Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Big Education Ape: 4-3-12 AM Value-Added Evaluation Hurts Teaching EDition #SOSCHAT

Big Education Ape: PARENTS CAN!:
Big Education Ape: PARENTS CAN!

Published by Coopmike48 – 7 news spotters today

Education Week: Value-Added Evaluation Hurts Teaching

edweek.org - Joanna Cannon, executive director of the New York City Department of Education's Office of Research and Data, speaks to reporters about the release of individual performance rankings of 18,000 publ...
DianeRavitch

Arts Education In U.S. Public Schools

shankerblog.org - There is a somewhat common argument in education circles that the focus on math and reading tests in No Child Left Behind has had the unintended consequence of generating a concurrent deemphasis on...
DianeRavitch

Why Overturning ‘Obamacare’ Could Lead To Single-Payer

tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com - Health Care Before The CourtSahil Kapur April 2, 2012, 6:06 AM If the Supreme Court strikes down “Obamacare,” Republicans claim a huge short-term victory, but they may end up big losers in the long...
fklonsky

Poll: Majority For Recalling Walker In Wisconsin

2012.talkingpointsmemo.com - Eric Kleefeld April 2, 2012, 1:27 PM The new Rasmussen poll of Wisconsin shows bad news for Gov. Scott Walker, with a majority of likely voters wanting to kick him out of office in the state’s rece...
fklonsky

Let’s tackle the right education crisis

blogs.reuters.com - There’s a national security crisis in U.S. education. I’m no history sleuth, but it must have come on fast just after February 2010. That’s when Secretary of Defense Robert Gates sent the last Quad...
DianeRavitch

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DianeRavitch Celebrated Oakland school--no excuses--under investigation for financial self-dealing: sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl…about 1 minute ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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coopmike48 Read Damn Good Education Daily ▸ today's top stories via@schlfinance101 ▸paper.li/coopmike48/bir… #SOSMARCH7 seconds ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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coopmike48 State schools chief calls for Cal State salary freeze - latimes.comlat.ms/HGPX9n11 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

EducationSee all

Reflections of a First Year Math Teacher

mathequality.wordpress.com - Instead of a quick post highlighting the latest efforts to garner signatures for an open letter to President Obama, I spent all day writing this post.  The open letter I refer to asks that Presiden...
DianeRavitch

SocietySee all

Planned Parenthood Bombed In Wisconsin

tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com - Nick R. Martin April 2, 2012, 12:09 PM A small, homemade bomb exploded outside a Planned Parenthood office in Wisconsin on Sunday night, prompting investigators to launch a hunt for the person who ...
fklonsky

Limit to contract clauses proposed | Home

theadvocate.com - A state Senate committee approved legislation Thursday that would allow charter schools to refuse to admit students on the basis of their ability to speak English, their sexual orientation or other...
DianeRavitch

StoriesSee all

Where Have All The Teachers Gone?

dcgmentor.com - …Long time gone,  marches on DC drew hundreds of thousands. In 1969, I marched on Washington as part of a massive crowd of 500,000 larger than the actual population of the city. In the summer of 20...
mikeklonsky

The in box. Not a fan. « Fred Klonsky

preaprez.wordpress.com - You make me sick. I have had the displeasure of following your blog only to find it self serving. Not once about the kids. My retirement, my fellow teachers, my unions, my education, blah, blah, bl...
coopmike48

Celebrate Caregivers During Read Across America Day

caregivingclub.com - As a book lover, I celebrate Read Across America Day (March 2) every year by creating my book list for the coming year and settling on the couch with my first pick.  I love this day because it is a...
coopmike48

PoliticsSee all

Rahm's bullying exposed - Substance News

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Rahm's bullying exposed - Substance News:Rahm's Rent-A-Preacher and Rent-A-Protest exposed, even to elected state officialsJohn Kugler - January 15, 2012In a reversal of fortunes, Chicago Mayor Rah...
coopmike48

Art & EntertainmentSee all

Police in Ky. warns hoops revelers to watch step

boston.com - LEXINGTON, Ky.—Police were forcefully warning Kentucky fans that a repeat Monday of the dangerous weekend celebrations wouldn't be tolerated for the game to decide college basketball's national cha...
coopmike48

Caricatura: Ruz: ¡Comienzan las vacaciones! | Zambombazo

zachary-jones.com - 2/04/2012 • 10:53 amComienzan las vacaciones de Semana Santa. ¿En quรฉ se parece el รบltimo viernes antes del Spring Break aquรญ en EEUU al viernes retratado en esta caricatura del artista salvadoreรฑo...
coopmike48

SportsSee all

Could Latinos be the key to improving US Soccer?

beinglatino.us - Photo: Jessenia Martinez The 2012 Summer Olympics in London will feature established stars like Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps, alongside many other soon-to-be household names, for what will undoubt...
coopmike48

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This is why we don’t want charter schools: Lousiana proposed bill allows discrimination | Seattle Education

This is why we don’t want charter schools: Lousiana proposed bill allows discrimination | Seattle Education:


This is why we don’t want charter schools: Lousiana proposed bill allows discrimination

by seattleducation2011
Our state budget has not been resolved and the governor has called for our legislators to return to Olympia tomorrow to come to an agreement on the budget. This issue of charter schools might return with Rodney Tom in the lead holding the state budget hostage unless he gets his way and the budget bill which includes a charter school clause is approved. We can’t let that happen and one of the many reasons why public schools must remain public and available to all children is reflected in a proposed bill that was approved in committee in the state of Louisiana last week.
Charter schools have historically been discriminating against English Language Learners, students with special needs as well as students who don’t “test” above a certain level. These are illegal actions in a public school and would be considered illegal in a charter school but charter schools have little to no public oversight. With this bill, discrimination on the behalf of a charter school would become legal in the state of Louisiana.
This article in the Advocate describes
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STEMing the minority gap | Thoughts on Public Education

STEMing the minority gap | Thoughts on Public Education:


STEMing the minority gap

College pipeline narrows for critical majors
Posted on 4/03/12 • Categorized as Achievement Gap, STEM
By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess
The gap starts early in elementary school, widens in middle school, and continues, through filters and barriers, on a trajectory of low achievement and missed opportunities. By the end of college, the number of Latinos and African Americans who graduate with degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math is a trickle: an estimated 1,688 from the University of California and California State University in 2008.
“The vast disparities in STEM preparation existing between underrepresented students of color and their peers in California are problematic in both the limited future opportunities afforded to these students and the significant loss of a large pool of talent for the state,” 
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State Superintendent calls for 'immediate freeze' on raises for CSU executives | 89.3 KPCC

State Superintendent calls for 'immediate freeze' on raises for CSU executives | 89.3 KPCC:


State Superintendent calls for 'immediate freeze' on raises for CSU executives


In a strongly-worded letter to the California State University Board of Trustees today, the state's Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson, derided recent pay raises for two incoming campus presidents and called for a freeze on executive compensation when hiring for five other open campus president positions.

Last month, the CSU Board of Trustees approved the maximum allowable pay increases for incoming presidents at the system's Fullerton and East Bay campuses. The system will also be conducting president searches for at least five campuses including San Bernardino, California Maritime, San Francisco, Stanislaus and Monterey Bay.

"As I understand it, the executive compensation policy adopted recently by this board states that incoming


'Nobody is going to the CSU to be a president to get rich,' spokesman says


California State University spokesman Mike Uhlenkampf gave a bit of background on the executive compensation issue this afternoon after California's Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson sent his fellow Board of Trustees members a letter today calling for a freeze on more raises for incoming campus presidents.

Torlakson, who is also a trustee, was not at the January meeting in which the trustees established a policy to limit the amount of pay for presidents and established an acceptable range. Torlakson was also absent at last month's meeting where the board voted to approve the maximum salary increase for incoming presidents at


Snapshot: CSU has lost $1 billion in state funding in 4 years; tuition doubled


The California State University system has been hit with about $1 billion in state funding cuts since 2007-8. At that time, state funding accounted for about 67 percent of the overall $4.5 billion operating budget, said CSU spokesman Mike Uhlenkampf. Fast forward to 2011-12, and the state provides about 50 percent of the nearly $4 billion budget.

The system has tried to compensate for that loss by nearly doubling tuition, bringing it up from the $2,772 per year for a full-time undergraduate in 2007-8 to $5,472 in 2011-12. Along with such tuition increases the system cut programs and instituted other cost-saving measures such as leaving positions unfilled, Uhlenkamp said. That has allowed it to recoop about half, or $500 million of those cuts, he said.

Tuition is set to go up again for the 2012-13 school year. It will cost undergraduate students $5,970 per year, 
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Seattle Schools Community Forum: Meet the Alliance for Education, Seattle's Shadow School Board

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Meet the Alliance for Education, Seattle's Shadow School Board:


Meet the Alliance for Education, Seattle's Shadow School Board

by Melissa Westbrook
Or it seems like they want to be.

In the latest batch of public disclosure documents, it appears that Director DeBell did not, as he claims, sit around by himself during the holiday break in December writing up Policy 1620.   He has said that Erinn Bennett, Board Office manager, and Holly Ferguson, SPS Governance, helped him shape it.

But he left out that he asked for guidance from both Don McAdams, consultant to the Board (going on 5 years now) and Karen Tollenaar Demorest, Vice President of Programs at the Alliance. Now why them and not say, other duly-elected Board members, is a question only he can answer.


It also seems the Alliance was not particularly happy about the superintendent search in an e-mail from the Alliance's Sara Morris to the "Our Schools" coalition on Feb 2, 2012:

Director DeBell shared some info yesterday.  It does not exactly align with our expectations for a high quality 
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Public Education Communication Breakdown | Re:education in Baltimore

Public Education Communication Breakdown | Re:education in Baltimore:


Public Education Communication Breakdown

I just came across a section of a piece on education reporting — “Flunking the Test” by Paul Farhi in the February/March issue of American Journalism Review — that I find myself wishing the communications officials at Baltimore City Public Schools would read:
…veteran education reporters say they face a simple yet profound barrier to doing their job: It’s hard to get inside a classroom these days. They say administrators are wary about putting potential problems on display, particularly in the wake of No Child Left Behind and the Obama Administration’s initiative, Race to the Top.

“School systems are crazed about controlling the message,” says Linda Perlstein, author of two books about schools and, until recently, public editor of the Education Writers Association. “Access is so constricted.” As a result, she says, “There’s great underreporting of what happens in classroom, and it’s just getting worse.”

Perlstein spent three school years in classrooms to report a series about middle school for the Washington 
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Misconceptions and Realities about Teacher and Principal Evaluation - ParentAdvocates.org

Parent Advocates - ParentAdvocates.org:

Misconceptions and Realities about Teacher and Principal Evaluation
An open letter of concern to Chicago's Mayor Rahm Emanuel from Chicagoland Researchers and Advocates for Transformative Education (CReATE)
           
Press Conference - Remarks by Kevin Kumashiro, Isabel Nuรฑez, David Stovall, Therese Quinn, Erica Meiners and Julie Woestehoff
LINK

March 26, 2012
Misconceptions and Realities about Teacher and Principal Evaluation
An Open Letter of Concern to Mayor Rahm Emanuel,
Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard,
and the Chicago School Board

Regarding Chicago’s Implementation of Legislation for the Evaluation of Teachers and Principals

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) plans to implement dramatic changes in the 2012-2013 school year. As university professors and researchers who specialize in educational research, we recognize that change is an essential component of school improvement. We are very concerned, however, at a continuing pattern of changes imposed rapidly without high-quality evidentiary support.

The new evaluation system for teachers and principals centers on misconceptions about student growth, with potentially negative impact on the education of Chicago’s children. We believe it is our ethical obligation to raise awareness about how the proposed changes not only lack a sound research basis, but in some instances, have already proven to be harmful.

In this letter, we describe our concerns and relevant research as we make two recommendations for moving forward:

1. Pilot and adjust the evaluation system before implementing it on a large scale.
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Common Core: Nobody said it was going to be easy - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Common Core: Nobody said it was going to be easy - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:


Common Core: Nobody said it was going to be easy

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 1 hour ago
I recently ran a post by a teacher, Jeremiah Chaffee, about one maddening experience he had working with a lesson connected to the Common Core State Standards. You can read his report here. Stephanie Day, director of teaching and learning at the Friendship Public Charter School in Washington D.C., writes here in response to that post and in support of the Common Core. Day was named the 2010 Washington D.C. Teacher of the Year. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

The Answer Sheet - 1 hour ago

Can chewing gum before a test improve score?

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 3 hours ago
Chewing gum before taking a test may help improve the result, apparently by stimulating the brain with increased blood flow. That, at least, is what one study concluded amid a rash of research on the cognitive benefits of chewing gum. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

What never to tell a college student (or a teen about to be one)

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 20 hours ago
Walk around a college university bookstore and you just might see this Apple advertisement for a Mac with the following headline: “It makes the best years of your life even better.” Hmmm. Apple is supposed to be smarter than that. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

The cinema of educational despair: A bad narrative reinforced

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 1 day ago
This was* written by Mark Phillips, professor emeritus of secondary education at San Francisco State University. This was written for his blog on Edutopia , and he also publishes a monthly column on education for the Marin Independent Journal. He volunteers with the California Film Institute’s Educational Outreach Program.* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

A new approach to school turnarounds (or ‘old dogs CAN learn new tricks’)

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 1 day ago
This *was written by educator Anthony Cody, who worked for 24 years in the Oakland schools, 18 years teaching science at a high-needs school and six years as a mentor and coach of teachers. He is a National Board-certified teacher. A version of this post appeared on his Education Week Teacherblog, Living in Dialogue *. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
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Pension Call Tuesday. « Fred Klonsky

Pension Call Tuesday. « Fred Klonsky:


Pension Call Tuesday.

by Fred Klonsky

The seats are starting to fill up on the PREA bus to Springfield on May 2nd. Our schedule is to meet with Park Ridge Senator Dan Kotowski. Those of us who live in other legislative districts will also fan out to meet with their home legislators. Then we will picnic on the IEA headquarter’s lawn.
IEA Vice-president Kathi Griffith has been very helpful in making arrangements.
This week’s reported comments by TRS Executive Director Richard Ingram have caused great anxiety among teachers, both active and retired.
His view that benefits might have to be reduced to retired teachers is unacceptable.
Let your legislator know that:
  • Teachers have always met their obligations to TRS.
  • Teachers receive no Social Security. TRS is our only secure benefit when we retire. It must remain secure.
  • The state must, as its constitutional duty, meet its obligations to present and future TRS annuitants.
Contact your legislator here.
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