ED-Green Ribbon Schools Gets a Facelift for 2012-2013 | ED.gov Blog

ED-Green Ribbon Schools Gets a Facelift for 2012-2013 | ED.gov Blog:

ED-Green Ribbon Schools Gets a Facelift for 2012-2013

by Andrea Falken

Now that the 2012 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools are recognized, the Department has refined the selection guidance it provides to state nominating authorities to make for a smoother competition for states and schools in the second year.  The award was created to recognize high-achieving schools striving for 21^st century excellence by:

1)     Reducing environmental impact and costs;

2)     Improving the health of schools and wellness of students and staff; and

3)     Providing effective environmental and sustainability literacy, incorporating STEM, civic skills and green career pathways.

For ED-GRS 2012-2013, ED implemented suggestions from stakeholders and partners to improve the site and nomination infrastructure, especially the following:

• 2012-2013 Criteria explain the program’s purpose, vision, eligibility, requirements and the Department’s authority for creating such an award.
• Each state or nominating authority is assigned a maximum number of possible nominees.
• An updated Resources page serves as a clearinghouse for hundreds of programs, grants and tools in all areas of the award.
• A Framework provides recommended measures by which to evaluate schools and select nominees to ED for eligible nominating authorities.
• The Sample Application is offered as another optional tool for nominating authorities to assist them in selecting schools.

ED encourages state education agencies to use the following dates to guide their nominee selection:

September:  States begin selection processes.

February 15: States submit nominees to ED.

April 22:  ED announces honorees.

June 3: ED honors selectees at a ceremony in Washington, DC.

Already, over 30 states have indicated their intent to nominate schools for the 2012-2013 year.
While the award is designed to highlight and communicate the innovative practices by just a few exemplary schools, all schools may sign up for the Green Strides Webinar Series to connect with resources and programs available to them. The series aims to provide all schools the tools they need to reduce their costs and environmental impact; improve health and wellness; and provide effective environmental and sustainability education.  To learn more about the 2012 ED-GRS cohort’s exemplary practices, read Highlights from the 2012 Honorees and a Snapshot of the 2012 Cohort.
Connect with ED-GRS on Facebook.  Sign up for ED-Green Ribbon Schools updates here.

HechingerEd Blog | Teachers want the role of unions to change, survey says

HechingerEd Blog | Teachers want the role of unions to change, survey says:

Teachers want the role of unions to change, survey says

by Sarah Butrymowicz

Critics have portrayed teachers unions as impediments to reform efforts around the country because they have fought against changes such as pay-for-performance and the abolition of tenure. But stories of unions working with school district officials to craft new teacher quality initiatives are slowly becoming more common. And, according to a new study that surveyed more than 1,000 teachers, that’s exactly what a growing number of teachers think unions should be doing.
“Trending Toward Reform: Teachers Speak on Unions and the Future of the Profession,” released Tuesday by 

Abdicating reasoning: Surrendering the debate over teaching, testing and assessment to the constables of obedience training | Dailycensored.com

Abdicating reasoning: Surrendering the debate over teaching, testing and assessment to the constables of obedience training | Dailycensored.com:

Abdicating reasoning: Surrendering the debate over teaching, testing and assessment to the constables of obedience training

by Danny Weil

In 2010 I wrote what follows below.  Since then, if you go to Truthout (GOP Declares no more critical thinking in schools, (http://truth-out.org/news/item/10144-texas-gop-declares-no-more-teaching-of-critical-thinking-skills-in-texas-public-schools) one can clearly begin to see just how damaging the forces of ideological control are and how irrationalism and unreason litter America’s cultural landscape.

Reactionary forces understand that in order to maintain high levels of concentration of social wealth alongside rampant inequality that both need each other and run concurrently, the average citizen must not know that he or she is being controlled.  Freedom truly must become ignorance and this ‘alchemy’ is accomplished through neo-feudal ideological forces that pose as education while assuring false 

Are Parent Trigger Laws Our New 'Superman' – Or Union Kryptonite? | | AlterNet

Are Parent Trigger Laws Our New 'Superman' – Or Union Kryptonite? | | AlterNet:

Are Parent Trigger Laws Our New 'Superman' – Or Union Kryptonite?

Though they're being pushed by the biggest names in corporate education reform, and politicians of every stripe, there's little proof that parent trigger laws actually work.

AlterNet / By Paul L. Thomas, Ed.D.

Here’s a question for you: Which political party, Republicans or Democrats, supports expanding charter schools, test-based teacher evaluation, and most recently, parent trigger laws? (In school, this would be called a trick question.) The answer is: both. The latest piece in the corporate education reform puzzle, parent trigger laws reveal just how desperately Republicans and Democrats are seeking ways to appease corporate America’s hunger for education reform -- without addressing the central issue of poverty that lies at the root of an overburdened U.S. education system. These laws, which allow a majority of parents “to sign a petition to trigger one of a narrow set of options -- firing all or some of the staff, turning the school over to a charter operator, or closing the school,” are packaged as free-market levers to empower parents with children trapped in poorly performing public schools -‑ a similar strategy to that being used to support the expansion of charter schools across the nation. As Stephanie Simon reported for Reuters, politicians are

Common Core Challenges for California « InterACT

Common Core Challenges for California « InterACT:

Common Core Challenges for California

by ACT Guest Blog Posts

Today’s InterACT guest blog post comes to us from Alice Mercer, an elementary school teacher, educational technology guru, and blogger. Her recent attendance at the ISTE 2012 Conference provided an opportunity to consider again the process of Common Core State Standards implementation.  Here’s a link to her prior guest posts at InterACT.

Conference exhibit halls offer educators a plethora of Common Core-aligned products

I spent my last week of June at the ISTE Conference (International Society for Technology in Education) in San Diego, CA. Given that the new Common Core standards feature the use of technology by student prominently, I expected the standards to be front and center at the conference. Since I’ve been blogging about Common Core lately, I looked forward to hearing more. The conference program promised a number of sessions on the subject. Many of these were put on by vendors, who were no doubt seeking to make money off the fear of 

Charter schools aren’t the answer to state’s education problems | Regional Voices - The News Tribune

Charter schools aren’t the answer to state’s education problems | Regional Voices - The News Tribune:

Charter schools aren't the answer to state's education problems

TheNewsTribune.com - ‎5 hours ago‎

In the mid-1990s, two issues that captured my attention were bullying and increasing the number of counselors in elementary schools. I urged my fellow PTA members attending Legislative Assembly to make “my issues” the Washington State PTA’s priority issues.

Why were they my issues? In sixth grade, I experienced having my head slammed repeatedly into a concrete bathroom floor during school. While a teenager, my mother broke my nose. I left home in my sophomore year. My grandmother became my legal guardian and then unexpectedly died.

While finishing high school and working part time, I became an emancipated minor. Using current terminology, you would have called me an “at-risk” student.

Today’s stressed-out “at-risk” students are often shared as data points on graphs. They are labeled

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/07/10/2209854/charter-schools-arent-the-answer.html#storylink=cpy

This Is Unbelievable « Diane Ravitch's blog

This Is Unbelievable « Diane Ravitch's blog:

This Is Unbelievable

by dianerav

Pennsylvania just approved the operation of four new cyber-charter schools, bringing the number of online charter schools in the state to 17.
This is literally unbelievable.
We constantly hear lectures from “reformers” about data-driven decision-making and focusing only on results.
They like to say “it’s for the children.” “Children first.” “Students first.”
The existing cyber-charters in Pennsylvania have been evaluated and found to have disastrous results. The data

This Is Unbelievable

by dianerav

Pennsylvania just approved the operation of four new cyber-charter schools, bringing the number of online charter schools in the state to 17.
This is literally unbelievable.
We constantly hear lectures from “reformers” about data-driven decision-making and focusing only on results.
They like to say “it’s for the children.” “Children first.” “Students first.”
The existing cyber-charters in Pennsylvania have been evaluated and found to have disastrous results. The data

Now It Can Be Told! The Secrets to Success and Riches

by dianerav

Bruce Baker has distilled the qualities of successful charter schools. In this post, Baker looks at the reasons that some NYC charter schools succeed.
The reason for creating charters in the late 1980s was that they would have the freedom to try new ideas and thereby to help public schools improve.
As the charters tried new things, public schools would learn from their experience and would improve.
The charters were supposed to gain freedom from most state regulation in exchange for their willingness to be

Common Core Standards: A Boon for Edu-Biz

by dianerav

Whether the Common Core standards are good or bad, one thing that is clear is that they have opened up multiple opportunities for entrepreneurs.
The textbook industry is retooling, at least adding stickers that say their products are aligned with the Common Core.
Pearson is developing a complete curriculum package in mathematics and reading, for almost every grade, assisted by the Gates Foundation. Children in some district will be able to take their lessons from Pearson

Can TFA Save Itself from the Impending Disaster?

by dianerav

Gary Rubinstein told me a year or so ago that the corporate reform movement was living on borrowed time.
He believes that its ideas are so destructive and ill-conceived that it is certain to implode as failure after failure drags it down and as the public realizes that its public schools are being ruined.
In this post, he tries to figure out how Teach for America might salvage its reputation as the ship goes down. He

LAUSD Balks at Giving Public School Space to Charters

by dianerav

We have reached such a low point that it is a news story if a school district resists turning its space over to charter operators.
In the past, one might have expected district leaders to fight for the students in their care, not to support privatized entities that want public space at no charge.
Surprise of surprises, the pushback now comes from Los Angeles Superintendent John Deasey and the board of LAUSD. They are opposing:
“ a judge’s order to comply with a state law that requires districts to share space equally among public school 

More on Meaningless Meetings

by dianerav

In response to my post on meaningless meetings, where people break into small groups, speak up, but no one ever hears what they said or recommended, I received two similar comments.
Both said that the ultimate method of listening without hearing is the Delta Technique. As one commenter put it:
This group manipulation is often  called “the Delphi Technique.”  Look for buzzwords like “vision,” anything with the number “2020” in the title, “stakeholders,” “consensus,” and when education is involved, a mantra such as “it’s for the children.”
My hunch is that there are many other techniques used to pretend to hear and to give “stakeholders” a chance to

Ten Years of “Reform” and Still So Much Failure

by dianerav

The New York Daily News has an editorial this morning complaining about an arbitrator’s decision to stop Mayor Michael Bloomberg from closing 24 schools.
As usual, the editorial lambastes the teachers’ union, which is supposedly the font of all evil in education. The editorial writer forgets that the city Department of Education agreed to enter into binding arbitration. Having lost the decision, the city and the newspaper forget the plain meaning of the word “binding.”
The crucial issue: No question is raised about why so many schools continue to “fail” after a full decade of

Remember “Separation of Church and State”?

by dianerav

A blogger in Louisiana calls out State Rep. Valerie Hodges for expressing shock about the possibility that voucher funds might go to Islamic schools.
I have already done that in an earlier post and won’t do it again here.
I repost this commentary because it lists many of the Christian academies that will be getting vouchers from the state of Louisiana in September. It is a reminder that the state is sending children from schools with a low grade 

solidaridad: Schools Matter: Democrats for Neoliberal Education Reform's Gloria J. Romero's Parent Tricker days are numbered

solidaridad: Schools Matter: Democrats for Neoliberal Education Reform's Gloria J. Romero's Parent Tricker days are numbered:

Schools Matter: Democrats for Neoliberal Education Reform's Gloria J. Romero's Parent Tricker days are numbered

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

I think about former Senator Gloria Romero comparing Compton educators to "batterers" and wondered whether the writers of those words ever stop to think about the consequences of their prose. — Martha Infante

Photo by Mark Warner (CC BY-SA 2.0)

As the DFER veneer for right-wing "parent trigger" laws wears off, and more and more people see the privatization agenda for what it is, charlatans like Gloria Romero and Ben Austin have been scrambling to hide or minimize their ties to right wing extremists. The good news is that it isn't working, and that aside from shills like Andi Rotherham and Alex Russo even mainstream 

Schools Matter: Mayor Villaraigosa and PLAS CEO Tuck bring Arizona style bigotry to Los Angeles

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

"We had an African American woman walk up to us and say 'why do you need Ethnic Studies?', and we looked at each other and said, 'that's exactly why we need Ethnic Studies!'" — Santee Students speaking at PLAS protest.
PopoutIt would be a mistake to think the absolutely tragic stream of bigoted and racist legislation flowering in Arizona is confined to Arizona alone. Sadly, one of the most egregious perpetrators removing access to ethnic studies and heritage language programs in this country isn't Michael Hicks, Tom Horne, or John Huppenthal, but a privately

Recall Mónica García June Press Conference

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

PopoutStudents, Parents, and Community Activists provided an update on the recall campaign and other activities to save LAUSD SRLDP, Early Education Centers, Adult Education, and to prevent further privatization,

United Adult Students Summer Celebration

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

PopoutThe student activists of United Adult Students (UAS) held their Summer Celebration on the last day of June 2012. Through their hard work and perseverance they were able to salvage a portion of their programs despite the fact that LAUSD President Mónica García and Superintendent John Deasy were hades-bent on shutting down all of adult education and many more programs for working class peoples. The students held multiple large demonstrations, gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures, obtained resolutions from many Neighborhood 

Georgia professors blast teacher evaluation system - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Georgia professors blast teacher evaluation system - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

Georgia professors blast teacher evaluation system

By Valerie Strauss

First it happened in New York, then Illinois and now Georgia.

Professors from colleges and universities in Georgia have written anopen letter to the governor, Nathan Deal, and other officials involved with education policy to express opposition to a new teacher evaluation system that depends largely on student standardized test scores.

“Value-added” assessment has become all the rage in teacher and principal evaluation across the country, even though assessment experts have repeatedly warned against using test scores for this 

Before ‘Fifty Shades of Grey:’ Bestsellers of last century

by Valerie Strauss

If you are done reading (or never would touch) the erotic “Fifty Shades of Grey” and looking for something a little, well, different to pick up this summer, here are some book lists that you might not have come across: Bestsellers from the past — way in the past.
Read full article >>

Update on Excel Bridgeport Inc. - still violating the law? - Wait, What?

Update on Excel Bridgeport Inc. - still violating the law? - Wait, What?:

Update on Excel Bridgeport Inc. – still violating the law?

by jonpelto

Hundreds, even thousands of groups successfully follow Connecticut’s ethics and lobbing laws, so why do Excel Bridgeport, Inc. and some of the biggest corporate leaders in Fairfield County have such a hard time complying with the rules the rest of us have to live by?

Since it was incorporated, much of what Excel Bridgeport has been doing could be considered lobbying.

Beginning in January 2011, Meghan Lowney actively worked to persuade the Connecticut State Board of Education to attempt its illegal takeover of the Bridgeport School System.  In fact, over the six months leading up to the State Board of Education’s illegal takeover, 

Schools short of API targets prepare to lose millions in aid | EdSource Today

Schools short of API targets prepare to lose millions in aid | EdSource Today:

Schools short of API targets prepare to lose millions in aid

July 10th, 2012 | Add a Comment | By Kathryn Baron

By the time Dan Wright took his turn at the podium before the State Board of Education last March, he already knew his district’s fate was sealed. The five schools in Stockton Unified School District that received funding under the Quality Education Investment Act, or QEIA, were going to be kicked out of the program.

“I knew the answer by the time I got up there; nothing I said would change their minds,” said Wright, the District’s Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education.

It came to pass on June 30. At midnight that day, those five schools became $1.74 million poorer. They are among 71 schools that have failed to meet their academic targets for receiving QEIA 

School Easy, Failing To Challenge Students, Survey Says

School Easy, Failing To Challenge Students, Survey Says:

School Easy, Failing To Challenge Students, Survey Says

by Joy Resmovits

"Do schools challenge our students?"

No, says a paper published today by the progressive think tank Center of American Progress. More than half of 12th graders, for example, say civics and history are often or always too easy.

The analysis, by Ulrich Boser and Lindsay Rosenthal, found a disturbing disconnect between student engagement and test scores. Many students -- 21 percent of 12th graders and 37 percent of fourth graders -- reported that math classes were "too easy." But only 40 percent of fourth graders and 35 percent of eighth graders were deemed "proficient" on the National Assessment for Educational Progress math test. Boser and Rosenthal explain this disconnect by pointing to gaps between lessons and the test questions. "It's also possible that students do poorly on" the test "because they're not challenged in school," they wrote.

Boser and Rosenthal analyzed years of survey data collected by the U.S. Education Department's research arm. 

Schools Matter: Why Is AFT Investing Millions for Common Core Prep?

Schools Matter: Why Is AFT Investing Millions for Common Core Prep?:

Why Is AFT Investing Millions for Common Core Prep?

by Jim Horn

New York's UFT members have been invited to join the AFT crowd in Detroit, at least the ones who will sign a statement pledging to not get in the way of the misleaders' steamrolling of the resolution to to make Common Core endorsement official.  From NYC Educator:

. . .the only UFT members at the convention will be those who've signed a paper agreeing never to disagree with the Unity position [including resolution in support of Common Core] in public. That's hardly representative of working 

Invest in instruction, not in unnecessary tests

by skrashen

Sent to the Los Angeles Daily News, July 9, 2012

Because of severe budget cuts, LAUSD is cutting summer school offerings. The situation, we are told, could be worse next year, with no funding for summer school available (“Summer squeeze: LAUSD offers limited summer school classes,” July 9). The same situation exists in school districts throughout the country, with severe cuts in many programs and services known to be of great value to students, such as libraries and librarians.


At the same time American schools seem to be eager to spend billions of dollars of tax money on untested standards, to be accompanied by a massive set of tests that do nothing but enrich publishers and testing 

Microsoft's Stack Ranking System Crippling Innovation

by Judy Rabin

It doesn't get any better than this when it comes to explaining how the sheer IDIOCY plaguing Microsoft is now also crippling an entire generation of schoolchildren, intellectually, emotionally and psychologically. Stack ranking, high stakes testing, performance benchmarks, merit pay, and humiliation -- it's all the same strategy and it's a disaster that some say could prove fatal.


Gates and his billionaire buddies dictating ed policy think they know it all and have blindsided desperate politicians and broke state governments with lots of money with lots of string 

The Man Child World of Ruben Brosbe.southbronxschool.com

http://www.southbronxschool.com:

The Man Child World of Ruben Brosbe

by noreply@blogger.com (Bronx Teacher)

No. Can't do it. Don't want to do it. Want to write about my son at baseball camp and how we should "judge" baseball instructors the same way they judge teachers. But, the force is to deep within me. The snarkiness, the sarcasm is oozing through my brain into my fingertips. My brain is telling me, "you know, admit it, you want to do this." I fight my brain. But the brain is just too controlling.

It's been 9 months since I have written about former, or current E4E Blog Monkey™ Ruben Brosbe. Yes, that ship sailed when the NYC DOE parted ways with him lat June and he somehow, someway, (perhaps he tithed his rabbi) got into the Harvard Graduate School of Education (It's one of the signs of the Apocalypse when HGSE sets the bar so, so, so low). 

Engaging Parents In School… » California PTA Makes Huge Political Mistake

Engaging Parents In School… » California PTA Makes Huge Political Mistake:

California PTA Makes Huge Political Mistake

by Larry Ferlazzo

As regular readers know, I’m a big supporter of the PTA and the role it plays, and the potential role it can play, in helping families, schools and neighborhoods.
Unfortunately, as I’ve written before (see Molly Munger, The PTA & The Shoe Button Complex), the California PTA has made a huge political miscalculation by becoming just about the only ally billionaire Molly Munger has in her doomed-to-fail state initiative to raise taxes to support schools.
And the PTA has continued its support of Munger even when she tries to torpedo Governor Brown’s competing 

Interactive Map: How Much Are Students Learning?

Interactive Map: How Much Are Students Learning?:

Interactive Map: How Much Are Students Learning?

Many Kids Across the Country Say Their Classwork Is Too Easy

By Ulrich Boser, Lindsay Rosenthal | July 10, 2012

See also: Do Schools Challenge Our Students? by Ulrich Boser and Lindsay Rosenthal

Download selected student survey results for states (pdf)

You might think the nation’s teenagers are drowning in school work. Images of students buried in textbooks often grace the covers of popular parenting magazines, while suburban teenagers complain about the length of their homework assignments.

But when we recently examined a federal survey of students in public schools around the country, we found the opposite—many students said they were not being challenged. Consider, for instance, that 37 percent of fourth graders say their math work is too easy.