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Friday, September 2, 2011

Big Education Ape: 9-2-11 AM American Schools in Crisis EDition

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Published by Coopmike48 – 6 news spotters today

American Schools in Crisis | Saturday Evening Post

saturdayeveningpost.com - (Photo courtesy Radius Images/Corbis)If you read the news magazines or watch TV, you might get the impression that American education is deep in a crisis of historic proportions. The media tell you...

DianeRavitch

Schools | Covington: Teachers need new mindset

detnews.com - Last Updated: September 01. 2011 1:02PM Jennifer Chambers/ The Detroit News Detroit — The incoming chancellor of Michigan's new statewide system for failing schools vowed Wednesday to make teacher ...

DianeRavitch

The rise of virtual schools

wsws.org - By Nancy Hanover 1 September 2011 There are a growing number of American young people for whom “going to school” is now logging in at the family computer. Virtual schools—those conducting all lesso...

DianeRavitch

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coopmike48 Education Summit: The Way Forward for Your Child’s Education and the LAUSD | 89.3 KPCC - http://t.co/ctonnI75 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

EducationSee all

Little change in Fla. voucher kids' test scores

heraldtribune.com - The Associated Press Published: Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 3:02 a.m. Last Modified: Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 3:02 a.m. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A new report shows little change in scores on na...

DianeRavitch

SocietySee all

Chicago Shopping

chicagotribune.com - Photo illustration (Chicago Tribune) By Erin Meyer Tribune reporter 8:26 p.m. CDT, August 31, 2011 The board that oversees the Chicago Public Schools teachers’ pension fund filed a lawsuit in Cook ...

fklonsky

PoliticsSee all

Deputy Mayor Arrested Before Resignation

cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com - September 1, 2011, 9:20 am By MICHAEL BARBAROA powerful aide to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg resigned from City Hall just days after he was arrested in Washington for his role in a heated altercation...

leoniehaimson

Chant of 'tax the rich' growing louder in nation

sfgate.com - Billionaire Warren Buffett may not seem to have much in common with angry laborers at town hall meetings or armies of California nurses protesting in the streets. But these days, the executive cele...

coopmike48

StoriesSee all

HANDCUFFS IN FIRST GRADE ! « Teachers Fight Back

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - HANDCUFFS IN FIRST GRADE ! « Teachers Fight Back: HANDCUFFS IN FIRST GRADE !by alkleenThe Chicago Public Schools are now being sued because allegedly one of their security men handcuffed a few fir...

coopmike48

Never in 50 years. « Fred Klonsky's blog

preaprez.wordpress.com - I teach in a one story suburban ranch style building built in 1951. It has no AC. Never in the past 50 years have we seen back-to-back days this late in August that have been this hot. Tonight was ...

coopmike48

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ScienceSee all

We Want the 'God Particle' for Christmas - Technology

theatlanticwire.com - Santa Claus Scientists are saying they're way ahead of schedule on their search for the Higgs Boson. They're so ahead of schedule, they could find the theorized "God particle" by Christmas. Profess...

coopmike48

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    Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… - “TransformED” Is A New Must-Read Blog

    Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… - “TransformED” Is A New Must-Read Blog:

    “TransformED” Is A New Must-Read Blog TransformED is a new must-read blog from The Center For Teaching Quality. It brings together posts from some of the most thoughtful teacher-bloggers in the United States, including some of my favorites like Bill Ferriter and Renee Moore — and those ...

    Follow-Up Study To Famous “Marshmallow” Experiment Released This Week Many educators are familiar with the famous marshmallow experiment designed to test self-control among children. I’ve written extensively about here in this blog and in my book, particularly about how I use it in the classroom. You can see a major ...

    Holt Puts Their Multilingual U.S. History Resources Back Online! As I’ve previously written, I think textbook publishers Holt, Rinehart and Winston clearly provide the best online multilingual resources of all the major publishers. Earlier in August, though, they inexplicably took much of them off-line. After ...

    This Week’s “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t” I have a huge backlog of resources that I’ve been planning to post about in this blog but, just because of time constraints, have not gotten around to doing. Instead of letting that backlog grow bigger, I regularly grab a few and list them here ...
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    Big Education Ape - PostRank 5


    Big Education Ape - PostRank 5

    U.S. schools chief says he's optimistic for Detroit district's future | Detroit Free Press | freep.com U.S. schools chief says he's optimistic for Detroit district's future | Detroit Free Press | freep.com: U.S. schools chief says he's optimistic for Detroit district's future U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has spent the better part of his ...

    Street Journal: S&P Affirms Some Student-Loan ABS: Wall Street Journal: S&P Affirms Some Student-Loan ABS by C. Cryn Johannsen When the country faced the debt ceiling fiasco, AEM discussed what could have potentially ...


    All Education Matters: Wall Street Journal: S&P Affirms Some Student-Loan ABS All Education Matters: Wall 
    Children's First Fund gave thousands on Ackerman's way in, too | Philadelphia Public School NotebookChildren's First Fund gave thousands on Ackerman's way in, too | Philadelphia Public School Notebook: Children's First Fund gave thousands on Ackerman's way in, too by Benjamin Herold by Benjamin Herold for the *Notebook, WHYY/**NewsWorks* The same ...

    In California, it’s billionaires vs. the PTA on testing 2nd graders « Parents Across America In California, it’s billionaires vs. the PTA on testing 2nd graders « Parents Across America: In California, the PTA fights testing of 2nd-graders by CarolineSF I’m sharing information from the Educated Guess forum (run by the reform-minded Silicon ...

    Ken Davis clarifies. And so do I. « Fred Klonsky's blog Ken Davis clarifies. And so do I. « Fred Klonsky's blog: Ken Davis clarifies. And so do I. by Fred Klonsky Ken Davis comments on my earlier post about the discussion on his CAN TV Chicago Newsroom program: *Hoping a clarification might be in order.* ...
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    Engaging #Parents In School… - “Parents need an attitude adjustment- those are fighting words”

    Engaging Parents In School… - “Parents need an attitude adjustment- those are fighting words”:

    “Solving the Parent Involvement Puzzle” Solving the Parent Involvement Puzzle is a new interview with Anne T. Henderson, who is probably the premiere researcher in the world on parent involvement/engagement issues. It’s very readable.
    “Parents need an attitude adjustment- those are fighting words” Lorna Constantini picked up on something I missed in the report I posted about yesterday. Check out her piece: Parents need an attitude adjustment- those are fighting words, and the comment I left there. The dangers of posting late at night….
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    Friday Churn: Rhee & Spellings show | EdNewsColorado

    Friday Churn: Rhee & Spellings show | EdNewsColorado:

    Friday Churn: Rhee & Spellings show

    by EdNews staff

    Daily Churn logo

    What’s churning

    Michelle Rhee and Margaret Spellings are due in Denver on Sept. 13 to talk about business involvement in school reform. The event is being organized by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.

    Rhee, former Washington, D.C., schools chief and a familiar figure on the ed reform lecture circuit, was last in Denver in May (see story).

    Spellings, now with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and education secretary under President George W. Bush, was in Denver last fall for a screening of “Waiting for Superman,” which features Rhee prominently.

    The upcoming event will be Sept. 13 from 10:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. at the Westin Hotel downtown. If you’re


    Lobato 9/1: One last speed bump

    by Todd Engdahl

    Colorado’s education commissioner and a top higher education official tried to minimize the cost of education reform during defense testimony in the Lobato school-funding trial Thursday, and time ran out before the state could put its last witness on the stand.

    Lobato v. State illustrationRobert Hammond, commissioner of education, and Matt Gianneschi, deputy director of the Department of Higher Education, were the state’s biggest-name witnesses.

    Sen. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs and a lawmaker with long experience in school finance, was supposed to testify in the cleanup position. But other witnesses – and the lawyers examining them – ran long, delaying King’s appearance in the witness chair until Friday. A few rebuttal witnesses and closing arguments also are to

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    Lawmakers advance academic standards | Thoughts on Public Education

    Lawmakers advance academic standards | Thoughts on Public Education:

    Lawmakers advance academic standards

    Science classes would enter new millennium

    Posted on 9/02/11 • Categorized as Common Core standards, Standardized tests, State Board of Education, Tests

    By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

    (Kathy and John combined efforts on this post.)

    Heading into the final week of the session, the Legislature has sent bills to Gov. Brown that would revise state science standards and build a bridge to the approaching Common Core with instructional materials, curricula and professional development.

    California will revise K-12 science standards for the first time since they were adopted 13 years ago, a light year in a fast-changing world.

    The Assembly passed yesterday and forwarded to Gov. Brown SB 300, which will authorize

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    Take your SGP and VAMit, Damn it! « School Finance 101

    Take your SGP and VAMit, Damn it! « School Finance 101:

    Take your SGP and VAMit, Damn it!

    by schoolfinance101

    In the face of all of the public criticism over the imprecision of value-added estimates of teacher effectiveness, and debates over whether newspapers or school districts should publish VAM estimates of teacher effectiveness, policymakers in several states have come up with a clever shell game. Their argument?

    We don’t use VAM… ‘cuz we know it has lots of problems, we use Student Growth Percentiles instead. They don’t have those problems.

    WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! Put really simply, as a tool for inferring which teacher is “better” than another, or which school outperforms another, SGP is worse, not better than VAM. This is largely because SGP is simply not designed for this purpose. And those who are now suggesting that it is are simply wrong. Further, those who actually support using tools like VAM to infer differences in teacher quality or school quality should be most nervous about the newly found popularity of SGP as an evaluation tool.

    To a large extent, the confusion over these issues was created by Mike Johnston, a Colorado State Senator who

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    President Obama gives back-to-school interview to kids - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

    President Obama gives back-to-school interview to kids - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

    President Obama gives back-to-school interview to kids

    by Valerie Strauss

    President Obama is a busy man, but not too busy to give a back-to-school interview to members of Scholastic’s Kids Press Corps.

    The corps is a team of about 50 kids, ages 10-14, from across the country who report on news, entertainment, and sports from their hometowns.

    Obama sat down at the White House with kid reporters Jacob Schroeder and Topanga Sena for an exclusive back-to-school interview. There are several video excerpts from the interview on the kids corps homepage, here, and below, you canplay the excerpt in which Obama tells the kids where he was on Sept. 11, 2001, and his thoughts about the 10th anniversary.

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    5 Commandments for college freshmen

    by Valerie Strauss

    This was written by H. Buford Barr, who teaches marketing and communication at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business and College of Arts & Sciences. He has been teaching at the undergraduate level for 20 years and has 30 years of experience in high-tech marketing, branding, advertising, and public relations.

    By H. Buford Barr

    Beginning college is a milestone event in our lives. Like most events of this magnitude, how we handle and deal with the new challenges we face determines our ultimate success. The transition to college requires a a change in attitude and behavior. To help make this transition as painless and productive as possible, here are five commandments for a successful college career.

    Read full article >>
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    Unions and school reform. « Fred Klonsky's blog

    Unions and school reform. « Fred Klonsky's blog:

    Unions and school reform.

    by Fred Klonsky

    Anthony Cody, an Oakland educator and organizer of the SOS March on Washington, has a regular column in EdWeek.

    This week he hands it over to John Thompson who argues for teacher unions to be “focused as much on curriculum, instruction, assessment, and evaluation issues as on pay and hours.”

    I’m a progressive teacher. And I take my progressive teaching ideas into the classroom and into the union, where I have been a local activist and leader for nearly 20 years.

    I often recall having an on-going debate with Jo Anderson when he was IEA Executive Director and is now Senior Adviser to Arne Duncan.

    Jo would argue that the fight for collective bargaining rights for teachers was no longer the main thing and that

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    Rick Scott on Unfunded Education Mandates: “Call Me” | Scathing Purple Musings

    Rick Scott on Unfunded Education Mandates: “Call Me” | Scathing Purple Musings:

    Rick Scott on Unfunded Education Mandates: “Call Me”

    by Bob Sikes

    From new website site StateImpact comes a link to a story on Florida Governor Rick Scott’s Monday breakfast with the Flagler County Chamber of Commerce. During Q&A, the topic of unfunded mandates predictably was raised from a group of business leaders. Scott probably didn’t realize that a Flagler school board member would be in the audience and ask Scott about the unfunded mandates that school districts face.

    “I need to get around the state and hear from people,” Scott said of his visit to Flagler County. “You can’t solve problems you don’t hear about.”

    Scott heard plenty from local officials, but many of the concerns expressed were less about the need for state dollars than for fewer so-called unfunded mandates.

    “Tell me what the issue is and I’ll get the right person involved to solve it,” Scott said.

    At one point during this morning’s meeting, in response to concerns from School Board Member

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