International Women’s Day: Boycott Hyatt. Hyatt hurts women. « Fred Klonsky

International Women’s Day: Boycott Hyatt. Hyatt hurts women. « Fred Klonsky:

International Women’s Day: Boycott Hyatt. Hyatt hurts women.

by Fred Klonsky

Hyatt Hurts Women: The Clothesline Project.
Today, March 8th, is International Women’s Day.
While the Conservative War on Women is well known, less well known is the campaign of working women, hotel workers at the Hyatt Hotel who are waging a battle for respect and a decent contract.
The Hyatt chain is owned by the Pritzker family, Obama fundraisers and Rahm Emanuel pals.
The Chicago-based Pritzker family was in the news last week for their success in skipping out on their property taxes. Penny Pritzker owns a seven-bathroom mansion in Lincoln Park, sits on the Chicago school board and 

Teaching Civic Engagement: Dear Mr. President (Guest Post b Kelly Dillion) « Cooperative Catalyst

Teaching Civic Engagement: Dear Mr. President (Guest Post b Kelly Dillion) « Cooperative Catalyst:

Teaching Civic Engagement: Dear Mr. President (Guest Post b Kelly Dillion)

by dloitz

The paradox of democracy is this: those who don’t have it fight tooth and nail to get it while those who have it watch football.
I realize this statement is hyperbolic, but I wanted to make a point. On President’s Day, I began thinking about the tremendous impact political freedom has on our lives, and I realized that this thought may not have occurred to many of my compatriots. President’s Day is a time to honor the achievements of our most distinguished citizens, but it is also a time to celebrate the democratic process that wrote these men into our collective history. We live in a country that embraces civic engagement. We have the right to vote. We have the right to assemble in protest of our government. We have the right to write and say what we want, regardless of political 

Teach for America is great! Just not for my kid.... - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Teach for America is great! Just not for my kid.... - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

Teach for America is great! Just not for my kid....

by Valerie Strauss

This was written by Katie Osgood, a teacher on a child/adolescent inpatient unit at a psychiatric hospital in Chicago. Her students attend all types of schools but most are from low-income minority neighborhoods. This post first appeared on her blog Ms. Katie’s Ramblings.
Read full article >>

Who won millions in Walton Foundation grants in 2011

by Valerie Strauss

The pro-charter Walton Foundation handed out more than $159 million in 2011 in 16 metropolitan areas around the country to promote school choice. It also committed to giving $49.5 million to Teach for America over five years to double its teaching corps and $25.5 million over the same period to the KIPP charter school network to double the number of students it educates.
Read full article >>

NYC Public School Parents: Backed By 100+ Police Officers, Mayor Forces South Williamsburg Vote

NYC Public School Parents: Backed By 100+ Police Officers, Mayor Forces South Williamsburg Vote:

Backed By 100+ Police Officers, Mayor Forces South Williamsburg Vote

by Patrick J. Sullivan

The controversial agenda item for the March 1st PEP meeting was the co-location of a Success Academy at IS 50 in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The co-location is opposed by the Southside Community Schools Coalition, a broad coalition of community based organizations, churches, schools and politicians in the community. As I made my way to Fort Greene Park for the SCSC press conference from inside Brooklyn Tech High School I counted 85 police officers. Many wore uniforms or insignia indicating their special branches - task forces, riot police, community affairs, even two park rangers who kept watch from a hill in the park. If we include the reserve squad positioned in the Brooklyn Tech gym and the uncounted plain clothes officers, there were well over 100 police officers on hand to ensure the mayoral bloc of PEP members carried out their voting in support of the administration.

NY1 covered the press conference and subsequent vote here. Two things are missing from the news accounts 

A NYC teacher's response to the publishing of her confidential -- and unreliable -- data report

by Leonie Haimson

Roe Wrubel is currently a 4th grade teacher.  My daughter was lucky to have Roe as her teacher in the 1st and 2nd grades. Her talent and commitment encapsulates everything that is great about the profession. For those who are interested, Roe's TDR came out far above average.  But that did not prevent her from being distressed about its release and publication.  She posted the below eloquent remarks next to her TDR on the NY Times website.  With her permission, I am reprinting them here:
 

I truly don't have the words to express the enormity of how this small act, this one 'report', this blip that's been added to the overwhelming archive that is the world wide web, encapsulates all that is wrong with 

No action yet on NCLB waiver | Thoughts on Public Education

No action yet on NCLB waiver | Thoughts on Public Education:

No action yet on NCLB waiver - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

An unconvinced State Board of Education took no action Wednesday on a request for a wavier from the No Child Left Behind law being pushed by Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson. Torlakson’s staff at the California Department of Education will now have another two months, until the State Board’s May meeting, to strengthen its waiver [...]

CST results back in a jiffy - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

Next year, school districts will receive the students’ results on state standardized tests in two weeks, not two months – or longer. Gov. Jerry Brown had called for the quicker turnaround in his State of the State address, and on Wednesday, the State Board of Education approved amendments to the contract with the test administrator, Educational [...]

U.S. Department of Education – YOU ARE CLUELESS! « Teachers Fight Back

U.S. Department of Education – YOU ARE CLUELESS! « Teachers Fight Back:

U.S. Department of Education – YOU ARE CLUELESS!

by alkleen

The U.S. Department of Education released a study that showed African-American students in Chicago Public Schools face harsher discipline than their white and Latino classmates. African-American students comprised three-quarters of school suspensions in 2009-10, the year data was collected for the national civil rights survey. African-American students make up about half of the students in Chicago Public Schools. Latino students made up 42 percent of CPS’ enrollment but 20 percent of the suspensions. White students, who represented less than 10 percent of district enrollment, made up 3 percent of suspensions.
The study went on to hint that the teachers were at fault for the fact that African-American suspensions were disproportionately high. U.S. Dept. of Education, YOU ARE CLUELESS! How dare you suggest that teachers 

Starting next spring, CA standardized test results to come back in days - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools

Starting next spring, CA standardized test results to come back in days - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools:

Starting next spring, CA standardized test results to come back in days

By Katy Murphy
Wednesday, March 7th, 2012 at 5:39 pm in state news, test scores.

By the spring of 2013, schools will likely see how their students did on state exams within 12 days — rather than three months later — because of changes to the STAR testing system, according to the California Department of Education. In other words, the news will come at the end of the school year, rather than over the summer.

Here’s the news release that just arrived from the CDE:

State Schools Chief Torlakson and School Board President Kirst Applaud Improvements to Testing Agreement

CSTs and CMA Results Available in 10-12 Days Rather than Three Months

SACRAMENTO—Following approval of changes to the state’s agreement with Educational Testing Service regarding the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and State Board of Education President Michael 

OUSD board considers charter school conversions tonight

By Katy Murphy
Wednesday, March 7th, 2012 at 9:11 am in charter schools, elementary schools,School board news, small schools, Tony Smith
1 Comment

UPDATE: The OUSD board voted 6-0 (board member Alice Spearman wasn’t present) to approve the charter conversions of both ASCEND and Learning Without Limits.

As a result of the higher-than-normal facilities rate the schools will pay OUSD to remain in their buildings ($2.50 per square foot, compared to $1.35 per square foot), their per-student contributions to the state debt, and the services the schools plan to buy from the district as part of a services agreement, OUSD expects to lose about $48,000 after it’s all said and done, down from the original $826,350 projected just a few weeks ago. (Note: OUSD will lose $4.5 million in state reve

School Tech Connect: Happy ISAT Window!

School Tech Connect: Happy ISAT Window!:

Happy ISAT Window!

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim)

I got nothin'. While you're here, why don't you zoom over and take the Illinois 8th grade practice ISAT questions.It's testing season, and people seem to think that these reading tests are some kind of gauge for how well kids read.

I have often wanted to film a small group of kids taking the practice tests, but it's so tedious that I can't think of a way to make it interesting. All I know is that if I'm a kid, and I know that nothing much really comes of this test other than my teachers getting yelled at, I'm going to put a minimal effort into trying to play the little detective game that these questions want me to play.

I guess this is an example of irony as a literary device. However, when I think of irony as a literary device, I think 

Separate, Unequal...and Distracted | National Education Policy Center

Separate, Unequal...and Distracted | National Education Policy Center:

Separate, Unequal...and Distracted

 

Share

by Paul Thomas

March 7, 2012

• Paul Thomas
 
• Discipline policy
 
• Race, ethnicity, class and culture

When research, history, and allegory all converge to tell us the same story, we must pause to ask why we have ignored the message for so long and why are we likely to continue missing the essential thing before us.

The New York Times and Education Week reveal two important lessons in both the message they present and the distinct difference in their framing of that message:

"Black Students Face More Discipline, Data Suggests [sic]" headlines the NYT's article with the lead:

"Black students, especially boys, face much harsher discipline in public schools than other students, according to new data from the Department of Education."

And EdWeek announces "Civil Rights Data Show Retention Disparities," opening with:

"New nationwide data collected by the U.S. Department of Education's civil rights office reveal stark 

Modern School: LAUSD Lost Records of Accused Molester

Modern School: LAUSD Lost Records of Accused Molester:

LAUSD Lost Records of Accused Molester

by Michael Dunn

Collective Punishment for Teachers and Children to Obscure District’s Culpability

As LAUSD continues its lame attempt at damage control, collectively punishing everyone at Miramonte Elementary School in a mass firing and banning blindfolding and food consumption throughout the district, more evidence is coming out that the district was asleep at the wheel, allowing potential molesters to continue working in its schools.

Paul Chapel recently pleaded not guilty to 16 counts of lewd behavior and sexual abuse of four students at his school. All were under the age of 14. In 1997, Chapel was accused of molesting an 8-year-old friend of his son who was sleeping at his house. LAUSD records show that the district alerted the state Commission on Teacher Credentialing CTC), which suspended his credential, while the district suspended him from work without pay. The jury couldn’t reach a verdict due to lack of physical evidence, prompting the CTC to reinstate his credential and 

Missouri Education Watchdog: Stunning News from the Duval County (Jacksonville) Florida School Board

Missouri Education Watchdog: Stunning News from the Duval County (Jacksonville) Florida School Board:

Stunning News from the Duval County (Jacksonville) Florida School Board

by stlgretchen

While visiting my hometown, I was stunned to read in the Jacksonville Times-Union the agenda of the Duval County School Board.  It wasn't so much that the agenda was in the main newspaper of the city, it was the information contained in the agenda and relayed to the public.

Check out the March 6 entry from the Times Union:

Item: Consider creating four new staff positions: information and accountability chief officer, director of high 

Jersey Jazzman: Don't Lay Down Arms in the War Against Teachers!

Jersey Jazzman: Don't Lay Down Arms in the War Against Teachers!:

Don't Lay Down Arms in the War Against Teachers!

by Duke

Yesterday, Matt Katz of the Philadelphia Inquirer tweeted the following:

Matt Katz ‏ @mattkatz00

•  Reply ooo
 
• o Retweet 
 
•  Favorite 
 
• · Open

ATTENTION NJ TEACHERS: @GovChristie says teachers gotta be furious that @NJEA spends millions in dues on political ads. Do you care? DM me..

As a matter of fact, Matt, I care very much. And if any of you who are teachers feel the way I do, I'd suggest youtweet Matt, like he asked, and let him know, in your own words, what you think. 


Our governor had one of his patented hissy fits yesterday about the teachers union:

New Jersey (STONJ1)’s largest teachers union spent a record $11.3 million on lobbying 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: CPS spinners in a tizzy over Brizard's call for vouchers

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: CPS spinners in a tizzy over Brizard's call for vouchers:

CPS spinners in a tizzy over Brizard's call for vouchers

by Mike Klonsky

When Chicago schools chief, J.C. Brizard came out in support of school vouchers the other day, he freaked out his own loyalists like U. of Chicago corporate reformer Tim Knowles. But the funniest thing was watching his own confused PR team wiggling around trying to make things right.

Here's how the Tribune reported it:

When CPS was asked for clarification on his remarks Monday, Marielle Sainvilus, a CPS spokeswoman, said Brizard was giving his personal opinion on education funding and was not recommending that the state adopt school vouchers... On Tuesday, CPS spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler reiterated that Brizard was not advocating for such a policy at CPS, nor will the district be 

In the mailbox

by Mike Klonsky

Dear Supporters of the LSC Filing Extension Deadline,

As you probably know, the filing deadline for LSCs was estended to March 23. See <http://www.cps.edu/News/Press_releases/Pages/03_07_12_PR1.aspx>

Thanks to everyone for your support. You should have received the letter sent by the "Coalition to Strength Local School Councils" to CEO Brizard that we sent last night and the related press release.

We know that CPS was aware that we were building a coalition and that Brizard received our letter last night. This helped motivate CPS to act.

See also favorable editorial in Sun Times about LSCs.

Sincerely,
Don Moore