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Friday, May 4, 2012

Big Education Ape: 5-4-12 PM What Everyone Missed on the Pineapple Question EDition #CLUELESS #PINEAPPLEGATE

Big Education Ape: PARENTS CAN!:


Big Education Ape: PARENTS CAN!

Published by Coopmike48 – 7 news spotters today




What Everyone Missed on the Pineapple Question | TIME Ideas

ideas.time.com - When the New York Daily News posted an article about an Aesop-inspired fable that appeared on the standardized test eighth graders in New York state had to take last month — about a pineapple chall...
leoniehaimson

The Gift That Keeps on Giving « Diane Ravitch's blog

dianeravitch.net - Earlier today, we saw a leaked memo in which Pearson defended the tale of the Hare and the Pineapple. It was field-tested, the spokesman said. It was psychometrically sound. It was just a splendid ...
DianeRavitch

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coopmike48 “Excessing” notices for 333 DCPS teachers - D.C. Schools Insider - The Washington Post wapo.st/J5xlifabout 1 minute ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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coopmike48 “I am an immigrant…” « Fred Klonsky bit.ly/J5xmmj57 seconds ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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coopmike48 HBO - Real Time with Bill Maher Blog - 'Real Time' Guest List: May 4, 2012 itsh.bo/J5usy228 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

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The Gift That Keeps on Giving « Diane Ravitch's blog

dianeravitch.net - Earlier today, we saw a leaked memo in which Pearson defended the tale of the Hare and the Pineapple. It was field-tested, the spokesman said. It was psychometrically sound. It was just a splendid ...
leoniehaimson

SocietySee all


Rahm Habla Espanol

nbcchicago.com - advertisement Mayor Rahm Emanuel cut a Spanish-language ad with Rep. Luis Gutierrez, to promote a May 12 citizenship workshop at which the two politicians will appear.  Gutierrez, who was born in P...
mikeklonsky

Headlines May 04, 2012 Whole Show | First Story >

democracynow.org - The Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng made a direct appeal to U.S. lawmakers on Thursday in his bid for entry into the United States. Speaking through an interpreter, Chen told a congressional heari...
mikeklonsky

StoriesSee all


School Tech Connect: The Waterbug

schooltechconnect.com - I heart Medea Benjamin from Code Pink. I'm going to flat-out steal and post a very short clip from Democracy Now where Medea Benjamin shows how it's done when you need to make an unpopular point. I...
tbfurman

Great Moments in EdTech History

ideasandthoughts.org - My two favorite networks, The Golf Channel and NFL Network have been using “Top Ten” format of late to capture almost any topic within their respective sports. Obscure ones like, top ten left hande...
coopmike48

Colorado kid finalist in Doodle 4 Google

ednewsparent.org - OK Colorado, time to vote for our hometown boy (by May 10!) who is a state finalist in the national Doodle 4 Google competition. Jimmy Ferguson, 14, a seventh-grader at Bayfield Middle School locat...
coopmike48

PoliticsSee all


Obama Calls for DREAM Act Passage

michaelklonsky.blogspot.com - “‘No’ is not an option. I want to sign the DREAM Act into law. I’ve got the pens all ready. I’m willing to work with anybody who is serious to get this done, and to achieve bipartisan, comprehensiv...
mikeklonsky

Obama Calls for DREAM Act Passage

michaelklonsky.blogspot.com - “‘No’ is not an option. I want to sign the DREAM Act into law. I’ve got the pens all ready. I’m willing to work with anybody who is serious to get this done, and to achieve bipartisan, comprehensiv...
mikeklonsky

HealthSee all


Community clinics try to fill in dental care gap

californiawatch.org - YouraPechkin/istockphoto.com Roughly three million poor and disabled Californians had their coverage for dental services cut three years ago, and community dental clinics have struggled to cover pr...
coopmike48

WorldSee all


NATO Restrictions - WGN

wgntv.com - WGN News 12:32 p.m. CDT, May 2, 2012 CHICAGO— The government is warning private pilots, they could be shot down if they violate a no-fly zone over Chicago during the NATO Summit. A flight advisory ...
mikeklonsky

Nearly 800 Joliet Caterpillar workers on strike

abclocal.go.com - May 1, 2012 (JOLIET, Ill.) (WLS) -- Hundreds of hourly workers are off the job and on the picket line at the Caterpillar hydraulics plant in Joliet. About 800 workers are on strike. But the company...
fklonsky

New rage keeps Somali boys off street: video games

boston.com - MOGADISHU, Somalia—Inside a hot, cramped room in the Somali capital, 10 sweating children sat on wooden desks, not unlike those found in schools. These boys, though, were not in class. They were st...
coopmike48

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Pearson Says Its Tests Are 'Valid and Reliable' as Lehman Brothers – SchoolBook

Pearson Says Its Tests Are 'Valid and Reliable' – SchoolBook:


Pearson Says Its Tests Are ‘Valid and Reliable’
as Lehman Brothers

by Anemona Hartocollis
A national test publisher has defended a controversial question involving a talking pineapple on one of its reading tests for New York State, saying it was confident that its tests were “valid and reliable.”
In a letter to the State Education Department disclosed on Friday, the company, Pearson, said the passage about a pineapple that races a hare, included in a test administered to eighth graders, was to be used to compare the achievement of students in New York to those of students in other states.
The company said the question had been used in several other states without complaints. But Pearson did not mention that the question was mocked on a Facebook page established in 2010 and on a blog starting with a 2007 post from a parent in Illinois, who was soon joined by a long string of others in Alabama, Arkansas, New Mexico and now, New York.
The company said it had been field-tested among students in New York and vetted by a local testing committee



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Schools Matter: Texas Pays Pearson $468,000,000 for 5 Year Contract

Schools Matter: Texas Pays Pearson $468,000,000 for 5 Year Contract:

Texas Pays Pearson $468,000,000 for 5 Year Contract
by Jim Horn


Boycott Pearson. From KXAN:  

. . . . KXAN News has uncovered that the state is spending more than $89 million on testing for the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, this year alone. That amount has nearly doubled in the last 10 years.
Every penny goes to a company called Pearson,which develops the test questions, prints and distributes test booklets and scores the exams before sending them back to 8,000 schools.
The state's five-year contract with Pearson, which covers the 2010 through 2015 school years, totals just over $468 million.
Based on figures provided by TEA, Texas taxpayers by 2015 will have paid Pearson nearly $1.2 billion for developing standardized tests and related materials dating back to the year 2000.
(See year-by-year breakdown below)The annual cost goes up each year. In 2015, standardized testing will set the state back nearly $100 million. . . .Schools Matter: Texas Pays Pearson $468,000,000 for 5 Year Contract:



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Elgin’s Senator Mike Noland. Bought by Stand for Children? Targeted by pensioners. « Fred Klonsky

Elgin’s Senator Mike Noland. Bought by Stand for Children? Targeted by pensioners. « Fred Klonsky:


Elgin’s Senator Mike Noland. Bought by Stand for Children? Targeted by pensioners.

by Fred Klonsky

Noland, who sits on Quinn’s pension panel told pensioners, “I’m on your side.”
Elgin’s Democratic State Senator Mike Noland couldn’t figure out why pensioners would be demonstrating outside his office.
He ended up blaming the teachers’ union.
Noland, endorsed by Jonah Edelman’s Stand For Children, also is a member of the Governor’s pension

Stand ON Children First: New AstroTurf from Teacher in the Box


Just Like Michelle Rhee's Students first only BETTER


Astroturf lobbying refers to political organizations or campaigns that appear to be made up of grassroots activists but are actually organized and run by corporate interests seeking to further their own agendas. Such groups are often typified by innocent-sounding names that have been chosen specifically to disguise the group's true backers

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Murietta students face suspension for posting test material online - latimes.com

Murietta students face suspension for posting test material online - latimes.com:


Murietta students face suspension for posting test material online

Several students in Murrieta who posted images of state testing documents on social networking sites are facing suspension for violating security rules, a school district official said.  

One student reportedly posted photos of a few exam questions; the rest posted images of the test’s cover, doodles inside their booklets and of each other, said Karen Parris, spokeswoman with the Murrieta Valley Unified School District.

"It doesn't appear they were trying to cheat," Parris said. "They were just doing what students tend to do -- share their lives online … but certainly, during tests, they are not supposed to have their cellphones out at all."

School district officials learned about the images Wednesday night after state education officials notified them. The district is one of many that the California Department of Education alerted after finding that scores of photos of testing materials have shown up this year on sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram 

State Testing Security Breach Reported at Murrieta School


State Testing Security Breach Reported at Murrieta School

Four incidences of students posting online photos of state testing materials—one of which was picked up by state officials—prompted MVUSD to issue a stern warning.
Photos of state testing materials posted online by a Murrieta student prompted the California Department of Education to contact the Murrieta Valley Unified School District Wednesday.
The district was notified of the security breach when the photos cropped on social media websites and were tracked to a Murrieta Mesa High School student, district spokesperson Karen Parris confirmed Wednesday evening.
Three additional incidents were reported by district teachers Wednesday at both Murrieta Mesa and Shivela Middle School, she said.
Murrieta Mesa Principal Mary Walters sent an emailed notice to parents that "due to these incidences, our school will not allow any electronic devices (cellphones, iPods, iPads) to be brought into the classroom."
Walters said all personal items including backpacks, binders and purses are to be stored in a 
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