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Saturday, April 30, 2011

Big Education Ape:4-30-11 AM My Blue Dog Needs Your Support Edition

Big Education Ape: Ed News Now

Big Education Ape: Ed News Now



as shared by 6 people on Coopmike48’s Twitter list
nytimes.com - When the Chicago Board of Education meeting changed into a mutual admiration society on Wednesday, the members resembled fatigued relief workers celebrating after slightly diverting a flood. ...


leoniehaimson
freep.com - The embattled Detroit Public Schools could suffer even more financial setbacks if education plans proposed by the governor Wednesday are put into action, local leaders say.They specifically fear pr...


DianeRavitch
suntimes.com - Help for charter schools By ROSALIND ROSSI Education Reporter Apr 29, 2011 11:16AM A lameduck school board prepared to pass the baton to a new leadership team Wednesday, approving policies that hel...


mikeklonsky
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Dear Friend:A very important election will take place on Tuesday, May 17th that will determine the future direction of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).California Democrats for Educa...


coopmike48
acapella.harmony-central.com - What pisses me off is the flat out lies from Obama and the looney left. I heard Bernie Sanders on the Daily Show talking about how we need to raise taxes on "millionaires and billionaires"...Same c...


mikeklonsky





Vote for My Blue Dog for the District 5 seat of the LAUSD Board of Education

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coopmike48 Michigan Policy Network - Governor Rick Snyder's Special Address on Education - http://goo.gl/cjley3 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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coopmike48 $3.1 billion in education cuts will force levies, larger classes | The Newark Advocate | NewarkAdvocate.com -http://goo.gl/eSU8u3 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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coopmike48 Evaluating teacher evaluations — Joanne Jacobs - http://goo.gl/hiKqS8 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
#edu Read this paper37 MORE ARTICLES
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Jersey Jazzman: Splitting HairsSplitting Hairsby DukeI'll get back to this article by Al Doblin later, but let me just weigh in on this:Last week, Governor Christie and I went back-and-forth on pub...


coopmike48
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Modern School: San Francisco’s “All-Cuts” BudgetSan Francisco’s “All-Cuts” Budget Educational Slash and Burn (Image by Joseph Robertson) Governor Brown’s tax extension proposal, which would have po...


coopmike48
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Agenda--May 11-12, 2011 - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education)Agenda--May 11-12, 2011Agenda and other related materials for the California State Board of Education (SBE) meeting to be he...


coopmike48
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Education123 MORE ARTICLES
chicagotribune.com - 5:52 p.m. CDT, April 27, 2011 ct-met-kindergarten-test-0428-20110427 A panel of Illinois educators and early childhood experts on Wednesday offered a blueprint for a new kindergarten test that woul...


mikeklonsky
michaelklonsky.blogspot.com - Urban prep get lots of money from Oprah. Urban Prep is the most over-hyped charter school in Chicago. It's not that Tim King's all-boys charter school isn't doing some good things or having some su...


mikeklonsky
yakima-herald.com - Saturday Soapbox -- Standardized tests don't pass the test on evaluating students By Jane Watson For the Yakima Herald-Republic Standardized testing seems to make sense. We all want to be sure ch...


leoniehaimson
Politics11 MORE ARTICLES
mercurynews.com - LANSING, Mich.—A longshot effort to recall Republican Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder can begin collecting signatures aimed at getting the measure on the ballot. Election officials approved the recall pe...


tbfurman
blogs.forbes.com - EducationApr. 29 2011 - 6:19 pm | 0 views | 0 recommendations |By E.D. KAIN Adam Serwer has a smart response up to my latest piece on Gary Johnson. He writes: I’m not so interested in progressive l...


coopmike48
baycitizen.org - City Hall and public-union leaders met late Thursday afternoon to hash out details of a consensus pension- and benefits-reform measure as the now-unwieldy group continues to lurch toward an agreeme...


coopmike48
Living9 MORE ARTICLES
uft.org - Anti-union lithograph from Harper’s Weekly depicts the homemade bomb going off at Chicago’s Haymarket Square rally on May 4, 1886. For generations, May Day, the International Workers Day celebrated...


mikeklonsky
news.firedoglake.com - Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, who suggested that conservatives should engage in a truce on social issues and focus on deficits, will sign legislation that will ban state funding for Planned Paren...


coopmike48
nj.com - TRENTON — The federal government is ordering New Jersey to pay back $271 million after Gov. Chris Christie backpedaled on a plan to build a new commuter tunnel under the Hudson River. "The law is c...


coopmike48
Stories8 MORE ARTICLES
hispanicallyspeakingnews.com - Wheeling resident Reveca Torres damaged her spinal cord during a family trip to Mexico in 1994. “Becky,” as she’s called by family and friends, 13 years old at the time, was physically paralyzed an...


coopmike48
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - My Plea to Citizen Trump | Lefty ParentMy Plea to Citizen Trumpby Cooper ZaleNot quite sure why Donald Trump is suddenly pushing all my buttons. I mean he’s always been ridiculously full of himself...


coopmike48
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Dear May: I Know Your Tricks | Mr. Teachbad's Blog of Teacher DisgruntlementDear May: I Know Your Tricksby mrteachbadIt’s finally the end of April.Happy Friday and good riddance to another month. N...


coopmike48
Business5 MORE ARTICLES
nydailynews.com - Jefferson Siegel for News Prosecutors say Ross Lanham bilked more than $3.6 million from taxpayers. Another top city computer consultant has been arrested by federal prosecutors on corruption charg...


leoniehaimson
sfgate.com - California regulators questioned Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s gas record-keeping practices as early as 2007, when they discovered that vital documents were apparently being written in erasable in...


coopmike48
news.firedoglake.com - Dear Mr. President: As you know, the skyrocketing cost of gasoline is causing severe economic pain to millions of Americans who have already suffered through the worst economic crisis since the Gre...


coopmike48
Environment3
ourschoolsnyc.org - Originally posted in the Wall Street Journal, Apr 29, 2011. pg. A.17 The stickers bear a city Department of Environmental Protection logo, the words “Safe to drink” in capital letters and a drawi...


leoniehaimson
news.sciencemag.org - TOKYO—A prominent Japanese radiation safety specialist has resigned his governmental advisory post in protest over what he calls "inexcusable" standards for school children in Fukushima Prefecture....


coopmike48
democracynow.org - Web Exclusive Democracy Now! hosts a conversation between Palestinian author Rula Jebreal and Egyptian journalist Issandr El Amrani about the continued uprisings in the Middle East and Arab attitud...


coopmike48
#votejulie1
coolcatteacher.blogspot.com - tweetmeme_url = 'http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2011/04/thank-you-to-everyone-who-voted-for.html'; tweetmeme_source = 'coolcatteacher'; Image by Terry Freedman via FlickrJulie with our dear ...


coopmike48

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Class Sizes to Grow, Despite State's $1.3 Billion Program - The Bay Citizen

Class Sizes to Grow, Despite State's $1.3 Billion Program - The Bay Citizen

Class Sizes to Grow, Despite State's $1.3 Billion Program

by Jennifer Gollan
For years, the Oakland Unified School District spent millions of dollars to open small schools and hire more teachers, giving it some of the smallest class sizes in Alameda County. But that effort is slowly eroding as the state’s financial troubles deepen. The district’s average class size next year could jump to 30 students for every teacher, up from 23 this year, a 30-percent increase, according to figures provided by the district. “All of a sudden, students are having a lot less time with teachers,” said Crystal Brown, a spokeswoman for Educate Our State, a parent-led group dedicated to reforming the state’s public schools. “Even with 20 children in a classroom, it’s a really tough environment. There is no way that kids will get all their needs met.” Class
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“Teachers are skeptical pragmatists of classroom-directed policies, not stone-age obstructionists” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“Teachers are skeptical pragmatists of classroom-directed policies, not stone-age obstructionists” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...
“Teachers are skeptical pragmatists of classroom-directed policies, not stone-age obstructionists” Larry Cuban has written a very important post titled Teacher Resistance and Reform Failure (the title of my post is a quote from it). He makes a number of key points refuting charges that some school reformer make about many of us being “defenders of ...
So Many New Accessible Sites For Current Events News! Several new sites providing current news with accessible text have recently come online. I’m adding the following to The Best News/Current Events Websites For English Language Learners: Teaching Kids The News Youngzine Tween Tribune
Two Nice Vocabulary Sites For ELL’s Here are two nice sites I’m adding to The Best Sites Where ELL’s Can Learn Vocabulary: English Vocabulary Menu at ESOL Courses English Picture Dictionary from Club EFL
Two Nice Vocabulary Sites For ELL’s Here are two nice sites I’m adding to The Best Sites Where ELL’s Can Learn Vocabulary: English Vocabulary Menu at ESOL Courses English Picture Dictionary from Club EFL
April’s Best Tweets — Part Two Every month I make a short list highlighting my choices of the best resources I shared through (and learned from) Twitter, but didn’t necessarily include them in posts here on my blog. Now and then, in order to make it a bit easier for me, I may try ...
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Viewpoints: An amazing teacher's job shouldn't be at risk - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

Viewpoints: An amazing teacher's job shouldn't be at risk - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

Viewpoints: An amazing teacher's job shouldn't be at risk

By Jonathan Raymond
Special to The Bee
Published: Saturday, Apr. 30, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 13A

In our schools, we teach children to define and recognize irony, the literary device used to draw attention to some incongruity or irrationality. We provide examples of irony to help children understand. Sometimes we don't have to look too far for these examples.

Last week, Jody Cooperman, an outstanding English and history teacher at Sutter Middle School in east Sacramento for the past six years, was honored on national television as one of 12 semifinalists in the second annual "Top Teacher" search sponsored by "Live! With Regis and Kelly." Cooperman came to the show's attention after parents wrote heartfelt letters to producers praising her skills as an exemplary educator. One parent wrote an



Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/04/30/3590606/an-amazing-teachers-job-shouldnt.html#ixzz1L1I2Cat4
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4LAKids - A-G + CTE: SCHOOL REFORMS THAT CALL FOR FRESH THINKING AND SUPPORT

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: A-G + CTE: SCHOOL REFORMS THAT CALL FOR FRESH THINKING AND SUPPORT
A-G + CTE: SCHOOL REFORMS THAT CALL FOR FRESH THINKING AND SUPPORT Themes in the News for the week of April 25-29, 2011 by UCLA IDEA | http://bit.ly/l3pWpu 04-29-2011 - An opinion survey conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California found that many public school parents think that schools do a poor job of ...
Public Policy Institute of California Survey: WORRIED ABOUT BUDGET’S TOLL ON SCHOOLS, MOST CALIFORNIANS FAVOR INCOME TAX HIKE—BUT ONLY FOR WEALTHIEST :: MAJORITIES SAY SPECIAL ELECTION ON BROWN’S REVENUE PACKAGE IS A GOOD IDEA ppic Press Release | http://bit.ly/jl6Az4 full report: http://bit.ly/kDbhJX SAN FRANCISCO, April 27, 2011—Most Californians are very concerned that the state’s budget deficit will result in cuts to public schools, the area of the budget they most ...
SUE BURR GIVEN DUAL ROLE OVER EDUCATION: She and Mike Kirst to advise Jerry Brown By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess | http://bit.ly/lySppN Posted on 4/29/11 • In a twofer consistent with his frugality, Gov. Jerry Brown appointed a key education adviser Thursday who will also serve as the new executive director of the State Board of ...
SB 268? …and now for something completely different (and a little more focused on parents and children): ‘ANY TIME, ANY PLACE, ANY WAY’ SCHOOL CHOICE PLAN IN MICHIGAN By Sean Cavanagh | State EdWatch - Education Week http://bit.ly/jsfthe April 29, 2011 9:29 AM | Michigan Gov. Rick Synder proposed sweeping changes to education this week, but perhaps his most striking idea is to create an open-market for students to ...
SB 268: STATE BILL COULD LIMIT PARENTS’ APPEALS OF INTERDISTRICT PERMIT DENIALS + Bill Analysis By Melissa Pamer Staff Writer | Daily Breeze | http://bit.ly/mrauw1 04/30/2011 - A bill in the state Legislature could alter the process that allows parents to transfer their children between school districts, potentially affecting thousands of students ...
N.Y, Chicago, L.A.: THREE NEW SCHOOLS CHIEFS, THREE THINGS TO KNOW Melanie Smollin | TakePart - Inspiration to Action http://bit.ly/k3EJz2 New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago are the three largest school districts in the country. Together, these mega-districts educate 2.2 million students and house almost 3,000 ...
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A New Kind of Racial Bias in Our Classrooms | Seattle Education

A New Kind of Racial Bias in Our Classrooms | Seattle Education

A New Kind of Racial Bias in Our Classrooms

by seattleducation2011

Originally posted in Education Week.

How Education Reform Traps Poor Children

by Alfie Kohn

Love them or hate them, the proposals collectively known as “school reform” are mostly top-down policies: Divert public money to quasi-private charter schools, pit states against one another in a race for federal funding, offer rewards when test scores go up, fire the teachers or close the schools when they don’t.

Policymakers and the general public have paid much less attention to what happens inside classrooms—the particulars of teaching and learning—especially in low-income neighborhoods. The news here has been discouraging for quite some time, but, in a painfully ironic twist, things seem to be getting worse as a direct

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Jersey Jazzman: Worldwide Assault on Teacher Pensions

Jersey Jazzman: Worldwide Assault on Teacher Pensions

Worldwide Assault on Teacher Pensions

by Duke
No, I'm not kidding. Start with India:
HUBLI: K K Theke Datta of All-India Federation of University and College Teachers' Organizations (AIFUCTO) has threatened to stage protests if teachers' pensions are not revised as per the recommendations of the VI Pay Commission.
Speaking at an interaction programme on the problems being faced by retired teachers, here on Sunday, he said the government is doing injustice to teachers by showing indifference in implementing the recommendations as per the revised UGC pay scale. He said the apathy in fixing the pension is not accepted and hence the governments should immediately
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Susan’s Choice: Will Seattle’s new interim school superintendent lead the district in the right direction? Or will it be business as usual behind a more friendly facade? | Seattle Education

Susan’s Choice: Will Seattle’s new interim school superintendent lead the district in the right direction? Or will it be business as usual behind a more friendly facade? | Seattle Education

Susan’s Choice: Will Seattle’s new interim school superintendent lead the district in the right direction? Or will it be business as usual behind a more friendly facade?

by seattleducation2011

‘We must restore public trust,’ cited the Seattle School Board directors over and over again in March as they wrung their hands over the costly $1.8 million fraud scandal that rocked the district, and cast their vote to oust the superintendent they once blindly followed.

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Schools Matter: Christie Hogs Spotlight at a Very Friendly Harvard GSE

Schools Matter: Christie Hogs Spotlight at a Very Friendly Harvard GSE

Christie Hogs Spotlight at a Very Friendly Harvard GSE

by Jim Horn
The same day that the Globe was telling the story of 50 Harvard doctoral students protesting the takeover of the Graduate School of Education by technocrats, economists, and other corporate water carriers for the Oligarchs,the School warmly welcomed the nation's most morbidly obese bully governor to belch his rapacious poison against his own teachers, who until now, have helped New Jersey attain top five status in terms of NAEP results. But all that matters not a whit, as New Jersey's militantly-ignorant governor has made clear through his first fumbling Secretary of Education, Mr. Schundler, who said publicly that NAEP scores were irrelevant.

Since that utterance, we have come to understand the profound honesty of those fool remarks, for NAEP results or nothing else matters in the continuing assault by the corporate Borg, of which Christie is a supersized chunk, an
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Queens Teacher: Michigan Mayor Spells Out Deformers Agenda - Corporatize, Privatize & Profitize Public Schools

Queens Teacher: Michigan Mayor Spells Out Deformers Agenda - Corporatize, Privatize & Profitize Public Schools
UFT President Mulgrew at Francis Lewis High School, Queens
Michigan Mayor Spells Out Deformers Agenda - Corporatize, Privatize & Profitize Public Schools *Go to 3:28 for segment.* Mayor Virg Benero: "Billions of dollars at stake, billions of dollars being spent and Wall Street can't wait to sink their fangs into it. They couldn't get a hold of Social Security but by gosh they've got a way to get in. ...
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Teacher Resistance and Reform Failure | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Teacher Resistance and Reform Failure | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Teacher Resistance and Reform Failure

by larrycuban

In the midst of both teach praise and teacher bashing nowadays abides a nagging but persistent assumption among state and federal policymakers hellbent on the standards-testing-accountability agenda, charter school operators, and high-tech enthusiasts for online instruction that most teachers resist change.

For decades, teachers have been blamed for not implementing well the latest reform aimed at classroom practice. Whether it was open space schools, laptops, new reading programs, Direct Instruction, project-based learning that yielded unspectacular or even undesirable student outcomes, teachers were at fault. If only teachers were change-enthusiastic, not change-resistant, critics said. See here and WhySomeTeachersResistChange-Zimmerman-2006-1 .

Critics were (and are) inaccurate and uninformed.

Teachers have changed in how they have taught. In How Teachers Taught, a history of classroom instruction

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Testing!Testing! 1…2…3 « Diary of a Public School Teacher!

Testing!Testing! 1…2…3 « Diary of a Public School Teacher!:

Testing!Testing! 1…2…3

by Oldschoolteach
It’s that time again! Actually, for me this is the third time my students will be taking the state test. When Delaware opted out of the DSTP,(Delaware State Testing Program) I was thrilled! We used to take the DSTP in March, even though we had not finished teaching the curriculum. We would actually lose about two weeks of teaching(and [...]

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Daily Kos: Hatred

Hatred

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

It seems as if I cannot get away from it

Expressions of hatred

Discussions of hatred

Hate directed towards the LGBT community

Hate directed towards Obama

Hate directed towards those who criticize Obama

I am not a psychologist or a psychiatrist, so what I offer here is only a personal reaction

I want to address Hate

I wand to discuss Hatred

I was not sure which word to use for the title

I am writing from the deepest part of my soul

my feelings will not be hurt if you decide not to continue reading

I will be honored if you are willing to hear me out

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Friday, April 29, 2011

Modern School: San Francisco’s “All-Cuts” Budget

Modern School: San Francisco’s “All-Cuts” Budget
San Francisco’s “All-Cuts” Budget Educational Slash and Burn (Image by Joseph Robertson) Governor Brown’s tax extension proposal, which would have possibly closed California’s gaping budget hole, is now off the table. As a result, San Francisco Unified now faces two possibilities: ...
Schools Prepare to Cut Foreign Language Classes American Educated Student on Left (Image by zinjixmaggir) Throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, and in other regions of California, schools are cutting foreign language offerings in order to offset budget deficits, *The Bay Citizen* reported today. ...
Liberal Union Busting Liberal and progressive bloggers, activists and journalists have been complaining a lot lately about how the Koch brothers, Tea Partiers and right wing Republicans have been attacking working people, unions, immigrants, seniors and the poor, ...
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Agenda--May 11-12, 2011 - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education)

Agenda--May 11-12, 2011 - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education)

Agenda--May 11-12, 2011

Agenda and other related materials for the California State Board of Education (SBE) meeting to be held on May 11-12, 2011.
State Board Members

Michael W. Kirst, President
Trish Williams, Vice President

James Aschwanden
Yvonne Chan
Carl Cohn
Aida Molina
James C. Ramos
Patricia A. Rucker
Ilene W. Straus
Connor Cushman, Student Member

Secretary & Executive Officer

Hon. Tom Torlakson

Interim Executive Director

Patricia de Cos

Schedule of Meeting

Location

Wednesday, May 11, 2011
9:00 a.m. Pacific Time +

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
Closed Session – IF NECESSARY
(The public may not attend.)

California Department of Education
1430 N Street, Room 1101
Sacramento, California 95814
916-319-0827

The Closed Session (1) may commence earlier than 9:00 a.m.; (2) may begin at or before 9:00 a.m., be recessed, and then be reconvened later in the day; or (3) may commence later than 9:00 a.m.


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San Diego EA members protest Layoffs « State of Emergency

San Diego EA members protest Layoffs « State of Emergency

San Diego EA members protest Layoffs

by billguy
Educators and parents protest layoffs in San Diego

Roughly 150 parents educators and students rallied outside Jefferson Elementary School in San Diego Friday morning, April 29, 2011. Parents and educators surrounded all four corners of a busy intersection, receiving loud cheers and honks of support from the city’s commuters in protest of the San Diego School Board’s decision to lay off one out of every six educators.

Friday’s San Diego Education Association layoff rally brings the total of parents, educators and community

San Diego EA members protest layoffs

by billguy
Roughly 150 parents, educators and students rallied outside of Jefferson Elementary School in San Diego Friday morning, April 29, 2011. Parents and educators surrounded all four corners of University and Utah, receiving loud cheers and honks of support from the city’s commuters in protest of the school board’s decision to lay off one out of six educators.

Today’s San Diego Education Association layoff rally at Jefferson Elementary brings the total of parents, educators and community members who have gathered to protest layoffs to roughly 6,500! Jefferson’s rally was the thirty-second in SDEA’s ongoing series of rolling rallies across the district to fight the school board’s decision to lay off one out of six educators

SDEA’s State of Emergency Week activities will include a school board meeting rally on May 10, a Day of the Teacher Mexican food social event on May 11, and participation in the huge rally drawing public education supporters from throughout the area on Friday, May 13, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. at San Diego’s Embarcadero Marina Park North.
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