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Thursday, April 26, 2012

Big Education Ape: 4-26-12 AM Deion Primetime Charter High Reality Show EDition #PINEAPPLEGATE #PINEAPPLEREBELLION

Big Education Ape: PARENTS CAN!:


Big Education Ape: PARENTS CAN!

Published by Coopmike48 – 7 news spotters today

Wal-Mart Stores - SourceWatch

sourcewatch.org - From SourceWatch (Redirected from Wal-Mart)Learn more about corporations VOTING to rewrite our laws.Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has more than 2500 stores in the U.S. plus 585 Sam's Clubs. It is the world'...
leoniehaimson

Student Aid on the Web

studentaid.ed.gov - The information below describes the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) Plan for federal student loans. It includes the IBR eligibility requirements, the benefits of IBR, an IBR payment calculator, and so...
arneduncan

Keeping Student Interest Rates Low

whitehouse.gov - If Congress doesn’t act soon, more than 7.4 million students will see the interest rates on their subsidized Stafford loans double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1. Taking out Stafford Loa...
arneduncan

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coopmike48 Eduwonk » Blog Archive » This Week’s TIME – Give The People What They Want! Talk About Schools.bit.ly/Iqj3Zo9 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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coopmike48 Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 04/26/2012 bit.ly/Iqj5jS9 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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coopmike48 Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Getting the most out of email bit.ly/Iqj7s79 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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coopmike48 MA Early Educator Scholarship Applications Available «bit.ly/IqeNbf3 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

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And the answer is: MORE Standardized Testing – Hooray!!

jonathanpelto.com - Apr 25 jonpeltoBridgeport, Education, Malloy Bridgeport, Education Reform, Malloy, Paul Vallas okay, It is bad enough the Governor Malloy’s “Education Reform” bill adds another whole standardized t...
DianeRavitch

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Islam and the Free Market of Privatized Education:

btownerrant.com - [Sit back and feast on this cornucopia of "insider-trading" in Indiana Education.  Is it just me or is there just an odd linguistic "reality" called forth in this partnership?  "Indian(a)" and "Tur...
DianeRavitch

Students, CPS spar over school arrests | catalyst

catalyst-chicago.org - A student member of Voices of Youth in Chicago Education (VOYCE) holds part of a sign representing the 25 young people arrested on CPS property every day. The student group Voices of Youth in Chica...
mikeklonsky

Letter to Governor Quinn about Pension Reform

wymanmedianewplace.blogspot.com - Illinois Governor Pat Quinn Governor Pat Quinn Office of the Governor 207 State House Springfield, Illinois   62706 Dear Governor Quinn:  I watched your press conference last Friday where ...
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Wal-Mart and ALEC: Time to End Ties

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Wal-Mart and ALEC: Time to End Ties: Why Hasn't Wal-Mart Dropped ALEC, Too?Your Take: Time for nation's largest retailer to end ties to group behind "Stand your ground" law.By: Bill Fletcher Jr. | ...
coopmike48

Student Aid on the Web

studentaid.ed.gov - The U.S. Department of Education (the Department) began offering Special Direct Consolidation Loans to eligible borrowers in January 2012. This is a short-term consolidation opportunity, ending Jun...
coopmike48

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Student Aid on the Web

studentaid.ed.gov - Your source for free information from the U.S. Department of Education on preparing for and funding education beyond high school.
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Don’t skip this step: Designing evaluations of teachers starts with trust | Thoughts on Public Education

Don’t skip this step: Designing evaluations of teachers starts with trust | Thoughts on Public Education:


Don’t skip this step: Designing evaluations of teachers starts with trust - by Merrill Vargo

by Merrill Vargo
Where do teachers fit into the current landscape of education reform? The results of the recent Met Life poll should surprise no one: Teachers’ morale is at an all-time low. The causes are not hard to see, and include a combination of budget cuts and layoffs along with a decade of NCLB-inspired scripted [...]

Heavy editing on textbook publishers - by Kathryn Baron

by Kathryn Baron
It’s a sure sign that an issue has hit crisis mode when Republican and Democratic legislators are on the same page about what needs to happen. In this case, it’s a fraying page from a textbook industry that needs some help embracing change. The Senate Education Committee yesterday handily approved two more bills aimed at lowering [...]

ICLow marks for Brown not his ideas - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess
California voters give Gov. Jerry Brown low marks overall for the way he has handled K-12 education. But, at the same time, they support some school reforms that he’s championing, including directing much of new revenue to poor students, according to a Public Policy Institute of California poll. The poll, of 2,005 Californians earlier this month, [...]
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Phila. School District plan would dismantle central office, close schools - Philly.com

Phila. School District plan would dismantle central office, close schools - Philly.com:


Phila. School District plan would dismantle central office, close schools


The realities are ugly, leaders said Tuesday - the Philadelphia School District is nearly insolvent, lags behind most other urban districts in academics, and loses students to charters because parents believe it does not keep their children safe.
"What we do know through lots of history and evidence and practice is that the current structure doesn't work," School Reform Commission Chairman Pedro Ramos said. "It's not fiscally sustainable and it doesn't produce high-quality schools for all kids."
So, at the SRC's direction, Chief Recovery Officer Thomas Knudsen on Tuesday announced a plan that would essentially blow up the district and start with a new structure.

Student group pushes for greater school safety

The student group Youth United for Change launched an initiative Wednesday aimed at making city schools safer. The group’s “Safe to Count on Me” campaign promotes preventive discipline programs over zero-tolerance policies in dealing with school violence.

New Jersey state college faculties protest pay, benefit proposals

Faculty from across New Jersey’s state college campuses protested Wednesday as tensions with Gov. Christie continue to grow over proposals to freeze professors’ pay and cut benefits. Christie has called for four-year salary freezes and an end to perks such as guaranteed sabbaticals, a staple of academic life, at the state’s nine nonresearch universities, which do not include Rutgers or the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, according to faculty union officials who have been involved in contract talks.
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A ‘simple fix’ for school curriculum (and it’s not Common Core) - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

A ‘simple fix’ for school curriculum (and it’s not Common Core) - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:


A ‘simple fix’ for school curriculum (and it’s not Common Core)

by Valerie Strauss
This was written by Marion Brady, veteran teacher, administrator, curriculum designer and author.

By Marion Brady
For more than 20 years, in language as strong as the editors of mainstream media will allow, I’ve been slamming the stupidities of the education “reforms” dreamed up by amateur educators in Congress, state legislatures, and corporate offices.
Read full article >>

How NOT to extend the school day

by Valerie Strauss
In poll after survey after study, teachers have said that planning time is very important to them.
In the 2006 Metlife Survey of the American Teacher, one of the top factors that emerged as a significant predictor of a teacher’s satisfaction with his/her career was having enough time for planning and grading.
Read full article >>
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The Innovative Educator: Suffering in Silence… Standardized testing from the view of an educator & parent

The Innovative Educator: Suffering in Silence… Standardized testing from the view of an educator & parent:


Suffering in Silence… Standardized testing from the view of an educator & parent

by noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Nielsen)
Guest post by Renny Fong (TimeOutDad)
As our children are undergoing the gruel of the high stakes standardized tests in New York, I can’t help but notice the silence.  So many voices silenced.  So many stories left unheard.  Will all the time, money, and effort that has been spent on making the tests, preparing for the tests, and grading the tests make our children any better off than before these tests?  
Did these tests ask our children how they’re doing, how they’re feeling, what they’re thinking, and what they care about?  Did these tests ask our children to innovate or create anything? Will these tests tell our children what their gifts and talents are?  Will these tests tell us what our children’s hopes and goals and dreams are or what their ideas are for a better today and tomorrow? Do these tests really care about our children at all?
Instead of asking questions and finding solutions to real problems, our children are asked to answer questions that have only one pre-determined (and sometimes, quite a debatable) answer.  Instead of sharing about their 

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SVA Names For-Profit Schools with Revoked Charters - Student Veterans of America

SVA Names For-Profit Schools with Revoked Charters - Student Veterans of America:


SVA Names For-Profit Schools with Revoked Charters

7 hours ago  
WASHINGTON, DC –Today, Student Veterans of America (SVA) published a list of 26 for-profit institutions whose SVA charters had been revoked. The removal of SVA chapters resulted from a routine, annual review of all chapters.
"SVA chapters must be established and led by student veterans. Student veteran organizations in development, or created by university administrators, defeats the fundamental spirit of the SVA chapter,” said Michael Dakduk, Executive Director of Student Veterans of America. "In addition to being a peer support group, SVA chapters exist as campus and community based advocacy organizations. It appears that some for-profit schools do not understand our model, or worse –they understand our model and they choose to exploit it for personal gain.” This is important because:
1) it defrauds veterans seeking advice from SVA’s student leaders;
2) it deters veterans who would otherwise form chapters at these campuses;
3) it misrepresents these chapters as being a point of contact for veterans seeking out their peers who can help them with transition 
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Form follows function. « Fred Klonsky

Form follows function. « Fred Klonsky:


Form follows function.

by Fred Klonsky

Chicago’s master architect, Louis Sullivan.
As an art teacher with an admiration for good design I was won over early to the notion popularized by Chicago architect Louis Sullivan that form follows function.
The shape of something should reveal and enhance its purpose.
This morning the Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss posts a column on the debate over the length of the school day.

A 2009 report by researchers at the School Redesign Network at Stanford University concludes that the United States “is far behind in providing public school teachers with opportunities to participate in extended learning 

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Seattle Schools Community Forum: Technology and Enoch

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Technology and Enoch:


Technology and Enoch

by Melissa Westbrook
Parent Cecilia McCormick, who is active in Special Ed issues, took it on herself to do some research on Superintendent Enoch's district and gathered info on their technology use  Here an e-mail she sent to the Seattle School Board:

I would like to share with you information provided by SRVUSD PTA yesterday.  Given the costs of scaling up our district's use of technology and its ever-evolving nature, I'm sure you would agree that the plan and direction should be developed in a thoughtful and flexible manner, so that we don't chase money down rabbit holes.

Each School Building has Tele-conferencing CapabilitiesAll middle and high schools have been fitted with a large media video screen and videoconferencing systems.  In their 84 pg CA state-mandated 

Steven Enoch Press Conference

by Melissa Westbrook
What a difference a day makes.  You could not get more of a contrast between candidates than Banda and Enoch (except for the fact that both seem genuine and honest).

In his interview, Banda was more a Zen Master while Enoch could not be more enthused about the work.  He was very chatty and friendly.

We had a larger group today with Lynne Varner of the Times and David Goldman of The Stranger joining Brian Rosenthal and me.  

Q&A
You came saying you were looking for a good fit between you and the district.  What do you think?
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