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Friday, April 13, 2012

Big Education Ape: 4-13-12 AM Charter Schools No Cure-All EDition #SOSCHAT

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

Published by Coopmike48 – 7 news spotters today

A Leader of Schools Is Indicted for Fraud

nytimes.com - When state investigators demanded last year to see personal tax returns filed by Eddie Calderon-Melendez, the founder and chief executive of a troubled network of charter high schools in Brooklyn, ...
mikeklonsky

23 protesters arrested at Woodlawn clinic - Chicago Sun

suntimes.com - sun-times media April 13, 2012 2:13AM Updated: April 13, 2012 5:21AM Twenty-three people were arrested early Friday after barricading themselves inside a South Side mental to protest Mayor Rahm Ema...
mikeklonsky

My View: The other types of cheating – Schools of Thought

schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com - By Gary Rubinstein, Special to CNN Editor’s Note:  Gary Rubinstein is a high school math teacher and the author of two guidebooks for new teachers, “Reluctant Disciplinarian” and “Beyond Survival.”...
DianeRavitch

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coopmike48 Biden: The ‘war on women’ is real | The Raw Story bit.ly/HOlBDt3 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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coopmike48 Entra en el juego 'Wendy's High School Heisman' -- DUBLIN, Ohio, 13 de abril de 2012 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ -- prn.to/HOlCqO2 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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coopmike48 Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 04/13/2012 bit.ly/HOlHeb2 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

EducationSee all

U.S. Schools Are Still Ahead—Way Ahead

mobile.businessweek.com - U.S. Schools Are Still Ahead—Way Ahead By Vivek Wadhwa January 12, 2011 9:01 PM EST America has an inferiority complex about its education system. You hear the sirens every year, when the OECD Prog...
DianeRavitch

SocietySee all

- Wait, What?

jonathanpelto.com - Apr 12 jonpeltoEducation, Malloy, State Politics Education Reform, Malloy In a meeting with local officials Dan Malloy made it clear that if he doesn’t get an “education reform” bill that eliminate...
DianeRavitch

CrimeSee all

23 protesters arrested at Woodlawn clinic - Chicago Sun

suntimes.com - sun-times media April 13, 2012 2:13AM Updated: April 13, 2012 5:21AM Twenty-three people were arrested early Friday after barricading themselves inside a South Side mental to protest Mayor Rahm Ema...
fklonsky

PoliticsSee all

Lawyer for Phone-Hacking Victims Is Coming to America

mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com - April 12, 2012, 1:22 pm By AMY CHOZICKLefteris Pitarakis/Associated PressMark Lewis, the lawyer for many victims of phone-hacking, outside court in London in November.The lawyer at the center of th...
leoniehaimson

Hasn't worked? Obama stands up for Romney's wife

apnews.excite.com - WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House - and President Barack Obama himself - rushed into a damage control campaign Thursday to blunt the impact of a Democratic consultant's suggestion that Ann Romney i...
coopmike48

Blog posts on this issue

whitehouse.gov - The White House Office of the Vice President For Immediate Release April 12, 2012 Exeter Town Hall Exeter, New Hampshire12:20 P.M. EDTTHE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hello, New Hampshire.  (Applause.)  Diedre...
coopmike48

Art & EntertainmentSee all

Noticigrama: Crucigrama + Noticias (12-04-2012) | Zambombazo

zachary-jones.com - 12/04/2012 • 6:35 pm¿Quieres aprender algunas de las palabras más relevantes de la semana del 9 de abril del 2012? ¡Sólo tienes que resolver nuestro noticigrama (noticias + crucigrama)!Cómo resolve...
coopmike48

When a Hazing Goes Very Wrong

nytimes.com - IN the early-morning hours of that Friday in February 2011, at around 3 a.m., George Desdunes and another Cornell sophomore were sitting on a couch blindfolded, their wrists and ankles bound with z...
coopmike48

LeisureSee all

#ctedreformSee all

- Wait, What?

jonathanpelto.com - Apr 12 jonpeltoEducation, Malloy, State Politics Education Reform, Malloy In a meeting with local officials Dan Malloy made it clear that if he doesn’t get an “education reform” bill that eliminate...
DianeRavitch

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The newest problem with graduation rates - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

The newest problem with graduation rates - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:
Answer Sheet

Friday the 13th: Things you should know

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 5 hours ago
Today is the day for people who suffer from *paraskevidekatriaphobia* to try to keep their cool — but it won’t be easy. Why? The condition is a deep, blinding fear of Friday the 13th. And however irrational the fear may seem, it has some concrete consequences. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

The newest problem with graduation rates

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 6 hours ago
This *was written by Úrsula Casanova, asssociate professor emerita at Arizona State University.* By Ursula Casanova School administrators across the country have been expressing their concern over the federal government’s changes in reporting graduation rates. Starting with the 2010-2011 school year, all high schools have been required to provide data based on the four-year “cohort” rate. In some states this method has already resulted in graduation rates as much as 20% below those formerly reported. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: ... more »

What teachers know vs. what education policymakers do — Ravitch

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 1 day ago
*This* * was written by education historian Diane Ravitch for her Bridging Differences blog, which she co-authors with Deborah Meier on the Education Week website. The item was first published on March 6. In their blog, Ravitch and Meier exchange letters about what matters most in education. Ravitch, a research professor at New York University, is author of “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” a critique of the flaws in the modern school reform movement that she just updated.* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to... more »

10-year-old: ‘I want to know why after vacation I have to take test after test after test’

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 2 days ago
This *was written by Carol Corbett Burris, principal of South Side High School in New York. She was named the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York State.* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Tennessee back to the future with new anti-evolution law

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 2 days ago
It’s back to the future for Tennessee, where a new law was just put on the books that could undermine the teaching of accepted scientific thought in areas including evolution and climate change. The law encourages teachers to “present the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught.” But, as noted by the nonprofit National Center for Science Education, the only examples given in the bill of “controversial” theories are “biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning.” Read... more »

The Answer Sheet - 2 days ago

Guess which states don’t fund pre-K programs

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 2 days ago
Early education is one of the few school reforms — if not the only one — with extensive research showing its value in academic, social and other ways. Yet a new report shows that funding across the country by states has declined over the past two years — to the tune of about $90 million — even though enrollment has increased. What’s more, a number of states don’t even fund early pre-K programs. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
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Why You Should See “Bully” – and What We Should All Do in Response

Why You Should See “Bully” – and What We Should All Do in Response:


Why You Should See “Bully” – and What We Should All Do in Response

by Sam
Bully, the new film that opens today in theaters across the country, begins with the image of a heavy-diapered toddler named Tyler, happily staggering across the wet grass in front of his family’s Oklahoma home.
Moments later, we learn of Tyler’s painful path in the adolescent years that followed – years that were marked by relentless bullying and abuse at school, and years that culminated with his decision to hang himself, in a closet in his family’s home, at the age of 17.
Bully is a must-see film because it makes visible one of the most painful, universally kept secrets of our society and our schools: Every one of us has been bullied, and every one of us has bullied someone else.
Continue reading . . .
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Study assesses how megafoundations have changed role of higher ed philanthropy | Inside Higher Ed

Study assesses how megafoundations have changed role of higher ed philanthropy | Inside Higher Ed:


Foundations' Newfound Advocacy
April 13, 2012 - 3:00am

By

Doug Lederman
To many of the policy experts and researchers who work with them, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Lumina Foundation have driven more significant (and beneficial) change in five years than American higher education has seen in decades.
To their critics, the two behemoths and a band of collaborating groups and think tanks (call them the "completion mafia") have hijacked the national agenda for higher education and drowned out alternative perspectives.
One doesn't have to fall squarely into one of those camps to acknowledge the extent to which the two foundations have remade the philanthropic landscape in higher education. A paper to be presented Monday at the annual meeting of the American


Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/04/13/study-assesses-how-megafoundations-have-changed-role-higher-ed-philanthropy#ixzz1rvGJm6Kp
Inside Higher Ed 
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NJ Spotlight | Love ‘em and Sometimes Fight ‘em: NJ’s Charter School Dilemma

NJ Spotlight | Love ‘em and Sometimes Fight ‘em: NJ’s Charter School Dilemma:


Love ‘em and Sometimes Fight ‘em: NJ’s Charter School Dilemma
In highly watched case, Cerf sides with school districts battling boutique charter

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By John Mooney, April 13, 2012 in Education |Post a Comment

Credit: Amanda Brown
While promoting charter schools in public, the Christie administration has found itself at odds with them on the legal front, as it rebuffed one school’s legal challenge this week and started preparing for another.
Related Links
Acting education commissioner Chris Cerf this week released his opinion against a challenge from a Mandarin-language school that had sued three local districts for their ongoing efforts against the school opening.
The Princeton International Academy Charter School (PIACS), approved by the state two years ago, maintained that the districts -- Princeton Regional, South Brunswick, and West Windsor-Plainsboro -- had unlawfully used taxpayer funds to contest the school 
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Founder of Brooklyn Charter Schools Is Indicted on Fraud Charges - NYTimes.com

Founder of Brooklyn Charter Schools Is Indicted on Fraud Charges - NYTimes.com:


A Leader of Schools Is Indicted for Fraud

By 
Published: April 12, 2012
When state investigators demanded last year to see personal tax returns filed by Eddie Calderon-Melendez, the founder and chief executive of a troubled network of charter high schools in Brooklyn, he produced them. One problem, according to the investigators, was that those state tax returns were falsified and had never been filed.

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Then, when the investigators studied the books of one of the schools, Williamsburg Charter High School, they found that Mr. Calderon-Melendez had used a school credit card to pay for parts of a European vacation, including accommodations at a Paris hotel and some expenses in England, they said. On Thursday, a grand jury in Brooklyn indicted Mr. 
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Jersey Jazzman: Teachers = Dangerous Minds

Jersey Jazzman: Teachers = Dangerous Minds:


Teachers = Dangerous Minds

My commentors are the best:

Anonymous Anonymous said...


Where is the NJEA? What are they doing about this defamation? I hope they are not making any more "teachers aren't that bad" ads. Who, besides Jazzman, will confront the slogans and insults and lies?
April 10, 2012 6:16 AM


Anonymous Anonymous said...


Go to the NJEA web site. They are fighting the good fight but are fighting against a hostile media and anti-union oligarch billions. The NJEA is damned if they do and cursed if they don't. If they spend money to get ads, to get air time, then the right wingers claim that the NJEA is wasting teachers' money. If the NJEA airs 
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Seattle Schools Community Forum: The Newest Sleep Aid - The Executive Committee Meeting

Seattle Schools Community Forum: The Newest Sleep Aid - The Executive Committee Meeting:


The Newest Sleep Aid - The Executive Committee Meeting

by Melissa Westbrook
Keep in mind here, that I came in late and yet I still hit the wall at two hours.  But not to get ahead of myself.

I came in as the Executive Committee was discussing the MOU with the Alliance for Education.  You might recall from the last Executive Committee meeting (Charlie and I were both present) that the Alliance wants to raise its fee to oversee school and ed groups finances from 5% to 7.5%.  This comes out of the General Fund.  Charlie had said he would do it for 5%.

This really isn't the main focus of work for the Alliance so why is it such a big deal for them to keep on doing it?  
Now the Alliance says that the cap at 5% was not enough.  I'll let them explain it:

The fee arrangement quickly proved inadequate.  Direct costs of administering the services exceeded the cap.  Before 2009, interest which we retained on the first $25,000 of each account helped to defray the shortfall between the fee and what it costs to provide the service.  however, the Alliance's ability to defray the shortfall 
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Activists start petition to recall LAUSD board member Monica Garcia | 89.3 KPCC

Activists start petition to recall LAUSD board member Monica Garcia | 89.3 KPCC:
recall monica garcia lausd l.a. unified


LA Unified's parcel tax math

Pass / Fail - 4 hours ago
L.A. Unified is hoping voters will pass a $298 parcel tax in November to help raise about $255 million annually for schools from property owners within district boundaries and improve future budget forecasts. The district currently faces a $390 million budget shortfall. The school board approved putting the annual tax before voters for the November ballotlast month. "Sacramento cannot take this money away," said Superintendent John Deasy in his presentation to the board. "They cannot cut this fund; this fund goes directly to our schools." Here's how the parcel tax math would work ... more »

National Endowment for the Arts wants LA arts official to lead education initiatives

Pass / Fail - 4 hours ago
The National Endowment for the Arts has hired a Los Angeles County arts official to lead its education initiatives. For more than a decade, Ayanna Hudson has led the L.A. County Arts Commission’s "Arts For All" campaign. When she started, she said, only one school district in the county had a policy and plan to improve arts education. "We now have 50 districts in the county that are committed to implementing arts education," said Hudson. "We've worked with them to develop a policy. [...] That's about 62 percent of school districts across the county." Hudson’s been selected to le... more »

Transitional kindergarten supporters find new hope

Pass / Fail - 4 hours ago
The California Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee on Education voted today to reject the governor's proposal to eliminate transitional kindergarten in his budget. The party-line vote — with Democrats rejecting the governor's plan and Republicans against or absent —matches a March 13 vote by the state Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance. Gov. Jerry Brown's 2012 budget proposes to save the state $224 million by pulling the plug on the new program that begins this year. Such a change, however, would require the Legislature action to change the current statute.... more »

Activists start petition to recall LAUSD board member Monica Garcia

Pass / Fail - 4 hours ago
Critics of the proposed budget cuts at L.A. Unified have launched a drive to recall School Board president Monica Garcia, but the effort has some hurdles to overcome. Robert Skeels, an education advocate and the man behind "Occupy LAUSD," is leading the charge. Garcia, he says, has betrayed her constituents’ trust by targeting adult education, early education and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. The programs have all been on the chopping block in the wake of a massive LAUSD budget gap. Recall supporters need to gather signatures from 15 percent of the registered vote... more »

Preliminary pink slip hearings for L.A. Unified teachers start Monday

Pass / Fail - 4 hours ago
The annual hearings for teachers who receive preliminary pink slips from L.A. Unified will begin Monday at California Market Center downtown. The district sent out more than 11,700 such notices to educators last month, with roughly 9,500 including teachers, librarians, counselors and nurses for the 2012-13 school year. The notices are required by law to be sent out by March 15 each year often before budgets and their consequent impacts can be finalized. L.A. Unified's board approved an updated 2012 budget plan last month that — without union concessions — includes major cuts to ad... more »
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Schools Matter: A revisionist view of literacy educaion

Schools Matter: A revisionist view of literacy educaion:


A revisionist view of literacy educaion

by skrashen
Revisionist view of the last decade in literacy research
Submitted to Education Week, April 12

I was astounded to read Linda Diamond’s revisionist view of the last decade in literacy research (“Common-core standards in reading not ‘flawed,’” March 28). Ms. Diamond maintains that the National Reading Panel’s conclusions supporting explicit and systematic instruction “in the reading-foundation skills” is “well supported by research.”
Either Ms. Diamond is not aware of the furious criticism that emerged after the Panel’s report was published, or is ignoring it. In a series of books, papers (published in the most respectable journals in our field), and letters published in Education Week, Elaine Garan, Gerald Coles, and I, among others, argued that the National Reading Panel erred in its analysis and reporting of studies, omitted studies, ignored major issues in the field, and violated basic principles in appraising experimental research. Despite its claims of being "scientific," the National Reading Panel report was simply bad science.
Ms. Diamond is free to disagree with our c
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