Wednesday, August 3, 2011

by ldorazio1

Matt Damon at the SOS March, July 30, 2011 - Taken with my crappy Blackberry camera

Nothing is more awkward than confronting about a thousand people with nametags…and you don’t have one.

To be honest, I didn’t get to the SOS Conference at American University until Day 2, on Friday. Careening into the AU parking lot at quarter to ten in the morning, my mind was awash with witty remarks to excuse my lateness…

(“After the trooper guffawed in laughter, I got a warning and here I am!”)

Yet I just caught the end of the opening remarks as a wall of people collided with me. A mix of earnest do-

This Week In Education: Thompson: What (Some) Principals Really Think

Thompson: What (Some) Principals Really Think

by john thompson

The City Limits' Helen Zelon interviewed three New York City principals and in doing so took us back to the pre-NCLB era where administrators were allowed to express reality-based opinions.

One commited admitted that her job wasn't necessarily to save every single kid in the school. "If you reach even 10 students, you change the history of ten families." Another observed that the "genius" of the Progress Report is that "it allows DOE to pretend they're supervising schools while maintaining

Documents: How The AFT "Diffused" The CT Parent Trigger

by Alexander Russo

Embedded for your convenience, here's the PDF that blogger RiShawn Biddle found and passed along, which the AFT has apparently taken down from its own site (but not disavowed, far as I know).

Matt Damon, Arne Duncan, and Tests in Gym Class - Dana Goldstein

Matt Damon, Arne Duncan, and Tests in Gym Class

by Dana Goldstein

Check out my new column at The Nation on the divisive teacher quality debate.

Teachers (and parents, and Matt Damon) are right to be skeptical of the administration’s testing push. While “standards-based-assessment” doesn’t have to mean that students are sitting for dozens of new bubble tests—there are other ways to “test,” including portfolio-based systems, performance tasks, and presentations—the fact of the matter is that some states and school districts will respond to the incentives of Obama’s Race to the Top program in ways that over-rationalize learning.

Case in point: While reporting from Colorado this past winter, I observed a school district, Harrison District 2 in Colorado Springs, that gives pencil-and-paper exams in every subject at every grade level. The second

This Week In Education: Media: NBC's Newer, Better "Education Nation 2011"

Media: NBC's Newer, Better "Education Nation 2011"

by Alexander Russo

So NBC News is ramping up for its second week-long series of programming and events known as "Education Nation," which will culminate with a two-hour teacher town hall that host Brian Williams calls the week's "signature moment." Click below to read the release. This year, NBC has created an essay contest for teachers and will bring winners to NYC to participate.

Looking back to last year's version, NBC News head Steve Capus admits that they "probably spent a little too much time" talking about things like Waiting For Superman and Michelle Rhee that were hot topics but not necessarily representative of the full range of issues and perspectives. (There wasn't any breakout star or viral moment from last year's event in part -- this is my take -- because the proceedings were so tightly controlled and the attendees came from partner organizations predisposed to one side of the discussion.) They're trying to make sure that this year's event is both more diverse in terms of views

Schools Matter: Dept of Education reassures the public about funding: The new tests will survive, even if school doesn't

Dept of Education reassures the public about funding: The new tests will survive, even if school doesn't

by skrashen

Dolores Umbridge, Assistant Secretary of Education, US Department of Education, reassured educators and parents today that the huge budget cuts mandated by the new budget agreement will not harm our children. "The essentials, the new tests, will remain intact," she announced. "The Department of Education is firm on its plans to require end-of-year tests, formative tests, and, we are hoping, fall pre-tests in all subjects. We are also firm in our resolve to require pre-kindergarten screening, and, as planned, all tests will be administered on-line."

Reporter H. Potter from the Hogwarts Daily led the question and answer portion of the press conference with this question: "What about the huge expense of the tests? It has been estimated that just getting each student

Capitol Alert: Brown appoints six to troubled teacher credentialing panel

Brown appoints six to troubled teacher credentialing panel

Gov. Jerry Brown named six people Tuesday to the troubled Commission on Teacher Credentialing, fulfilling a vow to bring new leadership to a board whose teacher disciplinary practices were roundly criticized by a state audit.

Brown's six additions bring to eight the number of commissioners his office has appointed to the panel this year, giving the Democratic governor's appointees a majority of the 15 voting seats.

"Our office had stated that it was committed to finding new, capable, experienced and dedicated leaders -- and today's appointments will fulfill that commitment," said Evan Westrup, a spokesman for Brown.

Three of the new appointees will fill vacancies on the board, while the other three will replace members who were named by Arnold Schwarzenegger as he left office in January but had not yet been confirmed by the Senate. Commission members are not paid a salary.

Brown's six new appointees are:

• Erick Casallas, a 31-year-old teacher at Emerson Middle School in the Bakersfield City School District. Casallas, a Democrat, will serve a term ending in November 2013.

• Eddie Cuevas, a 40-year-old teacher of government and economics at West Adams Preparatory High School in Los Angeles. Cuevas, a Democrat, will serve a term expiring in November 2015.

• Linda Darling-Hammond, 59, has served as an education professor at Stanford University

Welcome back to school! | theteachingwhore

Welcome back to school!

by theteachingwhore

Lawrencedale MI (TWP Press)

Teachers at Lawrencedale Public Schools were welcomed back to school with a celebration of all things legal, political, marsupial, and maniacal. Superintendent John Underwood began by explaining the school’s lack of money, facilitating no funds for retirement, extra-duty pay, and dry erase markers.

After these awesomely cordial opening points, Underwear went on to texplain that the school had reduced so many employees that there weren’t enough left to man an accreditation committee, so Lawrencedale would no longer have national accredidation.

Instead of pausing to acknowledge teachers who won awards, attended and presented workshops and conferences over the summer, finished their master’s degrees or became nationally-board certified or master teachers or in any way celebrating education and the daily work of teaching and learning, the welcoming comments continued with the introduction of Richard Coppley of Coppley, Coppley, and Hicks, who took off his

Public Policy Blogger: Save Our Schools March. Now what? #sosmarch

Public Policy Blogger: Save Our Schools March. Now what?

Save Our Schools March. Now what?

by Anne Geiger

Following last week's Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action, now what?

We need a big tent of supporters and advocates. To start-

Connect to those who are concerned about the excessive emphasis on high-stakes standardized testing as a measure of "performance" of students and teachers. Teachers, administrators, school board members, parents, neighbors, friends, community leaders. Research institutions and foundations. Advocates for children, justice, equity, the arts and humanities, literacy and world-language fluency, pre-school, after-school and enrichment, outdoor play....the list goes on and on. Those who understand the need for fully nurturing the next generation for a healthy society, vibrant democracy and strong economy. Look for opportunities to bring it up in casual conversation. At the dinner table. During a night out with friends. Or parties with neighbors. I

Matt Damon « Teachers Fight Back

Matt Damon

by alkleen

I received many e.mails and notices on Facebook from my teacher friends who were elated at the video showing Matt Damon defending teachers during an interview with a reporter. I haven’t seen this many teachers so excited about something since they heard No Child Left Behind was on the way out. It’s almost as if teachers were desperately looking for some public figure to finally say something in defense of teachers. I find this really sad. Is this how downtrodden, defeated and depressed teachers are ? It was almost as if these teachers were shocked to see someone stand up for them instead of criticize them.

I think we need federal, state, local, and school district laws forbidding the bullying of teachers. We already have laws to combat the bullying of students, now it’s time for similar laws regarding teachers. All the teachers I

Comcast Begins Program To Offer Inexpensive Internet Access & Computers To Low-Income Families Larry Ferlazzo

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… - Comcast Begins Program To Offer Inexpensive Internet Access & Computers To Low-Income Families

Comcast Begins Program To Offer Inexpensive Internet Access & Computers To Low-Income Families

by Larry Ferlazzo

Comcast has begun a nation-wide program to offer monthly $9.95 Internet access to the students who qualify for free school lunches. In addition, they will sell the family a computer for less than $200. They say the monthly fee comes “with a guarantee of no activation fees, equipment rental fees or price increases. I’m always wary when I hear about a deal that sounds too good to be true, and I’m also wary of the educational value of some well-intentioned home tech programs that have started on

Today’s Round-Up Of Good School Reform Posts, Videos & Articles

by Larry Ferlazzo

Here’s the latest batch of good school reform-related posts and articles:

How to Mold Public Opinion Against Public Schools is by Walt Gardner at Ed Week. I’m mainly including it here because of a paragraph he writes about the PISA Test:

The results of the Program for International Student Assessment showed that our students actually placed No. 1 when they were compared with students at schools abroad having similar poverty rates. To wit: schools in the U.S. with less than a 10 percent poverty rate posted a score of 551. Finland, which is widely

Jersey Jazzman: Testing For $$$

Testing For $$$

by Duke

Why are we so testing crazed these days?

My colleague, Dr. David Boers, one of the higher education champions of at-risk kids, and I were dejectedly discussing the meteoric rise of the high-stakes testing insanity and the quickly receding hope and despite the obvious need for increasing child-centered education in our public schools. In other words, resources that kids desperately need in present day public education are diminishing while expenditures for things useless for child growth and development—such as high-stakes testing—are increasing. The “We really care about children!” banner-talk by Congress is more and more unrelated to what teachers in the field and pragmatic educational experts such as David, Douglass Reeves, Jerry Conrath, David Berliner, Grant Wiggington, Jonathan Kozol, and Alfie Kohn,

Breaking News! Report on High-Stakes Cheating by Educators Released!

NARENnews

Breaking News! Report on High-Stakes Cheating by Educators Released!

Month Long NAREN Survey and Study Produces Eye-Opener

Anthony Dallmann-Jones

August 1, 2011 — NAREN Central Office has released a startling and revealing report after administering a survey to a sampling of American teachers and administrators in early July of this year. Initiated by a bonfire of a story out of Atlanta where 178 educators in an organized "ring" were caught changing high-stakes testing scores. Similar stories out of Houston, Baltimore, and other cities began to surface. Newer allegations came forth regarding investigations of cheating by teachers in schools connected to the Race to the Top, high-stakes testing, merit-pay, and paying teachers based on test scores — even a SINGLE test score! Backed by and urged on by Arne Duncan, secretary of Education, and some larger figures in the news such as Bill Gates, Michele Rhee and big testing corporations birthed a movie titled Waiting for Superman, which basically said US schools were going to hell, and the call was for more pressure on teachers to perform. A reactionary film, Race to Nowhere, surfaced last year claiming that kids were under too much

Jersey Jazzman: This Is How We Treat "Professionals"?

This Is How We Treat "Professionals"?

by Duke

In Massachusetts, a health care advocacy organization plans to mount a drive for a 2012 ballot law that would force public hospitals to prioritize doctor effectiveness over seniority when it comes to hiring, placement, layoff and transfer policies, an effort that appears likely to encounter resistance from the AMA and a skeptical Patrick administration.

Oh, sorry, I read that wrong...

An education advocacy organization plans to mount a drive for a 2012 ballot law that would force schools to prioritize teacher effectiveness over seniority when it comes to hiring, placement, layoff and transfer policies, an effort that appears likely to encounter resistance from teachers unions and a skeptical Patrick administration.

See, somehow, it's OK for doctors to police themselves, run and staff boards of review, and use seniority in

Tab for new tests $25.9 million | EdNewsColorado

Tab for new tests $25.9 million

by Todd Engdahl

Rolling out a full replacement for the CSAP tests in 2014 could cost up to $25.9 million, the State Board of Education was told today.

Colorado Department of Education

The potential startup cost of a new system has caused periodic heartburn in education and legislative circles ever since 2008 passage of the Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids, which mandates new tests aligned to new

Save Our Schools March « Failing Schools #sosmarch

Save Our Schools March « Failing Schools

Save Our Schools March

AUGUST 3, 2011

by mariasallee

From the Smithsonian American History Museum.

I was going to call this piece a recap, but that really isn’t an accurate description. I participated in the conference and the march and the grand consensus among most of us was that the Save Our Schools March is only a beginning. It must be only a beginning, fostering a well-organized national movement to literally save our schools. I do not support the status quo; I support

LDF, ACLU, NAACP Oppose AG’s Request to Rehear Proposal 2 Case | The Defenders Online | A Civil Rights Blog

LDF, ACLU, NAACP Oppose AG’s Request to Rehear Proposal 2 Case

Posted By The Editors | July 29th, 2011 | Category: Education | No Comments »

Print This Post

A statement by the ACLU of Michigan, Detroit Branch NAACP, the Michigan State Conference NAACP, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), and the national ACLU.

The ACLU, NAACP and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) announced today that they oppose the Michigan Attorney General’s request to convene a special 16-judge panel to reconsider the court’s decision this month striking down Michigan’s Proposal 2. The attorney general expressed his plans to request a rehearing by the full court of appeals today.

The following statement can be attributed to Mark Rosenbaum, American Civil Liberties Union attorney and University of Michigan professor who argued the case on behalf of a group of students, faculty and prospective applicants to the University of Michigan:

“The appeals court should deny the attorney general’s extraordinary request to have the full court reconsider its well-reasoned decision striking down Proposal 2. The Supreme Court has held that a state law

Promise Academies to be slashed | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Promise Academies to be slashed

by Dale Mezzacappa

In order to help balance next year's budget, the School District has proposed drastically scaling back Promise Academies -- provoking at outburst of opposition at Wednesday morning's special School Reform Commission meeting.

Initial plans had called for 11 new Promise Academies this year. Now, there will only be three, all high schools: Martin Luther King, Germantown and West Philadelphia.

Featured Title:

Outbreak of opposition at special SRC meeting

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Debt deal sucks: A killer for education

Debt deal sucks: A killer for education

A start of something big? (M. Klonsky pic)

Save our schools

The Obama/Boehner debt-ceiling deal is disaster capitalism at its worst. Republicans, with help from the White House, and using the manufactured default crisis as their rationale, dealt bunker-busting shock-and-awe to schools, teachers and the nation's children.

While a default would have made life miserable for public schools, few

Save Our Schools March in Seattle | Seattle Education #sosmarch

Save Our Schools March in Seattle | Seattle Education

Save Our Schools March in Seattle

by seattleducation2011

Parents Across America, Seattle and SOS, not to be outdone, coordinated a march in Seattle on the same day as the Save Our Schools Rally and March in DC. It corresponded with the annual Seafair Parade. Go Seattle!

Parents, teachers and students wore their red in support of public education and marched with signs at the Seattle Center.

To follow are photo’s of the demonstration.

Dora

I’ve got a major Matt Damon jones. « Fred Klonsky's blog

I’ve got a major Matt Damon jones.

by Fred Klonsky

I’m a 63 year-old straight teacher who thinks Matt Damon is hot.

Me and Anderson Cooper can both swoon together.

If you haven’t seen the video of Damon talking to some local dumb-ass reporter and a cameraman at the SOS march in Washington last Saturday, check it out.

Now, I have nothing but respect for Diane Ravitch, who also spoke at the DC rally. She makes my brain click, but I’m not aroused. And my friend Jose Vilson, the only actual classroom teacher who addressed the crowd, is

School Tech Connect: Lawrence O'Donnell

Lawrence O'Donnell

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

Watch Lawrence O'Donnell. He did a great job with this topic. H/T to Accountable Talk, a great blog. Put if on your RSS now.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I was an English and writing lab teacher for 23 years. So much of actual writing involves readiness. You can

Groups eye ballot measure to put "teeth" in teacher assessment - Dedham, Massachusetts - The Dedham Transcript

Groups eye ballot measure to put "teeth" in teacher assessment

By Kyle Cheney

Statehouse News Service

Posted Aug 02, 2011 @ 05:49 PM

Boston —

An education advocacy organization plans to mount a drive for a 2012 ballot law that would force schools to prioritize teacher effectiveness over seniority when it comes to hiring, placement, layoff and transfer policies, an effort that appears likely to encounter resistance from teachers unions and a skeptical Patrick administration.

“We believe strongly that to elevate the profession and ensure that all kids have access to great teachers, we need to make sure that decisions made around a teacher’s placement are made on assessment of the teacher as a primary factor,” Jason Williams, executive director of Stand For Children, told the News Service Tuesday. “We believe it’s what’s best for kids.”

The organization intends to file the 10 signatures required by a Wednesday deadline to begin the process of placing the plan

Shanker Blog » Big Labor?

Big Labor?

by Matthew Di Carlo

As you may know, Congressional Republicans have stalled legislation to reauthorize the operation of Federal Aviation Administration, partially closing down the agency since July 25 at the cost to the U.S. government of$30 million a day in lost tax revenue. This state of affairs will continue at least until Congress resumes in September. What you may not know is that the source of the dispute is whether airline and railroad workers in the private sector should have the right to organize unions by winning a simple majority of votes (the way elections are conducted in every other public- and private-sector union election). Republicans are against this, and are instead insisting that unionization should require a majority of all possible votes within the unit,

Matt Damon - Lawrence O'Donnell - Teachers Unions | Mediaite #SOSMarch

Matt Damon - Lawrence O'Donnell - Teachers Unions | Mediaite

Lawrence O’Donnell: Why Do Conservatives Go After Teachers’ Unions And Not Police?

by Frances Martel

Matt Damon’s appearance at a pro-teacher rally in Washington this weekend has reinvigorated the debate between those who view teachers as holding cushy jobs with excessive benefits and those who are appreciative of the intensity of the career. Lawrence O’Donnellmade clear tonight he is staunchly on the latter team, admitting his academic failure– as a writer, of all things– had nothing to do with his teachers’ abilities, and wondering why those who want to crack down on teachers