Monday, May 21, 2012

I posted a picture of Illinois State Police on Facebook yesterday. It provoked some passionate comments.
One was from a cop, my friend and former neighbor, Abraham.
Abraham did what you would expect most cops to do. He defended his buddies and his job.
What my friend Abraham doesn’t say is whether he was on duty yesterday at the NATO protest.
Or if he has traveled around the city these last few days like I have.
I was in Grant Park yesterday. There were thousands of people who looked pretty much like people I have been with at protests my entire life. If I said that there were a hundred Black Bloc anarchists, that would be an over-estimate.
A friend joked that you would confuse them for clerks at Hollisters.
More significant were the number of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who threw their medals over the security

The League of Student Workers launches its foray into politics and union organizing for students at Santa Monica College (SMC) | Dailycensored.com

The League of Student Workers launches its foray into politics and union organizing for students at Santa Monica College (SMC) | Dailycensored.com:

The League of Student Workers launches its foray into politics and union organizing for students at Santa Monica College (SMC)

by Danny Weil

Thursday May 24, 2012 at 11:15 AM there will be a General Assembly for the League of Student Workers at Santa Monica College. I’ve been told the meeting is going to be pretty informal; the group is meeting to create a contact point for the Student Workers, introduce the committee members and present the annual report. Student-workers are going to vote on whether or not they want to submit the report to the administration after appropriate changes have been made based onStudent Worker input. They may also vote on whether or not they want to make the committee a permanent representative body for Student Workers — but any details on structure ad mission will be determined at a later date.

Santa Monica College sets the pace for student organizing and fights against privatization and a State Wide Student Union

There is little doubt that Santa Monica College, one of the 112 community colleges in the state of California

Straight Up Conversation: New NSNO CEO Neerav Kingsland :: Frederick M. Hess

Straight Up Conversation: New NSNO CEO Neerav Kingsland :: Frederick M. Hess:

Straight Up Conversation: New NSNO CEO Neerav Kingsland

by Frederick M. Hess • May 21, 2012 at 8:13 am
Cross-posted from Education Week

I recently had a chance to chat with Neerav Kingsland, recently named CEO of New Schools for New Orleans (NSNO). NSNO has been a pivotal player in New Orleans' post-Katrina reform landscape. A Tulane and Yale Law School alum, Neerav previously served as the chief strategy officer for NSNO. You may also recall him as a former guest star at RHSU. Neerav is taking the reins from Sarah Usdan, the founder of NSNO who is stepping back after a half-dozen years at the helm. Given the centrality of New Orleans to various reform debates, including those over charter schooling and "recovery districts," I thought it worth chatting with Neerav about NSNO and the work of transforming education in New Orleans. Here's what Neerav had to say.

Rick Hess: For those unfamiliar with New Schools for New Orleans, what is it? What does it do?
Neerav Kingsland: NSNO is a city-based organization that focuses on three areas. The first is strategic

LAO: No need to cut schools $5.5 billion | Thoughts on Public Education

LAO: No need to cut schools $5.5 billion | Thoughts on Public Education:

LAO: No need to cut schools $5.5 billion - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

The Legislative Analyst’s Office is suggesting an alternative to the massive cut to K-12 schools and community colleges that Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing if his tax initiative fails in November. Instead of a real spending cut of $2.8 billion or $415 per K-12 student, districts and community colleges would be cut $1 billion or only $162 per K-12 student, under the LAO plan.

The LAO detailed its alternative in an analysis of Brown’s May budget revision, which the nonpartisan, independent agency released on Friday (see pages 21-22 in the pdf version). The difference is the size of Proposition 98 spending obligation that is calculated for this year and next year, separate from the tax increase.

The LAO assumes a more conservative approach, which would leave the K-12 schools

Watching California public schools sink — a preventable Titanic - by Tamara Hurley

by Tamara Hurley

One hundred years ago last month, the cry “women and children first” echoed on the decks of the ill-fated Titanic. A century later, the ship carrying California’s future is listing in the water. However, it seems that today no one is willing to make a sacrifice: It’s every man, woman and child for himself or [...]

A nation grows more diverse as many of its schools grow less | Get Schooled

A nation grows more diverse as many of its schools grow less | Get Schooled:

A nation grows more diverse as many of its schools grow less

by Maureen Downey

I have written a lot about the resurgence of segregated schools in the South, not by court order, but by housing choices.
Despite the hopes of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, court-ordered school desegregation never led to full community integration.
“Our nation, I fear, will be ill served by the court’s refusal to remedy separate and unequal education, for unless our children begin to learn together, there is little hope that our people will ever learn to live together, ” wrote

Saving Poor Kids from Failing Schools? « Diane Ravitch's blog

Saving Poor Kids from Failing Schools? « Diane Ravitch's blog:

Saving Poor Kids from Failing Schools?

by dianerav

Several people sent me a video of Glen Ford of the Black Agenda Report skewering Corey Booker, the mayor of Newark, and Howard Fuller of Black Alliance for Educational Options as sell-outs for a rightwing agenda. See it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdPACwRgw04

I must say there was nothing in the video that surprised me. Back in the late 1990s, when I was involved in three different conservative organizations, there was a concerted effort to find and promote black advocates for choice. The leaders on the right wanted to promote charters as a boon to minorities and the poor. The pitch was, “We

“Tutoring Doesn’t Work” (According to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan) - Wait, What?

“Tutoring Doesn’t Work” (According to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan) - Wait, What?:

“Tutoring Doesn’t Work” (According to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan)

by jonpelto

No really, that’s what Secretary of Education said and while he doesn’t have any real education or teaching experience, he did go to Harvard (for sociology) so he must know these things.

As a result of this news, I spent Sunday afternoon writing a letter of concern to the Mansfield Board of Education. You see, the Mansfield Middle School Parent’s Association Newsletter just arrived. It leads with a picture and article bragging “These are some of the 80 UConn undergraduates who volunteered during the spring semester to work 1:1 with MMS students during X-Block…” It says that UConn Students helped Middle school students “work on homework completion, organization, and study skills each week.” Mrs. Dickinson, an award winning science teacher even took time out to make a cake for the UConn tutors as a way to say thank you.

Now I don’t want to be the village antagonist, but quite frankly, if tutoring is a waste, as

SES IS A MESS: Impacts of Title I Supplemental Educational Services on Student Achievement

Impacts of Title I Supplemental Educational Services on Student Achievement:

Impacts of Title I Supplemental Educational Services on Student Achievement

The Innovative Educator: It's wrong to group kids by date of manufacture

The Innovative Educator: It's wrong to group kids by date of manufacture:

It's wrong to group kids by date of manufacture

by noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Nielsen)

Guest post by Teresa McCloskey

While at the park today with the kids, I saw a classmate of Mason's, coincidentally also named Mason and also in as much trouble with authorities as my own Mason.

Mason & Mason F. started kindergarten at the same time. Their date of manufacture is obviously comparable. They are both currently in 7th grade. But Mason F. now stands nearly 2 feet taller than my Mason. He's filling out. Mason F. has very obviously hit puberty in his 12th - 13th year of life. Mason F. was stealing backpacks from two girls then later blew them off to hang with a young lady dressed scantily in short shorts and a spaghetti tank top. He escorted her out of the park looking every inch of a 16 or 17 year old if I hadn't known his real age. Meanwhile, my Mason was happily climbing a tree and riding his bike up & down a hill as fast as he could.

Bradley was also along with us today. He's now a couple inches taller than Mason, and his voice has started

The Key to Making Every Child’s Dreams Come True – Found at SAR Academy

by noreply@blogger.com (Lisa Nielsen)

Popout

~Guest post by Sharon Marson

Schoolwide Enrichment Program Coordinator, SAR Academy, Riverdale, New York

A teary-eyed parent says, "Now my child feels really successful. Thank you for what you are doing.” Another shared that Tuesday (the day our new program is scheduled) is “a day my child refuses to be absent. I'm not allowed to pull him out of school for a doctor's appointment and he has even tried pretending he is well when clearly he has fever, in order to not miss an E-slot." The children themselves ask, "How many days until next Tuesday?" and stop me in school regularly to thank me for "making" the this program.

What has brought such joy and excitement to parents and children? The Schoolwide Enrichment program. This

Why college-for-everybody is a sham: Ravitch - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Why college-for-everybody is a sham: Ravitch - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

Why college-for-everybody is a sham: Ravitch

by Valerie Strauss

This was written by education historian Diane Ravitch . She is a research professor at New York University and author of numerous books, including the best-selling “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” a critique of the flaws in the modern school reform movement. This piece appeared on her blog.
Read full article >>

Test scores plummet — so Florida drops passing grade

by Valerie Strauss

Here’s the latest disaster in Florida’s standardized test-based school accountability system, which has been touted as a model for education reform around the country since it was developed by former Gov. Jeb Bush.
Read full article >>

Schools Matter: NYC Parents Infuriated Over "Valueless" Test

Schools Matter: NYC Parents Infuriated Over "Valueless" Test:

NYC Parents Infuriated Over "Valueless" Test

by Judy Rabin

There's a lot of talk of VAM (value added measures) these days as the new tool and solution to closing the achievement gap. VAM is popular with corporate ed deformers because it's now obvious the ones being used over the past decade under NCLB used to declare students, teachers and schools failures, have actually been a huge failure. Unfortunately for the architects of this brilliant education policy, the economic crisis is causing the entire testing craziness to crumble under its own weight. With huge budget gaps and deep cuts to programs, services, and teachers at the same time class sizes have increased across city and across the country, we might be in the midst of a perfect storm strong enough to blow the cover off these valueless, worthless, measuring tools and bogus formulas once and for all.

Today it has been reported that parents in NYC are the latest group to organize, protest and stand up to the child abuse being perpetuated by the explosion in standardized tests costing taxpayers millions of dollars and

Two More Florida Districts Poised to Join National Resolution on High Stakes Testing | Scathing Purple Musings

Two More Florida Districts Poised to Join National Resolution on High Stakes Testing | Scathing Purple Musings:

Two More Florida Districts Poised to Join National Resolution on High Stakes Testing

by Bob Sikes

From TCPalm:

More Florida and Treasure Coast school boards could join a growing nationwide campaign against an “over-reliance” on high-stakes standardized tests like the FCAT.
Almost a week before state officials warned more rigorous grading on the writing portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test triggered a steep decline in scores, the St. Lucie County School Board approved a resolution asking the state to develop a new assessment system that relies less on standardized testing and urges the federal government to reduce testing requirements in the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
“There were phone calls that were made to discourage us from doing something because it seems to be politically unpopular,” longtime St. Lucie board member Kathryn Hensley said after approving the resolution May 8. “This board takes a stand for things that are right and we will try to get other districts to follow a like course.”

National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing:

Missouri Education Watchdog: Having the Bully Pulpit Doesn't Mean You Get to be a Bully.

Missouri Education Watchdog: Having the Bully Pulpit Doesn't Mean You Get to be a Bully.:

Having the Bully Pulpit Doesn't Mean You Get to be a Bully.

by stlgretchen

Shouldn't bullying constitute teacher termination?

"It’s illegal to disrespect the president, a North Carolina high school teacher told a student in an audiotape that turned up on YouTube".

This story about a teacher bullying a student is going viral. You can find write ups on this story here andhere and here and here and here.

This social studies teacher should be fired...not only for her bullying tactics, but also her lack of knowledge of what constitutes free speech. What's particularly disturbing is the young man she bullied

Jersey Jazzman: Some Kids (and Teachers) MUST Fail

Jersey Jazzman: Some Kids (and Teachers) MUST Fail:

Some Kids (and Teachers) MUST Fail

by Duke

Those of us fighting back against reforminess have made a tactical mistake: we don't talk about the grading of standardized tests nearly enough. And Todd Farley has a ton of material for us; here he is on the latest debacle in Florida:

he writing portion of this year's FCAT plummeted so precipitously that the abilities of Florida's student writers aren't even being called into question. The validity of the scoring statistics are. While I don't want to say "I told you so" regarding the dubiousness of those statistics, I did tell you so, as my 2009 book highlighted in detail all the ways the numbers produced by the for-profit standardized testing industry cannot be trusted.
Take the stats produced at Pearson scoring centers around the country, where I worked for the better part of 15 years. On the first project I worked scoring student essays, I had to pass a qualifying exam to stay on the job. When I failed that qualifying exam (twice), I was unceremoniously fired. So were half the original hundred scorers who had also failed the tests. Of course, when Pearson realized the next morning they no longer had enough scorers to complete the project on time, they simply lowered the "passing" grade on the qualifying test and put us flunkies right back on the job.
Yes, those of us considered unable to score student essays 12 hours before were

For-profit standardized testing industry can't be trusted - Tampa Bay Times

For-profit standardized testing industry can't be trusted - Tampa Bay Times:

For-profit standardized testing industry can't be trusted

By Todd Farley, Special to the Times
In Print: Sunday, May 20, 2012

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The scores for the writing portion of this year's FCAT plummeted so precipitously that the abilities of Florida's student writers aren't even being called into question. The validity of the scoring statistics are. While I don't want to say "I told you so" regarding the dubiousness of those statistics, I did tell you so, as my 2009 book highlighted in detail all the ways the numbers produced by the for-profit standardized testing industry cannot be trusted.

Take the stats produced at Pearson scoring centers around the country, where I worked for the better part of 15 years. On the first project I worked scoring student essays, I had to pass a qualifying exam to stay on the jo