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Sunday, January 16, 2011

Modern School: March = National Month of Actions to Defend Public Education

Modern School: March = National Month of Actions to Defend Public Education

March = National Month of Actions to Defend Public Education

by noreply@blogger.com (Michael Dunn)

In March, education activists are challenging each other throughout the country to take part in a month of actions to defend public education. 2011 will see record massive budget cuts as the priorities of this country continue to protect the wealth of the rich on the backs of working people and students. We are being forced to pay more for a lower quality education while the rich complain tell us raising their taxes will kill jo...bs while
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Edu Conferences and the Twitter Effect « My Island View

Edu Conferences and the Twitter Effect « My Island View

Edu Conferences and the Twitter Effect

by tomwhitby

As a blogger for only a year now, I have tried not to revisit topics and be repetitive. There are some things however, that need to be revisited at certain times of the year. Just as: Thanksgiving brings on articles of thankfulness, Christmas brings on articles of Peace and Love, and New Years brings on articles of recent loss and future resolutions, this time of year brings on articles about Education Conferences. I guess that is because plans are being made to attend the largest conferences of the year. There does seem to be a change in the approach to connections, as well as anticipation and expectations of these conferences much of which may be attributed to Social Media.

As a classroom teacher I was very fortunate to serve for many years on the Board of Directors of NYSCATE, the Educational Technology group for New York educators. For the most part many Professional Education Organizations are run by administrators. I find nothing wrong with that, because running these organizations requires a certain skill set, as well as time commitment that fits the abilities of administrators better than those of classroom teachers. I understand that. I also understand that as much as any of these groups will deny it, there is a perspective or a focus of these conferences that leans more toward administrators than classroom

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The Answer Sheet - Why 'Inside Job' bests 'Waiting for Superman' on school reform

The Answer Sheet - Why 'Inside Job' bests 'Waiting for Superman' on school reform

Why 'Inside Job' bests 'Waiting for Superman' on school reform

One can only assume that the critics in the Broadcast Film Critics Association who bestowed their 2011 Best Documentary award to Davis Guggenheim's Waiting for Superman did not know how tendentious the film is, or else they might have honored a film that was more straightforward, in the tradition of classic documentaries. Superman is up for a Golden Globe Award, too, and is on the shortlist for Academy Awards in the feature documentary category. Here a comparison between Waiting for Superman and a competitor, called Inside Job. Though the latter film isn’t about education reform, Kevin G. Welner, the author of the following piece (which appeared on Huffington Post), writes about why Inside Job better explains it than does Superman. Welner is a professor of education policy and program evaluation in the School of Education at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and director of the National Education Policy Center.
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China’s Winning Schools? - NYTimes.com

China’s Winning Schools? - NYTimes.com

China’s Winning Schools?

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: January 15, 2011

BEIJING

Damon Winter/The New York Times

Nicholas D. Kristof

On the Ground

Share Your Comments About This Column

Nicholas Kristof addresses reader feedback and posts short takes from his travels.

Go to Columnist Page »

An international study published last month looked at how students in 65 countries performed in math, science and reading. The winner was: Confucianism!

At the very top of the charts, in all three fields and by a wide margin, was Shanghai. Three of the next top four performers were also societies with a Confucian legacy of reverence for education: Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea. The only non-Confucian country in the mix was Finland.

The United States? We came in 15th in reading, 23rd in science and 31st in math.

I’ve been visiting schools in China and Asia for more than 20 years (and we sent our own kids briefly to schools in Japan, which also bears a Confucian imprint), and I’ve spent much of that time either envious or dumbfounded. I’ll never forget pulling our 2-year-old son out of his Tokyo nursery school so we could visit the States and being handed a form in which we had to list: “reason for

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4LAKids - THE OLD IN + OUT: New CA Board of Ed President attacks Critics + Old CA Board of Ed V.P. attacks Dept of Ed & the Legislature

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: THE OLD IN + OUT: New CA Board of Ed President attacks Critics + Old CA Board of Ed V.P. attacks Dept of Ed & the Legislature

THE OLD IN + OUT: New CA Board of Ed President attacks Critics + Old CA Board of Ed V.P. attacks Dept of Ed & the Legislature

Kirst: Critics of State Board are off-base + Jerry Brown tells why he is a 'reformed reformer'

BY JOHN FENSTERWALD - EDUCATED GUESS | HTTP://BIT.LY/DOFKXZ

1/14/11 •State Board of Education President Michael Kirst says he and his new colleagues on the Board already have gotten a bad rap. According to Kirst, defenders of the seven Board members whom Gov. Jerry Brown didn’t reappoint have dismissed new members as opponents of education reform and ready to launch a “war on charter schools.” Both assumptions aren’t true, he says.

Critics, he said in an interview in Sacramento after his first Board meeting this week, are defining reform in terms of a “specific set of interventions.” (He doesn’t cite the parent-trigger law, but that’s obviously one.) Those, he said, don’t involve all of the state’s children. He wants to affect the 6.2 million K-12 students and 330,000

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Wear Red For Public Ed

Wear red every Tuesday in support of public education.
Visit www.WearRedForPublicEd.com and www.sosmtm.com for more information.

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Photo of the Day « Student Activism

Photo of the Day « Student Activism

Photo of the Day

by Angus Johnston


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Miguel del Valle is battling odds again - PhotoGallery - Chicago Sun-Times

Miguel del Valle is battling odds again - PhotoGallery - Chicago Sun-Times

Miguel del Valle is battling odds again

By Rummana Hussain Staff Reporter/rhussain@suntimes.com Jan 16, 2011 2:36AM

Story Image

Mayoral candidate Miguel del Valle speaks at Telpochcalli Elementary School, 2832 W. 24th Blvd., on Tuesday. | Rich Hein~Sun-Times

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After he and his wife, Lupe, watched Puerto Rican pop star Chayanne perform a few weeks ago, Miguel del Valle stepped into a puddle and felt his sock soaking up the slush.

“He always has holes in his shoes,” the city clerk’s eldest son, Miguel del Valle III, recently explained. “He’s always literally walked through the neighborhoods on his campaigns and while he was working.

“And I remember within seven months, he’d always have a hole in his shoe, and he’d still go through like another month with the hole in his shoe until we forced him to buy new shoes.”

Dickensian footwear is perhaps expected with the self-proclaimed “poorest” mayoral candidate, who sustained his family on his modest legislative salary for two decades before moving up to the $135,545-a-year city clerk job in 2006.

Del Valle, 59, eschews fancy designer suits for more unpretentious selections from Men’s Wearhouse.

His family vacations have consisted of quick, economical jaunts to the Wisconsin Dells and Kiddieland. And every December, he and his wife dust off the $74 Christmas tree the couple purchased at Ace Hardware

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New Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools 1-16-11 Get Involved- Read Education News

New Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools
Get Involved- Read Education News


Parents 4 democratic Schools

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Sunday links. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Sunday links. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Sunday links.

by Fred Klonsky

Here’s a list you won’t find me on. But there may be one or couple of education reformy hedge fund managers. It promises to get interesting when Wikileaks releases the list of 2,000 tax evaders holding Swiss bank accounts tomorrow.

Go Bears!

The four major candidates for Chicago mayor are scheduled to appear tomorrow on a television discussion

The Wall.

by Fred Klonsky


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Rhee's nonprofit endorsed by .... her fiance | Lisa Gartner | Capital Land | Washington Examiner

Rhee's nonprofit endorsed by .... her fiance | Lisa Gartner | Capital Land | Washington Examiner

Rhee's nonprofit endorsed by .... her fiance

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By: Lisa Gartner 01/14/11 1:30 PM
Examiner Staff Writer

With a kiss on each cheek, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie officially welcomed Michelle Rhee's influence into his education agenda.

We just hope that one other politician on her list of endorsers isn't too jealous: her fiance, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.

That's right — check out Rhee's page of bigwig endorsers of StudentsFirst, the nonprofit education reform advocacy group she started in December, and its recently released policy agenda. Scroll past New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, veer around Newark Mayor Cory Booker, make a pseudo-shocked face as you pass former D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, and land on...

Kevin Johnson

Mayor of Sacramento

“When it comes to proven education reform agendas, you would have to look far and wide to find one more direct and comprehensive than the StudentsFirst policy agenda. The



Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/capital-land/2011/01/rhees-nonprofit-endorsed-her-fiance#ixzz1BDRqHvWR
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Rhee's Plan: Students (Test Scores) First! - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Rhee's Plan: Students (Test Scores) First! - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Rhee's Plan: Students (Test Scores) First!

By Anthony Cody on January 16, 2011 9:44 AM | No Comments | No Recommendations

Michelle Rhee has been everywhere that education is discussed for the past few months. Oprah declared her a "warrior woman." She appeared on the cover of Newsweek magazine, holding a broom, presumably to sweep the trash out of our classrooms. Her trajectory faltered a bit when the mayor who appointed her chancellor of schools in Washington, DC, was defeated -- and many voters cited Rhee as one of their reasons for their choice. But two weeks ago she launched her latest venture, a website that aims to build a movement to support her vision of change, Students First. She

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