Friday, October 26, 2012

Report: weighted student formula alone not enough | EdSource Today

Report: weighted student formula alone not enough | EdSource Today:


Less experienced, lower paid teachers tend to teach in schools with the poorest children, while veteran, higher paid teachers work predominantly in schools with fewer needy children, contributing to significant funding disparities among schools within most of the state’s largest school districts. That gap wouldn’t necessarily change under the education finance reform that Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed; it might even worsen under a new formula, says Oakland-based Education Trust-West in a new school spending analysis released on Thursday.
In Tipping the Scale Towards Equity, Ed Trust-West reaffirms its support in principle for Brown’s concept of a weighted student formula, allocating potentially thousands of dollars per student to districts with the heaviest concentrations of English learners and low-income students. But Ed Trust-West, which advocates for needy children, calls for the governor to include provisions that will assure that the extra money for 

Greetings from the Rephormiest Place in America | EduShyster

Greetings from the Rephormiest Place in America | EduShyster:


Greetings from the Rephormiest Place in America

Pioneers for excellence and choice break ground on what will be the 13th charter school in Douglas County, Colorado, the rephormiest place in America.
Reader: nothing brings me more joy each day than the arrival of the EduShyster mailbag. Will it contain a shiny alert from one of the interchangeable #edreform PAC-lets, trumpeting vaguely and ominously about parents’ rights? Or perhaps there is to be news of a fresh new study boldly claiming the need for freshness and innovation in our schools—if we are to begin to try to meet the anticipated needs of tomorrow today…
Alas, the EduShyster mailbag contained something far more delightful: a postcard from an EduShyster premium reader who happens to find herself living, teaching and parenting in one of the rephormiest places in the US of A: 

High School Teacher Lesson Plans Go Open Source - US News and World Report

High School Teacher Lesson Plans Go Open Source - US News and World Report:


High School Teacher Lesson Plans Go Open Source

Educators can download free teaching materials and get paid to share their lessons.

October 26, 2012 RSS Feed Print
Teachers can share lesson plans with colleagues nationwide using sites such as Share My Lesson and Teachers Pay Teachers.
Teachers can share lesson plans with colleagues nationwide using sites such as Share My Lesson.
For a high school French teacher looking for a creative approach to verb conjugation, new lesson plans are only a website away. The same is true for a biology teacher covering a unit on mammals, or a history teacher trying to spice up a lesson on the Gettysburg Address.
Educators are beginning to embrace the type of open source content championed by software programmers by sharing their expertise online: lesson plans, classroom activities, and 

School Tech Connect: The Abyss

School Tech Connect: The Abyss:


The Abyss

It does not surprise me that they're just throwing money at people and not even tracking it. That's how these things work.
In Florida, state officials had no records of which schools received federal grant money nor which schools received on-site monitoring and audits. Florida received $67.6 million.
Seriously, go read the entire story. DOE has given away almost a billion dollars to charter schools since 2008, and yet there's this:
Additionally, the audit, which was conducted by San Francisco-based education research company WestEd, found that the office did not review expenditures to ensure they met with federal disbursement requirements.
On a related note, I have for a couple of years been trying to get my arms around the relationship between the New Market Tax Credit program and the construction of charter schools. It's a long story; 

NYC Educator: If We Could Put that State of Mind in a Bottle, We'd Be Rich

NYC Educator: If We Could Put that State of Mind in a Bottle, We'd Be Rich:


If We Could Put that State of Mind in a Bottle, We'd Be Rich

Yesterday a girl in my class got a 44 on my test. It freaked me out a little, because the test was fairly easy. In fact, it was a multiple choice test, which I don't usually give, and she filled in eight "E" answers, though the options were only A, B, C, and D.

This is the third test I've given this year. She was absent for the first one, and was out for three days in a row. In the rush of beginning the year, I failed to follow up on that. However, the second time she missed a test, I got a guidance counselor who spoke her language to call home. Since then, she's been early for class every day and hasn't missed a single moment.

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Crosscut Pro and Con on I-1240

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Crosscut Pro and Con on I-1240:


Crosscut Pro and Con on I-1240

Crosscut is running two articles on I-1240, one in favor and one opposed.

They are worth reading if only because the article in favor demonstrates the naive and thoughtless acceptance of every myth and marketing line offered by the proponents of charters. The person writing in favor of the initiative is a voucher advocate living in a rural area. He doesn't know what he talking about and he obviously hasn't given any of it much thought. It's sad, really.

Partnering Parents with Education

Education Week highlights a new publication, Promising Partnership Practices 2012, with 92 ways schools are partnering with parents and community.  The publication is for sale but individual stories are available as PDFs for free.
  • "Me 2! Getting Parents into Middle School," explains how Park Middle School in Kennewick, Wash., created the expectation that parents would volunteer for two hours a year at the school. The campaign included tracking progress on the 1,800-hour goal and "talking up" the expectation with students.
  • "The A.S.P.I.R.E. Survey" is used at Bassick High School in Bridgeport, Conn., to find out what talents 

Education in the Age of Globalization » Blog Archive » Performance Enhancing Drugs in School–From Doug Green

Education in the Age of Globalization » Blog Archive » Performance Enhancing Drugs in School–From Doug Green:


Performance Enhancing Drugs in School–From Doug Green

26 OCTOBER 2012 52 NO COMMENT
(A guest post by Dr. Doug Green at http://www.drdouggreen.com/).


With all of the news about Lance Armstrong, who seems to be the poster boy for performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), I think it’s time to look at how this situation impacts schools. School districts in many districts have been testing high school students for a while to see it they are engaged in the kind of cheating that Lance has been accused of. In some districts the testing goes beyond sports to extra curricular activities. You have to wonder what kind of PED’s the chess team is taking. At the same time, we also are hearing outcries about medications given to students so that they can perform better in the classroom. The most common efforts involve prescriptions for drugs like Ritalin and Adderall for children who supposedly have attention deficit disorder, which may also feature hyperactivity or ADHD. The idea is that drugs such as these will help the child focus and sit still. The opposing view that is getting more air today, is that if we can’t change the environment, let’s change the kids. If you listen to Sir Ken Robinson, what we are doing is drugging kids so that they can focus on boring stuff.
In some districts, the results of standardized tests are used to determine which middle school or high 

Schools Matter: TRACK ME!

Schools Matter: TRACK ME!:


TRACK ME!

When corporate education antiquarians reformers talk about the virtues of charter schools, high on their list is charter freedom from bureaucratic red tape and regulations that rule the "government" schools.  Without such restrictions, the story goes, charter schools are free to innovate, adapt to changing needs locally, and improve learning.  Sounds great, right?

What this means in reality is that charter school corporations, both nonprofit and forprofit, are unconstrained in opening schools in any discarded shell of a building, without libraries, gyms, art rooms, clinics, or any of the other humanizing elements we associate with public schools in the suburbs.   They are also without restraint in the way they hire and fire teachers without due process, unregulated in the way they deal with parents or keep their books, and most importantly, they are unregulated in the way they run these urban reform schools based on a 19th Century instructional model and an 18th Century behavioral catechism.

 Children with special education plans (IEPs) are left without special education teachers, and children who 

Mississippi School Charged With Arresting Kids For Flatulence, Wrong Color Socks, Breaking Pencils

School-To-Prison Pipeline Lawsuits - Business Insider:

Mississippi School Charged With Arresting Kids For Flatulence, Wrong Color Socks, Breaking Pencils
young boy in prison


The Justice Department is taking a stand against an educational policy in Mississippi that incarcerates kids for just being kids.
The department says in its lawsuit that officials in the city of Meridian and Lauderdale County "routinely arrest students without determining whether there is probable cause when a school wants to press charges, and the students are routinely jailed," The Associated Press reported Wednesday.
Students get in trouble for such minor offenses as wearing the wrong color socks, flatulence in class, and swearing.
But this startling program, dubbed the "school-to-prison pipeline," doesn't seem


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/school-to-prison-pipeline-lawsuits-2012-10#ixzz2APwyz7PV

An Extraordinary Display of Student Power at One of the Nation’s Oldest HBCUs « Student Activism

An Extraordinary Display of Student Power at One of the Nation’s Oldest HBCUs « Student Activism:


An Extraordinary Display of Student Power at One of the Nation’s Oldest HBCUs

On Wednesday, students at Wilberforce University, a small historically black college just outside of Dayton Ohio, gave a demonstration of what student power can mean.
Fed up with the college’s failure to address its longstanding problems, than three hundred of the school’s five hundred enrolled students marched on Wilberforce’s administrative offices to request transfer applications. Some 337 the demonstrators — two thirds of the college’s student body — are said to be prepared to request transfer to nearby Central State University next fall if their demands aren’t met.
The students’ complaints include high tuition, reductions in student services, and unchecked mold in one


Apocalypse Now for California Public Higher Ed?

Most observers of the American university are intimately familiar with the long-term decline and recent degradation of public higher education in California (if you need a refresher, check out Aaron Bady and Mike Konczal’s excellent overview in the new Dissent magazine). Unless you’re inside CA, however, you may have missed word of the time bomb that’s set to explode there in just eleven days.
California’s government is hobbled by its ballot proposition process, a seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time 

Cartoons on Problems and Dilemmas | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Cartoons on Problems and Dilemmas | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:


Cartoons on Problems and Dilemmas

As a high school history teacher and district superintendent, I had to learn the differences between problems and dilemmas because the former required solutions and the latter required compromises. As a researcher and professor, I worked with K-12 teachers, principals, school board members and superintendents in distinguishing between problems and dilemmas when it came to figuring out school reforms and getting into complexities of classroom practice. Occasionally, I would use cartoons to make my points. I wished that I had used many more than I did. Over the past year, I have collected some that I offer here. Enjoy*

Missouri Education Watchdog: Would Dr. Suess Approve of Data Determining "The Places You'll Go"?

Missouri Education Watchdog: Would Dr. Suess Approve of Data Determining "The Places You'll Go"?:


Would Dr. Suess Approve of Data Determining "The Places You'll Go"?

Suess was writing about personal journeys, not about data determining those personal journeys



"Oh, the Places You'll Go!"  Remember the Dr. Suess book with that name?  It's a book given to many graduates as they enter the world.  It's a book about choices, change, risk and growth a young boy faces as he explores life.  Excerpts from a summary of "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" from suite101.com:


Oh The Places You'll Go describes up times and down times, waiting times and stressful 

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:


More Resources On Different Cultures

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 9 hours ago
Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures (I’m also add that entire “The Best” list to The Best Geography Sites For Beginning & Intermediate English Language Learners): Chinese families’ worldly goods … Continue reading →

“Quicklinkr” Looks Like It Could Be Useful For Many Purposes

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 9 hours ago
Quicklinkr lets you very easily collect websites, images, videos, etc — without requiring registration. They are shown with screenshots, and you can put them into “folders.” It appears you have to register if you want to come back to edit … Continue reading →

More Resources On The Presidential Election

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 10 hours ago
Here are the newest additions to The Best Resources For Learning About The 2012 U.S. Presidential Election: BBC poll: Rest of world favours Obama is from The BBC. Obama-Romney foreign policy debate: Mapping the mentions – interactive comes from The … Continue reading →

Today’s Halloween Update

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 10 hours ago
Here are the newest additions to The Best Websites For Learning About Halloween: Here’s a complete collection of Halloween resources from The New York Times Learning Network. Zombie pumpkins invade New York’s Botanical Garden is a video from the BBC.

Resources About The Hajj

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 10 hours ago
Millions of Muslims make the annual pilgrimage, called the Hajj, to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Because the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar based on the motion of the moon, the time of the Hajj is different time each year … Continue reading →

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Billionaires jump into Louisiana school board race. Why?

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Billionaires jump into Louisiana school board race. Why?:


Billionaires jump into Louisiana school board race. Why?

An  article in the Oct. 17 Nation by  Matthew Cunningham-Cook, asks the question, "Why Do Some of America's Wealthiest Individuals Have Fingers in Louisiana's Education System?"

As Naomi Klein detailed in The Shock Doctrine, post-Katrina New Orleans has been Ground Zero for efforts to privatize schools and weaken teacher unions—hallmarks of education reform. After the hurricane, the vast majority of New Orleans public schools were taken over by the states’ Recovery School District—the district that was subsequently headed by John White. Nearly all of the city’s 7,500 public school employees were fired, although a few were later rehired. The post-Katrina shock also saw the advent of a limited voucher 

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Seattle Schools Community Forum: The Stranger Explains the "Property Tax Swap"

Seattle Schools Community Forum: The Stranger Explains the "Property Tax Swap":


The Stranger Explains the "Property Tax Swap"

I have been desperate to get a thread on this issue because both McKenna and Inslee have been talking about it (along with Rep Carlyle and Rep Hunter) but pulling it altogether was going to be a task.  Enter Goldy with a good article (and a chart!).  It pretty much completes what I thought - Seattle and other "wealthier" districts would get less.

My understanding of the property tax swap is that it would phase out levy equalization and yet, wealthier districts would STILL be subsidizing poorer ones.  I am all for equity but when every single district in this state is cash-strapped, it seems unfair.

Read on and tell me your thoughts. 

The Property Tax Swap (or "State & Local Property Tax Shift" as it is more technically known) is also the only 

Wherever The DREAM May Lead Us [An Education For All] | The Jose Vilson

Wherever The DREAM May Lead Us [An Education For All] | The Jose Vilson:


Wherever The DREAM May Lead Us [An Education For All]


DREAM girl
Recently, the conversation around the use of the word “illegal immigrant” came to a precipice when the New York Times’ public editor said there was nothing wrong with using the phrase. Writers like Jose Antonio Vargas and institutions like Univision chimed in, and rightly so. “Illegal immigrant” suggests that the immigrant themselves is illegal. The very term suggests that these men, women, and children who migrate live an existence of illegality, whereas “undocumented worker,” the better alternative, suggests that the person crossing the border actually works here but has not (yet) filled out all the forms to become a full American citizen. The former puts the burden of proof on the individual, whereas the latter highlights a systemic issue.
We still have discussions about students in this situations in black and white terms. Either they all leave or they 

H.R.6556: Campus Safety for Children Act of 2012 - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress

H.R.6556: Campus Safety for Children Act of 2012 - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress:




H.R.6556 - Campus Safety for Children Act of 2012

To amend the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, and for other purposes.view all titles (2)

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