Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top AM Posts #ows #edreform

Wow. « Student Activism #ows

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 1 hour ago

Wow. « Student Activism:Wow.by Angus JohnstonFrom the homepage of the UC Davis Department of English:The faculty of the UC Davis English Department supports the Board of the Davis Faculty Association in calling for Chancellor Katehi’s immediate resignation and for “a policy that will end the practice of forcibly removing non-violent student, faculty, staff, and community protesters by police on the UC Davis campus.” Further, given the demonstrable threat posed by the University of California Police Department and other law enforcement

Jersey Jazzman: Reformy Turf Wars?

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Jersey Jazzman: Reformy Turf Wars?:Reformy Turf Wars?by DukeSpeaking of Derrell Bradford: we never really did get a full accounting of how and why he left Excellent Eduction for Everyone (E3), the voucher... uh, sorry, scholarship proponents here in New Jersey. Derrell went to Better Education for Kids (B4K), a shop set up using scads of hedge fund money, with great fanfare. I read a fair bit of the coverage when he left, and I don't remember anyone asking him who ... more »

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Are there really too many 'mediocre' charter schools?

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Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Are there really too many 'mediocre' charter schools?:Are there really too many 'mediocre' charter schools?by Mike KlonskyIncubatorRight-wing think-tankers at the Fordham Institute are looking for answers and I'm sure they'll find them. You see, it's all in how you pose the question.Their latest quest has to do with charter schools. Fordham, which doubles as a charter school lobbying and support group in Ohio, and their business-minded partners, Cities for Education Entrepreneurship Trust (CEE-Trust), are getting together ... more »

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top Early Evening Posts #ows #edreform

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Why It Matters: Occupy Student Debt! | HyperVocal #owsBig Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All)-13 minutes agoWhy It Matters: Occupy Student Debt! | HyperVocal:Occupy Student Debt!POSTED NOVEMBER 21ST 3:14PM BY CRYN JOHANNSENREAD MORE: TAGS: EDUCATION, OCCUPY STUDENT DEBT, OCCUPY WALL STREET, STUDENT LOAN DEBT, STUDENT LOANS 12 share32Today, November 21, 2011 is the beginning of the National Campaign to Occupy Student Debt. According to an official statement, the pledge consists of three things:1) A debtor’s pledge to refuse loan payments.The ... more »

Dear John, Education Sector Thinks A Lot About Teachers and More School Time

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Dear John, Education Sector Thinks A Lot About Teachers and More School Time:Dear John, Education Sector Thinks A Lot About Teachers and More School Timeby ELENA SILVA on NOVEMBER 21, 2011in TEACHER QUALITYShareMy colleague Susan Headden and I recently wrote a piece about extending school time for the Wallace Foundation’s report “Reimagining the School Day” John Thompson’s response rightly praised the Wallace Foundation’s attention to expanding not just time but high-quality learning. He also suggested that Susan and I did ... more »

Grumpy Educators: 2011 EduBlog Award Nominations

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Grumpy Educators: 2011 EduBlog Award Nominations:2011 EduBlog Award NominationsNon-educators, parents and students are writing and reading blogs to become informed on initiatives that affect their communities. As a non-educator, I read widely to make meaning of the rapid changes occurring. These bloggers have provided consistent fact based information. I applaud the increase in parent blogging. Here's my list for 2011 Edublog Award consideration.

Yee calls for independent probe into UCD pepper-spraying | Davis Enterprise #ows

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Yee calls for independent probe into UCD pepper-spraying | Davis Enterprise:Yee calls for independent probe into UCD pepper-sprayingby Enterprise staffState Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, has called on UC President Mark Yudof to launch an independent probe of Friday’s incident in which UC Davis police pepper-sprayed peaceful, seated protesters on campus.In a statement emailed Monday, Yee said actions by Yudof and UCD Chancellor Linda Katehi are not good enough.Yudof said he would convene the 10 UC campus chancellors to ensure ... more »

Documents detail UC Davis police use of force policy | news10.net #ows

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Documents detail UC Davis police use of force policy | news10.net:Documents detail UC Davis police use of force policy1:50 PM, Nov 21, 2011 | 0 comments - A A A +Written byC. JohnsonFILED UNDERNewsLocal NewsCrimeSACRAMENTO, CA - Documents released in the wake of a controversial police pepper-spraying incident at the Occupy UC Davis rally Friday set out campus police procedures.In a document effective March 2004 that detailed use of force policy, the UC Davis Police Department said, "It is the ... more »

Open Letter to Chancellor Katehi | Davis Enterprise #ows

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Open Letter to Chancellor Katehi | Davis Enterprise:Open Letter to Chancellor Katehiby Letters to the EditorI am an alumnus of this great university (’82). I have watched as your predecessors have brought UC Davis from low in the university rankings to one of the great research institutions in the world. And all of this has been tarnished by your one decision to evict a small number of peaceful protesters expressing their first amendment rights. How ironic. You say that “We ... more »

Why It Matters: Occupy Student Debt! | HyperVocal #ows

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 13 hours ago

Why It Matters: Occupy Student Debt! | HyperVocal:Occupy Student Debt!POSTED NOVEMBER 21ST 3:14PM BY CRYN JOHANNSENREAD MORE: TAGS: EDUCATION, OCCUPY STUDENT DEBT, OCCUPY WALL STREET, STUDENT LOAN DEBT, STUDENT LOANS 12 share32Today, November 21, 2011 is the beginning of the National Campaign to Occupy Student Debt. According to an official statement, the pledge consists of three things:1) A debtor’s pledge to refuse loan payments.The pledge will take effect after a million debtors have signed.2) A faculty pledge of support for ... more »

Schools Matter: Where Do Feinstein and Boxer Stand on the Sadism of UC Davis Police?

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Schools Matter: Where Do Feinstein and Boxer Stand on the Sadism of UC Davis Police?:Where Do Feinstein and Boxer Stand on the Sadism of UC Davis Police?by Jim HornChancellor Linda Katehi should be fired--period. As she preens and postures, her goon squads stand ready for the next excuse to use all their new toys purchased with unlimited Homeland Security cash. bin Laden must have smiled many times when reading of how his murderous acts turned America into a police state ... more »

Education Roundup for 11-18-11 - Year 2011 (CA Dept of Education)

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Education Roundup for 11-18-11 - Year 2011 (CA Dept of Education):Education Roundup for Week Ending November 18, 2011SACRAMENTO—The California Department of Education (CDE) today issued this week's Education Roundup featuring education-related announcements of public interest.Mathematics Framework Focus Group RecruitmentThe CDE is recruiting educators from throughout California to participate in focus groups to revise the Mathematics Framework for California Public Schools: Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve.Revisions are necessary to incorporate and support the Common Core State Sta... more »

More on the Characteristics of Students Entering IDEA Charter Schools « A "Fuller" Look at Education Issues

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More on the Characteristics of Students Entering IDEA Charter Schools « A "Fuller" Look at Education Issues:More on the Characteristics of Students Entering IDEA Charter Schoolsby Dr. Ed FullerBelow is more data on the characteristics of 5th grade public school students (2009-10 school year) entering IDEA charter schools and public schools in the 6th grade (2010-11 school year).Table 1 examines the number and percentage of students enrolled public schools in the IDEA Charter market area in the 5th grade in ... more »

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm funnels millions more away from public to charter school operators

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Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm funnels millions more away from public to charter school operators:Rahm funnels millions more away from public to charter school operatorsby Mike KlonskyAutocrat Rahm is determined to teach Chicago teachers and their union a lesson. Dropping the F-bomb on CTU president Karen Lewis obviously wasn't satisfying enough for Emanuel. So now he's figured out a way to funnel $2.7 million in badly needed school funds to the operators of 36 privately managed charter schools in exchange ... more »

The Pyramid, the Funnel and the Megaphone - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

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The Pyramid, the Funnel and the Megaphone - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:The Pyramid, the Funnel and the Megaphoneby Nancy FlanaganWho calls the shots in educational decision-making?Where are policy ideas generated and developed? Who implements them when they become rules and mandates? Who suffers when policy causes unintended consequences--or even damage-- to school communities and children?I participated in a wonderful professional development workshop last weekend, hosted by the Virginia Education Association and created by the teacher ... more »

Outside Agitators? | AMPS

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Outside Agitators? | AMPS:Outside Agitators?by Thomas J. MertzThe Animals – “We’ve Gotta To Get Out Of This Place” (click to listen or download).The self-selected Board of the Madison Predatory Academy are an interesting bunch. As the Board of Education considers their request for a non-instrumentality school charter with “total authority to make decisions related to budget, personnel, curriculum, school policy and overall operations,” I hope we hear more from and about them and their plans After all, baring extreme circumstances ... more »

FROM TITLE IX TO TITLE NERD « Teachers Fight Back

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FROM TITLE IX TO TITLE NERD « Teachers Fight Back:FROM TITLE IX TO TITLE NERDby alkleenIt’s been thirty-nine years since Congress passed Title IX and it’s now time for Congress to pass Title Nerd. Among other things, Title IX required schools that receive federal funds to provide equal opportunities in athletic programs for girls and women.Title Nerd would require schools to create academic teams that would be on an equal basis with their athletic teams. The academic teams would be ... more »

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

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Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES:WEEKEND QUOTABLESby Mike KlonskyUniversity of California, Davis Police Lt. John Pike uses pepper spray to move Occupy UC Davis protesters while blocking their exit from the school's quad FridayCharles J. KellyA former Baltimore Police Department lieutenant who wrote the department's use of force guidelines, said pepper spray is a "compliance tool" that can be used on subjects who do not

The Flu and You: Tips for Staying Healthy | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights

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The Flu and You: Tips for Staying Healthy | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights:The Flu and You: Tips for Staying Healthyby NEA Health Information NetworkEditor’s Note: This post is from our partners at the NEA Health Information Network (NEA HIN). Each month, we feature a new column on a topic related to school health. Through this effort, we hope to inform the public of important health issues that impact schools and offer educators and parents resources to ... more »

Independent Probe into UC Davis Police Misconduct Needed | California Progress Report #ows

Independent Probe into UC Davis Police Misconduct Needed | California Progress Report:

Independent Probe into UC Davis Police Misconduct Needed

by megan

By State Senator Leland Yee

As our country remains mired in economic doldrums, the act of public protest has returned to the front pages of newspapers across the country. The Occupy Wall Street movements have given voice to people who feel that the political process as it stands leaves their viewpoints marginalized and ignored.

While this movement defines itself and their agenda, as Americans we can all have our own opinions as to whether or not their concerns are valid. But there should be unanimous support of their right to stand in the public square and make their voices heard, as it is laid out in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. And this is why I am appalled at the response to student protestors at UC Davis and why I am demanding accountability from its leadership.

Billionaire Wants To Shift Tax Burden to Middle Class

by megan

By Robert Cruickshank

If you look up "tone deaf" in the dictionary right now, you might find a photo of Nicholas Berggruen. He's the billionaire investor who founded the "Think Long Committee for California" last fall to revive corporate friendly "reform" policies. In news that should shock nobody at all, their tax proposals involve shifting the burden away from the rich and corporations and onto what's left of the middle class. From Capitol Alert:

A coalition backed by some of the biggest names in California politics and a billionaire financier is readying for the ballot a sweeping overhaul of the Golden State's tax system....
Californians would pay sales tax on all services except health care and education starting in July 2013.

"We the People”: Occupy Wall Street “99ers”Petition California Governor to Declare a “Financial State of Emergency”

by megan

By Patrick Porgans and Seth Sandronsky

In California, foreclosures continue to batter homeowners, averaging out at 1,866 a day, 77 an hour each day the past 10 months, or 1.3 foreclosures per-minute. That’s surely on the minds of many Occupy Wall Street “99ers.”

According to Shum Preston, spokesman for the California attorney general’s office, there was a recent “surge in foreclosures” between July and August bringing an additional 560,000 homes into the foreclosure process.

Reportedly, “settlement negotiations” between the 50 state attorneys general and the nation’s five largest banks – Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Co., Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial Inc., commenced in the fall of 2010, around abuses related to mortgage servicing and foreclosure practices

New Reviews Of Charter School Research | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

New Reviews Of Charter School Research | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…:

New Reviews Of Charter School Research

by Larry Ferlazzo

Here are the newest additions to The Best Posts & Articles Analyzing Charter Schools:

Matthew Di Carlo at The Albert Shanker Institute has recently published — in three parts — what is probably the best and most even handed analysis of charter school research. The three posts are:

The Evidence On Charter Schools

Explaining The Consistently Inconsistent Results Of Charter Schools

“Parents denied chance to observe classroom”

by Larry Ferlazzo

Parents denied chance to observe classroom is the title of a post by Jay Mathews at The Washington Post.

Not letting parents who might be sending their child to a school doesn’t seem to me to be the wisest parent engagement policy for a school to have. There are plenty of comments on his post. It’s worth a visit.

More Thanksgiving Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo

Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites To Learn & Teach About Thanksgiving:

“The Places We Live”

by Larry Ferlazzo

The Places We Live is an impressive multimedia presentation. This is how it’s described:

In 2008 more people live in cities than in rural areas. One third of city dwellers, more than a billion people, live in slums. In The Places We Live, Magnum photographer Jonas Bendiksen presents sixteen homes in four different

UC system struggles to control protests, maintain free speech - Sacramento Bee #ows

UC system struggles to control protests, maintain free speech - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee:

UC system struggles to control protests, maintain free speech

By David Siders and Kim Minugh
dsiders@sacbee.com

Published: Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 1A

First came the video of campus police jabbing students with batons at UC Berkeley, and then, less than two weeks later, pepper-spraying them at UC Davis.

To many academics, it was an outrage. On late-night TV, California once again became a national joke.

"When they say Berkeley is crunchy," comedian Stephen Colbert said, "I didn't realize they meant the students' rib cages."

As student anger over tuition increases and spending cuts spreads throughout the state this fall, a university system steeped in the tradition of the Free Speech Movement is straining under it

Chancellor Katehi apologizes to protesters for University of California, Davis, pepper-spraying

by sstanton@sacbee.com (Sam Stanton, Hudson Sangree, Ed Fletcher and Bill Lindelof)

On Monday, UC Davis' defining moment may have come as thousands of angry but polite students gathered on the quad to demand the resignation of Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi over the pepper-spraying of students by campus police last Friday.

UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi talks at a rally Monday after listening for an hour as students, including several pepper-sprayed at a protest last week, denounced her. "I really feel

The Common Core of a Whole Child Approach « Whole Child Education

The Whole Child Blog « Whole Child Education:

The Common Core of a Whole Child Approach

November 21st, 2011 by Klea Scharberg

This November, get to the core of the Common Core State Standards with ASCD’s free webinar series, which will provide an overview of the new standards and address how to implement them effectively to serve the needs of the whole child.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011, 3:00 p.m. eastern time
Register now!

Too often high standards and a whole child approach are seen as opposite ends of the educational spectrum. In the final webinar of the series, Molly McCloskey debunks the myth of standards versus support and shares the relationship between the Common Core State Standards and a school improvement approach which ensures each child, in each school, in each community is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.

Learn about the comprehensive indicators of a whole child approach for each child and how to integrate the Common Core State Standards so that they can be most effective in improving student success. Explore the

UC Davis Strike Call « occupy california #ows

UC Davis Strike Call « occupy california:

UC Davis Strike Call

by *

The UC Board of Regents, who not only represent but actually are this state’s richest one percent, has repeatedly shown itself to be utterly unfit to manage and represent the interests of the students, faculty, and workers who constitute the University of California.Following two successive years of sharp tuition increases, accompanied by millions in department and resource cuts, layoffs, and furloughs, the board had the audacity to propose a new 81% fee increase and drastic budget reductions.

Undergraduate student fees have tripled over the past ten years, as we have seen an unprecedented explosion of student debt; and departmental budgets have shrunk, as academic and non-academic workers experience diminishing benefits, swelling workloads, and non-existent job security.

In the midst of the economic crisis, the Regents have intensified their pursuit of the project of privatization and

NYC Educator: The NYCTF Recruitment [Soon-to-be] Scandal

NYC Educator: The NYCTF Recruitment [Soon-to-be] Scandal:

The NYCTF Recruitment [Soon-to-be] Scandal

by Miss Eyre

I'm trying to be cheerful this week. It's a 3-day week, after all, and those of us traveling are looking at mild weather for the journey out on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. I'm pretty caught-up on my grading and I might be able to take the long weekend off--woohoo! Even our new ATR was jovial this morning. (I really like this guy, by the way. I hope he gets hired somewhere. He seems to have a good way with the kids, tons of experience, and a great sense of humor. Good luck, This Week's ATR! I do know his name, but you know, anonymity and all.)

And I could have persisted, too, if it hadn't been for ~~those meddlesome kids~~ the marketing department over at the Teaching Fellows program. You see, I got an e-mail this '

for the love of learning: Teaching to the test is malpractice

for the love of learning: Teaching to the test is malpractice:

Teaching to the test is malpractice

"For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple - and wrong."

H.L Mencken

Testing is not teaching.

If you want proof of why, you need not look any further than this:

Learning is messy. Real learning is really messy. Testing is, if nothing else, orderly. See the problem?

Talk to any test-maker or psychometrician, and they'll tell you the tests were never devised to make large sweeping, all-encompassing inferences. Even those who speak in favor of using test scores in moderation in low-stakes contexts understand that tests are merely a small sample of a much larger domain that we want to know about, and that great caution must be made in making inferences based on these tests.

So even if we lived in a fictional world where test scores were valid, reliable and objective enough to make sweeping inferences about student achievement, we would have to still admit that the tests can't measure everything.

In their book, The Myths of Standardized Tests, Phillip Harris, Bruce Smith and Joan Harris aptly describe the danger of teaching to any test:

You'll often hear someone say that a good test is one that teachers should be

Daily Kos: 48 years ago today

Daily Kos: 48 years ago today:

48 years ago today

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

the world suffered a great loss, and I do not mean the death of a President. On the same day my generation was shocked by the assassination of John F. Kennedy. the literary world lost two giants from England, Aldous Huxley and C. S. Lewis.

Because of Kennedy their deaths went almost unnoticed by most of the world.

Both authors played a significant role in my life, Huxley while I was in high school, before the death of Kennedy, Lewis later when I was on a spiritual pilgrimage.

Allow me to take a few moment to remember each.

LAUSD's CRADLE TO PRISON PIPELINE by George Buzzetti (CUNA LAUSD a la tubería PRISIÓN) - Perdaily.com

LAUSD's CRADLE TO PRISON PIPELINE by George Buzzetti (CUNA LAUSD a la tubería PRISIÓN) - Perdaily.com:

LAUSD's CRADLE TO PRISON PIPELINE by George Buzzetti (CUNA LAUSD a la tubería PRISIÓN)

by Leonard Isenberg

(Mensaje se repite en Español)

(For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post)

This is the "Cradle to Prison Pipeline" I have been working on. The alignment of what happens to certain segments of youth in the K-12 system perfectly lines up with the prison population. This is a mathematical proof. This alignment is too close for it to be an accident. I have sent my information to several researchers around the country and they seem to see this also. I am seeing the results of this lack of providing an education to students as they then end up in the justice system. Another outrageous enterprise for investors. This is our criminal world today and I do not mean those youth I mean the adults who do this to