Monday, May 23, 2011

Big Education Ape: 5-23-11 AM Mr. Duncan, you are a Edition

Big Education Ape: Ed News Now

Monday, May. 23, 2011

Big Education Ape: Ed News Now

Published by Coopmike48 – 5 contributors today

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HEADLINES

Behind Grass-Roots School Advocacy, Bill Gates

nytimes.com - INDIANAPOLIS — A handful of outspoken teachers helped persuade state lawmakers this spring to eliminate seniority-based layoff policies. They testified before the legislature, wrote briefing papers...

DianeRavitch

Mr. Duncan, you are a shining example - Topeka K-12

examiner.com - Mr. Duncan, I’ll begin with a small sample of relevant adjectives just to get them out of the way: condescending, arrogant, insulting, misleading, patronizing, egotistic, supercilious, haughty, in...

DianeRavitch

The letter from assessment experts the N.Y. Regents ignored - The Answer Sheet

washingtonpost.com - Here’s the letter that 10 assessment experts sent to the New York State Board of Regents earlier this month urging it not to approve a system that links student standard test scores to the evaluati...

DianeRavitch

OUR VIEW: One party experiments with the future of Idaho’s children | Editorials

idahostatesman.com - April 03, 2011 PUBLIC EDUCATION - Idaho StatesmanPUBLIC EDUCATION Idaho’s public school system is now Idaho Republicans’ public school system.Republican State Superintendent Tom Luna cooked up this...

DianeRavitch

Five myths about America’s schools

washingtonpost.com - The end of the school year and the layoffs of tens of thousands of teachers are bringing more attention to reformers’ calls to remake public schools. Today’s school reform movement conflates the mo...

DianeRavitch

EducationSee all

Gates has spent close to a billion dollars buying "grass-roots" advocacy

schoolingintheownershipsociety.blogspot.com - “We’ve learned that school-level investments aren’t enough to drive systemic changes, The importance of advocacy has gotten clearer and clearer.” -- Gates Foundation spokesman Allan C. Golston Acc...

mikeklonsky

Behind Grass-Roots School Advocacy, Bill Gates

mikeklonsky

Think NCLB is Inflexible and Testing-Heavy? Wait Until You See the New Plan

schoolsmatter.info - Sent to the Washington Post, May 21. The Post characterizes the current education law (NCLB, or No Child Left Behind) as "inflexible" and "testing-heavy," and notes that there is "bipartisan agreem...

tbfurman

PoliticsSee all

Sunday links. « Fred Klonsky's blog

preaprez.wordpress.com - Plenty of folks showed up in Lansing, Michigan to show their anger at Governor Rick Synder’s education cuts. Barack Obama’s education plan: Just make the lowest performing kids disappear. Those fre...

fklonsky

Today's Teamster News 05.23.11

teamsternation.blogspot.com - State proposal would send $250 million to certified capital companies Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ...Legislation that Gov. Scott Walker says will create jobs would provide hundreds of millions of...

coopmike48

Has "ObamaCare" Begun The Undoing Of The Republican Party? | California Progress Report

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Has "ObamaCare" Begun The Undoing Of The Republican Party? | California Progress ReportHas "ObamaCare" Begun The Undoing Of The Republican Party?Posted on 22 May 2011Printer-friendly versionSend to...

coopmike48

StoriesSee all

Kimble's Corner: Congressman Kimble Releases Statement on Elect Woman Smear

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Kimble's Corner: Congressman Kimble Releases Statement on Elect Woman SmearCongressman Kimble Releases Statement on Elect Woman Smearby Representative KimbleThis evening I discovered a website call...

coopmike48

“The Sixties” Debate | Firedoglake

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - “The Sixties” Debate | Firedoglake“The Sixties” Debateby Glenn W. SmithKent State MassacreWe were idling away the evening on the balcony, drinking wine and talking about everything from the Keith R...

coopmike48

Big Beef With California’s Congressional Delegation

californiaprogressreport.com - Printer-friendly versionSend to friendBy Elanor StarmerFood and Water Watch Today, I’ve been thinking about beef. Not just any beef: Beef from hardworking independent family ranchers in California....

coopmike48

Art & EntertainmentSee all

Two Souls Get Raptured in Brooklyn Heights

brooklynheightsblog.com - Archives Select Month May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 201...

DianeRavitch

Home - Inside Higher Ed

insidehighered.com - February 24, 2011 The return of ROTC to some campuses -- seemingly assured by the end of the military's policy against gay service members -- may be hitting a few bumps.More February 24, 2011 City ...

coopmike48

asian pacific american visionaries conference, may 26

blog.angryasianman.com - If you're in New York, Verizon Wireless invites you to Asian Pacific American Visionaries: Innovate. Inspire. Rule., a conference in celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The event ...

coopmike48

LivingSee all

Framing The Anti-Gay Amendment Fight- Hate Vs. Love | The UpTake

theuptake.org - Video by Mike Maricle For the next 18 months Minnesotans can expected to be bombarded with ads and messages about the anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment that will be on the November 2012 ba...

coopmike48

Georgia Law Turns Focus on Sex-Trafficked Girls

womensenews.org - The problem of child sex-trafficking is widely associated with foreign countries such as Thailand and India. Advocates hope new sex-trafficking laws like the one passed in Georgia will focus concer...

coopmike48

Numerous Chicago Latino Organizations Rally for Redistricting

hispanicallyspeakingnews.com - An alliance of Latino organizations including the Illinois Latino Agenda, led by the Latino Policy Forum, and the Latino Coalition for Fair Redistricting, led by the United Neighborhood Organizatio...

coopmike48

HealthSee all

New federal law doesn't change Calif. health insurance debate

californiawatch.org - Toddhealthinsurance/Flickr Last week federal authorities announced the latest power granted to states under the health reform law: Regulators can scrutinize proposed health insurance rate hikes of ...

coopmike48

#edu Read this paperSee all

Kimble's Corner: Congressman Kimble Releases Statement on Elect Woman Smear

coopmike48

“The Sixties” Debate | Firedoglake

coopmike48

Controversy Over Scholastic Sponsorships Goes Beyond Coal

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Controversy Over Scholastic Sponsorships Goes Beyond CoalControversy Over Scholastic Sponsorships Goes Beyond Coalby Huffington Post News TeamAmidst heavy criticism over a "pro-coal" teaching tool ...

coopmike48

Media0

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“Starved For Attention” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“Starved For Attention” Starved For Attention is an impressive site sponsored by Doctors Without Borders. With video stories and other multimedia, it brings attention to malnutrition around the world. I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About World Food Day.

Photo Galleries Of The Week Obviously, photos can be great educational tools with English Language Learners and with any students (see The Best Ways To Use Photos In Lessons). I post about many photo galleries, also called slideshows. To do it in a little more organized way, ...

“Art Through Time: A Global View” Art Through Time: A Global View looks like a pretty amazing site from WNET. This is how the multimedia site describes itself: *Art Through Time: A Global View examines themes connecting works of art created around the world in different eras. The ...

“Closing the Poverty Gap: The Way Forward for Education Reform” Closing the Poverty Gap: The Way Forward for Education Reform is the title of guest column in Ed Week by Massachusetts Secretary of Education Paul Reville. After citing some pretty irrefutable data documenting the role of poverty in student ...

What parents aren’t asked in school surveys -- and why - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

What parents aren’t asked in school surveys -- and why

by Valerie Strauss

This was written by Alfie Kohn, the author of 12 books about education and human behavior, including “The Schools Our Children Deserve,” “The Homework Myth,” and the newly published“Feel-Bad Education . . . And Other Contrarian Essays on Children & Schooling.” He lives (actually) in the Boston area and (virtually) atwww.alfiekohn.com. A version of this appeared on the Education Week website.

Read full article >>

Wrong question, wrong answer

by Valerie Strauss

This was written by Marion Brady, veteran teacher, administrator, curriculum designer and author.

Read full article >>

Warren: Breakfast of Champions? Not at School - Chicago News Cooperative

Warren: Breakfast of Champions? Not at School

by JAMES WARREN

When Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s new Chicago Board of Education swings into action, they should not mark the occasion with a private dinner.

They should breakfast together in any of several thousand elementary school classrooms. There, they’ll get a small window onto the mess they inherit. Bring antacids and a nutritionist.

A “Breakfast in the Classroom” program approved by their predecessors is completing its mandatory rollout. All that can be said with certitude is it has shortened instructional time in a system with the shortest day and year of the nation’s largest top 50 districts.

“It’s a mess,” said a North Side elementary school principal who declined to be identified because of concern

Common Core’s manifesto war | Thoughts on Public Education

Common Core’s manifesto war - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

Opponents of the Common Core standards and the standardized tests that two consortia of states are designing see a plot by the Obama Administration to create a national curriculum. Common Core supporters say the opponents, primarily small-government conservatives, are twisting facts and connecting dots into patterns of their imaginations. Opponents are hoping to turn what has [...]

Bill Evers on the ‘counter-manifesto’ against a ‘national curriculum’ - by admin

by admin

NYC Educator: It's Always Easier to Ask Forgiveness than Permission

It's Always Easier to Ask Forgiveness than Permission

by NYC Educator

I've long lived by those words. A few weeks ago a kid asked whether she could plug her cell into the classroom outlet to charge it. "Of course not," I replied. Kids aren't allowed to have cell phones in school. Of course we all know many if not all have them anyway. If they don't use them to text, or pick them up and talk (that freaks me out), I ignore them and all things are as they should be.

On the other hand, I saw a girl pull her phone out of the wall at the end of a period on Friday and said nothing. This kid plugged it in when I wasn't watching and simply assumed she had an absolute right to do so. So how could I argue with her? Is it unfair? Am I lazy? Or is it that I just don't give a golly goshdarn?

All of the above, I suppose.

I like things as simple as possible. Do you think I should have said something to the girl I saw charging her

Reflecting on what I’m reading 5/22/2011 | Reflections on Teaching

Reflecting on what I’m reading 5/22/2011

by alicemercer

When I started this blog, I would do a weekly round-up of what I was reading around the Web. Given the plethora of ed politics and policy news this week, it seemed like a good time to bring that back. Here are some of the stories I’ve been reading:

First up, Bill Gates and his foundation hit the news in a big way. Here are three links:

The Business of Giving | Lancet questions Gates Foundation’s health spending priorities | Seattle Times Newspaper
This article was about problems that are Gates Foundation money is creating in their quest for a cure for malaria. I think it’s important because it points up the many of the same problems that his ventures in education have; lack of objectivity, lack of expertise, and the tendency to apply technocratic solutions in places where there are known and effective non-technical solutions. As my friend Larry Ferlazzo likes to

How Supes & Principals Should Not Respond to Tight Budgets :: Frederick M. Hess

How Supes & Principals Should Not Respond to Tight Budgets

by Frederick M. Hess • May 23, 2011 at 7:17 am
Cross-posted from Education Week

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I had the privilege of visiting with Rhode Island's superintendents and district business officers the other day, to discuss the fiscal crunch and how to stretch the school dollar. One of the things we touched on was the recentPhi Delta Kappan piece "Leading Through a Fiscal Nightmare." I used it to suggest how not to respond to a budget crunch, and to flag some tics common to superintendents and principals that are misguided and likely to alienate supporters.

The winning course, given that families (e.g. taxpayers) across America have lost jobs and homes, and had to tighten their belts, is to recognize that things are tough all over and then protect kids and programs by

Make that Monday morning phone call. 888-412-6570. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Make that Monday morning phone call. 888-412-6570.

by Fred Klonsky

This would be a good time to call your Illinois House and Senate member.

No on Senate Bill 512.

Don’t mess with our TRS.

888-412-6570.

Daily Kos: 65

65

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

It is now May 23, 2011. 65 years ago I was born, in New York City. My mother was Sylvia Livingston Bernstein. She graduated from Hunter College High School at 14, Cornell at 18, Columbia Law at 21. Because of her experiences she kept saying no when our school system wanted to accelerate me, but finally left the choice to me and after 4 weeks in 6th grade I moved to 7th.

My father was Louis Morton Bernstein. His father was an immigrant tailor, but he (and four of his five siblings) graduated from Cornell, in his case Phi Beta Kappa in Economics. He reached ABD in economics, served as the chief statistician for the RNC in 1936, and was a successful business executive and later a consultant, as well as adjunct at Columbia Business School.

I was the 2nd child. My older sister Judy was born in October of 1943, while my parents had reconnected in DC

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

by Mike Klonsky

Obama's commencement speech in Memphis

"We need to encourage this kind of change [small academies] all across America. We need to reward the reforms that are driven not by Washington, but by principals and teachers and parents. That's how we'll make progress in education - not from the top down, but from the bottom up." -- Seattle Times

One-sided class warfare

This week, Representative Paul Ryan, a Republican of Wisconsin, suggested to the Economic

Kimble's Corner: Congressman Kimble Releases Statement on Elect Woman Smear

Congressman Kimble Releases Statement on Elect Woman Smear

by Representative Kimble

This evening I discovered a website called Elect Women Magazine was targeting me. Here is a screen capture of what they posted:

My press release is as follows:

The feminati sent out their minions to do their bidding. The matriarchy cannot tolerate threats from thoughtful males who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when these she wolves sensed weakness. The Amazon warriors of the Manhattan cocktail set attacked with a viciousness far beyond the male of their

Sunday, May 22, 2011

On Malcolm X And The Importance of Public Opinion | The Jose Vilson

On Malcolm X And The Importance of Public Opinion

by Jose

Malcolm X, "Our Freedom Can't Wait!"

For the last few days, some of my fellow math teachers and I have been grading the NYS math test in an elementary school in Harlem. It’s been great because I get to wake up at 7 instead of 6 and still get to “work” on time. Yet, the warmer weather and my natural inquisitiveness has also sent me traversing my relatively new neighborhood in search of the best slices of this proud Black Mecca.

I walked up to 125th Street on Thursday when I noticed that almost every business (save a nationally recognized bank) had closed their doors from 1pm – 4pm. At first, my fellow math teachers and I were shocked; we weren’t used to the tradition for a man so many Americans malign. Yet, I grinned as I walked past the Rapture prophets,

Restart or Reflux? « EdVox

Restart or Reflux?

by edvoxny

By Carol Boyd

Last week the New York City Department of Education (DoE) announced the names of the 22 persistently low achieving (PLA) schools chosen to implement Restart, one of the four models authorized under the federal School Improvement Grants (SIG) guidelines. Schools that are selected for Restart are eligible to receive up to $2 million per year in SIG funds for a period of three years. Under the Restart model, schools will be under the management of education partner organizations (EPOs). If done well, Restart could be a real opportunity for struggling schools to finally get the guidance and supports they have needed for years. Unfortunately, thus far the Restart process looks more like a recipe for failure.

On Thursday May 19^th, representatives of the DoE met at Brooklyn Borough Hall to brief potential bidders for the EPO awards about the Restart process (link to audio recording here). It is common knowledge that turning around the lowest-performing schools is one of the most challenging endeavors in public education, and cannot be successful without-depth planning, consensus-building and research. However, in typical “haste makes waste” fashion, the DoE intends to have bidders submit their proposals by next Friday, May 27^th. The DOE plans to notify vendors within 2 weeks of their submittals, or by June 10th. According to the Request for Proposals,

Spinning Education | MyFDL

Spinning Education

by dakine01

(photo: Pedro Moura Pinheiro)

Author’s Note: Please take a few minutes and Join the Firedoglake Membership Program today. FDL provides the tools that help me and others extend our reach with our rants so we need to support FDL when we can.

I’m not going to act like an economist and claim to be “surprised” that folks are spinning various education pieces today. No, I am not at all surprised that it is happening, but I am a little frustrated when I see something like this from today’s (Sunday May 22) NY Times where the headline uses “grassroots” and “Bill Gates” together. The idea of anything funded from the coffers of a billionaire being considered “grass roots” is beyond ludicrous. But then, we are talking about a TradMed that willfully overlooks the funding of folks like the Koch Brothers and Dick Armey to proclaim various astro-turf organizations as “grass roots.”

To be fair, the Times article does point out a few of the problems:

INDIANAPOLIS — A handful of outspoken teachers helped persuade state lawmakers this spring

Controversy Over Scholastic Sponsorships Goes Beyond Coal

by Huffington Post News Team

Amidst heavy criticism over a "pro-coal" teaching tool called "The United States of Energy," Scholastic Corporation announced in a statement released May 13, that it will discontinue distribution of the controversial education materials.

In the statement, Scholastic acknowledged that there were problems with its sponsorship policy, which allows nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and corporations to produce material that is then distributed to teachers:

"We acknowledge that the mere fact of sponsorship may call into question the authenticity of the information, and therefore conclude that we were not vigilant enough as to the effect of sponsorship in this instance ... Because we have always been guided by our belief that we can do better, we are undertaking a thorough review of our policy and editorial procedures on sponsored content, and we will publish only those materials which are worthy of our reputation as 'the most trusted name in learning.'"

"The United States of Energy" was the result of a partnership between Scholastic and American Coal Foundation(ACF), a nonprofit that provides resources to teachers in an effort to educate young students about coal as a

How Bill Gates Bought Public Education (or Go Linux!)

It's pretty scary, the way a rich guy can influence an entire nation to succumb to his whim. It's scarier that the public let him.

...

Mr. Hess, a frequent blogger on education whose institute received $500,000 from the Gates foundation in 2009 “to influence the national education debates,” acknowledged that he and others sometimes felt constrained. “As researchers, we have a reasonable self-preservation instinct,” he said. “There can be an exquisite carefulness about how we’re going to say anything that could reflect badly on a foundation.”

“Everybody’s implicated,” he

Tom King's Blog of De-Fog!: The Animal School Redux

The Animal School Redux

by Dr. Tom

Does anyone remember reading that classic fable called, "The Animal School" by George Reavis? It was first published back in 1946 and is more true today than ever before. Read it below:

http://www.janebluestein.com/handouts/animal.html

Sad to say, we are still trying to standardize our students by requiring them to take standardized test on a largely standardized curriculum. Never mind that the kid are all different in abilities and interests, but grouped largely by age, as that's the only easy descriptor to measure. We'd like standardized results from them too, with all of them above average.

Did you ever stop and think what it means to have everyone above average? I don't recommend it, as it can cause an instant headache.

Since these NCLB tests we give our kids tell us little or nothing about how to help Jason with his reading or Gwen with her grammar, we have to figure out something useful to do with them. Billions are being tossed by states and feds into the test-makers' coffers annually, largely to assure us that while our students are not quite

Daily Kos: Brothers and Sisters at Daily Kos - Silence

Brothers and Sisters at Daily Kos - Silence

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

Welcome to Brothers and Sisters, the weekly meet-up for prayer* and community at Daily Kos. We put an asterisk on pray* to acknowledge that not everyone uses conventional religious language, but may want to share joys and concerns, or simply take solace in a meditative atmosphere. Anyone who comes in the spirit of mutual respect, warmth and healing, is welcome.

Silence is more than absence of speech. It can be an essential part of emptying oneself to make room for someone or something else.

Ocne in a class on the symphony, the late William Heartt Reese asked a group of us at Haverford College what the motif was of the Beethoven Fifth Symphony. One young man said "dit-dit-dit-DAH" almost as if doing the Morse code for the letter V. Reese told him he was wrong, to look at the score, that the motif was "rest-dit-dit-dit-DAH." That rest was an essential part of that structure.

Sometimes it is surprising or sudden silences. Beethoven is famous for them.

Sometimes it is that we need to remind ourselves of the need

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