HechingerEd Blog | Are new online standardized tests revolutionary? Decide for yourself.

HechingerEd Blog | Are new online standardized tests revolutionary? Decide for yourself.:

Are new online standardized tests revolutionary? Decide for yourself.

by Sarah Garland

New high-tech standardized tests are coming soon to schools across the country, but will these new tests really revolutionize how we measure whether children are learning? The designers of the new tests, which a majority of states plan to adopt in two years, are allowing a sneak peek at sample questions, so you can decide for yourself.
Two competing state coalitions have taken on the job of designing the new tests, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, and both have posted examples of what’s coming on their websites.

• Sample English/Language Arts question from Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium
• Sample Math question from Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium
• Sample question from third grade assessment from PARCC
• Sample math question from high school assessment from PARCC

In some questions, which the test designers have called “computer enhanced,” students will be asked to drag words or numbers across the screen, or to highlight phrases or sentences in a reading passage. In one example 

Missouri Education Watchdog: Would Monsanto Trust a Lab Worker with 5 Weeks Training? Should You Trust a Teacher with a 5 Week Educational Training Period?

Missouri Education Watchdog: Would Monsanto Trust a Lab Worker with 5 Weeks Training? Should You Trust a Teacher with a 5 Week Educational Training Period?:

Would Monsanto Trust a Lab Worker with 5 Weeks Training? Should You Trust a Teacher with a 5 Week Educational Training Period?

by stlgretchen

Would you take on more college debt for $7,000 take home pay? What and where is the payoff?

The Monsanto Fund is donating to St. Louis Teach for America.  From the St. Louis Post DispatchMonsanto donates $1 million to Teach for America:

The Monsanto Fund has donated $1 million to Teach For America’s local efforts to recruit teachers for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

 

The gift from the philanthropic arm of Monsanto Company will enable Teach For America to recruit a greater number of teachers with STEM expertise to St. Louis classrooms during the next four years and provide them with the support and resources. The donation will help Teach For America bring up to 270 teachers with STEM backgrounds to the region by 2016.

School Quality Snapshot - Year 2012 (CA Dept of Education)

School Quality Snapshot - Year 2012 (CA Dept of Education):

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Introduces School Quality Snapshot

New Online Accountability Tool Provides Transparency for Parents and Public

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today unveiled California's School Quality Snapshot (PDF; Posted 09-Oct-2012), a new online accountability tool that puts school test scores, class size, fitness levels, and graduation rates for all 10,000 public schools statewide at the fingertips of parents and the public.

"Until now, parents had to scan more than a dozen different Web pages to compile this much information about their child's school. The School Quality Snapshot brings it all together in real time—in a colorful and concise format that's easy to follow and understand," Torlakson said. "It's a significant step forward in transparency and accountability for parents and the public."

The two-page Snapshot provides a five-year overview of information about each school and its performance on key indicators, all accessible through the California Department of Education's Web site . CDE staff from the Analysis, Measurement and Accountability Reporting Division and the Technology Services Division collaborated to develop the Snapshot using existing state resources.

Parents, teachers, administrators, and all members of the public will have access to the Snapshot for any school in the state. And the Snapshot provides state- and district-level data for comparison purposes.

Information about a school's performance on the Academic Performance Index is a focal point of the Snapshot and can be found at the center of Page 1. Continuing on Page 1, on the left-hand side, are five years' worth of a school's California Standards Test (CST) results at the proficient-and-above level for English-language arts, mathematics, and science. And on the top right, a pie chart visually summarizes a school's enrollment by race/ethnicity. Underneath are diagrams showing subgroup enrollment and also average class size.

On the second page are CST results for history/social science, the percentage of students in the Healthy Fitness Zone from the Physical Fitness Test, the percentage of graduates meeting University of California "a-g" requirements, the cohort graduation rate, suspension and expulsions as a percentage of enrolled students, Average SAT scores, the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) English-language arts grade ten passing rate, and the CAHSEE mathematics grade ten passing rate.

The Snapshot will be formally released Thursday as part of the state's annual report on school accountability.

"No amount of information, no matter how it is compiled, tells the full story of what's happening in our schools," Torlakson said. "But one of our goals in developing our Blueprint for Great Schools was to give parents and the public more information about student learning and school success, and the School Quality Snapshot is a step in the right direction."

# # # #

Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

SI&A Cabinet Report – Health care provider offers grants for student-led obesity projects

SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources:

Health care provider offers grants for student-led obesity projects
By Tom Chorneau
Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Fifth and sixth graders from largely Hispanic schools in San Luis Obispo served as outreach envoys in a campaign aimed at reducing consumption of sugary drinks among young people.

Students at Peralta Elementary in Oakland started a garden, took cooking classes and developed their own recipes using ‘super foods.’ And up in Siskiyou County, high school students led younger children in a fitness and health awareness program.

With obesity rates among California’s adolescents climbing upwards of 30 percent, school and health care officials are seeking new methods to encourage and educate kids on the benefits of better nutritional decisions and physical activity.

One program that seems to have gained some traction is the HEROES wellness initiative, sponsored by UnitedHealthcare and Youth Service America, that offers grants of up to $1,000 for youth-led projects that include both an activity and a service-based component.

Now in its fifth year, HEROES has engaged more than 20,000 children nationally while awarding grants totaling just 

The suspension rates for charter schools: How about 56%? | Seattle Education

The suspension rates for charter schools: How about 56%? | Seattle Education:

The suspension rates for charter schools: How about 56%?

by seattleducation2011

Why do graduation rates and test scores seem to soar at charter schools? We have stated on this blog, as has been stated elsewhere, that these charter schools counsel students out of their schools or expel them for whatever reason that they have deemed necessary. Remember, charter schools can have their own set of rules outside the regulations of a state, city or school district, and the parents have to sign on to those qualifications. Ed reformers will say it’s freedom from regulations, I say it’s freedom for a charter school to do what they want to keep their stats looking good enough to get more students and therefore district and Title 1 money and to keep their charters with the state. It’s freedom from the rights and protections that students and their families normally enjoy as being part of a public school system.
At the end of this post, I will list some articles and studies that provide more detailed information on this phenomenon.
The next time a Stand for Children representative says that charter schools are not tied down by regulations, you can tell them exactly what that means.
What provoked this post is some research that was done and then provided by EduShyster. Here is an excerpt:

Academic Parent-Teacher Teams: Everyone Benefits from True Collaboration | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights

Academic Parent-Teacher Teams: Everyone Benefits from True Collaboration | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights:

Academic Parent-Teacher Teams: Everyone Benefits from True Collaboration

by Tarsi Dunlop

With the recent release of the movie Won’t Back Down and the high-profile Chicago teacher union strike, it seems US public education is, once again, getting negative coverage in the mainstream media, with parents pitted against teachers or teachers pitted against administrators.  Committed education professionals, in their advocacy on behalf of our nation’s public schools, continually highlight the importance of collaboration among teachers, administrators, parents and community members when it comes to ensuring high-performing public schools. The belief is that we are all in this endeavor together and we each have an important role to play. One inspiring example of effective parent-teacher engagement can be found in theAcademic Parent-Teacher Teams (APTT) model.
read more

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Turning right off the interstate: How Obama and I settled the teachers strike

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Turning right off the interstate: How Obama and I settled the teachers strike:

Turning right off the interstate: How Obama and I settled the teachers strike

by Mike Klonsky

Driving through southern Ohio to speak to students at Kenyon College and Bowling Green University I hear the steady stream of right-wing radio and see the dozens of anti-Obama billboards paid for by Clint Eastwood and his wing-nut superpac. In the towns, there's more of a mix of Obama and Romney signs and of course, the university towns are mostly Obama. Those in the know think that Obama will narrowly win Ohio. I'm not so sure.

The main media spokesman for the Republican Party and for national conservatives is of course, Rush Limbaugh. Here's what his 20-30 million listeners, mostly small town and rural, heard from Rush about the Chicago teachers strike:

It was all a set-up, says Rush, so that Pres. Obama could step into the fray and settle it by getting union head, 

Register to Vote — Barack Obama

Register to Vote — Barack Obama:

Connect with Facebook to quickly look up your voter registration and get your friends registered to vote.

Not on Facebook? Check your registration status here.

Can Adderall Fix Bad Schools? - Technology - The Atlantic Wire

Can Adderall Fix Bad Schools? - Technology - The Atlantic Wire:

Can Adderall Fix Bad Schools?

by Rebecca Greenfield

Here's a modest proposal: Let's dose up kids stuck in low-income schools with Adderall, even if they don't have A.D.H.D, to compensate for the advantages enjoyed by kids in richer schools. That's what Dr. Michael Anderson, an Atlanta pediatrician who calls himself a "social justice thinker" has started doing, reports The New York Times's Alan Schwartz. "I don’t have a whole lot of choice," Dr. Anderson told Schwartz. "We’ve decided as a society that it’s too expensive to modify the kid’s environment. So we have to modify the kid," he said. Schwartz notes that he isn't sure if Anderson is part of a "wider trend," but cites "some experts" who say the drug is being used in low-income elementary schools on kids whose parents want them to have better performance. And from the sounds of it, Schwartz isn't alone. "We as a society have been unwilling to invest in very effective nonpharmaceutical interventions for these children and their families," Dr. Ramesh Raghavan, a child mental-health services researcher at Washington University in St. Louis told Schwartz. "We are effectively forcing local community psychiatrists to use the only tool at their disposal, which is psychotropic medications."
Anderson says he is just "evening the scales a little bit." Of course lots of kids in rich education environments 

FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Tuesday, October 9, 2012

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

Deasy warns that looming budget cuts threaten classroom gains 

http://www.yesonprop30.com/

Education Headlines

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Boy brings gun to school

A single, accidental gunshot rang out in a south Stockton seventh-grade classroom Monday morning, wounding no one but resulting in the arrests of two boys, ages 11 and 12, Stockton Unified Police Chief Jim West said.

Administrator was criticized for yelling, berating

The administrator suing San Diego Unified School District to undo her pending demotion was repeatedly criticized by people who worked for her, according to dozens of pages of records obtained by The Watchdog.

LAUSD to promote arts education on city buses, billboards

Original works by renowned Los Angeles artists will be posted on billboards and city buses as part of the "Arts Matter" exhibition and fund-raising campaign designed to revitalize arts education in LAUSD.

Layoffs claim L.A. band teacher who turned novices into champions

Ray Vizcarra resurrected Fairfax High's band, teaching students to play instruments from scratch. They soon won all-city competitions. But the Los Angeles Unified had to cut jobs, and he lacked seniority.

Oakland schools seek kitchen upgrades with November ballot measure

Public schools in Oakland are looking for major kitchen remodeling with a measure on the November ballot. If approved, Measure J would authorize the Oakland Unified School District to issue up $475 million in bonds to improve school facilities.

EdSource: Rift widens between backers of ed initiatives 30 and 38

All pretense of goodwill is gone between backers of the two competing education tax measures on November’s ballot.

Deasy warns that looming budget cuts threaten classroom gains

L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy warned Monday of “catastrophic” consequences for local schools if California voters fail to approve tax measures on the November ballot.

Monday, October 8, 2012

San Diego school property sale brings $36 million in bids

Top bids for two old campuses and nearly seven acres of land for sale in the San Diego Unified School District have come in $13 million over the asking price.

Sacramento Unified asks voters to approve two school bonds

The Sacramento City Unified School District is asking voters to approve two school bonds totaling $414 million to address a host of construction projects as well as health and safety issues.

Novato charter school plan sparks debate

As proponents of a new charter school in Novato prepare to file paperwork with the school district, a group of parents has organized in opposition, saying the charter would siphon funds from other schools.

A leading teacher of teachers says feedback should be used fast | GothamSchools

A leading teacher of teachers says feedback should be used fast | GothamSchools:

A leading teacher of teachers says feedback should be used fast

by Philissa Cramer

Good teachers are not born; they’re made slowly, over time, through sustained and deliberate practice.
That’s the theory behind “Practice Perfect,” the new e-book by Doug Lemov, managing director of the Uncommon Schools network of charter schools and author of “Teach Like a Champion,” a 2010 book with 49 concrete strategies for improving student engagement and classroom management. (GothamSchools’ Elizabeth Green wrote about Lemov and his approach in a 2010 New York Times Magazine story.)
“Practice Perfect” aims to provide similarly user-friendly ideas — 42 of them — for attaining  incremental improvement. Lemov and his co-authors, two of Uncommon Schools’ top educators, say the strategies would be useful in any field — but they are particularly apropos for teachers, whose performance carries high stakes for 

Second California Student Union Conference « CA Student Union

Second California Student Union Conference « CA Student Union:

Second California Student Union Conference

POSTED BY CASTUDENTUNION ⋅ OCTOBER 3, 2012

FILED UNDER  CONFERENCE

Unite to Fight for Public Education! 
Come to the Statewide Student Union & Movement-Building Conference!

REGISTER NOW!

What: Statewide Student Union Movement-Building Conference
When: Saturday, October 20, 2012, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Where: UC Berkeley, Dwinelle Hall 145
Who: Anyone who cares about public education!
Campus Map | Facebook Event Page | More Info

Questions & concerns, contact >> students4ademocraticuniversity@gmail.com

Email CA Student Union Purpose & Structure Proposals to >> castudentunion@gmail.com
Submission Guidelines | Sample Proposal

*** About the Conference ***

Occupy Education is hosting a statewide conference on Saturday, October 20, 2012 to lay the groundwork for a statewide student union to fight for public education at all levels (K-12, AdultEd, CC, CSU, and UC). We will also consider immediate strategies and actions to stem the barrage of cuts and longer-term strategies to restore funding for education. We have been gathering to strategize our defense of public education for the last three years, and are further inspired by the student movements in Chile, Quebec, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.

At the last conference, held at Santa Monica College in May 2012, we agreed on beginning to organize around the spirit of guiding principles and mandates (below). During this next conference, we hope to lay the groundwork to build a base of student activists, organizers, and defenders of public education across all levels of public education and all regions of California. We invite students, teachers, workers, and parents from all levels of education, along with anyone else who wants to work toward the education system California deserves, to join us on October 20 and help us build the coalition that will take us there.

*** Why work together? ***

Today we live in a national climate of austerity. The survival of public education, the institution we count on to prepare us and our children for a productive adult life, is now seriously under threat. We have seen painful cuts and fee increases at all levels of education. Yearly tuition at both UCs and CSUs have TRIPLED since 2003, pricing countless promising young people out of a quality education, or forcing them deep into debt. Per pupil spending at California’s K-12 schools has fallen from 23rd in the nation to 35th in only four years and at a time when education budgets are being slashed across the country. It is up to us, students, workers, teachers, and parents to defend and restore our once unparalleled public education system and ensure that all Californians get the education they deserve.

We can’t all do this alone! There is resistance to these attacks from all corners and all levels of education, but we can’t work in isolation. If we each restrict our efforts to an individual school or school system, we might be able to cope better with the cuts we receive, but the cuts will continue to be passed down from Sacramento and Washington D.C. nonetheless. California is a wealthy state, but it is up to each of us to make sure that a sane fraction of our resources ends up the classroom.

*** Conference Goals ***

We expect to have inclusive discussions with students and groups from different colleges and different levels of organizing, to achieve the following three goals:
- Discuss and vote on a draft of principles and goals
- Decide on concrete next steps in the formation of a viable statewide student union
- Concretize the actions we will take this Fall against new cuts, fee hikes, and school closures that have been announced

We invite students and student groups from all campuses to come prepared with proposals for
1) actions this Fall
2) next steps needed to build a student union (structure, education, logistics, etc.)

Nikhil Goyal Interview: A High School Student Offers a Critique of Our Schools - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Nikhil Goyal Interview: A High School Student Offers a Critique of Our Schools - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Nikhil Goyal Interview: A High School Student Offers a Critique of Our Schools

by Anthony Cody

Follow me on Twitter at @AnthonyCody
A seventeen year-old high school student from New York named Nikhil Goyal has been speaking out on education reform. In addition to several high profile television appearances, he has authored a book, One Size Does Not Fit All, A Student's Assessment of School. I asked him to explain his critique this week.
Question: What led you to write this book?
Nikhil: In the summer of 2010, I took a three-week trip to India to visit family in Delhi and Calcutta. After I came back to the United States, I started to review the notes I'd jotted down from conversations I had with Indian students and parents on their frustrations with school. That September I started as a sophomore at Syosset High School. I was bored to death every single day in class. This led me to start speaking with other students around the country and realizing that I wanted to drastically disrupt the system by means of writing a book. The 

UPDATE: There is something very, very wrong going on at Connecticut’s Board of Regents. - Wait, What?

There is something very, very wrong going on at Connecticut’s Board of Regents. - Wait, What?:

There is something very, very wrong going on at Connecticut’s Board of Regents.

by jonpelto

Last week came the media reports that the Board of Regents for Higher Education, the entity responsible for overseeing Connecticut’s newly merged public state university and community college system was engaged in an unprecedented effort to remove the individual community college presidents, because some had raised concerns about some controversial policies that the new central office was pushing.

On top of that came the disturbing news that one of the top administrators in that central office, Executive Vice President Michael P. Meotti, has received a $49,000 pay increase last week, an unprecedented pay increase at a time where salaries for all state 

Anyone remember Gilda Radner (as Emily Litella) “Oh,Never Mind”

from Wait, What? by jonpelto

Gilda Radner as Emily Litella:

“What is all this fuss I hear about the Supreme Court decision on a “deaf” penalty? It’s terrible! Deaf people have enough problems as it is!”The news anchor (Chevy Chase or Jane Curtin) interrupted Litella to point out her error, along the lines, “That’s death, Ms. Litella, not deaf … death.” Litella would wrinkle her nose, say something like, “Oh, that’s very different….” then meekly turn to the camera and say, “Never mind.”

THIS PRESS RELEASE JUST IN…

STATEMENT OF BOARD OF REGENTS CHAIRMAN LEWIS J. ROBINSON

AND PRESIDENT ROBERT A. KENNEDY

 (Hartford, CT) – Chairman of the Board of Regents, Lewis J. Robinson, and President Robert A. Kennedy today issued the statement below responding to recent media reports.

“First, Executive Vice President Michael P. Meotti has chosen to forgo his raise in salary. We appreciate this action, and have agreed to it. The Board of Regents will be reviewing all other personnel salary adjustments that were made on the basis of additional duties, responsibilities, and roles assigned resulting from the consolidation.

“Secondly, it’s important to us to apologize for any miscommunication that has occurred

Regent-gate: Up to 22 Board of Regent employees may have gotten raises.

by jonpelto

Categories: Budget Cuts, Higher Education, Malloy Tags: Budget cuts, Higher Education, Malloy The controversy surrounding pay raises at Malloy’s new Board of Regents goes well beyond the one Vice President who received a $49,000 pay raise last week. Unconfirmed reports are that up to 22 Board of Regent employees received pay raises, some well into the tens of thousands of dollars. As the CTMirror is reporting, “the [...]

Fisher v. Texas: On Race, Merit, and Affirmative Action in College Admissions « Student Activism

Fisher v. Texas: On Race, Merit, and Affirmative Action in College Admissions « Student Activism:

Fisher v. Texas: On Race, Merit, and Affirmative Action in College Admissions

by Angus Johnston

Tomorrow the US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case Fisher v. Texas, which will consider the constitutionality of affirmative action in college admissions. I wrote a piece on the history of the case and how it might go down back in July, and I’d encourage you to go take a look at it if you’re not familiar with the background, but this morning I want to talk about something a little less technical.
Here’s how the plaintiff in the case, rejected UT applicant Abigail Fisher, described what’s at stake in today’s NY Times:

“I’m hoping that they’ll completely take race out of the issue in terms of admissions and that everyone will be able to get into any school that they want no matter what race they are but solely based on their merit 

The in box. Reasons to vote no on the Illinois Constitutional Amendment. « Fred Klonsky

The in box. Reasons to vote no on the Illinois Constitutional Amendment. « Fred Klonsky:

The in box. Reasons to vote no on the Illinois Constitutional Amendment.

by Fred Klonsky

On the November Ballot, Illinois voters will be asked if they believe the Illinois Constitution should be amended to require a three-fifths majority vote in order to increase a benefit under any public pension or retirement system. Please vote NO on the proposed Constitutional Amendment (HJRCA 49). This Constitutional Amendment would also require that any local collectively-bargained agreement be approved by a three-fifths majority if those agreements had incentives or additional compensation increases beyond salary.

Reasons to VOTE NO:

ü  It is mostly the legislators’ fault that the pension systems were poorly funded throughout the decades. That diverted pension money was used for other state services and legislators’ “pet” projects instead;

Ten minute drawing. Vote no on the Illinois Constitutional Amendment.

by Fred Klonsky

Charter Schools' Role in Strengthening Public Education - Bridging Differences - Education Week

Charter Schools' Role in Strengthening Public Education - Bridging Differences - Education Week:

Charter Schools' Role in Strengthening Public Education

by Pedro Noguera

Dear Deb,
I would like to take our conversation about reform in a slightly different direction and wade into an area of controversy that is dividing educators and communities throughout the country. What role do you think charter schools can and should play in advancing the reform and renewal of public education?
As you know, several progressive educators, including our good friend Ted Sizer who founded a charter school with his wife Nancy (Francis W. Parker School), saw charter schools as offering the potential for innovative practices that could not be as easily implemented in public schools. The impetus for creating charters was not anti-union, at least not for these educators. The goal was to create schools where teachers would have greater say in how schools were managed, that could be less rigid with respect to curriculum and teaching, and more responsive to the learning needs of students.
A quote from Sizer's Horace's Compromise may be helpful in reminding us of that goal:

Teachers are rarely consulted, much less given significant authority, over the rules and regulations