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Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Big Education Ape: 5-2-12 AM A Cog in the Wheel of Charters EDition #MAYDAY #CORPREFORM

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

Published by Coopmike48 – 7 news spotters today

Chicago Teachers Weigh Strike Option

dailykos.com - For example, amidst protests from parents in varied neighborhoods, Emanuel decided to lengthen the school day from one of the shortest in the country to the longest (7.5 hours, but as a compromise ...
fklonsky

Daily Kos: DFER and Education Policies

dailykos.com -     So, what happened and who were those “small but vocal younger, reform minded advocates that supported Obama” but hated Darling-Hammond? In August 2008 a pre-convention Democrats for Education R...
DianeRavitch

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coopmike48 Ravitch: A primer on the group driving school reform - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post: Ravitch: A p... bit.ly/JPa5Xp #edu8 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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Arizona Public Media | AZPM Home

azpm.org - House OKs Scholarship Plan for Private, Home Schooling Story By Andrea Kelly April 30, 2012 The Arizona House of Representatives has agreed to expand an academic scholarship program that allows stu...
DianeRavitch

SocietySee all

What You Need To Know About ALEC - Bridging Differences

blogs.edweek.org - Dear Deborah,Since the 2010 elections, when Republicans took control of many states, there has been an explosion of legislation advancing privatization of public schools and stripping teachers of j...
DianeRavitch

Quinn Quits Wage Rally After Bloomberg Is Insulted

nytimes.com - Saying she would not tolerate name-calling in political debates, Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, walked out of a rally on Monday after a participant derided New York’s mayor as “Phara...
DianeRavitch

Occupy May Day in Bryant Park : The New Yorker

newyorker.com - The Bank of America branch at One Bryant Park was scheduled to open at eight this morning, but just before eight-thirty, a sign was taped to the revolving doors: “Due to circumstances beyond our co...
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PoliticsSee all

British Panel Finds Murdoch Unfit to Lead Media Empire

nytimes.com - LONDON — In a damning report after months of investigation into the hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers here, a British parliamentary panel concluded on Tuesday that Mr. Murdoch was “not...
DianeRavitch

Daley strikes back with poke at longer school day

michaelklonsky.blogspot.com - The growing rift between Rahm Emanuel and former Mayor Daley has begun to surface publicly. Daley is punching back (well, maybe slapping is a better word) at Rahm's longer-school-day initiative. L...
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School Tech Connect: Cry Me A River?

schooltechconnect.com - I have evidently announced my ambulatory status too soon. I'm going to do this one post and then crawl to bed. In any event, in case you missed it, Rich Miller had this to say today, among other th...
tbfurman

What Dinty W. Moore Knows

insidehighered.com - Dinty W. Moore is the author of numerous books, including the National Book Prize winning memoir, Between Panic & Desire, and The Accidental Buddhist. He is editor of Brevity, a journal of concise ...
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Police put on riot gear as May Day protests converge

latimesblogs.latimes.com - Police in riot gear lined some streets of downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday evening as more than 1,000 immigrants rights protesters and Occupy activists converged in one big march. The march on Broad...
coopmike48

EnvironmentSee all

Drillers May Frack First, Disclose Later Under Draft Plan

bloomberg.com - By Katarzyna Klimasinska - Tue May 01 04:01:58 GMT 2012Natural-gas companies drilling on U.S. land would be permitted to wait until after hydraulic fracturing is completed to disclose what chemical...
mikeklonsky

H.R.4816: Stop the Rate Hike Act of 2012 - U.S. Congress

opencongress.org - View All (18)  |  View Top Rated04/28/12Representative Conyers strongly supports blocking the scheduled increase in student loan debt but favors a Democratic alternative bill, H.R. 4816, which offs...
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Ravitch: A primer on the group driving school reform - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Ravitch: A primer on the group driving school reform - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:


Ravitch: A primer on the group driving school reform

by Valerie Strauss
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 May 1. 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.
Read full article >>

Colbert hilarious on ‘don’t say gay’ in school bill

by Valerie Strauss
There is a bill now being considered by Missouri legislators that would come close to banning all conversations in public schools about sexual orientation as well as bar “gay-straight” alliances and other school-sponsored clubs that deal with sexual identity. And Stephen Colbert skewered it as only he can on The Colbert Report.
Read full article >>
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USA Today: Common Core Standards Drive Wedge In Education Circles | Truth in American Education

USA Today: Common Core Standards Drive Wedge In Education Circles | Truth in American Education:


USA Today: Common Core Standards Drive Wedge In Education Circles

by Shane Vander Hart
A balanced article by Greg Toppo of USA Today.  Here’s a not so balanced excerpt as I wanted to point out the CCSS critics:
Also in February, Brookings Institution scholar Tom Loveless issued research calling into question whether the Common Core would have much of an effect. He noted that state standards have done little to equalize academic achievement within states. The reaction, he says, was “like putting my hand in a hornet’s nest — people do have a strong reaction to the Common Core.”
Last month, New York University education historian Diane Ravitch, a vocal Duncan critic, blasted 


Some Fuzzy Research on Common Core Math Standards

by Shane Vander Hart
Achieve pointed out new research that links Common Core Math Standards to higher achievement.  Fascinating since those standards haven’t been implemented yet.  Maybe they are testing them on animal subjects… somebody better warn PETA.
Oh never mind, here’s how they got their results…
Schmidt’s work focuses on the strong resemblance of the CCSS for mathematics to the standards of the highest-achieving nations; the improvement in focus, coherence and rigor of the CCSS for mathematics beyond the state standards they replaced; and the link between higher National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) mathematics scores and states with standards 
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Four-day school week: Could it increase teen pregnancy? | Get Schooled

Four-day school week: Could it increase teen pregnancy? | Get Schooled:


Four-day school week: Could it increase teen pregnancy?

by Maureen Downey
In poor rural counties, there is not much for teens to do with an extra day off, a fact that worries health officials. (AP Image)In poor rural counties, there is not much for teens to do with an extra day off, a fact that worries health officials. (AP Image)
A big question about four-day school weeks — a budget solution that several Georgia systems adopted to cut 
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OEA elections: a new leader, more calls for change - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools

OEA elections: a new leader, more calls for change - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools:


OEA elections: a new leader, more calls for change

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 at 10:11 pm in Uncategorized1 Comment
It’s election week for the Oakland teachers union, and that has extra significance this year. Betty Olson-Jones, the Oakland teachers union president since 2006 (since I’ve been covering Oakland schools!), has reached her term limit. She’ll be succeeded by Mark Airgood or Trish Gorham, who are running to replace her.
Olson-Jones has endorsed Gorham — as well as Steve Neat, Chaz Garcia, Vincent Tolliver, Janan Apaydin, Manny Lopez and Andy Young for seats on the union’s executive board.
Ballots are due on Friday. You can find the complete list of OEA candidates and their statements here
A year ago, I blogged about a small group of teachers called Oakland TIES (Oakland Teachers for Innovative an
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Blue Jersey:: Speaking Truth to Power on Teacher Tenure

Blue Jersey:: Speaking Truth to Power on Teacher Tenure:


Speaking Truth to Power on Teacher Tenure

by A New Jersey Farmer
Cross-posted at A New Jersey FarmerAre we really going to have to go through this every time a so-called education reformer gets kicked in the head by politics? Evidently so.
Case in point? The Passion of Perth Amboy Superintendent of Schools Janine Walker Caffrey as related by the Gospel of Tom Moran in Sunday's Newark Star-Ledger. When we last left the story, Moran was singing Caffrey's praises as someone who was trying to get rid of ineffective teachers in her district. The problem was that through either ineptitude or poor management, the principals in Perth Amboy were giving satisfactory evaluations to people who should not have been in the classroom. Then, when these teachers showed their true colors, there was no paper trail of their ineffectiveness. My take on this is in Lies, Damn Lies, and the Truth About Teacher Tenure.
Moran continues his epistle because the Perth Amboy Board of Education has voted to put Caffrey on leave with the presumed intent of firing her from her job. I feel bad for her and for the hard-working parents, teachers and 
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Schools Matter: K-12 Teaching: A Service Industry

Schools Matter: K-12 Teaching: A Service Industry:


K-12 Teaching: A Service Industry

by P. L. Thomas
At The New Republic, "Making the Grade" poses this about the difference between college professors (notice that term "professor," as in "one who professes") and K-12 teachers:
"The vast majority of states have long granted public school teachers tenure. The way it works is simple: After a certain number of years, teachers qualify—'virtually automatically' in most states, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality—for a form of job protection that makes it extremely difficult to fire them for the rest of their careers. 
"The system is analogous to the protections that university professors receive—but with one important conceptual difference. Universities are not just educational institutions; they are our country’s idea factories. And so it makes a certain amount of sense that we would want university professors—the people our society relies on to explore ideas, including unpopular ones—to enjoy 
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The Educated Reporter: Atlanta Journal-Constitution Investigation: New Allegations of `Suspect' Test Scores at Blue Ribbon Schools

The Educated Reporter: Atlanta Journal-Constitution Investigation: New Allegations of `Suspect' Test Scores at Blue Ribbon Schools:


Atlanta Journal-Constitution Investigation: New Allegations of `Suspect' Test Scores at Blue Ribbon Schools

by Emily Richmond
The latest installment in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s ongoing series examining suspicious test scores has cast a pall on the federal “Blue Ribbon Schools” program, which recognizes campuses that demonstrate dramatic improvement among at-risk students.

As part of its “Cheating Our Children” investigation, the AJC previously reported suspect test scores in public school districts across the country. The investigative team used open records requests to obtain student test data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The suspicious test score patterns -- which alone is not evidence of cheating -- were found in 196 of the nation's 3,125 largest school districts. (Some researchers and educators have challenged the AJC's methodology, arguing that it did not take into account mitigating factors such as student population changes in districts with high transiency rates.)
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NYC Educator: Not My Job, Man

NYC Educator: Not My Job, Man:


Not My Job, Man

by NYC Educator
That's essentially the DOE policy on Facebook and social networking. They recommend you not friend your students. No, wait, they STRONGLY recommend you not do so. I recommend the same, to tell you the truth. But my motivations are quite different.

I think it's a bad idea because it's entirely possible your Facebook comments could be printed out and sitting on the principal's desk the next time you get called in for a friendly chat. Do you really want to explain why you chose that particular string of obscenities? Did you mean to imply something about the principal? Your students? It doesn't matter all that much because you can't grieve the letter in your file until you're at a 3020a proceeding and they're trying to take your job. My advice? If you don't want your principal, your class, and your grandmother to see it, don't write it.

DOE has a different perspective. Go ahead, they say. Do 
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UTLA's Failure and Why (Video #4) - Perdaily.com

UTLA's Failure and Why (Video #4) - Perdaily.com:


UTLA's Failure and Why (Video #4)

by Leonard Isenberg
UTLA Large.jpeg
(Mensaje se repite en Español)

(For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post) 

While no union wants to go on strike, it must be the real threat of a strike that causes management- in this case LAUSD- to bargain in good faith. The fact that UTLA has never organized its rank and file and sees itself as an adjunct of LAUSD makes it a de facto non-union that adds insult to injury by collecting monthly dues for services as a union it never has fulfilled. With no positive adversarial relationship between LAUSD and UTLA, LAUSD has been and continues to savage teachers without an concern of consequences from demoralized teachers who have the misfortune of being "represented" by this non-union UTLA.

Several years ago, then UTLA President A.J. Duffy placed empty chairs in front of LAUSD headquarters on Beaudry to illustrate how many jobs were in jeopardy. What he illustrated to then LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines was that he could not get his rank and file in the streets and out of the classroom. The last 5 presidents of UTLA saying, "Let's see what the District has to say," illustrates the 
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Geaux Teacher!: One Community, One School District -

Geaux Teacher!: One Community, One School District -:


One Community, One School District -

by noreply@blogger.com (Lee Barrios, M.Ed., NBCT)
Got this notice from Hanna Wilems in Baton Rouge. A group of parents have orchestrated a well-organized attempt to break a few schools (magnet types I believe) away from the East Baton Rouge Parish School System. If you click on the link to the web site you will see a fantastic brochure that One Community, One School District has put together with excellent support for retaining the schools within the EBRPSS.

April 18
Hannah Dober Wilems



Hi Lee,

I'm writing on behalf of a group of Baton Rouge parents and others who oppose the proposed breakaway of the southeast BR area from EBRPSS and creation of a Southeast Baton Rouge Community School District. We call ourselves One Community, One School District and we'd love to have your support.

The proponents of this new district want to put up a virtual fence along I-12 and get the bused-in students out and 
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Daily Kos: Something to consider about May 2

Daily Kos: Something to consider about May 2:


Something to consider about May 2

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)
On this date in 1933, Hitler banned unions in Germany.
When we read anti-union rhetoric from various sources, which unfortunately includes some supposed Democrats when they talk about education, we should remember that tyrants do not like unions because they provide a way for ordinary workers to organize as a substantial economic and politic force.
Without unions employers of all sorts are often able to put downward pressure on wages and benefits.
Without unions, most unionized workers would not have 8 hour days, 5 day work weeks, paid holidays and vacations.
We used to have defined benefit pensions.  Reagan went after unions and his administration also went after 
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Bi-partisan Failure: Misreading Education "Gaps" | National Education Policy Center

Bi-partisan Failure: Misreading Education "Gaps" | National Education Policy Center:


Bi-partisan Failure: Misreading Education "Gaps"

by Paul Thomas
May 1, 2012
It took about twenty years, and then another secondary ten years, but the hysterical and misleading A Nation at Risk under the Reagan administration successfully kicked off three decades of public school accountability.
In the beginning, the hysteria revolved around several points that were factually inaccurate, but publicly effective: (1) U.S. public schools were failing, (2) U.S. students were weak, and possibly lazy, but their schools didn't do much to challenge them, and (3) because of this cycle of lazy students in failing schools, U.S. international competitiveness was in dire straits.
These claims and the discourse grew from the White House and became recurrent and unquestioned talking points in the media, among the public, and by politicians. At first, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, U.S. public education built state-based standards and testing cycles that targeted primarily students (best typified by the exit exams designed to hold students accountable and insure the value of the high school diploma) and then gradually the schools themselves with the rise of 
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Acadamica Charter Schools Overstated Enrollment, Accused of “Double-Dipping” Taxpayer Money | Scathing Purple Musings

Acadamica Charter Schools Overstated Enrollment, Accused of “Double-Dipping” Taxpayer Money | Scathing Purple Musings:


Acadamica Charter Schools Overstated Enrollment, Accused of “Double-Dipping” Taxpayer Money

by Bob Sikes
If Florida’s legislators are ever shamed into ending their charter school favoritism,  Miami Heraldreporters Kathleen McGrory and Scott Haisson will have played a role. The two investigative journalists were joined by colleague Shiaa Sen last weekend in a story which exposed the policy of double-dipping federal grant money by declaring two schools exist within the same facility
From the outside, it looks like a single school, with one main door, one security guard, one principal greeting students.
But on paper, the Charter School of Excellence at Tamarac is actually two schools in one — a bookkeeping strategy allowing the school to collect an extra $250,000 in grant money from the state.
The grant money is intended to help new charter schools get started. But several South Florida 
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Evaluating Doctors on Their Performance with Patients | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Evaluating Doctors on Their Performance with Patients | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:


Evaluating Doctors on Their Performance with Patients

by larrycuban
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Systems (CMS) and private insurers have identified numerous pay-for-performance measures, confirmed in large part by evidence-based medicine, and implemented them in hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices.

For example, there are process measures for hypertension and heart disease where, for example, periodic readings of patient’ blood pressure and blood sugar levels are reported. But testing does not tell you whether the 
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