper ...

The Importance Of Conversation In my book, I emphasize the importance of two-way *conversation* as opposed to the typical one-way *communication* schools use with parents — calls home to inform parents about problems with their children, notices given to students to carry home, ...

The Power Of A Positive Phone Call Home I’m a big advocate of teachers and administrators call parents when kids are doing well — not just when there’s a problem. You can read a post I’ve written titled “Mr. Ferlazzo, I Need My Post-It, Too” to give you one example of the enormous impact a ...

Meet Daniel Hernández: Giffords’ Intern with Nerves of Steel – Hispanic PR Blog

Meet Daniel Hernández: Giffords’ Intern with Nerves of Steel

01/13/2011

in HISPANIC CULTURE NEWS

Daniel Hernández, 20, comes off as a soft-spoken, intelligent young man. But it was his steel and calm — literally under fire — that saved Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ life.

In an interview with Fox News Latino, Hernández spoke about Saturday’s tragedy and opened up about himself and his family. The tale of Hernández running towards the gunfire amid mayhem, stands out as one of the few bright spots from such a dark day. But the question remains, why did he do it?

“My main goal was to try to make sure the congresswoman and everyone was ok,” the University of Arizona junior said. “When I saw injured people I tried to tend to them as good as I could, until emergency personnel arrived.”

Read the entire article at FOX News.

Rendell assails proposed school-voucher plan - Philly.com

Rendell assails proposed school-voucher plan

January 12, 2011|By Dan Hardy, Inquirer Staff Writer

Gov. Rendell urged his successor Tuesday to not cut education spending in the state's next budget, and came out against a proposed voucher program that would help low-income students from low-performing schools attend either private schools or public schools in other districts.

After touting Pennsylvania's top-10 national ranking in a report released Tuesday by Education Week, Rendell said at a news conference that there were "going to have to be [state budget] cuts next year, and those cuts are going to be painful."

Rendell - who made a point of increasing the state's funding of basic education in each of his eight years as governor - conceded that the state's multibillion-dollar budget gap makes that impossible

Shanker Blog » Premises, Presentation And Predetermination In The Gates MET Study

Premises, Presentation And Predetermination In The Gates MET Study

by Matthew Di Carlo

The National Education Policy Center today released a scathing review of last month’s preliminary report from the Gates Foundation-funded Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project. The critique was written by Jesse Rothstein, a highly-respected Berkeley economist and author of an elegant and oft-cited paper demonstrating how non-random classroom assignment biases value-added estimates (also see the follow-up analysis).

Very quickly on the project: Over two school years (this year and last), MET researchers, working in six large districts—Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Dallas, Denver, Hillsborough County (FL), Memphis, New York City, and Pittsburgh—have been gathering an unprecedented collection of data on teachers and students, grades 4-8. Using a variety of assessments, videotapes of classroom instruction, and surveys (student surveys are featured in the preliminary report), the project is attempting to address some of the heretofore under-addressed issues in the measurement of teacher quality (especially non-random classroom assignment and how different classroom

The Answer Sheet - Are more high-stakes tests inevitable? A teacher says 'no'

Are more high-stakes tests inevitable? A teacher says 'no'

This was written by educator Anthony Cody, who taught science for 18 years in inner-city Oakland and now works with a team of science teacher-coaches that supports novice teachers. He is a National Board-certified teacher and an active member of the Teacher Leaders Network. This post appeared on his Education Week Teacher blog, Living in Dialogue. By Anthony Cody There are a great many fallacies swirling around our schools, and perhaps the biggest among them is that more testing, and ever higher stakes attached to tests, is inevitable, and thus resistance by teachers, students and parents is futile. Nothing could be further from the truth. The proponents of educational reform have committed the greatest error of the powerful. They have promised far more than they can deliver, and their enterprise is already failing by the markers they laid down.

Ruth Bloom’s swipe on way out | Thoughts on Public Education

Ruth Bloom’s swipe on way out
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State Board criticizes battles among fiefdoms

Posted on 1/13/11 • Categorized as State Board of Education

By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

Saying she is “a bit disheartened” after seven years on the State Board of Education, Board Vice President Ruth Bloom exited this week with stinging criticism of the Department of Education and the Legislature and strong advice to her successors.

“The reality is, is that there is no cooperation among the various fiefdoms in Sacramento,” she said in prepared remarks at the start of the State Board meeting Wednesday. “…the Legislature doesn’t want anything to do with the Board of Education except to encourage us to pass a pet project, or to make the regulations (written by the mostly arrogant staff of the

Daily Kos: That is what Gabby wants.

That is what Gabby wants.

by teacherken

I will explain my title only at the end. Please bear with me.

I do not normally read Dana Milbank. Shortly after his column today went up online, my wife read it, and told me I would want to read Arizona shooting inspires the best of politics. She was right. And I think you will want to read it as well.

It begins simply enough:

On Saturday, one member of Congress took a bullet to the head - and 434 of her colleagues stared into the abyss.
On Wednesday, chastened lawmakers returned to the Capitol vowing to change their hostile ways.

Regardless of the causes of the shooting, there was recognition by the Members of the House of the same spiri

Notes from the Field « City School Stories

Notes from the Field

by fmurphy

Chicago, Philadelphia: All the Same in The Bull’s-Eye of Reform

Submitted by Frank Murphy, January 13, 2011

Yesterday, in an article published in the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago mayoral candidate Miguel del Valle was attributed as saying, “Let’s stop attacking teachers”. Mr. del Valle is one of several candidates, including Rahm Emanuel, the former chief of staff of President Obama, who are seeking to be the next mayor of Chicago.

Miguel del Valle’s comment was made within the context of a broader statement in support of Chicago teachers he made in reference to the proposed “Performance Counts” legislation that is currently being considered in the Illinois state legislature. I discussed this proposed bill in this post at cityschoolstories.com.

It is refreshing to hear a candidate for an elective office taking a stand in support of teachers instead of pursuing the increasingly popular political tactic of bashing and scapegoating them. Even more interesting is his willingness to state his opposition to the idea that teacher unions should be denied the power to strike. Political

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Gates' 'value-added' study is full of holes

Gates' 'value-added' study is full of holes

by Mike Klonsky

"Slightly better than a coin toss"

A study released last month by the Gates Foundation supposedly offered up “some of the strongest evidence to date of the validity of ‘value-added’ analysis.” VAA makes the claim that teachers' effectiveness can be reliably estimated by gauging their students' progress on standardized tests. But Jesse Rothstein,an economist at UC Berkeley, argues that the analyses in the report do not support its conclusions.

Rothstein reviewed the Gates study for the Think Twice think tank review project. His review is published by the National Education Policy Center, housed at the University of Colorado . Rothstein, who in 2009-10 served as

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Thursday, January 13, 2011