Saturday, February 25, 2012
Buffett: Unemployment linked to housing - Omaha.com
Jersey Jazzman: Public Employees Are Not Slaves
Public Employees Are Not Slaves
1) You and I, as taxpayers, do not have unlimited rights over public workers. I don't care if we "pay their salaries" or not; all workers have certain rights, even though we seem to have forgotten that these days.
One of those rights should obviously be the right to some basic level of privacy in the workplace. While there are undoubtedly private sector employers judging their employees by arbitrary criteria based on the work of others, I don't see those evaluations being published for public consumption. It's obviously a bad business practice and antithetical to the best interests of private sector employers; there's no compelling reason it should be any different for public sector employers.
2) "You" do not hire teachers or cops or firefighters or public sector nurses. School boards hire teachers; police departments hire cops; fire departments hire firefighters; public health facilities hire nurses. That's their job; if they do a poor job, they or the politicians who appointed their leaders get voted out. But even though you "pay
Why are strong readers being labeled remedial? - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post
Why are strong readers being labeled remedial?
This was written by Marion Brady, veteran teacher, administrator, curriculum designer and author.
By Marion Brady
I began teaching history at the high school level in the fall of 1952. It wasn’t by choice. I hadn’t majored in the subject in college. It had always been just another required hoop to jump through.
Read full article >>NYC releases teachers’ value-added scores — unfortunately
Duncan’s equity commission and the ‘rising tide’ of avarice, hostility, testing
A test for politicians on education (with cheat sheet)
Memo to Santorum: Homeschooling not a viable or best option for all parents
What’s wrong with D.C.’s facilities/charter study
Teacher: ‘Tis a shame (that education has become so political)
College admissions: How diversity factors in
Santorum’s children went to a cyber charter school
D.C. charter schools: Student expulsions reveal data problem
‘Rigor mortis ’ in teacher evaluation systems
Presidents’ Day: The quiz
‘You are so smart…why did you become a teacher?’
Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day - The Educator's PLN
Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day
During the morning long session students were exposed to many aspects related to the field of engineering including what is an engineer, achievements, inventions by women, fields of study and resources available to pursue a career. Approximately twenty five students were involved in the experiments and gained great insight
“It’s time to march again.” « Fred Klonsky
“It’s time to march again.”
At the Saturday morning meeting of Operation Push, the Reverend Jesse Jackson said that in response to the decision of the Chicago school board this week to close or turn around more than a dozen schools, “It is time to march again.”
The participants in a panel discussion, which included Jackson, his son Jonathan Jackson, who is Rainbow/PUSH spokesman, Chicago Teachers Union
Stupidity in Florida – Transformative Education by any means necessary. The 2012 FL budget funds failing charter schools. « Continuing Change
Stupidity in Florida – Transformative Education by any means necessary. The 2012 FL budget funds failing charter schools.
Remember when we looked at the school data here in Florida and nearly all the counties we looked at, the onlyF in the county was a charter school… ?? Well, it looks like our leaders in Tally figure failing must be a good thing.
They just set a budget :
No new money for construction and maintenance of public schools statewide, but $55 million for
School Tech Connect: A Mess!
A Mess!
This notion that "the schools are a mess" and that "we can all agree" on that is pure bullshit, spouted by people
Florida Ed Commissioner Gerard Robinson’s Transparent Rhetoric | Scathing Purple Musings
Florida Ed Commissioner Gerard Robinson’s Transparent Rhetoric
Over a period of 48 hours, Gerard Robinson has twice attempted to deflect criticism for his plan to turn Florida’s school grade formula upside down. Here part of his Thursday statement:
The proposed changes to our school grading system are not only necessary to continue on the path of intelligent reform, but they will help ensure that Florida is prepared to compete on a global level. Under our current school grading system, it is possible for a school to receive an ‘A’ grade when three out of four students cannot meet Florida’s grade-level standards for reading. This is unacceptable.
We need an education system for Florida that is exceptional, not merely acceptable. It is my goal to ensure that every student has the opportunity to be counted and to experience world-class
Student Enrollments & State School Finance Policies « School Finance 101
Student Enrollments & State School Finance Policies
Most readers of the NJDOE report on reforming the state’s school finance formula likely glided right past the seemingly innocuous recommendation to shift the enrollment count method for funding from a fall enrollment count to an average daily attendance figure. After all, on its face, the argument provided seems to make sense. Let’s fund on this basis so that we can incentivize increased attendance in our most impoverished and low performing districts. (Another argument I’ve heard in other states is “why would we fund kids who aren’t there?”). The data were even presented to validate that attendance rates are lower in these districts (Figure 3.1).
I, however, could not let this pass, because Average Daily Attendance as a basis for funding is actually a well
