Jersey Jazzman: Pants on Fire

Jersey Jazzman: Pants on Fire:

Pants on Fire

by Duke

Acting NJ Education Commissioner Chris Cerf, 11/11/11:

Cerf explained the Christie administration’s plans to reform tenure and revamp teacher evaluations during an hourlong speech before a crowd of 200 educators. When he commended teachers’ hard work in the classroom, the audience clapped. But when Cerf said Gov. Chris Christie holds "the highest regard for teachers,"the crowd erupted. [emphasis mine]

Let's go to the tape. April, 2010, CNBC:

“I love the public schools but the fact of the matter is there is excess and greed there,”

School Tech Connect: I Listen To Everyone

School Tech Connect: I Listen To Everyone:

I Listen To Everyone

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim)

I don't have time for this, but my feeling is that there's a core emptiness to the man. What he's exceptionally good at is staying on message. For example, on the early question of international comparisons controlled for poverty, he inserts his soundbite on poverty not being destiny without answering the question.

Many good questions. Joe Bower got his question in again--- and Duncan in my opinion had a Sarah Palin moment.

Whoever asked that question on charters policing themselves is some kind of crazy genius. I think if he had been asked to give a specific example, he would have stumbled there, too. There are so few.

He would have been a perfect fit in the Bush administration.

Occupy Wall Street is being pushed out of Zuccotti Park this Tuesday morning by the NYPD. « Fred Klonsky #ows

Occupy Wall Street is being pushed out of Zuccotti Park this Tuesday morning by the NYPD. « Fred Klonsky:

Occupy Wall Street is being pushed out of Zuccotti Park this Tuesday morning by the NYPD.

by Fred Klonsky

Good morning.

As wake up I am learning that my friends and others are being attacked by pepper spray and batons, pushed out of Zuccotti Park on Broadway in lower Manhattan.

Live streaming at global revolution.

SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL: Whitney Tilson Embarrasses Himself Yet Again!

SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL: Whitney Tilson Embarrasses Himself Yet Again!:

Whitney Tilson Embarrasses Himself Yet Again!

by noreply@blogger.com (Bronx Teacher)

Ugh. Whitney stuff tonight. I just can't help it, especially when he emails contradictory, convoluted, half baked, foot in his mouth blabbering diatribes. If you have not yet subscribed to Whitney Tilson's newsletter or listserv or whatever you wish to call it, I suggest you do. Mention SBSB in the request email and you win a prize!

So Whitney wrote today;

The issue of teacher evaluations has come to the forefront all over the country. Everyone – even the unions at least pay lip service to it – agrees that there are huge differences among teachers that have an enormous impact on students, so it’s

Differentiation: The Dirtiest Word In Education Today | The Jose Vilson

Differentiation: The Dirtiest Word In Education Today | The Jose Vilson:

Differentiation: The Dirtiest Word In Education Today

by Jose

Be Different

It’s like a few people sat around a table, steaming mad at their own opposing views on the direction of education, and said, “What’s a good word that we can all hold our hands around?” The minute they spread the word around, it became the go-to word for evaluators and validators across the country. People began to set up stations all around their classroom with no rationale for their stations. Teachers sat down for hours of PD on the word “differentiation” where people heard that this word, vital for the 21st century classroom, ought to appear out of thin air with no concrete examples to follow. Some person who is equally as qualified in differentiation (meaning,

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Asking Arne #askarne

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Asking Arne:

Asking Arne

Arne Duncan kicks off American Education Week today with a live #AskArne Q&A session on Twitter. I'm anticipating Arne's usual repetitive speed-rapping (speed tweeting?) evasive answers to any difficult questions. I'm sure his com guys will have him fully prepped with the party line and have plenty of their own crew tweeting in with puffy questions, ie. "Don't you think your Race To The Top reforms and your NCLB waivers ares the civil rights issues of our era?"

Instead, I hope someone will ask him about the recent

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:

“Trapit” Opens To The Public

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 6 hours ago

I posted about Trapit in June, and it has just opened to the public. I would characterize it as a way to create your own online personalized newspaper, which is why it’s on The Best Sites For Creating Personalized “Newspapers” … Continue reading →

“Graph Words”

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 7 hours ago

Graph Words is a new very simple visual thesaurus. It’s not as fancy as some of the other similar applications out there, but I think some of them are actually pretty confusing to English Language Learners. I’m adding it to … Continue reading →

“Parent Trigger R.I.P.”

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 7 hours ago

Parent Trigger R.I.P. is the title of a new post at my other blog, Engaging Parents In School. You might find it interesting…

Another Amazing Video Taken From The International Space Station

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 8 hours ago

Here’s another amazing video taken from The International Space Station. I’m adding it to The Best Images Taken In Space.

The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education In 2011

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 8 hours ago

It’s that time of year again when I start posting year-end “The Best….” lists. Coincidentally, this one is also the eight-hundredth “The Best…” list I’ve published! You can see them all here. I figured it was appropriate to make number … Continue reading →

Nominations For Edublog Awards Now Open!

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 12 hours ago

Nominations for this year’s Edublog Awards are now being accepted! You can learn all about deadlines, the nominating process, and categories at Nominations Open – The 2011 Edublog Awards are on!

Research Studies Of The Week

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 day ago

I often write about research studies from various field and how they can be applied to the classroom. I write individual posts about ones that I think are especially significant, and will continue to do so. However, so many studies … Continue reading →

“Jim Crow Is Dead, But His Cousins Are Still Alive”

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 day ago

The New York Times editorial writers might not have any idea about what they’re talking about when they write on education issues, but they’ve certainly nailed things on the Alabama immigration law. Their recent editorial, On the Rise in Alabama, … Continue reading →

More Google+ Resources

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 day ago

Here are the newest additions to The Best Resources For Learning What Google+ Is All About: Google+ recently launched “Google Pages,” which allow organizations and businesses to participate in the social network. Richard Byrne has a good post describing them. … Continue reading →

“WingClips” Could Be Very Useful — With Important Caveats

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 day ago

WingClips has organized a huge number of short clips from movies thematically — perseverance, responsibility — and then lets you show them from the site or embed them elsewhere. The important caveats are that it clearly comes from a religious, … Continue reading →

This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Good School Reform Articles & Posts

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 2 days ago

Here are some recent good school reform-related posts and articles: Struggling Schools and the Problem with the “Shut It Down” Mentality is by Robert Slavin at Ed Week. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About The Four … Continue reading →

“The Best Resources On ‘Becoming What We Read’”

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 2 days ago

Because of an increasing number of studies on the topic, I’ve just converted an older post on the impact reading has on empathy into The Best Resources On “Becoming What We Read.” You might want to check it out and … Continue reading →

This Week’s “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 3 days ago

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 … Continue reading →

“How Does Our Brain Learn New Information?”

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 3 days ago

How Does Our Brain Learn New Information? from Scientific American is a fantastic short explanation of what happens to our brain when we learn something new. It’s probably the most accessible description I’ve read anywhere, and I’ll definitely be adding … Continue reading →

More Veterans Day Resources

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 3 days ago

Here are the latest additions to The Best Websites To Learn About Veterans Day: Veterans Day Observed is a Wall Street Journal slideshow. Armistice Day is an historical slideshow from The Los Angeles Times. Through The Lens: Seeing Veterans Up … Continue reading →

Even More On Wealth & Income Inequality

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 3 days ago

Here are the latest additions to The Best Resources About Wealth & Income Inequality: Public Opinion and the Occupy Movement is a fascinating interactive infographic from The New York Times. I’m also adding it to The Best Resources To Help … Continue reading →

Ask A Question, Any Question, About Education…

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 4 days ago

Many readers already know that I write a fairly popular weekly teacher advice column for Education Week Teacher. Readers send in questions, and typically I’ll respond, one or two invited guests will write a short answer, and other readers will … Continue reading →

The Best Resources For Understanding How To Interpret Education Research

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 4 days ago

This week’s “Question Of The Week” at my Education Week Teacher blog relates to how we can tell the difference between good and bad education research. As a supplement to next week’s response on that issue, I wanted to bring … Continue reading →

This Week In Web 2.0

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 4 days ago

In yet another attempt to get at the enormous backlog I have of sites worth sharing, I’ve recently begin a regular feature called “The Week In Web 2.0.” It’ll be a short compilation of new decent sites that are worth … Continue reading →

“Call Me Hope”

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 4 days ago

“Call Me Hope” is a fun music video of Paul Simon’s “Call Me Al” song. It’s sponsored by a development organization called “Mama Hope.” I plan on using it in my Beginning ELL class, and have them sing along with … Continue reading →

Engaging Parents In School… - Parent Trigger R.I.P.

Engaging Parents In School… - Parent Trigger R.I.P.:

Parent Trigger R.I.P.

by Larry Ferlazzo

Today, The Los Angeles Times published an editorial reflecting on the parent trigger’s lack of success, and described Parent Revolution’s retooling effort:

Instead of choosing the schools for a possible parent trigger and engineering the petitions, Parent Revolution now leaves it up to parents to determine whether they want to initiate major reforms and what kind.

The article charitably describes the organization’s success at this new strategy as “modest.”

Of course, this “new” strategy is the primary strategy used by all effective community organizers in modern times, and by successful organizers in history before the term was even coined.

If the Parent Revolution had begun its efforts with that perspective, had chosen not to demonize teachers and

Florida’s Higher Ed “Splintered System” has Roots in Jeb Bush-Era Abolishment of the Board of Regents | Scathing Purple Musings

Florida’s Higher Ed “Splintered System” has Roots in Jeb Bush-Era Abolishment of the Board of Regents | Scathing Purple Musings:

Florida’s Higher Ed “Splintered System” has Roots in Jeb Bush-Era Abolishment of the Board of Regents

by Bob Sikes

I made this post Sunday regarding former Florida university chancellor Charlie Reed’s highly critical speech of the state’s system. The St. Petersburg Times published his remarks. Reed called Florida’s system, “splintered.”

Fifteen years ago, I was part of the Business-Higher Education Partnership group that put out a landmark report on higher education in Florida called “The Emerging Catastrophe and How to Prevent It.” The report detailed an expected surge in enrollment and how the system was being underfunded at a critical time. It also called for more efficiency and less duplication to create a more effective system.

If I had to write that report today, I’d call it “A Splintered System.” There is no cohesive mission or