Jeb Bush and Obama plan joint appearance to support NCLB | Dailycensored.com

Jeb Bush and Obama plan joint appearance to support NCLB | Dailycensored.com

Jeb Bush and Obama plan joint appearance to support NCLB

Written by Danny WeilEducationMar 2, 2011

0digg

Share

Yes, believe it!

MIAMI – When President Barack Obama and former Florida Gov. JebBush stand side by side at a Miami high school, it will be an opportunity for the Democrat to show a bipartisan approach to education reform while allowing the Republican to push his own nationwide message on the issue.

Obama and Bush have common ground on education. Both support increasing the number of charter schools, tying teacher evaluations to student performance on standardized tests and setting high standards and accountability. They also believe education is key to invigorating U.S. competitiveness.

The joint appearance comes as Obama aims to rewrite the No Child Left

The Answer Sheet - The Diane Ravitch myth

The Answer Sheet - The Diane Ravitch myth

The Diane Ravitch myth

Anybody reading much of the commentary written on education policy could be forgiven for thinking that education historian Diane Ravitch is somehow the Wizardess of Ed, the woman behind the curtain secretly pulling the strings. So many commentators take verbal shots at her that you’d think she had the policy-making power of, say, President Obama, or Education Secretary Arne Duncan, or billionaire education philanthropist Bill Gates. (When Gates decides to fund a particular initiative, it immediately becomes the reform approach of the hour.) Gates has, in fact, mocked her. Billionaire Whitney Tilson has made a second career out of attacking her. Even my colleague Jay Mathews wrote a column on his Class Struggle blog that called “erudite” a Tilson piece in which Tilson personally attacked Ravitch, and then took Ravitch to task for something she said about Teach for America about which I don't think she was wrong.

NYC Educator: "You Feel Punched in the Stomach"

NYC Educator: "You Feel Punched in the Stomach"

"You Feel Punched in the Stomach"

by Miss Eyre

Well, it's another fun-filled day of being a public educator in a union here in the U.S. in 2011. After rising at 5 a.m. to work on a lesson plan for the day, I'm making a quick blog post before getting dressed, climbing into my 13-year-old car, and driving over to the school in which I work. Today will be a day full of calling parents to try to cajole them into making their children not curse, drink soda, and/or sleep all the way through one of my classes. As you can see, I have one of those cushy unionized public worker jobs, and then I have the nerve to take the summer off as well.

So I enjoyed this article from the Times, which explores the public schizophrenia about teachers pretty well. The public wants good teachers, but maybe doesn't want to pay them; the public believes that they collectively had good teachers

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: More "reform" Rhode Island style

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: More "reform" Rhode Island style

More "reform" Rhode Island style

by Mike Klonsky

"It's for the kids," say Providence officials

About 1,500 people jammed the street in front of City Hall in Providence, R.I., on Wednesday to protest last week's dismissal of the city's entire teaching force. "I thought the only insanity was in Wisconsin, not in Rhode Island," Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told the crowd, which raised signs and banged drums... Providence officials say their

Bully Free: It Starts With Me…and You - Lily's Blackboard – Lily's Blackboard

Bully Free: It Starts With Me…and You - Lily's Blackboard – Lily's Blackboard

Bully Free: It Starts With Me…and You

Mar 3rd, 2011

by Lily.

Bullied students that go it alone because they don’t know who to turn to are far more likely to fall behind in their studies, get sick and/or depressed, miss school, and drop out. And in the most tragic cases, the bullied student commits suicide, or “bullycide,” as it has come to be known. However, research tells us that one caring adult can make all the difference in a bullied student’s life.

That is why at the National Education Association, we are launching a Campaign Against Bullying which aims to identify caring adults in our schools and communities who are willing to stand out as someone pledged to help bullied

Diane Ravitch on education reform and misguided reformers – part 1 | Thoughts on Public Education #StateSOS #WIunion #SolidarityWI

Diane Ravitch on education reform and misguided reformers – part 1 | Thoughts on Public Education

Diane Ravitch on education reform and misguided reformers – part 1 - by admin

by admin

Diane Ravitch on education reform and misguided reformers-part 2 - by admin

Diane Ravitch on a mission - by Kathryn Baron

by Kathryn Baron

At age 72, Diane Ravitch has attained cult status among America’s teachers. They give her standing ovations when she’s introduced as a speaker, and again when she concludes her remarks. They come up to meet her and thank her, sometimes with tears in their eyes, for being such an outspoken and eloquent voice for the [...]

#wiunion #wearewi Momma Politico: Our Kids Are Not "Products" - Why Public School Teachers in WI (& Everywhere) Deserve Decent Wages

Momma Politico: Our Kids Are Not "Products" - Why Public School Teachers in WI (& Everywhere) Deserve Decent Wages

Our Kids Are Not "Products" - Why Public School Teachers in WI (& Everywhere) Deserve Decent Wages

You've all heard me say it before: an educated populace is the cornerstone of our democracy. When I received a comment on my last post with the idea that education should be treated like a business, well, my comment became more than a comment, as you can well imagine. Blame it on Limbaugh, already getting m

Huffington Post: Wisconsin Dems Start Recall Initiative | www.kochwatch.org #StateSOS #WIunion #SolidarityWI

Huffington Post: Wisconsin Dems Start Recall Initiative | www.kochwatch.org

Thom Hartmann: Mirror, mirror on the wall...Who's the most crony capitalist of all? WATCH ON YOUTUBE:

Huffington Post: Wisconsin Dems Start Recall Initiative *March 2, 2011-* The Wisconsin Democratic Party has launched a fundraising campaign to recall state Senate Republicans who have supported the budget bill by Gov. Scott Walker (R) that would strip collective bargaining rights from the state's public ...

Congressman Ryan Stands Up Against SB-5 on the House Floor WATCH ON YOUTUBE:

Republican War On Working Families : Bold Progressives PSA WATCH ON YOUTUBE:

Left In Alabama: Alabama Pols with Koch Money *March 2, 2011-* Billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch, and their Koch Industries empire, have been much in the news lately for their campaign contributions to anti-union Republicans in Wisconsin, Ohio and other states. Followthemoney.org has ...

Economic Policy Journal: On Koch Supported Herman Cain *[image: Herman Cain]March 1, 2011-* I've noticed that Herman Cain, who is already an announced candidate for president, seems to have a close association with the Koch brothers. He attended the recent Koch conference in Rancho Mirage and he has been ...

Ed Schultz: The GOP Assault on Public Education Continues WATCH ON YOUTUBE:

Huffington Post: Former Koch Exec Supplying House's New Styrofoam Cups *March 2, 2011-* Former Koch Industries executive George Wurtz owns WinCup, which supplies the styrofoam cups now littering the building following the House GOP's decision to phase out biodegradable cups from a Capitol lunchroom. House Republicans ...

Campaign For America's Future: America Waking Up To Value Of Unions March 1, 2011- As Abraham Lincoln famously said, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time." When you put enough dots in front of people sooner or ...

The Reality of Dan, Diana, Andy, Michael … and TED (On The Future of Teaching) | The Jose Vilson

The Reality of Dan, Diana, Andy, Michael … and TED (On The Future of Teaching) | The Jose Vilson

The Reality of Dan, Diana, Andy, Michael … and TED (On The Future of Teaching)

by JOSE on MARCH 2, 2011

digg

0

Share

0

TED Talks: Ideas Worth Spreading

I thought the writing break might last longer. The bug got me. Here’s my latest at the Future of Teaching blog.

Excerpt:

A good step in that direction is the edcamps and unconferences springing across the country. However, even they can get bogged down by the ideas of structure, even when the solution is right at their

Redux Shanker Blog » The Teaching Experience

Shanker Blog » The Teaching Experience

The Teaching Experience

Posted November 18, 2010

** Also posted here on “Valerie Strauss’ Answer Sheet” in the Washington Post.

The topic of teacher experience is getting a lot of attention in education debates. In part, this makes sense, since experience (years of service) does play several important roles in education policy, including teachers’ raises and transfer/layoff policies.

Usually, experience is discussed in terms of its relationship to performance –whether more experienced teachers produce larger student test score gains than less experienced teachers. There is a pretty impressive body of research on this topic, the findings of which are sometimes used to argue for policy changes that eliminate the role of experience in salary and other employment policies. Proponents of these changes often argue that experience is only weakly related to performance, and therefore shouldn’t be used in determining salary and other conditions of work. It is not unusual to hear people say that experience doesn’t matter at all.

As is often the case when empirical research finds its way into policy debates, the “weakly related” characterization of the findings on the experience/achievement relationship borders on oversimplification, while the claim that experience doesn’t matter is flat-out wrong. The relationship is substantial but context-dependent, and blanket

What is Wrong with Federal Education Policy « Outside the Cave

What is Wrong with Federal Education Policy « Outside the Cave

What is Wrong with Federal Education Policy

by Stephen Lazar

Renee Moore says it 20x better than I could ever hope to myself. Please share this with anyone you know with a vote so they understand the issues.

Young vs. Old; Bad vs. Good. « My Island View

Young vs. Old; Bad vs. Good. « My Island View

Young vs. Old; Bad vs. Good.

by tomwhitby

I am growing tired of the call for the ouster of older teachers and the elevation of the younger. I am of the older generation (some might say very older) after a career in education spanning four decades. I was also a victim of budget cuts during that career losing my job at the end of every year for my first nine years in three school districts. After 34 years, I am no longer in Public education, but I am involved with Higher Education. My assignment is to train and observe Pre-service teachers, student teachers. In that role I get to travel from school to school and observe educators on all levels.

I teach and observe student teachers for a living. I know that my students have observed over 100 hours of lessons by teachers in the field prior to their becoming student teachers. Additionally, they must show mastery in a program of courses in both philosophy and methods in Education. This is all in addition to the courses required in their content area. By the time these students have an opportunity to stand as teachers in a

Update: US teachers head: 'Something insane in Providence' - The Providence Journal #StateSOS #WIunion

Update: US teachers head: 'Something insane in Providence' - Projo 7 to 7 News Blog | Rhode Island news | The Providence Journal

Update: US teachers head: 'Something insane in Providence' 5:28 PM Wed, Mar 02, 2011 | Permalink Thomas J. Morgan Email

By Richard C. Dujardin
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A crowd of more than 1,000 -- Providence teachers joined by teachers from Cranston, Central Falls and other communities -- is calling for Mayor Angel Taveras and the Providence School Board to rescind the firings of nearly 2,000 teachers.

The crowd fills the plaza in front of City Hall, forcing police to divert traffic around Kennedy Plaza.

The crowd cheered Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, who declared that "something insane is going on in Providence."

She said that prior to last week's firings, the Providence teachers were working with school officials to continue their reform of education but then, she said, "Some secret plan was hatched" to fire the teachers.

"Why destroy a school system and undo years of reform and dehumanize every teacher in the school system?" she asked.

She called on the school officials to negotiate.

Larry Purtil, president of the National Education Association of Rhode Island, expressed

Test Time « Failing Schools

Test Time « Failing Schools

Test Time

MARCH 2, 2011

by Sabrina

It’s Test Time here in Colorado, and I have a confession to make.

When I was teaching, I didn’t completely hate CSAP time. A small part of me actually… kind ofliked it.

Don’t misunderstand: I hate virtually everything about CSAP. It’s high-stakes nature distorted virtually everything my school did, from the way the curriculum was structured, to how we were asked to teach, to what we taught in the weeks and months beforehand. It even distorted how we allocated the time we spent with certain types of students, and introduced the notion of “triage” into a space it doesn’t belong. It distorted our behavior, too– once-proud professionals reduce

SCUSD Community Your Input is Urgently Needed! Budget Survey!!!

SCUSD Solicits Community Input on Budget with Public Forums, Survey

Click Here to Participate in the SCUSD Budget Priorities Survey

Your Input is Urgently Needed!

Participate in our 2011-12 Budget Priorities Survey:

If you are a parent or community member, click here.  

If you are a student, click here.

VIDEO! Parents to Bloomberg: Stand up for Students, Not Millionaires! « EdVox #WIunion

VIDEO! Parents to Bloomberg: Stand up for Students, Not Millionaires! « EdVox

VIDEO! Parents to Bloomberg: Stand up for Students, Not Millionaires!

by edvoxny

Parents and education advocates called on Mayor Bloomberg today to stop making hollow threats to crowd the City’s classrooms, and instead join them in the growing coalition pushing Albany to extend the Millionaire’s Tax. The group urged the mayor at a City Hall rally to finally support the progressive tax on New York’s richest in order to protect City residents from destructive and unnecessary cuts, and to keep our education crisis from turning in to a disaster.

“Mayor Bloomberg knows the only real solution to our budget crisis is to raise revenue in a fair, smart way,” said Brooklynite Ceilia Green, a parent of 4 public school students. “Extending the Millionaires Tax is the best option on the table. It would not change the standard of living for the very small percentage of New Yorkers it would

The Washington Teacher: Veteran Teachers Need Not Apply: Henderson Recruits TFA Alums During Budget Deficit

The Washington Teacher: Veteran Teachers Need Not Apply: Henderson Recruits TFA Alums During Budget Deficit

Veteran Teachers Need Not Apply: Henderson Recruits TFA Alums During Budget Deficit

Kaya Henderson, Interim Chancellor for DC Public Schools recently delivered remarks at the Teach for America (TFA) 20th Anniversary Summit. Hosted by Teach for America founder and CEO, the event drew what was referred to as an "all-star lineup of education, government, and social justice leaders," including TFA alum, Michelle Rhee, former Chancellor for DC Public Schools.

During the event, Interim Chancellor Henderson spoke about the true power of the TFA movement, the rise to high level administrative positions by many TFA'ers and forecast that maybe one day a TFA'er would land in the White House. Henderson encouraged TFA'ers to dust off their resumes if they want a chance to make history by dropping off their resumes to her and coming to work for DC Public Schools.

It is interesting to note that despite a lingering recession, budget crises and widespread teacher hiring slowdown, TFA teachers are being hired at a steady pace. The growth is often times coming at the expense of veteran teachers who are losing their jobs- in some cases to make room for TFA teachers who typically are hired at much lower salary levels. Remember the 266 mostly veteran teachers who were laid off in 2009 subsequent to the hiring of hundreds of TFA'ers? A

Wis. Citizens File Recall Petitions Against Anti-Worker Senators | AFL-CIO NOW BLOG #StateSOS #WIunion #SolidarityWI

Wis. Citizens File Recall Petitions Against Anti-Worker Senators | AFL-CIO NOW BLOG

Wis. Voters File Recall Petitions Against Anti-Worker Senators by James Parks, Mar 2, 2011

650Share

This morning, voters from around Wisconsin took the first steps toward taking their state back by filing recall papers against eight Republican senators who have backed Gov. Scott Walker and pushed his partisan attempt to take away collective bargaining rights for thousands of teachers, nurses, librarians and other workers.

In a statement, Wisconsin workers said Walker and the Senate Republicans are not reflecting Wisconsin values. Instead, they are doing away with decades of bipartisan cooperation in government. Walker claims he wants to give our children the “tools they need,” but in reality, he has taken a baseball bat to their future. His budget is wrong for Wisconsin, the workers said.

“He is attacking education, seniors and working families by putting the budget burden on their backs. Meanwhile, he is asking for no shared sacrifice from the extremely wealthy and corporations who funded his campaign.”

Roy Vandenberg, a member of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 2-144, said:

Gov. Walker and Senate Republicans are refusing to listen to the hundreds of thousands of working families who traveled to Madison to make their voices heard. He has refused to listen to the majority of the people of this state who disagree with them. So now it is time for us to make our voices heard in their districts. If they will not listen to “we the people” then the “we the people” are going to take our government back.

Ann Louise Petreault, a nurse at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and member of SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin, adds:

Gov. Walker continues to turn a blind eye to the majority of Wisconsinites who believe his plan to end collective bargaining is wrong. He won’t take yes for an answer. He just continues his political attack to strip us of our collective bargaining rights.

Here’s Bryan Kennedy, president of AFT Wisconsin:

We have learned that today people have begun filing recall petitions in an effort to take Wisconsin back. We are now going to focus our organizing attention on these efforts, and all across the state we will immediately join these efforts and begin collecting signatures, knocking on doors, making phone calls and talking to our friends and family. Starting today, day by day, one by one, we will begin taking our state back before Gov. Walker is able to take it backward.

Gov. Walker and the Senate Republicans have failed to show leadership and work across party lines to compromise and get Wisconsin moving forward again by creating jobs, the statement said.