StudentsFirst Tries, Fails to be a Real Grassroots Organization | Fired Up! Missouri

StudentsFirst Tries, Fails to be a Real Grassroots Organization | Fired Up! Missouri:

StudentsFirst Tries, Fails to be a Real Grassroots Organization

Submitted by Parker on May 11, 2012 - 11:47am

StudentsFirst, a national front group founded by former Washington DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, recently landed in Jefferson City to push union busting, anti-education legislation in the Missouri General Assembly.  Most recently, StudentsFirst was behind HB 1526, a bill which will all but eliminate teacher tenure in Missouri; ignore certification, experience and a teacher commitment in determining layoffs; allow out of state groups to run our schools and tell Missourians what's best for our students, parents and teachers; lastly, HB 1526 will take away local control over education from our communities.

As many other right wing funded groups, StudentsFirst parades around the country as a grassroots organization when in reality, it's just another way for the 1% to attack hard working teachers, the children they educate and the public school system.  On Wednesday, StudentsFirst held a luncheon for their grassroots activists in Kansas City, here's the email that went out inviting folks:

Beware of AstroTurf Ed Reformers 

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

Other Astroturf lobbying groups like Stand ON Children First

Just Like Michelle Rhee's Students first only BETTER©

Proudly Sponsored by

Teacher Performance Assessment Under Scrutiny - Teacher Beat - Education Week

Teacher Performance Assessment Under Scrutiny - Teacher Beat - Education Week:

Teacher Performance Assessment Under Scrutiny

by Stephen Sawchuk

Go to Parents Across America.

A column from The New York Times takes aim at the Teacher Performance Assessment, a performance-based licensing test that about 200 teacher preparation programs across 25 states are now piloting. In essence, the story says that a number of students and faculty at the University of Massachusetts are refusing to participate because they don't like that Pearson, the New York City-based educational publishing and testing company, is in charge of arranging the scoring process, rather than teachers and faculty members.
Pearson has been caught up in "Pineapplegate"—a wave of criticism over an apparently bungled New York-based reading-test question. But that issue doesn't even show up in the column, which instead seems to play into general fears about the "corporatization" of public education. The last line of the column reads: "There is a whole education industry that is flourishing because it is built on the denigration of public schoolteachers," its author writes.
The irony of all this is that the exam has been developed by Stanford University researchers and teacher 

Finding Common Ground to Build the Movement Against High Stakes Tests - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Finding Common Ground to Build the Movement Against High Stakes Tests - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Finding Common Ground to Build the Movement Against High Stakes Tests

by Anthony Cody

One of the oldest problems with the left or progressive movement is our tendency to drag ourselves down through internal struggle over who has the most correct political line. We are seeing some of this dynamic emerge in the movement against high stakes testing. Perhaps it is a coming of age - a sign of our success - that we have a strong enough movement that people are taking these issues seriously. But I am afraid we are going to squander our precious momentum by turning our anger on one another, when there are very clear assaults taking place on teachers and students across the country.
Our organizations are precious things. A group like Save Our Schools is nothing more than a collection of volunteers working their hearts out to make a difference. They don't always make the perfect tactical choices, but their intention is to build our ability to unite and resist the testing machine. And we all benefit when groups

GO TO 

National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing

LAUSD'S Illlusory New A-G Graduation Requirements (Video #7) - Perdaily.com

LAUSD'S Illlusory New A-G Graduation Requirements (Video #7) - Perdaily.com:

LAUSD'S Illlusory New A-G Graduation Requirements (Video #7)

by Leonard Isenberg

(Mensaje se repite en Español)

(For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post)
Several days ago the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board voted to lessen the number of units necessary to graduate from high school, while at the same time requiring all students at LAUSD to fulfill the A-G college preparatory requirements if they wanted to graduate. At the very least, this would seem kind of a mixed message, where on the one hand you are making it easier to graduate, while on the other, you are making it harder. A closer analysis of what is going on is even more alarming.

Superintendent John Deasy had proposed that the present 230 unit requirement to graduate from LAUSD should be lowered to a mere 180 units. The Board refused to go along with this, so they compromised at 210 units. Why you would want to lessen units when you are supposedly trying to make education more 

Randi Weingarten: Teacher Appreciation -- More Than Just a Week?

Randi Weingarten: Teacher Appreciation -- More Than Just a Week?:

Teacher Appreciation -- More Than Just a Week?

There have been countless wonderful tributes to teachers over the course of this Teacher Appreciation Week. Like many others who have given shout outs to teachers this week -- I've thought of Mr. Swift and Ms. Gaffney -- teachers who made a huge difference in my life. Teachers deserve these accolades and more. 

There is nothing nobler than to be a teacher -- it is an ongoing act of service that empowers our children and shapes our future. In return, the primary things teachers request are the tools, time and trust they need to do their jobs.

Teachers have undoubtedly welcomed the cease-fire this week from the attacks and blanket condemnation that frequently are leveled at our profession. In these final moments of Teacher Appreciation Week, I'm thinking ahead to the weeks ahead. My hope is that teachers will get the 

If pineapples could speak…New York Teacher | Edwize

New York Teacher | Edwize:

New York Teacher

by W.J. Levay

Highlights from the May 10 issue of New York Teacher:
If pineapples could speak…
What teachers have been saying for years about the content on state ELA tests has finally resonated with journalists, professors and even the state education commissioner. After 8th-graders voiced their bewilderment over the questions on this year’s infamous “Hare and the Pineapple” passage, Commissioner John King struck it from the test.
Final budget includes money for more teachers
Mayor Bloomberg’s final budget proposal for the coming fiscal year, released on May 3, restores 2,570 of some 6,000 teaching positions lost over the past five years — marking the first time in four years that the city will be replacing teachers who leave.
A schoolwide ‘Movement’: OT-, PT-driven morning program helps Bronx students prepare for learning
The magic that gets the school day started in high gear at PS 396 in the Bronx is a schoolwide, early-morning call to action called Movement in the Morning. And in every pre-K to 5th-grade classroom, everyone moves to the music. Teachers join their students for three minutes of jumping jacks, running in place, stretches and extended arm rolls.
UFT protests PEP ‘charade’ at City Hall
Waving signs that read “Support our Kids” and “True Reform Requires Investment,” scores of parents and teachers rallied outside City Hall to protest the mayor’s school-closing policy on April 26, just hours before the city’s Panel for Educational Policy voted to shutter 24 struggling schools, dismiss their staffs and reopen them in the fall under new names.
DA report: Mulgrew warns of challenges ahead
At the April 18 Delegate Assembly, UFT President Michael Mulgrew warned the delegates to brace themselves for the mayor’s attempt to continue his “educational reform” policies beyond his third term.
Pair of schools gets last-minute reprieve
The mayor’s original list of 33 schools targeted for closure dropped to 24 by the time of the Panel for Educational Policy’s vote on April 26 as he and the Department of Education backpedaled on school after school in the face of a wave of public outrage and political pressure.
August Martin HS, Queens: Scores up — so why close down?
Charging the mayor and the city Department of Education with politics and arrogant indifference in their march to close schools, community activists, parents, political leaders and staff from August Martin HS pointed to the steady rise in graduation rates and test scores at the Jamaica school over the past three years as they stepped up their fight to save the targeted school.
Annenberg group says: ‘Way Forward’ is not closing schools
Citing school closings that have led to reduced services and increased dropout rates, the NYC Working Group on School Transformation on April 17 said closing a school should be the last resort. First, the Department of Education should engage in the hard work of school transformation, the group said at an event to launch its report at New York University.
2012 NYSUT Representative Assembly: Eadie Shanker receives Sandy Feldman Award
Eadie Shanker’s name is often followed by the description, “wife of the late UFT and AFT president, Albert Shanker.” But the former Queens teacher has blazed many trails of her own — which is why she was named a winner of the Not For Ourselves Alone: The Sandy Feldman Outstanding Leadership Award at the NYSUT Representative Assembly in Buffalo on April 26.
Tweed slammed on co-location policy
The Department of Education’s controversial policy of co-locating multiple schools in the same building faced sharp criticism at a City Council Education Committee hearing on April 19, one week before the city’s Panel for Educational Policy was scheduled to vote on 38 co-location proposals.

Same-Sex Marriage, Behind the Numbers « Student Activism

Same-Sex Marriage, Behind the Numbers « Student Activism:

Same-Sex Marriage, Behind the Numbers

by Angus Johnston

In all the conversation around Barack Obama’s announcement that he now supports same-sex marriage, one thing is often forgotten: just how quickly public opinion is shifting on this issue.
It’s often been reported, for instance, that black Americans oppose same-sex marriage by a 49-39 margin. What’s less often mentioned is that that figure, from April of this year, represents a 27-point tightening from 2008, when 63% of blacks opposed same-sex marriage, and only 26% supported it. At that rate of change, same-sex marriage will reach plurality support late next year and majority support sometime in 2015. To put it another way, black views on same-sex marriage today are exactly where whites’ positions stood just four years ago.
And if you look at charts of public opinion on the issue, it’s clear that views aren’t just changing quickly, the rate of change is accelerating. We’ve reached a tipping point on the question, and we may reach something 

Louisiana Educator: Public to Public Vouchers Only First of Many Failures

Louisiana Educator: Public to Public Vouchers Only First of Many Failures:

Public to Public Vouchers Only First of Many Failures

by Michael Deshotels

Part of the Jindal reform legislation is supposed to allow students in so called D and F schools to have an opportunity to transfer to other public schools in a different public system that has achieved a rating of B or better. The problem is that the receiving school system must first agree to offer seats to such students. The Zachary school system had initially offered to accept 30 such voucher students for the 2012-13 school year, but protests by parents to their locally elected school board members nixed the deal. The superintendent of theOuachita parish school system has also announced that his school system would opt out of the public to public voucher program.
I believe these announcements are just the tip of the iceberg of failure of much of the governor's education “deform” package as education officials attempt to implement the poorly thought out programs. The entire reform package was rammed through the legislature early in the session with orders from the governor to the majority Republican legislature that amendments would not be allowed. As a result, much of the legislation which was based on ALEC templates drawn up by big business lobbyists and TFA corps members (you've got to read this 

Inspiring the Next Generation of AAPI Public Servants | ED.gov Blog

Inspiring the Next Generation of AAPI Public Servants | ED.gov Blog:

Inspiring the Next Generation of AAPI Public Servants

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Guest Blogger

Cross-posted from the White House Blog.

When I ask my Dad about his childhood, he has little to say.  He says he grew up poor in a small Koreatown in rural Manchuria.  His father was a logger.  He was the youngest of seven children.  That, to him, is pretty much all there is to tell.

But there’s much more to his story.  With support from his family, he moved to Seoul in 1955 – just two years after the end to the Korean War – to attend college.  In Seoul, he met several Americans who encouraged him to dream bigger and move to the United States.  There, they told him that you could receive a world-class education.  There, intelligence and hard work mattered more than connections or your family name.  One of these Americans, a generous Minnesotan, bought my Dad a plane ticket to the U.S.

After a journey that took nearly three days, he stepped onto U.S. soil on January 20, 1961 – the day John F. Kennedy was sworn into office.  In Seattle, waiting for his connecting flight to North Carolina, he witnessed President Kennedy’s inaugural address on television.  Like millions of Americans watching that day, he was inspired when he heard JFK ask what we can do for our country and what “together we can do for the freedom of man.”

Those words led him to a career in public service.  First, though, he knew he needed an education.  Working full-time during the day and attending classes at night, he graduated from Wake Forest in 1963, became a U.S. citizen in 1974, and completed his PhD at Temple University in 1979.

In 1983, he founded the Korean Community Development Services Center in the Olney neighborhood of Philadelphia.  Originally established to help newly-arrived Asian immigrants adjust to life in their new country, its mission evolved over the years to address the needs of clients from diverse ethnic backgrounds – from African American to Hispanic.  The Center now provides a wide range of free services to its clients – social services, legal advice, after school programs, career and technical education programs, a neighborhood revitalization project, housing counseling and development, and an early learning center.

I spent my childhood observing my Dad serve low-income, minority clients in Philadelphia.  He always underscored that people who lead privileged lives have an obligation to help provide opportunities to those who do not.

Nearly 50 years after my Dad witnessed JFK’s inaugural address, on January 20, 2009, I witnessed President Barack Obama deliver his inaugural address.  Today, I am privileged to carry on my Dad’s work at the Education Department under Secretary Arne Duncan, who has focused our efforts on providing a world-class education to our nation’s students.  During the Secretary’s tenure, the Department has helped secure funding to save hundreds of thousands of teaching jobs, increase Pell grants, raise academic standards across the country, prepare students for the jobs of the future, and focus support to help transform struggling, high-poverty schools.

This Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, I’ll be honoring people like my Dad, whose story and commitment to public service has been an inspiration to his son and others.

Don Yu serves as a Special Advisor to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Children's Budget Summit 2012 | First Focus

Children's Budget Summit 2012 | First Focus:

Children's Budget Summit 2012

Date: June 27, 2012

Time: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Location:
U.S. Capitol Visitor Center Congressional Auditorium

Washington, District of Columbia 20510

Download the event details for:

  

How did children fare in the federal fiscal year 2012 budget and appropriations?

What can Congress and the Administration do to protect kids during tough economic times?

Join First Focus on Wednesday, June 27 for the 2012 Children's Budget Summit.

Speakers to be announced. RSVP to receive speakers list and other program updates.

                        

Daily Kos: Profiles in Courage, the Jimmy Carter Edition

Daily Kos: Profiles in Courage, the Jimmy Carter Edition:

Profiles in Courage, the Jimmy Carter Edition

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

Mitt Romney, in trying to diminish the impact of the NBC special on Barack Obama's ordering the mission against Bin Laden, sneered "“Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order."
Now there is a rejoinder at Bloomberg View to Mitt Romney, from Gerald Rafshoon, who was White House Communications Director in the Clinton White House.  It is a piece well worth reading, as one might realize from its opening:

I’m fairly sure that Jimmy Carter is the bravest man I know. I’m absolutely sure that he’s the bravest politician.

 And if that does not get your attention, what follows immediately should:  

When it comes to courage, Carter’s polar opposite is Mitt Romney. Scour Romney’s record for a single example of real political courage -- a single, solitary instance, however small, where Romney placed principle or substance above his own short- term political interests. Let me know if you find one.

Please keep reading.

State exam asks N.J. 3rd graders to write essay on secret they had kept | NJ.com

State exam asks N.J. 3rd graders to write essay on secret they had kept | NJ.com:

State exam asks N.J. 3rd graders to write essay on secret they had kept

by Jessica Calefati/The Star-Ledger

Roughly 4,000 third graders who took state standardized tests in recent weeks were asked to write an essay question about a secret they had kept, a spokesman for the Department of Education said.

The essay prompt is considered a "field question," said the spokesman Justin Barra, meaning it does not count toward students' scores on the exam. Barra would not, however, provide the exact wording of the question because some students are still being tested.

"We do not discuss specific questions on the exam," Barra said. "This is not something we release."

The details of this question, which raises concerns about student privacy, became apparent when 

High KIPP attrition must be part of San Francisco discussion « Parents Across America

High KIPP attrition must be part of San Francisco discussion « Parents Across America:

High KIPP attrition must be part of San Francisco discussion

by CarolineSF

The KIPP charter school chain, which operates two charter middle schools here in San Francisco, is applying to open a high school. This is a local issue, but relates to similar situations that are widely discussed in other parts of the country.

I’m posting figures on attrition from the existing KIPP middle schools. The number indicates students who left and were not replaced. A 2008 study of the (then-existing) Bay Area KIPP schools by SRI International showed a 60% attrition rate (students who left and were not replaced), and added the information that the students who left were overwhelmingly the lower achievers.

I’m also posting figures from two randomly chosen SFUSD middle schools for comparison. In discussions of the attrition issue, it’s often asked whether the same phenomenon occurs at comparable non-charter public middle schools.

These figures, from the California Department of Education website, are from the 10-day count (10 days into the school year), so they show how many students remained in the