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Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Big Education Ape: 4-24-12 PM A testing culture out of control EDition

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

Published by Coopmike48 – 7 news spotters today

A testing culture out of control 

nydailynews.com - Dennis Clark A student in Queens takes a test. After months of studying, stressing and — yes — some crying, our kids are finally done with this year’s state English Language Arts and math exams. Th...
leoniehaimson

Free Internet lessons challenge textbook market

washingtonpost.com - For a modern take on Shakespeare, Montgomery County middle school teacher Amy Soldavini recently borrowed an online lesson comparing hip-hop artists to the Bard. Math teachers at Thomas Jefferson H...
arneduncan

Pearsongate? « Diane Ravitch's blog

dianeravitch.net - Teachers and principals discovered yet another error on one of New York state’s mandated tests. This one was on the fifth-grade math test and it required students to know mathematical processes tha...
DianeRavitch

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coopmike48 Marquette Recall Poll: Barrett has big lead, 19% of Dems undecided, expect crossover voting May 8th |bit.ly/IDIzjj40 seconds ago · reply · retweet · favorite
leoniehaimson profile
leoniehaimson Angry parents at Sucacademy charter hearings opposed to expansion; Shino Tanikawa pres D2 Cec calls charters vampiresgothamschools.org/2012/05/02/par…28 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

EducationSee all

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

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...
mikeklonsky

Idaho school reform foes hire outside consultant

necn.com - David Williams left his home in Bethesda, Md., last month to work on the Idaho campaign aimed at repealing new state laws that restrict teacher bargaining, eliminate tenure, phase in laptops and re...
leoniehaimson

Egyptian Upholds Sex-War View of Revolution

womensenews.org - After stirring an outcry for her article in Foreign Policy magazine, Egyptian-American columnist Mona Eltahawy on Tuesday night offered a vigorous defense of her views that the real Middle East rev...
coopmike48

PoliticsSee all

Does Mitt Romney Have an Education Platform? |

alternet.org - Beyond breaking the unions, what kind of education policy can we expect from a Romney presidency? April 26, 2012  |     Photo Credit: Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com     LIKE THIS ARTICLE ?...
mikeklonsky

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

BusinessSee all

Shoving CEOs under an Online Microscope « The Lefty Gazette

leftygazette.wordpress.com - The Dodd-Frank pay disclosure mandate, the new PayWatch notes, has become more “needed now” than ever. Big-time CEO pay outpaced average worker pay by 380 times in 2011, the stats show, up from 343...
coopmike48

MA FY13 Budget Moves to State Senate «

eyeonearlyeducation.org - May 2, 2012 by Irene Sege Last week, the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a $32.4 billion budget for fiscal year 2013 that includes $487.61 million for the Department of Early Educatio...
coopmike48

SportsSee all

Farewell Junebug

obrag.org - Legendary Chargers linebacker Junior Seau’s life ends tragically in an apparent suicide. Details are sketchy as I write this.  What we do know is that Junior Seau, the future Hall of Fame linebacke...
coopmike48

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Engaging Parents In School… » Order A Free Copy Of “Parent Power” Film (Or Watch It Online)

Engaging Parents In School… » Order A Free Copy Of “Parent Power” Film (Or Watch It Online):


Order A Free Copy Of “Parent Power” Film (Or Watch It Online)




Posted on May 2, 2012 by Larry Ferlazzo
The Annenberg Institute for School Reform has produced the film “Parent Power” and is offering a copy of it, along with a “viewers guide” for free, though they are charging $10 for shipping and handling. You can also view it online for free.
Here’s how they describe it:
Through the voices of parents, this film chronicles fifteen years of effective parent organizing for education reform in New York City – organizing that has stopped budget cuts, increased school funding, and led to the adoption of a citywide lead teacher program. The goal of Parent Power is to provide an example of successful education organizing to urban-based community groups looking for organizational inspiration and practical guidance in their own efforts to support, demand, and sustain equitable reforms in their own public schools. A Viewer’s Guide, designed to enhance community groups’ use of the film in their own education organizing efforts, accompanies the film. One free copy is available for an individual or organization Please note: All orders wil be charged $10 shipping and handling.
In addition to watching it online for free (it’s embedded below), you can download the viewers guide for free, too.
Filed under: video & audio
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4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: S.O.S.: AN OPEN LETTER TO LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT JOHN DEASY

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: S.O.S.: AN OPEN LETTER TO LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT JOHN DEASY:


S.O.S.: AN OPEN LETTER TO LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT JOHN DEASY

by smf

A parent of two middle school students at Palms Middle School sends an open letter to Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy. By Sara Roos  Venice/Mar Vista Patch | http://bit.ly/IYMg0X 11:42 am, May 2, 2012 Dear Dr Deasy: She told us she'd go down with the ship, ... but you've forced her to walk the gang plank. WHAT IS GOING ON HERE??!! Supt. Deasy> You have


LAUSD SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS JOHN DEASY MUST GO

BY JOSEPH K IN K-12 NEWS NETWORK | HTTP://BIT.LY/ID5NJ2

  • Joseph K. is a 24-year veteran of LAUSD, a former mentor teacher twice named a Johns Hopkins University Teaching Fellow, who now teaches poor, inner-city children who wake up every morning in their gang-ridden, drug-infested neighborhoods at five a.m. to catch the bus by six. He teaches the old-fashioned way – by ignoring standardized test scores. Instead of teaching bubbling, he tries to instill a love of knowledge and learning in his students and for this reason will probably be allowed to continue teaching for fifteen more minutes.
April 2, 2012  ::  It is time for Deasy to go.
After robbing poor, minority children of recess in the name of test prep in Prince George’s County years ago, he left nothing butwreckage and enmity as a district superintendent in Maryland. Deasy said, “Lessons at schools missing testing goals have to be very targeted, and there often isn’t time for electives and free play like at other schools.” Tough break for poor, primarily blac
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Pearsongate? « Diane Ravitch's blog

Pearsongate? « Diane Ravitch's blog:


Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch


Pearsongate?

by dianerav
Teachers and principals discovered yet another error on one of New York state’s mandated tests. This one was on the fifth-grade math test and it required students to know mathematical processes that are not taught in fifth grade. See here:
http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/05/02/state-officials-throw-out-another-pearson-test-question/
Merryl H. Tisch, the chancellor of the New York Board of Regents said that she takes “full responsibility,” and that she  hopes Pearson too will take responsibility. Commissioner John King apparently was not reached for a comment, but he earlier deflected any responsibility for errors on the state tests.



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Three O'Clock Somewhere — Whole Child Education

Three O'Clock Somewhere — Whole Child Education:


Three O’Clock Somewhere

by ASCD Whole Child Bloggers
Expanded Learning and Afterschool Project - DelVento - Davis
Post submitted by Cathy DelVento and Joe Davis
There's a massive Viking longhouse under construction in Winthrop, Mass., and its youngest architects are only 14 years old. Each afternoon—after school—students in the town of Winthrop expand their math skills as they draw plans and measure wood, social studies skills in recreating Viking food and clothing, computer skills as they plot the museum's layout, and language and leadership skills as they make Viking culture come alive for visitors.
Across the country, high quality afterschool programs are helping accelerate student achievement. And, because the programs are community-driven and tap into local expertise, resources and talent, no two programs are exactly alike. In Winthrop, for example, Viking scholars are treated to visits by area architects and engineers. At other afterschool programs, participants are just as likely to have music executives or computer programmers as their guides and colleagues.

Any student can benefit from afterschool programs—and students of all backgrounds can participate—but it's the students who need the most help that usually realize the biggest gains. One such student, Bobby, credits Winthrop's afterschool programs with helping him grow from an eight-year-old who was constantly getting into 
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Kenneth Cole and Our Intelligent Designs | The Jose Vilson

Kenneth Cole and Our Intelligent Designs | The Jose Vilson:


Kenneth Cole and Our Intelligent Designs

by Jose

As if we didn’t already have presidents, mayors, congress members, lobbyists, media members, ex- and current schools chancellors, district leaders, and celebrities come for the heads of teachers under the guise of “student rights,” Kenneth Cole, clothing designer by day, has decided to throw his expensive threads into the discussion with a salacious billboard (removed thanks to the likes of Sabrina Stevens Shupe and others) and a multimedia dedication to this issue on WhereDoYouStand.com (taken down and seemingly scrubbed off the website). Via Kenneth Cole’s Twitter account, his people wrote that they had “misrepresented the issue” and would take it down as soon as possible.
Too bad I’m still going to remember it happened.
I don’t have a problem with people who want to provoke a conversation with scandalous questions. Where my problem lies is in the way that Cole’s public relations folk framed the question. In stating the question as 
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Behind the Standardized Test Curtain « Cooperative Catalyst

Behind the Standardized Test Curtain « Cooperative Catalyst:


Behind the Standardized Test Curtain

by aaronregunberg
Standardized tests. It’s hard nowadays to think about education without them—they’ve become the metric, the substance, the rationale for schooling.  We use them to identify success and failure, to tell us which schools to shut down, which teachers to fire, and which students to let graduate. I think it’s safe to say standardized tests carry more weight today than literally any other aspect of our education system.

But what do these tests actually consist of? I recently got a window into this issue after reading the Kafkaesque account of a man who spent 15 years of his life working in the K-12 testing business for some of the biggest players in the industry (Pearson Education, Educational Testing Service, American Institutes of Research, etc.—names any teacher or school administrator would be very familiar with). The man, Todd Farley, wrote, “While I did enjoy the career (good money, nice people, fun trips), it also left me completely convinced of the utter folly of entrusting decisions about American students, teachers, and schools to the for-profit industry that long employed me. I don’t know how anyone who’s seen what I’ve seen could feel any differently.”

Farley did not develop this position out of any pedagogical or ideological concerns; he’s not an educator and he doesn’t seem to be invested in this debate one way or the other. Rather, he came to his position for the same reason a guy who works in the kitchen of a not-so-reputable restaurant might choose to never frequent that


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