Friday, July 15, 2011

Big Education Ape: 7-15-11 AM Save our Schools Rally & March EDition

Big Education Ape: Ed News Now
Big Education Ape: Ed News Now
Published by Coopmike48 – 5 contributors today

Save our Schools Rally & March July 30, 2011 Washington, DC

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Education VotesSOS MarchDiscuss 5 Share121 Save our Schools Rally & MarchJuly 30, 2011Washington, DCThe National Education Association has endorsed the Save our Schools March.A well-educated societ...

coopmike48

Tom Vander Ark’s New York-Area Charter Schools Falter

nytimes.com - After years spent directing the distribution of more than $1 billion from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation into hundreds of schools across the nation, Tom Vander Ark set his sights on the New ...

DianeRavitch

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coopmike48 Chicago Public Schools chief criticizes aspects of new breakfast program - chicagotribune.com -http://goo.gl/ZOm7K15 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

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coopmike48 Minority students say end zero-tolerance policy at CPS - chicagotribune.com - http://goo.gl/uYcRZ15 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

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coopmike48 Teamster Nation: Today's Teamster News 07.15.11 -http://goo.gl/scTIz14 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

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coopmike48 Rise & Shine: Contract with Murdoch’s ed tech firm under fire | GothamSchools - http://goo.gl/EA3ZA14 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

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Giuliani warns against rushed News Corp. judgment

articles.boston.com - “I’ll probably see him some point in the next couple of days — or a week — I see him all the time, at various functions,’’ he said during the taping of an interview for CNN at Manchester Harley Dav...

leoniehaimson

Barack, the great triangulator

michaelklonsky.blogspot.com - I think Obama may have just just sewn up the 2012 election. The big boys from Wall Street finally had enough political posturing and made it clear that they wouldn't tolerate a default by the U.S. ...

fklonsky

Dems' Concessions On Debt Debate Are 'Very Troubling'

huffingtonpost.com - WASHINGTON -- A resolution to raise the nation's debt ceiling may remain far off. But the long-term framing of the debate over spending and debt is becoming slightly clearer, and it's causing philo...

mikeklonsky

Art & EntertainmentSee all

72 hour film shootout kicks off july 15

blog.angryasianman.com - Reminder: The 72 Hour Film Shootout starts this Friday, July 15 at 8:00pm ET. Teams across the nation will have 72 hours to write, shoot and edit a 5-minute film based on a pre-determined theme. Ar...

coopmike48

Famosos con tรญtulos de las mejores universidades

vidayfamilia.univision.com - La Universidad de Yale, situada en Connecticut honrรณ al ex beatle Paul McCartney otorgรกndole el tรญtulo de doctor honoris causa de Mรบsica. Basรกndose en que McCartney consiguiรณ despertar a toda una g...

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LivingSee all

7 California students get arrested to test deport policy

insidebayarea.com - . SAN BERNARDINO -- Seven illegal immigrant students arrested in a Southern California street protest say they're now waiting to see if they'll be deported in a test of the Obama administration's i...

coopmike48

define american: sign the immigrant rights petition

blog.angryasianman.com - A few weeks ago, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas published an article in which came out about his undocumented immigrant status. Tired of staying in the shadows, he's using th...

coopmike48

Sen. Durbin, Religious Leaders Pushing for DREAM Act Sabbath

hispanicallyspeakingnews.com - Published at 2:27 pm, July 14, 2011 Photo Credits: Epiphany Episcopal Church in Chicago, Illinois Illinois Senator Dick Durbin is bringing people together once again to push for the passage of a na...

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EnvironmentSee all

"Good Fortune"

lorijablonski.blogspot.com - Here is a link to a new documentary on international development efforts to reduce poverty and the serious and important issues raised when the goals of development experts clash with those living ...

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#eduRead this paperSee all

Say no to school testing madness | ajc.com

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Say no to school testing madness | ajc.comSay no to school testing madnessShareThisPrintE-mailBy Stephanie JonesThe Multi-Billion Dollar Testing Industry has done it again. The industry continues ...

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      Close Achievement Gap by Discussing Race, Expert Says - High School Notes (usnews.com)

      Close Achievement Gap by Discussing Race, Expert Says - High School Notes (usnews.com)

      Close Achievement Gap by Discussing Race, Expert Says

      By JASON KOEBLER

      Posted: July 15, 2011

      Print

      In a country where white students vastly outperform black and Hispanic students on national standardized tests, one education innovator says the performance gap can be eliminated on a school-by-school basis by having honest discussions with teachers about race.

      "We like to create proxies for conversations around race," says Glenn Singleton, president and CEO of Pacific Educational Group, a consulting firm based in San Francisco that's dedicated to addressing racial education disparities. "We talk about poverty, not recognizing that poor white kids outperform poor black and brown kids."

      Singleton argues that many teachers don't know how to relate to students who are of a different race. "Along with conversations about English-language acquisition [for Hispanics] and poverty's impact on students' readiness to learn, we have to have a continuous

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      Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Vander Ark dips toe into the charter waters

      Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Vander Ark dips toe into the charter waters

      Vander Ark dips toe into the charter waters

      But after spending more than $1.5 million of investors’ money on consultants and lawyers, Vander Ark walked away from the project, and the schools will not open as planned this fall, leaving others involved stunned and frustrated. -- NYT
      Mr. Tillotson, the consultant, said: “It signals what’s wrong with the so-called charter school community. Somebody who
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      California Dream Act sent to governor | Thoughts on Public Education

      California Dream Act sent to governor | Thoughts on Public Education

      California Dream Act sent to governor

      Lawmakers also act on other education legislation

      Posted on 7/15/11 • Categorized as Assessments, Charters, Foster care, Jerry Brown,Standardized tests, Tests, Undocumented students

      By Kathryn Baron

      And they’re off! Bills flew through the senate and assembly chambers as lawmakers wrapped up as much business as possible before leaving for summer recess on Thursday afternoon. When they return on August 15th, the docket will still be full, but the fate of some key education bills is coming into sharper focus. Here’s where they stand.

      AB 130: California Dream Act of 2011
      Assemblyman Gil Cedillo

      The state senate passed and sent to Gov. Brown the first of two Dream Act bills by Assemblyman Cedillo allowing some undocumented college students to apply for private scholarships at California’s state colleges and universities.

      None of this money comes from the state budget; it’s from private donors who establish

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      What did Harry Potter learn at Hogwarts? - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

      What did Harry Potter learn at Hogwarts? - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

      What did Harry Potter learn at Hogwarts?

      by Valerie Strauss

      So what did Harry Potter, Hermonie Granger and Ron Weasley actually learn at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? How good was their education?

      Better than you might think.

      Hogwarts offered them an education with creative depth and breadth, certainly compared to schools that have squeezed out a lot of science, history, art and other subjects to make way for test prep.

      Read full article >>
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      Schooling in the Ownership Society: Did they really give VanderArk his own chain of charter schools?

      Schooling in the Ownership Society: Did they really give VanderArk his own chain of charter schools?

      Did they really give VanderArk his own chain of charter schools?

      by Mike Klonsky
      Tom VanderArk, was the Gates Foundation’s former executive director of education and a national proponent of online learning. His for-profit company was granted charters in 2010 to open a high school in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and two others in Newark. The New York school, Brooklyn City Prep, also got space in a public school building — a precious and controversial commodity — hired a principal, and welcomed applications

      What to do about Murdoch's $47 million deal with Bloomberg's schools?

      by Mike Klonsky
      From Think Progress:
      New York is readying to hand over tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer dollars to a corporation that may have hacked 9/11 victims and which is being defended in the scandal by a man who once was a high-ranking official in New York City government. But according to Carl Korn, a spokesman for the New York State United Teachers, there is still a way to stop the deal.
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      solidaridad: A Mother's message to LAUSD Trustee Nury Martinez

      solidaridad: A Mother's message to LAUSD Trustee Nury Martinez

      EchoParkPatch: A Mother's message to LAUSD Trustee Nury Martinez

      by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene
      "If there's one thing I hope comes out of this is that Ms. Martinez thinks about the incident and reflects upon how she and the other board members ignored our community's voices throughout the entire process." — Windy Anne Bunts O'Malley

      What this was about was silencing any dissent against the lucrative privatization of our public schools, and the filtering out any parents or community members that actually represent their constituent communities instead of well funded astroturf 501C3 groups.
      A Mother's message to LAUSD Trustee Nury Martinez contains my interview with Windy O'Malley, the local mother who was wrongly and viciously accosted by LAUSD Trustee Nury Martinez at the March 25, 2011 School Board Meeting. Following the interview is analysis of how Martinez was sidestepping issues of removing democracy and ignoring community voices.

      The incident further exposes the so-called Public School Choice (PSC)

      A reader speaks out on CNCA Corporation's Shannon Leonard's questionable credentials

      by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene
      I pressed the issue and asked, "so was [Mr. Leonard] a professor of education?" LMU's Director of Communications and Media retorted, "No, he was part time faculty."

      Slide featuring Shannon Leonard's credentials. The last line mentioning he was a
      The essay Camino Nuevo Corporation: A Little Less Than Honest Again? on EchoParkPatch demonstrated again that the well paid business executives running the corporate charter have little respect for the truth, and even less respect for our community. Catching Camino Nuevo Charter Academy Corporation in yet another lie precipitated much feedback, mostly positive, although several right wing privatization fanatics were angry that ordinary people were paying attention to corporate malfeasance.

      However, one reader went further and actually did more research than anyone on Mr. Leonard's highly suspect
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      Thursday, July 14, 2011

      solidaridad: Schools Matter: Los Angeles privatization pushers take second biggest slice of reactionary Walton pie

      solidaridad: Schools Matter: Los Angeles privatization pushers take second biggest slice of reactionary Walton pie

      Schools Matter: Los Angeles privatization pushers take second biggest slice of reactionary Walton pie

      by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene
      "[T]here should be no education marketplace." — Dr. Diane Ravitch (celebrated education professor and author)


      In the long run, charter schools are being strategically used to pave the way for vouchers. - Jonathan Kozol
      In Los Angeles privatization pushers take second biggest slice of reactionary Walton pie I take the Valerie Strauss piece discussing where and how funds from the arch-reactionaries of the Walton Family Foundation were divvied out to various entities engaged in the privatization of public education, and put the spotlight on egregious local offenders.


      The list includes: Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, Parent Revolution (nรฉe

      Save Our Schools

      EchoParkPatch: Camino Nuevo Corporation: A Little Less Than Honest Again?

      by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene
      "[Camino Nuevo Charter Academy Corporation]'s board is UNELECTED by the public and composed exclusively of investment management executives, high powered lawyers, and other wealthy business types. Not one of them is an actual educator, and none of them have been teachers or principals in a K-12 setting. Furthermore, not one of them lives in Echo Park or Historic Filipinotown." — Robert D. Skeels

      Slide featuring Shannon Leonard's credentials. The last line mentioning he was a
      Camino Nuevo Corporation: A Little Less Than Honest Again? is my report back from the final meeting held by Camino Nuevo Charter Corporation at Union Avenue School reveals very serious resume padding for Shannon Leonard, CNCA's new Principal of CRES #14. Most importantly we photographed a slide featuring
      Posted by at

      Tom Vander Ark’s New York-Area Charter Schools Falter - NYTimes.com

      Tom Vander Ark’s New York-Area Charter Schools Falter - NYTimes.com

      Tom Vander Ark’s New York-Area Charter Schools Falter

      by By ANNA M. PHILLIPS
      A former top official with the Gates Foundation found that opening innovative schools in the New York area was harder than he had anticipated

      After years spent directing the distribution of more than $1 billion from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation into hundreds of schools across the nation, Tom Vander Ark set his sights on the New York area, with a plan to create a network of charter schools of his own.

      Enlarge This Image
      Kim Kulish for The New York Times

      Tom Vander Ark, the former executive director of education for the Gates Foundation, says a weak economy hurt efforts by City Prep Academies to start schools in New York and New Jersey.

      Enlarge This Image

      Mr. Vander Ark, the foundation’s former executive director of education and a national leader in the online learning movement, was granted charters in 2010 to open a high school in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and two others in Newark. The New York school, Brooklyn City Prep, also got space in a public school building — a precious and controversial commodity — hired a principal, and welcomed applications from 150 eighth graders this spring.

      But after spending more than $1.5 million of investors’ money on consultants and lawyers, Mr. Vander Ark, 52, has walked away from the project, and the schools will not open as planned this fall, leaving others involved stunned and frustrated.

      “If we had plotted a worst-case scenario, no one could have

      Posted by at

      Say no to school testing madness  | ajc.com

      Say no to school testing madness | ajc.com

      Say no to school testing madness

      By Stephanie Jones

      The Multi-Billion Dollar Testing Industry has done it again. The industry continues to usurp precious resources out of local schools when districts are forced to lay off teachers, discontinue programs for children and eliminate field trips. But beyond the fiscal crimes inflicted on schools that restrict children’s opportunities, the industry makes a mockery out of the whole education enterprise.

      And they’re laughing all the way to the bank.

      The latest, but certainly not the last, scorned school district is right here in our backyard.

      The Atlanta Public Schools “cheating scandal” is scandalous, but not necessarily for the reasons spewed from mouths of people not looking beyond their noses. The embarrassment and shame comes from the fact that multinational private testing corporations are determining the fate of our children, youth, educators and future.

      It is widely known in educational research that the tests are poorly written, often scored incorrectly and by noneducators, and often evaluate pre-existing knowledge rather than

      Posted by at

      School Tech Connect: Someone's Getting Yelled At...

      School Tech Connect: Someone's Getting Yelled At...

      Someone's Getting Yelled At...

      by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)
      ... at the 51 second mark of this video. I wonder who it could be... Hmm..... I simply can't tell...

      Anyway, my own feeling is that over the long haul, assuming pensions still exist in another year, the thing that will be most missed out of everything recently lost is seniority. It's basically gone, as far as I can tell, and I think it people will look back and realize that a lot of damage was done in that particular giveaway.

      The Kids Are All Right

      by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)
      I realize the popular spelling is "alright." I just can't go there. Anyway, the kids seem to be aware that "shape up or ship out" isn't 100% a charter school thing. It's also part of "zero tolerance." There, I finally said something that wasn't an indictment of charter schools alone. Anyway, any policy that's increasing dropout rates is a failing policy. We really need to hold on to every kid that we can--- and not just for reading drills; we need to be able to offer them the kind of things that they need, rather than this Common Core, everyone-study-the-same-thing crap.

      Teachers Ruined Everything!

      by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)
      So cool.

      Infrastructure---you can't beat it for putting people to work. Here we stimulate the economy by inventing more tests for kids to take in school.

      At lease we have our military. And the most expensive health care system on the planet.


      The Coming Pension Grab

      by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)
      This is just excellent; it's the post I've been trying to formulate in my mind. Therefore, I take full credit for it. I kid! It's an excellent post on where Illinois is with the pensions. Go read it now, I command you.

      SPOILER ALERT: I'm about to quote the single phrase from Fred's post that describes the heart of the problem. Close your eyes if you haven't read it yet. Here goes: "Over some of our objections, the delegates approved the language change." I'm serious. I think that's the problem. Teachers have basically accepted the idea that they're guilty of some kind of crime and need to pay some kind of price.

      The average TRS pension is about $41,000 per year, and TRS members don't get Social Security, and they pay
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      Modern School: Deasy Encourages Myth That Teachers Cause School Failure

      Modern School: Deasy Encourages Myth That Teachers Cause School Failure

      Deasy Encourages Myth That Teachers Cause School Failure

      by Michael Dunn

      The Los Angeles Times had a piece last week about the 1,000 tenured teachers who have been displaced as a result of restructuring at some of LAUSD’s worst performing schools. Known as reconstitution and offered as one of several options for low scoring schools under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), several LAUSD schools have opted to fire all or most of their staffs under the delusion that hiring 80-90% new people will somehow bring up test scores.

      Why anyone buys this malarkey is inconceivable. It is difficult to hire the best candidate for just a single position at a school or any business, let alone 50-100 positions simultaneously. Furthermore, one of the most important in-school factors for student success is the development of meaningful and supportive relationships with adults, something that is undermined when the vast majority of teachers are given the boot. Also, low academic performance is tied much more closely to out-of-school factors, particularly students’ familial wealth, than to the quality of teachers. It is no coincidence that every one of the schools being
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