Damn Good Education Daily

Damn Good Education Daily

Damn Good Education Daily

Let's Not "Reform" Public Education

truth-out.org - Recently, I had the honor of being dubbed a "vapid champion of the status quo" by American Enterprise Institute (AEI) resident education scholar Frederick Hess, a widely published, renowned advocat...

DianeRavitch

Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action

dailykos.com - Sun Jan 23, 2011 at 02:45:11 AM PST Save Our Schools March and National Call to ActionFor the future of our children, we demand the following . . . * Equitable funding for all public school ...

teacherken

Dissent Magazine - Winter 2011 Issue

dissentmagazine.org - The cost of K–12 public schooling in the United States comes to well over $500 billion per year. So, how much influence could anyone in the private sector exert by controlling just a few billion do...

tonnet

If it doesn’t work, don’t do it! CAP’s ROI « School Finance 101

schoolfinance101.wordpress.com - The Center for American Progress released its new Return on Investment (ROI) Index for K-12 public school districts of greater than 250 students this week. I should note in advance that I had the o...

SchlFinance101

The State of the Union's Schools

schoolsmatter.info - Jim Horn. . . . And now I would like to turn to a subject that all of us, including myself, love to talk about, even when we sometimes don’t understand exactly what we are saying—or at least don’t ...

CohenD

Filtering in School? A Response - Copy / Paste by Peter Pappas

Filtering in School? A Response - Copy / Paste by Peter Pappas

Filtering in School? A Response

A recent post by Mike Gwaltney "Keeping Kids off the Internet – What’s With the Draconian Filtering Policies?" posed some important questions "Is filtering necessary? If so, why filter so aggressively? Is there a way to filter effectively that both protects students and allows them to use the Web to its potential? Aren’t we doing students a disservice by blocking the full internet?"

Here's my response:

Hudsonhubtimes.com - School Board doesn't appoint liaison for education reform group

Hudsonhubtimes.com - School Board doesn't appoint liaison for education reform group

School Board doesn't appoint liaison for education reform group

E-mail Story | Print Story | Comments | ShareThis

about 6 hours ago

by Tim Troglen | Reporter

Hudson -- The Board of Education turned down a request Jan. 12 to appoint a liaison to a local organization seeking to "redesign" the school district.

Superintendent Steve Farnsworth recommended the Board not appoint a liaison to Hudson Student First, a local chapter of a national school reform group.

The 33-member group, represented by John Hoover at the Jan. 12 School Board meeting, wants to change the district's base pay structure "to recognize economic reality and institute a pay-for-performance system to compensate teachers according to their expected (and realized) performance," Hoover said in a December press release.

The group has also asked for a re-evaluation of elementary math and language arts curriculum and keeping some

Without teacher buy-in, school reform plans will fail - RocNow.com

Without teacher buy-in, school reform plans will fail - RocNow.com

Without teacher buy-in, school reform plans will fail

Opinion – January 23, 2011 - 5:00am

One need only sit in the audience at last week’s State of Our Schools address to realize that a big challenge facing city school leadership doesn’t involve struggling students.

No, it’s getting the teachers to buy into the course of change set by Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard.

Brizard must make winning over teachers his highest priority, and school board members must insist on it. Last Thursday night, there were boos and murmurs among teachers that prove how Brizard has yet to

Stargel Bill to Grade Parents: State Intrusion in Parenting | TheLedger.com

Stargel Bill to Grade Parents: State Intrusion in Parenting | TheLedger.com

Stargel Bill to Grade Parents: State Intrusion in Parenting

Published: Sunday, January 23, 2011 at 12:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, January 22, 2011 at 3:25 p.m.

State Rep. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, filed a bill Tuesday to require public schoolteachers in prekindergarten through third grade to grade parental involvement on student report cards.

For all grades -- pre-K through 12 -- the bill says "each teacher shall monitor and assess the quality of the involvement of the parents of each student in his or her class."

Parental grades in pre-K through third grade would be based on:

- "Parental response to requests for

At town hall, Steinberg urges support for tax ballot measure - Sacramento Politics - California Politics | Sacramento Bee

At town hall, Steinberg urges support for tax ballot measure - Sacramento Politics - California Politics | Sacramento Bee

At town hall, Steinberg urges support for tax ballot measure

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By Susan Ferriss
sferriss@sacbee.com

Published: Sunday, Jan. 23, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 3A

California Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg went before people from his largely Democratic Sacramento district Saturday and told a town hall meeting: "There is no money."

He told them "I hate" what has to be done.

But after the impact of a devastating recession, he said, he feels it's best that legislators follow Gov. Jerry Brown's recommendation and ax another $12.5 billion in social services and other spending from the state budget by sometime in

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/23/3344724/townhall.html#ixzz1Bs2Nr7TO

Let students make the right choice - BostonHerald.com

Let students make the right choice - BostonHerald.com

Let students make the right choice

By Lindsey Burke
Sunday, January 23, 2011 - Updated 10 hours ago

E-mail Print (0) Comments Text size Share Buzz up!

Expect to hear the phrase “school choice” more than usual in the coming days. The fourth week of January is National School Choice Week, and advocates for educational freedom across the country will be highlighting its effectiveness for children.

Why school choice? Economist Milton Friedman best stated the philosophy behind it: “You can subsidize the producer or you can subsidize the consumer. In education, we subsidize the producer; we subsidize the school. If you subsidize the student instead, you would have competition. The student could choose

Guts: An alloy much stronger than gold | Connected Principals

Guts: An alloy much stronger than gold | Connected Principals

Guts: An alloy much stronger than gold

by cbirk

“American stunt men are smart. They think about safety. When they do a jump in a car, they calculate everything: the speed, the distance…Everything we do is a guess. If you’ve got the guts you do it. All of my stunt men have gotten hurt.” – Jackie Chan

There are certain times in our life when we come to a fork in the road and have to make a decision. Do we head down the traditional, beaten path that is clearly marked and know where we are going to end up? Do we hike down the less conventional trail which has twists and turns that we believe will take us where we would like to go? There are pros and cons to following each of these. The traditional path is easier, it’s comfortable, and the results are tried and true. Most people are going to go that way anyway, aren’t they? The trail less traveled is

Save Our Schools - National March and Days of Action July 28-31, 2011

Save Our Schools - National March and Days of Action July 28-31, 2011

Welcome to the Save Our Schools March
and National Call to Action!

As concerned citizens, we demand an end to the destructive policies eroding confidence in our public schools, demoralizing teachers, and reducing the education for too many of our children to nothing more than exercises for test preparation.

A well-educated society is essential to the future of the United States of America. Our students must have access to a fully funded, world-class public education system and it is our responsibility to act now by holding our government accountable for providing the means to achieve it!

We, a collection of people from all walks of life and every corner of this nation, embody a mixture of ideas and opinions regarding how we can improve educational opportunities for all children. We stand united by one belief - it’s time for teachers and parents to organize and take back control of our schools.

Please join us. . .

July 30, 2011
Save Our Schools March in Washington, D.C.

July 28, 2011 - July 31, 2011
Save Our schools Days of Action events in D.C., including workshops,
film festival, speakers and educational events - with concurrent regional
and local events organized around the country.

Daily Kos: Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action

Daily Kos: Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action

Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action

by teacherken

Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action

For the future of our children,
we demand the following . . .

* Equitable funding for all public school communities

* An end to high stakes testing for student, teacher, and school evaluation

* Teacher and community leadership in forming public education policies

* Curricula developed by and for local school communities

Those the four key demands of an important initiative on public education.

It is geared towards a gathering in our nation's capital, July 27-30.

We want your help and support.

Here's our website

Let me tell you more, including why I am involved, and you should be as well.

School Tech Connect: Unfinished Business-- With Miguel del Valle in Andersonville

School Tech Connect: Unfinished Business-- With Miguel del Valle in Andersonville

Unfinished Business-- With Miguel del Valle in Andersonville

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

Because Steven Spielberg neglected to send me $50,000 this month, I decided to ride the bus rather than jet down to Andersonville, the northside neighborhood where Miguel del Valle was spending some time today. We had a great day, walking around meeting the locals.

I’m in this race because the whole ed reform drama is being played out in Chicago. On the one hand, we have Rahm Emanuel, who in interviews tends to downplay the fact that he’s utterly and completely in Bill Gates’ pocket on the question of public education. On the other hand we have Miguel del Valle, whose view of public education is more democratic and more nuanced and not driven by inappropriate, market analogies that frankly have no place in the discussion. You might read here for an idea of what I’m talking about.

Anyway, here’s a little bit of video from the day. You’re going to see a little bit of Andersonville from the bus, and

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The Future of Rhode Island Students

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The Future of Rhode Island Students

The Future of Rhode Island Students

by Mike Klonsky

PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE: California Budget Crisis-Today

PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE: California Budget Crisis-Today

California Budget Crisis-Today

by Duane Campbell

I just returned fro a Town Hall with Senator Darrell Steinberg held about the state budget crisis at the Belle Cooledge library in Sacramento. As you know, Senator Steinberg in the Senate Pro Tem ( Democratic Leader) of the Senate, thus he has one of the major inputs on the budget.

Senator Steinberg started with a general view of the budget and the political situation of the coming votes. Essentially Governor Brown and the Democrats are proposing 12.5 Billion in budget cuts and proposing passing a special initiative to extend the current ( temporary ) tax increases for 5 more years to recover 12.5 billion in revenue.

The room was packed to overflow with persons some of whom agreed with the Senators argument that these cuts were necessary and others who disagreed and argued that these cuts were destructive to life and opportunity. Advocates for the disabled, for child care workers, teachers, and others made their case.

California can continue the current process of cuts and reductions. The fiscal

Queens Teacher: Got Dough? How Billionaires Rule Our Schools

Queens Teacher: Got Dough? How Billionaires Rule Our Schools

Got Dough? How Billionaires Rule Our Schools

by Queens Teacher

Got Dough? How Billionaires Rule Our Schools
By Joanne Barkan

The cost of K–12 public schooling in the United States comes to well over $500 billion per year. So, how much influence could anyone in the private sector exert by controlling just a few billion dollars of that immense sum? Decisive influence, it turns out. A few billion dollars in private foundation money, strategically invested every year for a decade, has sufficed to define the national debate on education; sustain a crusade for a set of mostly ill-conceived reforms; and determine public policy at the local, state, and national levels. In the domain of venture philanthropy—where donors decide what social transformation they want to engineer and then design and fund projects to implement their vision—investing in education yields great bang for the buck.

Hundreds of private philanthropies together spend almost $4 billion annually to support or transform K–12

Schools Matter: The State of the Union's Schools

Schools Matter: The State of the Union's Schools

The State of the Union's Schools

by Jim Horn

While everyone knows that Barack Obama's State of the Union speech is likely to continue to push for the agenda that we've been facing in Race to the Top — privatization, more testing and test based "accountability," Arne Duncan's meanderings, more charter schools, and the other policies that have taken the nation's public schools further towards ruin than anything imagined when George W. Bush was President — we can at least try an imaginary alternative. Hence, the following wording from a State of the Union speech that we won't hear (at least not from the current President of the United States). --George Schmidt, Editor, Substance News

The State of the Union’s Schools: That Part of Mr. Obama’s Speech We Would Like to Hear But Won’t

Jim Horn

. . . . And now I would like to turn to a subject that all of us, including myself, love