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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Big Education Ape: 3-30-11 SPECIAL PM RHEE TEST Edition #wiunion #WeAreNY

Big Education Ape: Ed News Now

Big Education Ape: Ed News Now

nydailynews.com - A longtime education activist got the mayor's ear while protesting at City Hall, but did he really hear what she had to say? Our Erin Einhorn reports: Mayor Bloomberg is a busy man. When he leaves ...

leoniehaimson
nytimes.com - Despite sharp drops in state aid, New York City’s Department of Education plans to increase its technology spending, including $542 million next year alone that will primarily pay for wiring and ot...

leoniehaimson
washingtonpost.com - --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 Nation...

DianeRavitch
thedailybeast.com - A new report shows student testing irregularities in D.C. under the leadership of star education reform advocate Michelle Rhee. Education expert Diane Ravitch blasts Rhee’s misguided approach. Plus...

leoniehaimson
ed.gov - On Friday, April 15 in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Department of Education (Department) will host the first in a series of public meetings related to the Race to the Top Assessment (RTTA) grants. Th...

leoniehaimson

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coopmike48 Low levels of radiation found in Washington state milk - NorthJersey.com -http://goo.gl/UM0ax12 minutes ago · reply

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coopmike48 Agitated Education Aggregator Daily is out! http://bit.ly/hLm3Z1 ▸ Top stories today via @coopmike48@dianeravitch9 minutes ago · reply

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coopmike48 Remainders: Parents get mayor’s attention at budget cut protest | GothamSchools - http://goo.gl/NeDbT9 minutes ago · reply

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coopmike48 School districts urge House members to vote no on budget | The Education Front Blog | dallasnews.com -http://goo.gl/ywFPY8 minutes ago · reply

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - solidaridad: "BROKEN NEWS" - GREEN DOT TO TAKE OVER VERNON?"BROKEN NEWS" - GREEN DOT TO TAKE OVER VERNON?by Robert D. Skeels * rdsatheneDr. Ralph E. Shaffer is Professor Emeritus, History Cal Poly ...

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bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Subpoena everyone in D.C. cheating scandal -- including Rhee - The Answer Sheet - The Washington PostSubpoena everyone in D.C. cheating scandal -- including RheeBy Valerie StraussOne surefire way t...

coopmike48
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Rhee, DC defends test investigation - Ben Smith - POLITICO.comRhee, DC defends test investigationIn a statement to POLITICO, ex-DC school chancellor Michelle Rhee, the DC public school system and a...

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michaelklonsky.blogspot.com - "I was stupid."Michelle Rhee tells her pal Jay Mathews that her remarks about D.C. test cheating were "stupid." Mathews adds, "thoughtless" and "insulting." But he's still making excuses for her. "...

mikeklonsky
larrycuban.wordpress.com - Image via WikipediaHere is Bill Gates’ latest advice to policymakers: ” [G]et more students in front of top teachers by identifying the top 25 percent of teachers and asking them to take on four or...

coopmike48
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Schools Matter: More money for testing, less money for learningMore money for testing, less money for learningby skrashenMore money for testing, less for learningSent to the New York Times, March 3...

coopmike48
opensecrets.org - Your daily dose of news and tidbits from the world of money in politics:SENATOR VS. 'TAX AVOIDERS': Earlier this week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the only self-avowed socialist in the U.S. Senate...

tbfurman
dailykos.com - George Wallace, another governor who ignored the courts / Wikipedia CommonsDespite a second restraining order from a Wisconsin judge temporarily blocking implementation of the budget repair bill pe...

mikeklonsky
latimesblogs.latimes.com - In an apparent rebuke to the current leadership, members of United Teachers of Los Angeles have elected Warren Fletcher as their next president. Fletcher, a teacher at the City of Angels alternativ...

mikeklonsky
capitaltonight.com - Mayor Bloomberg is taking some heat for the full-color mailer he sent out to NYC residents that slams Albany for trying to balance the state budget for “cutting billions of dollars” from the city a...

leoniehaimson
blog.altoarizona.com - When the omnibus package of anti-immigration bills proposed by Senate President Russell Pearce failed to pass, commentators suggested that Arizona was ready to take a breath on the immigration deba...

mikeklonsky
news.change.org - Bei Bei Shuai currently languishes in jail without the opportunity to even post bail. Her crime? Being deeply depressed and attempting to commit suicide. But for anti-choicers in Indiana, where Sha...

coopmike48
cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com - As we reported on Wednesday, the New York City Department of Education has ramped up technology spending as it creates a digital platform for online learning called iLearn NYC, which is due to make...

DianeRavitch
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - School Tech Connect: Caterpillar and Corporate Greed Caterpillar and Corporate Greedby effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)Can we just draft this Mike Jacobs (D-Moline) for governor? I like the way this...

coopmike48
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Robert Reich (The Truth About the Economy: We're Heading Back Toward a Double Dip)The Truth About the Economy: We're Heading Back Toward a Double DipWhy aren’t Americans being told the truth about ...

coopmike48
northjersey.com - WASHINGTON — Very low levels of radiation turned up in a sample of milk from Washington state, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday, but federal...

coopmike48
farmandranchfreedom.org - One of the nation’s senior soil scientists alerted the federal government to a newly discovered organism that may have the potential to cause infertility and spontaneous abortion in farm animals, r...

mikeklonsky
emptywheel.firedoglake.com - NYT’s food columnist Mark Bittman has given up food: I stopped eating on Monday and joined around 4,000 other people in a fast to call attention to Congressional budget proposals that would make hu...

coopmike48
news.yahoo.com - BP executives may now be fretting over the prospect of going to jail on manslaughter charges—but they're not easing up on their aggressive efforts to spin the legacy of last summer's disastrous Gul...

mikeklonsky
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - BP and Bloomberg. Different bulls. Same bullshit. « Fred Klonsky's blogBP and Bloomberg. Different bulls. Same bullshit.by Fred KlonskyThe three biggest school administrator lies:“We have to do wha...

coopmike48
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Battleground Milwaukee. Walker’s war against public education. | blue cheddar.Battleground Milwaukee. Walker’s war against public education.BY BLUECHEDDARI am a Madison resident. Milwaukee is not m...

coopmike48
blogs.edweek.org - Unions are fighting back against bills pending in state legislatures around the nation that seek to curb or eliminate such things as collective bargaining, automatic-dues deduction, or strikes, as ...

coopmike48
kochwatch.org - Critics argue Sec. of State must publish it firstMarch 29, 2011- Despite controversy over the budget repair bill's legal status, the Department of Administration began instituting the law Monday by...

coopmike48

Schoolhouse Rock- How a Bill Becomes a Law

solidaridad: Insight into just how manipulative and insidious DFER is

solidaridad: Insight into just how manipulative and insidious DFER is

Insight into just how manipulative and insidious DFER is

"Like special interests, our constituents deserve some consideration also." — Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte (LAUSD Board). At least someone was thinking of parents and community before corporations and privatizers at LAUSD.

Stand up to Arne Duncan and DFER's corporate charter privatization scheme!
If we ever needed more insight into just how manipulative and insidiousDemocrats for Education Reform (DFER) is as an agent of the corporate and neoliberal agenda, they've published a white paper discussing how they managed to railroad the anti-community, anti-teacher, pro-corporate SB-191 through the Colorado Legislature. The bill, which further disenfranchised communities in favor of corporate "ed-reformers," and stripped Colorado teachers of nearly any protections whatsoever is a prime example of how it isn't only teabagging darlings like Florida's Rick Scott and Wisconsin's

Battleground Milwaukee. Walker’s war against public education. | blue cheddar. #wiunion

Battleground Milwaukee. Walker’s war against public education. | blue cheddar.

Battleground Milwaukee. Walker’s war against public education.

BY BLUECHEDDAR

I am a Madison resident. Milwaukee is not my turf. Make sure you also visit folkbum for excellent writing from a Milwaukee educator.

Note: Milwaukee Public Schools is the 3rd largest employer in the state of Wisconsin. UW Madison is 2nd. Wal Mart is 1st. (I pulled together some Milwaukee stats you’ll find at the end of the post.) Source-wikipedia

Milwaukee Parent-organized Meeting tonight

What happened on Saturday… « occupy california

What happened on Saturday… « occupy california

What happened on Saturday…

from ReallyOpenUniversity:

There are surprisingly few write ups of Saturday, the March 26th TUC [Trade Union Congress] Demo in London. Perhaps many have been feeling the way the ROU has been and is unable to work out quite what happened.

The media portrayal of events has to be expected. Sure, the police seem to have gone on a PR mission to make themselves not look like arseholes. They did a press conference with that lovely, entirely uncritical, ‘civil liberty’ group Liberty. They also embedded a Guardian journalist into the TSG (the riot cops notorious for brutality) in an ‘I’m a real boy’ piece (1). But journalists have difficulty escaping the template narrative when it snows let alone when a load of people storm around London in an attempt to confront a social relationship.

So we should not be surprised that the media did not escape the narrative already laid down for them. One day

This Week In Education: Blogs: Rounding Up The Best Commentary Of The Day

This Week In Education: Blogs: Rounding Up The Best Commentary Of The Day

Blogs: Rounding Up The Best Commentary Of The Day

9-25-2010 2-04-33 PM-thumb-350x299-44585Subpoena Rhee and others in D.C. cheating scandal probe Valerie Strauss: The only way to know for certain whether a D.C. public school cheated on tests is to subpoena everybody with potential involvement, including Michelle Rhee... It's Common Core-tastic!? Eduflack: There are some great products and services out there that do match up well with Common Core and can help districts and schools meet their current and future obligations. But anyone can slap a label on a product. It is up to educators to discern t

Ed Schmidt: What We Talk About When We Talk About School Closures

Ed Schmidt: What We Talk About When We Talk About School Closures

What We Talk About When We Talk About School Closures

Posted: 03/30/11 11:38 AM ET

In recent days I have been struck by stories involving two districts that are closing schools.

Providence, R.I. and Detroit, Mich. are planning to close a total of 48 schools over the next few weeks. While there are ten times more schools on the closure list in Detroit (44) than in Providence (4), no one can say that the Motor City's cuts are eleven times more painful.

Closing even one school has a deep emotional impact on a community.

As a school designer and planner, I have to appreciate that every school building will, at some point in time, outlive their useful life. We try, as best we can, to make that point in time as far in the future as possible, but the years have a habit of creeping up on us.

We say that we build schools to last 50 years or more; 50 years from now is the year 2061. That

Robert Reich (The Truth About the Economy: We're Heading Back Toward a Double Dip)

Robert Reich (The Truth About the Economy: We're Heading Back Toward a Double Dip)

The Truth About the Economy: We're Heading Back Toward a Double Dip

Why aren’t Americans being told the truth about the economy? We’re heading in the direction of a double dip – but you’d never know it if you listened to the upbeat messages coming out of Wall Street and Washington.

Consumers are 70 percent of the American economy, and consumer confidence is plummeting. It’s weaker today on average than at the low point of the Great Recession.

The Reuters/University of Michigan survey shows a 10 point decline in March – the tenth largest drop on record. Part of that drop is attributable to rising fuel and food prices. A separate Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence, just released, shows consumer confidence at a five-month low — and a large part is due to expectations of fewer jobs and lower wages in the months ahead.

Pessimistic consumers don’t buy as much. And fewer sales spells big economic trouble ahead.

What about the 192,000 jobs added in February? (We’ll know more Friday about how many jobs were added in

solidaridad: "BROKEN NEWS" - GREEN DOT TO TAKE OVER VERNON?

solidaridad: "BROKEN NEWS" - GREEN DOT TO TAKE OVER VERNON?

"BROKEN NEWS" - GREEN DOT TO TAKE OVER VERNON?

Dr. Ralph E. Shaffer is Professor Emeritus, History Cal Poly Pomona

Green Dot to Take Over Vernon?

Reliable but unnamed sources at the state capital insist that AB 46, Assembly Speaker John Perez' Vernon disincorporation bill, contains a secret clause. According to a highly placed aide in the Speaker's office, interviewed under an assurance of anonymity, the final version of the bill will turn Vernon over to Green Dot, giving a whole new meaning to "charter city."

Rather than disincorporate Vernon, the city will maintain its legal identity but will technically be managed by Green Dot. Applying to cities the Green Dot principle that any one can run a school, a short list of candidates for Green Dot's city manager include former LAUSD Superintendent David Brewer and soon to be former super, Ray Cortines.

But former Green Dot executive Steve Barr is favored to be tapped for city manager. He disappeared from public

Modern School: NewTLA Candidate Upsets Washington, Wins UTLA Presidency

Modern School: NewTLA Candidate Upsets Washington, Wins UTLA Presidency

NewTLA Candidate Upsets Washington, Wins UTLA Presidency


Contrary to most predictions, Julie Washington was beaten by Warren Fletcher in the runoffs for president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles. According to the L.A. Times, Fletcher had 4,711 votes or 53.6% and Washington had 4,247 votes or 47.4%. However, less than 80% of members actually voted.

Washington was the former vice president and considered by most to be an insider who would carry on the legacy of A.J. Duffy. She was the chief negotiator on several occasions in which UTLA gave up significant concessions. Fletcher, in contrast, ran a campaign that was critical of the