First, call your senator. “Vote no on SB1673.” « Fred Klonsky

First, call your senator. “Vote no on SB1673.” « Fred Klonsky:

First, call your senator. “Vote no on SB1673.”

by Fred Klonsky

Yesterday afternoon the Illinois House Pension Committee voted out Madigan’s pension bill.
The bill is terrible.
It’s signature components are a shift of state pension payments to local districts and a requirement that teachers choose between receiving a cost of living adjustment to their pension payout or a state subsidy to their retirement health care.
Late in the day yesterday things got interesting.
Republican members of the General Assembly went bonkers.
A video of a GOP legislator screaming and cursing Madigan on the Assembly floor went viral.
By the time the House adjourned late yesterday SB 1673 had not been introduced.
The General Assembly session ends tomorrow.
Is this all just political theater?
Today’s Springfield Journal reports that GOP House Leader Tom Cross is furious at Madigan for including the obligation shift in the bill. Cross claims that this is a trick by Madigan to kill so-called pension reform since Madigan knows there aren’t enough votes to pass a bill that combines the two issues. Then he can blame the Republicans.
IEA and IFT leaders are quoted as “scoffing” at the idea that their is collusion between them and Madigan.
But Madigan is anything but a fool. He knows that the 360,000 members of the Teacher Retirement System are dispersed throughout every legislative district in the state. And so are their families. Voters all. Perhaps a million votes in the state.
So whether this is some Machiavellian scheme by Madigan to kill pension changes this session or not doesn’t matter.
Call your senator today.
Kill the bill.

District-Level Race to The Top, Another Bad Idea on Top of a Pile of Bad Ideas | Truth in American Education

District-Level Race to The Top, Another Bad Idea on Top of a Pile of Bad Ideas | Truth in American Education:

District-Level Race to The Top, Another Bad Idea on Top of a Pile of Bad Ideas

by Shane Vander Hart

The U.S. Department of Education announced it’s $400 Million District-Level Race to the Top program last week.  Now they are totally bypassing the states and going straight to the school districts.  There are over 14,000 school districts in the country, but only those districts with a minimum of 2500 students and 40% of students who meet the poverty guidelines (those who qualify for free or reduced lunch) are eligible to apply for the grants. Smaller school districts may join with other districts to apply, even districts in other states. The DOE is encouraging districts within states to craft reform plans that incorporate the “four cornerstones” of improving teacher quality, school turnaround plans, student data collection, and standards and assessments.

Plans must have the signatures of the district superintendent, school board officials, and local union presidents 

Injustice Served In Truancy Case

by Shane Vander Hart

A Texas judge threw a 17-year-old student in jail for a night when she was truant yet again…

The problem here is that this honors student works a full-time job and a part-time job working to support her younger sister and brother who is college after her parents abandoned her and her siblings.  She does this, by the way, while taking advanced placement courses and dual credit college courses.

And to repeat, she is an honors student…

Shouldn’t we be applauding this young person’s sacrifice and work ethic rather than punishing her?  At the very 

Daily Kos: May 30, 1962

Daily Kos: May 30, 1962:

May 30, 1962

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

in those years, Memorial Day was still celebrated on the anniversary of the first Decoration of graves, both Union and Confederate, in Columbus MS in 1868.
Yet perhaps the most appropriate statement on war took place in another country, one untouched by our great fraternal conflict.
Here is the beginning:

Popout

And yet that setting of the traditional Latin text does not fully explain why this is a great masterpiece.  Consider 

Graduation

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

Today was Graduation Day for about 630 senior at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt Maryland, the school that has been my home for 13 of the past 14 years, and from which I will be retired in 2 weeks.  This was my last retirement as a member of the staff, although I hope to show up for the next two to see the last of my students off.
This was an amazing class.  They won $26 million in scholarships.  I could list the many honors collectively and of the individuals.  It is special to me, since most of the officers of the class and the SGA and both the Valedictorian and Salutatorian were my students 2 years ago in AP Government.
As is my practice I helped line up a row of girls before they processed into the Comcast Center for the ceremonies, and then when they came out to get their real diplomas (they receive only the shell on stage, then come and pick up diplomas and various certificates alphabetically after the ceremonies) I stood at the exit to congratulate them.
But there was more.

Did these teachers cheat? You read the transcript and decide. | Get Schooled

Did these teachers cheat? You read the transcript and decide. | Get Schooled:

Did these teachers cheat? You read the transcript and decide.

by Maureen Downey

Atlanta Public Schools is still in the process of trying to fire teachers implicated in the test-cheating investigation, a task that becomes more difficult as the cases and circumstances become murkier.
APS went after the most egregious offenders first, those who confessed to copying test booklets and erasing student answers. Now, it is pursuing those educators who made admissions to the GBI of far less overt actions, such as strongly suggesting students recheck answers.
In these less blatant cases, the question becomes what defines cheating? The AJC obtained the tapes of the 

The Disturbing Connection between David Coleman and Michelle Rhee « Diane Ravitch's blog

The Disturbing Connection between David Coleman and Michelle Rhee « Diane Ravitch's blog:

When a School Dies

by dianerav

This is what it looks like when a school dies.Read here.
The Austin school board–at the urging of the district superintendent Meria Carstarphen–decided to hand over Allan elementary school to a charter chain called IDEA. She said that IDEA had the formula to raise the academic achievement of the children in that school.
The new charter is supposed to enroll 600 students. Only 77 of the children who previously attended Allan will attend the new charter school. Most people would consider that a vote of no-confidence in the charter, the superintendent who was their advocate, and the school board that acted against the wishes of the local community.
How can the charter raise the academic achievement of the children in the school when nearly 90% of them are 

The Disturbing Connection between David Coleman and Michelle Rhee

by dianerav

If you are a reader of this blog, you saw earlier posts about the close connection between David Coleman, the architect of the Common Core standards, and Michelle Rhee. Stephen Sawchuk of Education Week confirms this here.
I learned from Ken Libby–a graduate student at the University of Colorado who likes to read IRS filings by advocacy organizations–that Rhee’s Students First has a board of directors; that David Coleman is the treasurer  of her board of directors; and that the other two members of her board are employees of David Coleman’s organization Student Achievement Partners (one of the two wrote the new CC math standards). To those who ask Coleman why he is on Rhee’s board, he responds that his term ends in June. That is non-responsive.
What outsiders really want to know is whether he shares her agenda and whether he rejects any part of it.
Rhee is a lightning rod. She has advocated for policies that will remove all job protections from teachers. She

Who Are These New “Advocacy” Groups?

by dianerav

Education Week recently published a series of articles about the new “advocacy” groups that are reshaping education policy.
The series is well worth reading. But do so, I suggest, by first reading Chapter 10 of my book The Death and Life of the Great American School System, as well as the update at the end of the paperback edition. Chapter 10 is called “The Billionaire Boys Club.” It is about the three biggest foundations in the education field: the Gates Foundation, the Walton Foundation, and the Broad Foundation. Over time, the funding priorities of these foundations have begun to converge around charters and teacher evaluation as the keys to school reform. Walton adds vouchers to the mix, but otherwise shares the agenda. The agenda looks amazingly like the Mitt Romney

Did Albert Shanker Say That?

by dianerav

When critics of teachers’ unions want to strike a blow against unions, they throw around something that they claim was said by the late Albert Shanker:
‘When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of children.’ ”
Albert Shanker was the brilliant and much-admired and very outspoken president of the American Federation of Teachers; he died in 1997.
Joel Klein, former NYC chancellor who now sells education technology for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, quoted this line in an article in The Atlantic Monthly, and Mitt Romney quoted it when he unveiled his education

How Public Education Died in Muskegon Heights

by dianerav

Last year, the conservative Republican governor of Michigan Rick Snyder and the Republican-dominated legislature passed legislation strengthening the governor’s power to take over financially troubled municipalities and school districts. Michigan has had emergency manager legislation since 1990, but the 2011 law, Public Act 4, gave the governor additional powers to suspend democracy.
Democratic groups are now challenging Public Act 4, which enhanced the ease with which Governor Snyder could suspend democracy by replacing elected officials with an emergency manager. When opponents of the law presented 226,000 signatures on petitions to put Public Act 4 on the ballot and get a public referendum, the state board charged with making a decision split along partisan lines. As matters now stand, the petitions were

School Tech Connect: Daniel Biss and Poverty Plus®

School Tech Connect: Daniel Biss and Poverty Plus®:

Daniel Biss and Poverty Plus®

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

Here's the delightful and charming Daniel Biss, Democrat of Evanston, during today's committee meeting. I forgot to point the yellow arrow of identification at him; he's sitting on the far left, I think. 

Anyway, Biss also voted for the amendment, creating a tax increase not only for the people he represents now, but also the people he hopes to represent in the future, as the future senator from the 9th District.

Someone from that vast tract needs to pin him down and ask him if about the cost of moving from Tiers I and II to his program, Poverty Plus, also known as a "cash balance" program. It's basically the same thing Republicans are describing when they try to privatize Social Security. It's the end of the pension system, and just like the end of the Social Security system, there are enormous mid-range costs involved, the costs of getting from here to there.

Biss wants to shift those costs to the local school districts. Is there nobody capable of getting him on film with questions related to this matter?

Anyway, here he is with his plan, Poverty Plus. In some quarters it's also called Serfdom in a Drum. I once heard it called The Two Nickel Shuffle. It's got a million names.

Popout

Biss is the future. He's going to become Senator Biss, and then he's going to run statewide. We all need to 

Elaine Nekritz, Speaking For The Bill

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

This is fascinating. 

First of all, as I've blogged before, I respect Elaine Nekritz--- she's one of the few people in the House to respond to my questions in a timely manner. 

However, she's carrying Madigan's water here, and I think she has to answer for that. Watch this clip-- and by watch, I mean listen. She totally doesn't understand the coerced choice concept, and her deployment of platitudes rivals that of Arne Duncan. 

I always get nervous when someone relies on platitudes. You know there's not a lot of critical thinking going 

Madigan Vs. Morrison, In Committee

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

Here's another "video" clip from the House Committee on Pensions and Personnel. It's toward the end of the commentary. You'll hear Speaker Madigan give the strangest lecture about responsibility, which is ironically not followed by his resignation. But it gets good at 4:26, where Republican Tom Morrison nervously explains his "no" vote. Morrison has to vote no because the stupid cost-shifting provision would be a tax-hike on Palatine, like it would be everywhere else in the state. 

I've met this representative, and he has my respect because he's a true believer in the things he says. And I mean that. This bill is not extreme enough for him-- he thinks legislators should all give up their pensions, as he has, even though as a young man with a family, he might want to plan for retirement some day. I believe this representative is an honest, died-in-the-wool evangelical, and he not only believes that Social Security 

High-stakes testing protests spreading - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

High-stakes testing protests spreading - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

High-stakes testing protests spreading

by Valerie Strauss

Opposition to high-stakes standardized testing is growing around the country, with more parents choosing to opt their children out of taking exams, more school boards expressing disapproval of testing accountability systems and even a group of superintendents joining the fight.
Read full article >>

Is teaching a science or an art?

by Valerie Strauss

Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham delves into the true nature of teaching and, in the video below, answers the question: “Is teaching a science or an art?”
Even if the answer seems obvious to you, the video will teach you something nonethless.
Read full article >>

GO TO 

National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing

Two Polls Show Floridians Want an End to Reliance on High Stakes Test | Scathing Purple Musings

Two Polls Show Floridians Want an End to Reliance on High Stakes Test | Scathing Purple Musings:

Two Polls Show Floridians Want an End to Reliance on High Stakes Test

by Bob Sikes

The Florida Current and the Northwest Florida Daily News have polls which shows that by  61% to 39% and 83% to 17% , respectively,  Floridians want something else for their children.
Rebukes continue for Jeb Bush’s test-based system. Such polling data when combined with the outrage that Bush’s hand-picked education commissioner in Gerard Robinson is facing on his FCAT Listening/Apology/It’s Here to Stay Tour indicate significant opposition by Floridians – voters and taxpayers all.
The implications of the collapse of Bush’s test-based system are more far-reaching than what appears on the 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: McDonald School - Extra Funding for IAs?

Seattle Schools Community Forum: McDonald School - Extra Funding for IAs?:

McDonald School - Extra Funding for IAs?

by Melissa Westbrook

 (I know this is going to make many angry.  I'm sure the McDonald parents will be quite angry and I even know some of them.  My intent it to explain and to report on budgeting in the district.  If the Board is making decisions to benefit one program at the expense of others, then that deserves discussion.)

Background:  When our district created John Stanford International School, there was big excitement.  This was to honor a fallen superintendent and it was a modern step forward for our district.   And, it was a huge success and a highly sought-after school.

But there were a couple of big issues and one secret.  The issues were the creation of more of these popular schools AND where do the elementary students go after K-5?  I guess when they started JSIS, that seemed far away.

Another far-right-funded film, another false story about schools « Parents Across America

Another far-right-funded film, another false story about schools « Parents Across America:

Another far-right-funded film, another false story about schools

by CarolineSF

The far-right funders who brought us the anti-public-education, anti-teacher, anti-union movie “Waiting for ‘Superman’ ” are back with another fake story claiming to be “inspired by actual events.” This time they hired big-name actors:  Viola Davis, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Holly Hunter. The movie is purportedly based on the Parent Trigger, a hot fad among education [...]

Charter school battle erupts in rustic California hamlet

by CarolineSF

Note from Parents Across America founding member Caroline Grannan in San Francisco: Lagunitas, Calif., is a tree-shaded, rustic community in West Marin County on a road that winds from the suburbs north of San Francisco westward to the rugged coast. And now Lagunitas has joined a list of communities of all kinds and sizes split [...]

“Won’t Back Down” propaganda flick: Truth vigilante time

by CarolineSF

With the star power of “Won’t Back Down,” this far-right-funded propaganda film — starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Holly Hunter and Viola Davis — may get some attention and some reviews. For the record, here’s a pre-emptive quickie response to the movie’s false portrayal of events, as shown in the trailer. The movie purports to be “based [...]

NYC Educator: Yesterday's Class

NYC Educator: Yesterday's Class:

Yesterday's Class

by NYC Educator

You know, if you read the papers, you probably think teachers hold up hoops for kids to jump through, and throw them fish if they make it through 90% of the time or higher. But alas, high test scores are not the fondest memories in anyone's class.

In my class, we were reviewing past tense and present perfect via stories about the Olympics. The article I was using placed great emphasis on American and Canadian champions, as it came from an ESL book designed to sell in those markets. Naturally, I bragged about how wonderful our Olympic champs were, as though I had anything remotely to do with our success. Some of my Chinese students protested that they had champs too.

"Who?" I asked, but none of the kids could name one. They made me take out my iPad and look it up. I found a 15-year-old female gold medal recipient named Ye Shiwen. When the kids pronounced her name, it sounded a great deal like, "Yeah, she won," so we got a lot of mileage out of that. It's very gratifying to see my beginning students so 

Cartoons on Digital Teachers* | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Cartoons on Digital Teachers* | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Cartoons on Digital Teachers*

by larrycuban

In the 1980s when personal computers initially entered classrooms, critics often portrayed teachers as resistant users of the new technology. Resisters or not, readers over 50 years of age may recall that getting one or two  computers in a classroom put them in the technological vanguard. Perhaps a few readers may recall an almost forgotten experiment in the mid-1980s called Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT). In seven schools around the country, Apple gave each teacher and every student a personal computer in school and at home. The experiment lasted nearly a decade and disappeared.
Now, there are 1:1 laptop classrooms and an abundance of devices for both teachers and students. Teachers use their electronic devices (cell phones, desktops at home, laptop or tablet, ebook readers) as much at home as they do in their classrooms. Many teachers teach online courses. Many more teachers have become skilled users of interactive white boards. The digital teacher has arrived. Many cartoonists, however, have yet to catch up and still portray teachers as resisters of new technology.
Here are some I have collected. Enjoy. Laugh. Wince.

Jersey Jazzman: The OTHER Facebook IPO

Jersey Jazzman: The OTHER Facebook IPO:

The OTHER Facebook IPO

by Duke

I know you're all bummed out that you missed out on the Facebook IPO... well, I mean, only if you could get the special deals they apparently had for "preferred customers" of the brokerage houses.

But don't worry - there's another Facebook investment opportunity, happening right here in Jersey! You can vie to get some of Zuckerberg's $100 million "gift" to Newark's schools... if you're in the right place at the right time and know the right people:

The Foundation for Newark’s Future, the fund created from Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 million gift to Newark public schools, will soon commit approximately $15 million to the city’s charter schools -- nearly doubling its overall outlay so far.

Hey, nice! How do I get in on that?

Oh, I see... it's like the IPO; you have to be a "preferred" customer:

Derrell Bradford, executive director of the school advocacy group E3, said some applications were 

How I’m Helping My Students Try To Avoid The “Summer Slide” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

How I’m Helping My Students Try To Avoid The “Summer Slide” | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…:

How I’m Helping My Students Try To Avoid The “Summer Slide”

by Larry Ferlazzo

I’ve previously posted The Best Resources On The “Summer Slide” and how I’m going to make that information into a lesson for my students.
I’m also doing more than that — at least with students in my Beginning/Intermediate ESL class.
Our inner city school of nearly 2,000 students used to regularly have 1,300 students attending summer school each year. The vast majority of those students were not there to make-up for failed classes. They were there for advancement and enrichment and, to be honest, because they didn’t have anything else to do. Obviously, many of our students don’t have the summer options that middle-and-upper-income families have.
Because of budget cuts, this year and for the past few years we’ve had closer to between 60 and 100 students in

This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Good Posts On Education Policy Issues

by Larry Ferlazzo

Here’s a compilation of recent good posts on education policy:
Education and the income gap: Darling-Hammond appeared in The Washington Post. I’m adding it to The Best Places To Learn What Impact A Teacher & Outside Factors Have On Student Achievement.
TFA Teachers: How Long Do They Teach? Why Do They Leave? is from Education Week. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles Raising Concerns About Teach For America.
Computer Scoring Open Ended History Questions is by Tom Hoffman.
Robot Eyes As Good As Humans When Grading Essays is a strange title for an NPR interview with NY Times

My Thoughts On Today’s NY Times Article About The “Digital Divide”

by Larry Ferlazzo

Today’s New York Times has a fairly lengthy article headlined Wasting Time Is New Divide in Digital Era.
It’s thesis is that young people are spending too much time on screens, including television and computers. In addition, with the increased availability and affordability of computers and online access, low-income children are spending more time online for entertainment instead of education than middle and higher income kids.
I wonder if they may be making mountain out of a molehill. The numbers they used that painted alarming statistics about the increase of screentime from 1999 to the present did not seem very reliable. If someone was watching TV and surfing the Web at the same time for the same one hour, they would count that as two hours. I

“Research-based practices forge strong family and community partnerships”

by Larry Ferlazzo

Research-based practices forge strong family and community partnerships is a new report from the organization Leaning Forward.
It’s in their newsletter, Tools For Learning Schools.
I wouldn’t say there’s anything particularly new in it to people with family engagement, but it does provide some good summaries, particularly on Joyce Epstein’s work.

This Week’s Parent Teacher Chat On Twitter

by Larry Ferlazzo

Guest Post by Joe Mazza
Upcoming #PTchat: Parents & Teachers Discuss Ways to Combat Summer Learning Loss

Wed., 5/30 9PM EDT

  

As another school year comes to a close, we begin another summer. This week’s Parent-Teacher Chat (#PTchat) on Twitter takes a look at all the way we can keep the learning going through the summer.
Last year, The Rand Corporation released “Making Summer Count,” a comprehensive look at summer learning loss in children, grades 1-8.  The report states that children, on average, lose one month of knowledge and skills 

WILL UTLA EVER UNDERSTAND THAT LAUSD IGNORES THEM? - Perdaily.com

WILL UTLA EVER UNDERSTAND THAT LAUSD IGNORES THEM? - Perdaily.com:

WILL UTLA EVER UNDERSTAND THAT LAUSD IGNORES THEM?

by Leonard Isenberg

(Mensaje se repite en Español)

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

Albert Einstein said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. By this definition, the leadership of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) must be insane. Today UTLA staged yet another demonstration. This time in front of Manual Arts High School supposedly to express their objection to the planned reconstitution of the school by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) in supposed derogation of an agreement they had with UTLA. Although these demonstrations, that resemble a football pep rally NEVER have any impact on decisions LAUSD has already