Who is the Best EDU Consultant? « My Island View

Who is the Best EDU Consultant? « My Island View:

Who is the Best EDU Consultant?

by tomwhitby

I had a busy morning today. I observed a student teacher for her final observation, and I made it home in time to participate in the weekly noon #Edchat on Twitter. As I participated in the #Edchat I was struck by the fact that it had a great deal to do with a conversation I had with my student’s cooperating teacher in a high school that morning.

The conversation that I had with this high school teacher took place in the school’s computer lab. It was a very relaxed session, as all of the students were involved in a Web Quest in support of their recent reading of To Inherit the Wind. They were now learning first-hand about the “Scopes Monkey Trial”. I observed that the computer Lab had an Interactive White Board installed on the wall. I remarked to the teacher that it struck me that this is not the most effective place for an IWB, since every student sat at a desktop computer. A simple,

Daily Kos: Revealed: School board member who took standardized test

Daily Kos: Revealed: School board member who took standardized test:

Revealed: School board member who took standardized test

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

is the title of this followup blog post by Valerie Strauss, who yesterday posted the story by Marion Brady of the school board member who, having taking Florida's FCAT test and done poorly, was criticizing them.

I am going to suggest you read this followup piece as well. As Strauss writes about Rick Roach, the board member who has now gone public,

Roach, the father of five children and grandfather of two, was a teacher, counselor and coach in Orange County for 14 years. He was first elected to the board in 1998 and has been reelected three times. A resident of Orange County for three decades, he has a bachelor of science degree in education and two masters degrees: in education and educational psychology. He has trained over 18,000 educators in classroom management and course delivery skills in six eastern states over the last 25 years.

In other words, he is not just some random adult taking the test, but a skilled and experienced educator.

Please keep reading.

Revealed: School board member who took standardized test - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Revealed: School board member who took standardized test - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

Revealed: School board member who took standardized test

By Valerie Strauss

This is a follow-up to Monday’s guest post about a school board member who took a version of a state standardized test and was horrified at what he found.

That post was written by veteran educator Marion Brady, who said he did not name the board member to save him from mean personal attacks by critics. The board member, however, agreed to talk to me about the experience on the record because he has come to feel very strongly about the issue.

The man in question is Rick Roach, who is in his fourth four-year term

Blue Jersey:: Latino Action Network Opposes Opportunity Scholarship Act

Blue Jersey:: Latino Action Network Opposes Opportunity Scholarship Act:

Latino Action Network Opposes Opportunity Scholarship Act

by NJAgitator

promoted by Rosi

Last month, Governor Christie called on the New Jersey lawmakers to pass his version of education reform during the lame duck session of the legislature. The governor listed four bills as crucial to his reform agenda. Among those bills was the controversial 'Opportunity Scholarship Act' which would provide corporations a 100% tax credit for contributions made to a state run voucher program, which would then distribute the funds. This legislation would divert from $360 million to over $1 billion in tax dollars away from the public education system to private and religious schools. As a result of the governor's announcement, voucher proponents have renewed their efforts to get this bill passed claiming that vouchers would help poor children in New Jersey.

The Latino Action Network opposes the publicly funded voucher bill because we see it as a big gimmick that benefits corporate interests that would do nothing to help poor children stuck in failing school districts. Not one

The Zombie Cults and San Diego Unified:

The Zombie Cults and San Diego Unified

by SOURCE on DECEMBER 6, 2011 · 0 COMMENTS

in CALIFORNIA, EDUCATION, SAN DIEGO

By Lucas O’Connor / Two Cathedrals / December 5, 2011

With the state budget poised to dramatically under-deliver and trigger large budget cutsfor schools across the state, local media has spent a couple months wading into the looming financial crisis at San Diego Unified for a while now. And while the immediacy of the local challenges makes it crucial to cover well, it isn’t like this is a crisis in a vacuum.

Any discussion of the budgetary straitjacket in Sacramento that’s made this budget crisis

Urban Superintendents Network | The Aspen Institute

Urban Superintendents Network | The Aspen Institute:

Since 2000, a central strand of the Aspen Institute’s Education Program’s work has been an ongoing professional development seminar and peer-learning forum for the superintendents of some of America’s largest and most complex urban school districts. These semi-annual seminars, which typically bring together 10-15 superintendents are intensive, structured conversations using data and case studies to focus on individual and cross-district strategies to meet the major challenges confronting urban school leaders.

For the last several years, the retreats have been organized around system-level questions regarding human capital and educator quality: How do districts attract, develop, and retain the talent they need? How do they know what’s working in their systems and what’s not? How can school systems better organize to support great instruction?

At the superintendents’ request, we have built four additional networks of senior leaders within these urban districts:

• Chief Academic Officers Network (CAO)
• Chief Financial Officers Network (CFO)
• Urban Literacy Leadership Network (ULLN)
• Urban Math Leadership Network (UMLN)

Each of the networks meets twice a year, sometimes alone and sometimes in conjunction with one of the other networks (e.g., CAOs and CFOs meet together in January; CAOs meet separately and with the math and literacy teams in June). Each meeting is focused on a discrete set of issues and challenges that cut across the districts. Substantial background readings are

OWSnews.org #OWS

OWSnews.org:

Women STILL Occupying LA

Joan Donovan at OWSnews.org - 1 minute ago

The dwindling infrastructure of the #OccupyLA camp after the raid has made organizing a difficult task. Many people have retreated to familiar places in the city, while the west steps (which were promised by the Mayor to remain open as a free speech zone) have been closed for a Hollywood movie shoot. Yesterday, I approached [...]

December 6th, Occupy Wall Street Goes Home – Occupy Our Homes!

OccupyWallSt.org at OWSnews.org - 1 minute ago

By OccupyWallSt.org On December 6th Occupy Wall Street will join in solidarity with a Brooklyn community to re-occupy a foreclosed home. The day of action marks a national kick-off for a new frontier for the occupy movement: the liberation of vacant bank-owned homes for those in need. The banks got bailed out, but our families [...]

Occupy Ninjas Take Manhattan

admin at OWSnews.org - 1 minute ago

Coming soon to a bank near you… Brought to you by AnonOps

Occupy Melbourne Tent Monsters

admin at OWSnews.org - 1 minute ago

Police move in to take down tents. Oh no! The tents are alive!

December 12, Occupy The Ports – West Coast Port Shutdown

#OccupyOakland at OWSnews.org - 1 minute ago

Occupy movement calls for Dec. 12 West Coast Port Shutdown. Here’s the video call to action featuring Boots Riley: http://westcoastportshutdown.org/

Occupy Portland’s Street Smarts – “This is what a police state looks like!”

admin at OWSnews.org - 22 hours ago

A Tale of Re-Occupation By Ben Schreiner, Dissident Voice After being evicted from the two city parks held for nearly six weeks back in early November, Occupy Portland set out this Saturday with a goal of re-occupying another city park. And in the process, Portland showcased once again why it remains one of the more [...]

Tom Morello Rocks Occupy LA After Police Raid – Worldwide Rebel Song

admin at OWSnews.org - 1 day ago

The Nightwatchman, Tom Morello, comes to lift the spirits of Occupy LA the evening after the police raid on their camp. In this music video, surrounded by protesters and police in riot gear, Tom gives an inspiring live performance of “Worldwide Rebel Song.” Video created by Sandrine Orabona.

Rise like Lions – OWS and the Seeds of Revolution

Jinger Dixon at OWSnews.org - 3 days ago

Powerful New Documentary Film This is a non-profit film and has been released free online.

Both Parties Should Be Scared of the Occupy Movement

Kevin Zeese at OWSnews.org - 4 days ago

Occupiers See the Corruption Throughout the System and in Both Political Parties The Occupy Movement is an Opportunity for Transformation, a Chance to Turn Away From Corruption By Kevin Zeese OccupyWashingtonDC Frank Luntz, a top Republican pollster, told a meeting of Republican Governors that he is “scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I’m frightened to [...]

Joel Shatzky: Educating for Democracy: Mayor Bloomberg's Market Solutions

Joel Shatzky: Educating for Democracy: Mayor Bloomberg's Market Solutions:

Educating for Democracy: Mayor Bloomberg's Market Solutions

In a recent speech, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg advanced the following solution to the problems of public education. It reveals, once more, how far from "getting it" public officials are in understanding what education is all about.According to the mayor:

"Education is very much, I've always thought, just like the real estate business: there are three things that matter: location, location, location is the old joke. Well in education, it is: quality of teacher, quality of teacher, quality of teacher. And I would -- if I had the ability, which nobody does really, to just design a system and say, 'ex cathedra, this is what we're going to do,' you would cut the number of teachers in half, but you would double the compensation of them, and you would weed out all the bad ones and just have good teachers. And double the class size with a better teacher is a good deal for the students."

If he followed the analogy that education is "just like the real estate business," then the mayor

The multiple measure scam. « Fred Klonsky

The multiple measure scam. « Fred Klonsky:

The multiple measure scam.

by Fred Klonsky

Both students and teachers are victims of the multiple measure scam.

This is the latest in the long line of education mumbo-jumbo that is being used to substitute teacher knowledge with high stakes tests and off-the-shelf computerized assessments.

Students lose because of wasted precious classroom time and stress. Teachers lose because it undermines our own professional knowledge and because these measures are now being used for performance reviews.

In Illinois, our own state union leadership promotes their use to justify PERA, the new teacher evaluation rules

Missouri Education Watchdog: The Symbiotic Relationship of Bill Gates, Arne Duncan and Pearson...and the Takeover of American Education

Missouri Education Watchdog: The Symbiotic Relationship of Bill Gates, Arne Duncan and Pearson...and the Takeover of American Education:

The Symbiotic Relationship of Bill Gates, Arne Duncan and Pearson...and the Takeover of American Education

by stlgretchen

Arne Duncan has embraced Bill Gates' vision of education. Bill Gates has had a hand in crafting the common core standards and has provided grant money to advance the implementation in schools around the country. It doesn't apparently matter to Arne Duncan these standards are unproven, untested and unconstitutional. It also apparently doesn't matter that Mr. Gates' previous dalliances into the education arena proved unsuccessful.

Bill Gates has his vision and billions of dollars to start the wheels turning for common core and the data that accompanies the assessments critical to the common core plan. If he can get this implemented, his companies

Charter Witch, Evil Moskowitz, Gets Charter-Checked in Cobble Hill! Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública

Coalition for Public Education/Coalición por la Educación Pública:

Charter Witch, Evil Moskowitz, Gets Charter-Checked in Cobble Hill!

This video depicts the very powerful fightback by the Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Community against the co-location of Eva Moskowitz's corporate backed Success Academy Charter School Network. Nine New York City public schools are already being dislocated by Success Charter Network Schools. Ms. Moskowitz has plans to open 30 more charter schools in New York City.

Where will she ask for free space next?

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RheeFirst! » How many DC schoolkids were left behind by all of the cheating by adults on the DC-CAS?

RheeFirst! » How many DC schoolkids were left behind by all of the cheating by adults on the DC-CAS?:

How many DC schoolkids were left behind by all of the cheating by adults on the DC-CAS?

by admin

Written by Guy Brandenburg for his blog. Read the entire post here.
“Let us not lose sight of the real victims of the massive cheating scandal on the DC-CAS standardized tests here in the nation’s capital.

It’s the students who are being falsely claimed as being proficient when they really need extra help. …

It’s difficult, I replied, because we don’t really know the extent of the cheating — partly because DCPS and

The Ecole Polytechnique Massacre, Twenty-Two Years Ago Today « Student Activism

The Ecole Polytechnique Massacre, Twenty-Two Years Ago Today « Student Activism:

The Ecole Polytechnique Massacre, Twenty-Two Years Ago Today

by Angus Johnston

Twenty-two years ago today 14 women — 13 students and a staff member — were murdered on the campus of Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique. Their killer, Marc Lepine, targeted female students in an engineering class and claimed to be “fighting feminism.”

The fourteen who died were Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault, Annie Turcotte, and Barbara Klucznick-Widajewicz.

The 20th anniversary of the killings drew a lot of attention in the Canadian media and blogosphere, and I

Rick Santorum Thinks Kids Don’t Know About Gays, and We Better Not Tell Them

by Angus Johnston

“So what is going to be taught to our people in health class in our schools? What is going to be taught to our children about who in our stories, even to little children — what are married couples? What families look like in America? So, you are going to have in our curriculum, spread throughout our curriculum, worldview that is fundamentally different than what is taught in schools today? Is that not a consequence of gay marriage?”—Rick Santorum, chatting with a young Iowa voter yesterday.

Two things, Rick.

First: Yes. That’s what’s going to happen. In fact, it’s happening already, even in states without marriage

John Thompson: The Center for American Progress Pushes the Good, Bad and Ugly in Teacher Evaluation: Part 2 - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

John Thompson: The Center for American Progress Pushes the Good, Bad and Ugly in Teacher Evaluation: Part 2 - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

John Thompson: The Center for American Progress Pushes the Good, Bad and Ugly in Teacher Evaluation: Part 2

by Anthony Cody

This week my guest blogger, John Thompson, is exploring the stance taken by The Center for American Progress on the issue of teacher evaluation.

Guest post by John Thompson.

The Center For American Progress (CAP), a liberal think tank, has largely bought the educational agenda of "the billionaires' boys club." It seeks a balance, with just enough union-baiting to appease corporate powers. The CAP does its share of teacher-bashing, apparently in order to parrot the word "accountability" over and over, but it does not want to spark a stampede of teaching talent from inner city schools.

Two new reports, "Designing High Quality Evaluations for High School Teachers," and "Teaching Children Well,"