Another Round of Predictions about High-tech in Schools in 2020 | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Another Round of Predictions about High-tech in Schools in 2020 | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Another Round of Predictions about High-tech in Schools in 2020

by larrycuban

Image via CrunchBase

For the past quarter-century, I have written about teacher and student access to, and instructional use of, computers in schools. In those articles and books, I have been skeptical of vendors’ and promoters’ claims about how these ever-changing electronic devices will transform teaching and learning.

Amid that skepticism, however, I have noted often that many teachers adopted the latest devices and software not only for home use but also to become more efficient in planning lessons, using the Internet, grading students, communicating with parents and other educators, and dozens of other classroom and non-classroom tasks. Nor have my criticisms of policymakers’ decisions to purchase extensive hardware (far too often without teacher advice) prevented me from identifying (and celebrating) teachers leading classes in computer graphics,

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Washington State PTSA and Charter Schools

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Washington State PTSA and Charter Schools:

Washington State PTSA and Charter Schools

by Melissa Westbrook

A couple of months back, I received a call from Heidi Bennett, the Region 6 Legislative Chair for the PTSA. She asked me to participate on a panel about charter schools and Washington State. I have known Heidi for a long time as someone who cares deeply about public education so I told her I would be glad to participate. I also told her I had been writing a series on charter issues for the blog and felt reasonably well-informed.

I told her it was vital to any discussion to have a basic foundation of knowledge or else people would be confusing each other coming from incorrect information. It does it all no good to advocate pro or con if we don't know the basics.

I also know Ramona Hattendorf who is the Government Relations Coordinator for the Washington State PTSA.

Lopsided Debate over Education Reform Reveals a Broken System - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Lopsided Debate over Education Reform Reveals a Broken System - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Lopsided Debate over Education Reform Reveals a Broken System

by Anthony Cody

Alexander Russo has done an excellent job stirring the pot with his column yesterday asserting that "reform critics" like myself are "winning" the online debate.

As I tried to point out yesterday, the online debate is rather meaningless if the real decisions about our schools continue to be made based on misinformation, bribery and political gamesmanship. I believe the online debate has been deliberately ignored by the corporate reform sector, as they see it as a battle they can well afford to lose, given the access to real power their funds buy them.

We succeeded in breaking through a bit last year with Save Our Schools, and saw some attacks on us as a result. But fundamentally, what the lopsided online discussion reveals is a broken political system that has lost

2011 at InterACT – Kelly Kovacic « InterACT

2011 at InterACT – Kelly Kovacic « InterACT:

2011 at InterACT – Kelly Kovacic

by David B. Cohen

Kelly Kovacic

Continuing to wrap up 2011 at InterACT, today I highlight a few of the great posts that Kelly Kovacic contributed this year. (Prior installments include best guest posts and best posts by Martha Infante). As a result of her time as a California Teacher of the Year, Kelly has kept quite busy not only here in California, but also participating in national, and even international events. While the pace of InterACT posts has understandably dropped off, it’s always a pleasure to see what Kelly has to offer, whether as a result of her leadership and travels, or just from her perspective as a classroom teacher.

Let’s start off with one of those posts that offer Kelly’s insights relating to her Teacher of the Year experience. The title is “Learning After You Know It All” – and the topic…

[It] was quite remarkable to attend the recent

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Be a new person in 2012: It all starts with you!

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Be a new person in 2012: It all starts with you!:

Be a new person in 2012: It all starts with you!

by coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher)

I've been writing, working on my blog, experimenting, doing this for Flat Classroom but I'd like to share my favorite 5 posts for looking at yourself this 2012 in the common retrospection that we have this time of year. I don't make resolutions, I make appointments with myself to improve habits. Here are some of my favorite posts on this topic.

Take time to consider what habits you need to put in place now. If you keep doing what you're doing, where will the normal course of human habits take you? Face it. Lack of sleep, overeating, and lack of exercise will take you to a heart attack. Assume no exceptions and deal with it. Face it. Not balancing your checkbook. Having no budget. Spending more than you make will make your situation worse this time next year. But there is hope, you can improve yourself.

1- Add to your life by subtraction

"I want to determine the goals that my family and I have and focus on those. I want to

Learning about Learning 12/29/2011

by coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher)

• iPadApps-DigitalLearningFarm.jpg
  Incredible resource to find apps. This is from Silvia Tolisano as a digital apps farm for learning. It includes apps, websites, tools. Pretty ubiquitous tools but some specifically ipad/iphone.
  tags: education eduapp learning mlearning
• The Best Sites For Getting Some Perspective On International Test Comparison Demagoguery | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…
  Larry Ferlazzo can curate some sites. If you are interested in international testing, these are some good 

2011 Policy Progress Report: No Child Left Behind - US News and World Report

2011 Policy Progress Report: No Child Left Behind - US News and World Report:

2011 Policy Progress Report: No Child Left Behind

It was a big year for the nation's central K-12 education policy

By MALLIE JANE KIM

December 28, 2011 RSS Feed Print

The nation's now unpopular key education policy saw more action in Washington this year than it did since it passed in 2001.

No Child Left Behind has been overdue for a rewrite since 2007, and education experts agree final reform needs to come from Congress. But this year, the real action came from the executive branch.

Out of frustration with congressional inaction, President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan took matters into their own hands this fall and outlined a waiver program for any states willing to embrace certain "reforms."

These include college- and career-ready standards, an accountability process for rewarding schools that show

The Education Optimists: Whose Race to the Top?

The Education Optimists: Whose Race to the Top?:

Whose Race to the Top?

Posted by Sara Goldrick-Rab

A new investigation into the charter schools run by Joe Biden's brother Frank, a self-proclaimed "PT Barnum" of charters, raises interesting implications for the Obama Administration's educational policy known as Race to the Top.

As many, including the U.S. Department of Educationwhich oversees RTTT, have pointed out, states that embrace charter schools are winning the race. As DOE materials put it, "President Obama has called upon states to encourage the expansion of charter schools. A network of innovative and high-achieving charter schools can be an important part of a state's school reform effort. However, charter schools are facing

The 1% and Education Policy « Nashville Jefferson: A Nashville Education Blog

The 1% and Education Policy « Nashville Jefferson: A Nashville Education Blog:

The 1% and Education Policy

DECEMBER 29, 2011

tags: ALEC, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Billionaires' Boys Club, Diane Ravitch, Jonathan Barkan, Matthew McKnight, obligatory Occupy Wall Street reference, philanthrophy, private dollars, Sara Goldrick Rab, The Broad Foundation, The Education Optimists, The New Yorker, Walton Family Foundation

Look, it’s no secret that an elite club of education dilettantes philanthropists have been throwing money at various educational causes for a good while, and that this spending has picked up markedly in the last few years. Diane Ravitch calls them the “Billionaires’ Boys Club” (h/t Sara Goldrick Rab); others such as Joanne Barkan refer to the “Big Three” (the Gates Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, and Eli Broad). For another good overview of the state of affairs, check out this New Yorker piece by Matthew McKnight and the aforementioned post by Sara Goldrick Rab on the Education Optimists blog.

So, OK. There are a lot of people out there that have no problem with the literally hundreds of millions, and possibly billions, of private dollars flowing into public education. Mayor Dean certainly doesn’t.

Florida Gets Acquainted With Ohio’s Master of Charter School Disaster | Scathing Purple Musings

Florida Gets Acquainted With Ohio’s Master of Charter School Disaster | Scathing Purple Musings:

Florida Gets Acquainted With Ohio’s Master of Charter School Disaster

by Bob Sikes

Its been a really bad few weeks for Maverick’s charter schools. New Times reporter Lisa Rab has beenestablishing a timeline. Freelance writer Doug Martin has been following the money. Now comes word the founder of Mavericks is in some real trouble in Ohio. Writes Vince Grzegorek in Cleveland Scene Magazine.

The tale of Mark Thimmig is a reminder that not all Ohioans who depart for Florida leave in search of fruity drinks and leathery skin. Some simply seek new marks for their scam.

From 2001 to 2005, Thimmig was the CEO of White Hat Management, the outfit that runs one of the country’s largest for-profit charter school factories. White Hat’s local outlets took up residence in strip malls and boasted the academic rigor of a Mr. Hero franchise.

A 2007 Scene article titled “Education at Its Worst” detailed White Hat’s dubious academic record

Hechinger Report | As Ohio moves to defund remedial courses, new models arise

Hechinger Report | As Ohio moves to defund remedial courses, new models arise:

As Ohio moves to defund remedial courses, new models arise

by Sarah Butrymowicz

Students at Kent State University (Photo by Sarah Butrymowicz)

KENT, Ohio—As finals approached, nearly 240 students in a computer lab worked through basic algebra problems at Kent State University, where they and more than 3,200 of their classmates had been deemed unprepared for college-level math. They struggled to solve for x in equations like 3x + 1 = 7—a skill students are meant to master in middle school. (The correct answer: x = 2.)

Just down the hallway, university officials were trying to crunch a few numbers of their own, analyzing how much

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: A biblical school reform metaphor

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: A biblical school reform metaphor:

A biblical school reform metaphor

by Mike Klonsky

But who's David and who's Goliath?

There's a strange dynamic going on inside the online education reform debate in which the well-funded reformers play the role of wimpy David and the scrappy traditional educators are Goliath. --Alexander Russo

I've got to hand it to provocateur metaphor-mixing Russo. He got some of my fellow SOSers and current reform critics to take the bait by referring to them as mighty Goliaths overpowering the wimpy Davids of corporate school reform in internet combat.

Russo, a paid blogger for Scholastic, got what he was after -- someone to take

Schools Matter: Gingrich Chooses Keegan for Her Strong Corruption Credentials?

Schools Matter: Gingrich Chooses Keegan for Her Strong Corruption Credentials?:

Gingrich Chooses Keegan for Her Strong Corruption Credentials?

by Jim Horn

Lisa G. Keegan has come a long way since her feature in the Peoria Times in 2006, which followed many months of avoiding questions emanating from a federal audit that noted the missing millions that someone raked away while she was running the Education Leaders Council during the champagne popping days for the ed industry under Bush II.

Keegan served as McCain's mouthpiece on education 4 years ago, and this time around she has hooked up with someone whose corruption credentials make her look like a paragon of virtue. Hey, everybody's doing it!

When Gingrich loses, will Keegan leverage her new visibility into a job in the post-partisan corporatist ED? Maybe the new Secretary of Education?, since Party labels are meaningless in the brave new corporate ed world

The Difference Between Insult and Argument :: Frederick M. Hess

The Difference Between Insult and Argument :: Frederick M. Hess:

The Difference Between Insult and Argument

by Frederick M. Hess • Dec 29, 2011 at 8:12 am
Cross-posted from Education Week

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It's the end of the year, and I always get a bit reflective. As a blogger, I've long been intrigued by the "comments." I'm frequently startled by the inchoate fury of so many postings. At an intellectual level I understand this is how many engage online--and it's of a piece with talk radio and so much of cable news--but I find it a little bizarre, and not especially constructive. That said, it poses a bit of a teaching opportunity. On that count, my indefatigable assistant Becky King put on her rubber gloves to grab a few of this year's more vociferous comments (boy, I hope my mom doesn't read these).

In response to "The World Conspires to Make Expertise Unreliable," one reader opined, "Hess has found his niche--at the AEI, where he uses his questionable 'expertise' to undermine public education and seeks to privatize education for the benefit not of the kids but of profit-seeking entrepreneurs." With regards to "Customized Schooling," the same reader noted, "Hess and [co-editor Bruno] Manno are pro-voucher fanatics who will stoop to anything to wreck public schools

Updated: Florida Gets Acquainted With Ohio's Master of Charter School Disaster | Scene and Heard: Scene's News Blog

Updated: Florida Gets Acquainted With Ohio's Master of Charter School Disaster | Scene and Heard: Scene's News Blog:

Updated: Florida Gets Acquainted With Ohio's Master of Charter School Disaster

POSTED BY VINCE GRZEGOREK ON WED, DEC 28, 2011 AT 11:01 AM

The tale of Mark Thimmig is a reminder that not all Ohioans who depart for Florida leave in search of fruity drinks and leathery skin. Some simply seek new marks for their scam.

From 2001 to 2005, Thimmig was the CEO of White Hat Management, the outfit that runs one of the country’s largest for-profit charter school factories. White Hat’s local outlets took up residence in strip malls and boasted the academic rigor of a Mr. Hero franchise.

A 2007 Scene article titled “Education at Its Worst” detailed White Hat’s dubious academic record as well as its slimy financial dealings. Reports estimate that White Hat pocketed 96 percent of the money it received from the state. Such a move would signal an exemplary exercise in maximizing profit margins, except that the money had been earmarked for educating kids.

For years, White Hat stonewalled 10 Hope Academies and Life Skills Centers in Cleveland and Akron who wanted to know where their money had gone. On Friday, a Franklin County Common Pleas judge

Mavericks charter schools don't live up to big promises

A A AComments (1)By Lisa Rab Thursday, Dec 29 2011

Before the songs, chanting, and heartfelt tears, the ceremony next door to a strip mall begins with speeches. A thin, deeply tanned man in a pinstriped suit is among the first to take the microphone. He's not famous — not exactly — but his receding hairline, rectangular face, and overeager grin are naggingly familiar. "This is a hope factory," he begins. "This is a spiritual experience."

PRNewsFoto/Mavericks in Education/Newscom

Former CEO Mark Thimmig is in a legal battle with Mavericks' other founders.

AP Photo/Lynne Sladky

Developer Mark Rodberg wanted Dwyane Wade's name on his restaurants and schools.

He stands in the lobby of what could be any office building in Florida, beside a reception desk festooned with red, white, and blue balloons.

"I stuttered very badly as a kid," he continues, his voice warming to the rhythm of a much-repeated tale. "I was considered a dummy. I empathize with these kids in a very intimate way."

This is Frank Biden, the brother of Vice