The Budget Thugs: What Do They Know About the Economy?

The Budget Thugs: What Do They Know About the Economy?:

The Budget Thugs: What Do They Know About the Economy?

Monday, 10 December 2012 11:06By Dean Baker, Truthout | News Analysis

• 83
• font size   
• Print 
• Email

What would Michelle Rhee (pictured center), the hero of the "school reform" movement, do to a public school teacher if all of that teacher's students had huge drops in scores from the prior year? The economic experts among the Debt Fixers all fit this failed-teacher description, says Dean Baker. (Photo: Brendan Smialowski / The New York Times )Ed Haislmaier, a senior scholar at theHeritage Foundation, made himself famous in this video where he appears to be assaulting people protesting a conference organized by Fix the Debt. While this act of bad temper may be uncharacteristic of the public behavior of this corporate-sponsored crusade to cut Social Security and Medicare, it does reflect the way in which they hope to bully their agenda through the political process.

The line from Fix the Debt, an organization that includes the CEOs of many of the country's largest corporations, and allies like The Washington Post is that we better have cuts to Social Security and Medicare because they say so. Note that they did not try to push this line in the elections. Everyone knows that cuts to these programs are hugely unpopular across the political spectrum.

The Fix the Debt strategy was explicitly to wait until after the election. They would 

AZ Schools in Danger of Closing Due to Budget Cuts | HispanicallySpeakingNews.com

AZ Schools in Danger of Closing Due to Budget Cuts | HispanicallySpeakingNews.com:

AZ Schools in Danger of Closing Due to Budget Cuts

The Tucson Unified School District, the largest in southern Arizona, is thinking about closing 14 schools because of budget cuts. The TUSD faces a deficit of $17 million, largely due to cuts approved by the state legislature and a considerable drop in the number of students. 

“This is a very tough decision we have to take, but unfortunately we have no choice,” school board member Adelita Grijalva told Efe. She acknowledged that one factor in the decline in the number of students has been the passing of state laws against illegal immigration like SB 1070, which spurred many immigrant families to leave the state. “Since Law SB 1071 was passed, we lost approximately 4,000 students,” Grijalva said.

 Fewer students mean a smaller budget for schools. During the 2012 school year, the TUSD had slightly more than 51,000 students, of whom 62 percent were Hispanics. Schools being considered for closure include Menlo Park Elementary, where 92 percent of the students are of 

MORNING UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 12-11-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Randi Weingarten: VAM Is Junk Science

by dianerav

The United Teachers of Los Angeles reached an evaluation agreement that minimizes the use of test scores.
Perhaps they were burned by the inappropriate public release of teacher ratings devised by the Los Angeles Times.
I don’t understand how their evaluation system will work, but this is the key takeaway: AFT President Randi Weingarten called value-added modeling (VAM) by this term: “junk science.”
You read it

What’s With Edweek?

by dianerav

Over the past year, I have gotten several invitations to events by Education Week. All were promoting technology in the classroom and were sponsored by technology companies hawking their wares. I found this upsetting, even offensive. How can a newspaper report on companies while collaborating to sell their products? Why not just let these corporations buy advertising? Why have conferences to promote them?
Now Education Week is holding a conference selling the Common Core standards, featuring two prominent advocates. (Tony Bennett was supposed to speak in Indianapolis but he has been scrubbed since his electoral defeat; by March, he is likely to be State Commissioner in Florida and he could rejoin the panel).
Wouldn’t it be more fitting for a respected journal to have a conference debating the pluses and minuses of the 

Outlook for Common Core: Turmoil Ahead

by dianerav

Researchers usually find that students flourish where there is stability in the school, with an experienced staff, clear expectations, small classes, and a rich curriculum.
In Kentucky, first state to implement and test the Common Core, student scores fell and achievement gaps widened.
This teacher in Connecticut foresees rough weather ahead as the state and federal government launch a massive experiment:
I wonder about the impact specifically in Connecticut where we are rolling out a new comprehensive teacher evaluation system at the same time [as Common Core]….so we have teachers learning new standards, possibly 

Why Is Big Brother Watching You?

by dianerav

When I worked in the federal Department of Education twenty years ago, I recall getting blizzards of postcards and letters from individuals and groups that were worried that the government was collecting too much information about them or their children. I pointed out repeatedly that the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which was in my tiny domain, did not collect information about individual students or their families. There was no vast federal storehouse of information about people.
Now I am no so sure. A reader just sent this announcement in a comment.
Here is the full comment:
In October, while announcing a series of actions to lower student loan payments, President Obama tasked the 

How to Become a Teacher in Need of Improvement

by dianerav

A teacher explains how she went from effective to “in need of improvement”:
“I too have been highly effective for the 13 years I have been in the classroom, until last year, that is. I am now a teacher in need of improvement, not due to my teaching or my rapport with my students, but because I didn’t have my learning goal posted next to my rubric and I didn’t put descriptive feedback on 100% of the papers in portfolios )I missed 3 papers out of the 100+ that were in there). I didn’t refer to my rubric at the beginning, 

Joshua Starr: “Stop the Insanity”

by dianerav

Joshua Starr is the superintendent of Montgomery County’s public school system, the 17th largest district in the nation. He says that the “country needs a three-year moratorium on standardized testing and needs to ‘stop the insanity’ of evaluating teachers according to student test scores because it is based on ‘bad science.’He also said that the best education reform the country has had is actually health-care reform.”
He said that evaluating teachers by test scores is a very bad idea.
Starr said that “a good way to create assessments for Common Core-aligned curriculum would be to crowd-

The Financial Benefits of the Crisis in Education

by dianerav

Jeff Bryant writes here of the uses of a crisis.
When everything is terrible, terrible, and getting worse, the public can be convinced to go along with any crazy idea, even to hand their children over to for-profit entrepreneurs.
The next crisis, he predicts, will occur when the results of Common Core testing come in, as they already have in Kentucky. There, the proportion of students meeting proficiency levels dropped by nearly one-third and the achievement gaps grew larger. This is a crisis! More proof that our schools are failing!
As Rick Hess

MORNING UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 12-10-12 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 9 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] What’s the Deal with Students for Education Reform? by dianerav Students for Education Reform thinks teachers should promptly agree to be evaluated by student test scores. They like standardized tests and want them to be the determinant of their teachers’ careers. They even held a demonstration at New York City’s City Hall to say so. But not so fast. Bruce Baker has studied and critiqued the New York State educator evaluation plan. He says it is so inaccurate that it should be rejected. He calls SFER “Sockp... more »

International Tests Show East Asian Students Outperform World As U.S. Holds Steady

International Tests Show East Asian Students Outperform World As U.S. Holds Steady:

International Tests Show East Asian Students Outperform World As U.S. Holds Steady

by Joy Resmovits

The U.S. performed above average on international standardized tests in elementary and middle school math, science and reading, according to reports released Tuesday. But experts said the rankings, along with similar exams that test students at later ages, show a fundamental problem in America's education system: students tend to perform worse as they age.

"When we start looking at our older students, we see less improvement over time," said Jack Buckley, who leads the U.S. Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics. That trend holds true across several exams.

The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement's PIRLS and TIMSS 2011 exams, 

Ed Notes Online: Change the Stakes Statement at Monday's Forum

Ed Notes Online: Change the Stakes Statement at Monday's Forum:

Change the Stakes Statement at Monday's Forum

by ed notes online

 Fred Smith with input from the amazing Change the Stake crew, led by Andrea Mata who put on a wonderful event tonight, wrote the statement below.

 Brian Jones, wearing his MORE shirt, rocks. So did MORE/Change the Stakes' Diane Zavala (below). Pedro Noguera was almost inconsequential and Shael had an answer for everything as he came off looking like a dissident inside Tweed, the role he is assigned to play -- and also maybe part of the underground campaign to have him succeed Walcott when Bloomberg is gone -- you know, the old bait and switch. Send him out there to show reasonableness --- Pedro declared him to be the only reasonable one at Tweed -- just a sham as far as I am concerned -- but you have to see the tapes which I will put up. Juan Gonzalez, just about the only press person real reformers respect (aside from Winerip who the Times makes sure no longer covers ed) moderates.

I got there at almost 7PM, an hour late but the panel 

New Common Core Reading Standards Mark The End Of Literature | toteachornototeach

New Common Core Reading Standards Mark The End Of Literature | toteachornototeach:

New Common Core Reading Standards Mark The End Of Literature

by aristotlethewise

Common Core Nonfiction Reading Standards
Mark The End Of Literature, English Teachers Say

Concern is growing among teachers and parents that literary classics will go the way of the dinosaurs under a set of new national curricular standards.
The Common Core State Standards, academic benchmarks that have been adopted by 46 states, call for 12th grade reading to be 70 percent nonfiction, or “informational texts” — gradually stepping up from the 50 percent nonfiction reading required of elementary school students.
The Common Core standards focus on teaching fewer subjects in greater depth, replacing a melange of educational expectations that vary wildly across districts and states. Proponents of the standards, like the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, say too many students are not

New Common Core Unit Plan On Persuasive Writing

by Larry Ferlazzo

Stanford’s Understanding Language has produced a free five-lesson unit plan for English Language Learners on persuasive writing called Persuasion Across Time and Space: Analyzing and Producing Persuasive Texts.
I only quickly reviewed it, and it seems to have some nice materials and activities. They say it’s for an intermediate ELL level middle school class. It seems fairly high level in terms of the language and intellectual requirements, so I’d suggest it would work well if you had a class composed entirely of high intermediates. If you had a wide range of language levels, though, I’d question how realistic it would be to realistically differentiate the 

How Chicago Teachers Got Organized to Strike « Classroom Struggle

How Chicago Teachers Got Organized to Strike « Classroom Struggle:

How Chicago Teachers Got Organized to Strike

by ClassroomStruggle

This article was submitted to us by a teacher friend.  She writes, “The article illustrates in a very simple way what needs to be done to have and be a union that is truly on the side of the working class. Two friends of mine that are teachers, and in the past had made a conscious decision to not be organizers, were pretty inspired by this article. I think the simpleness of the article is a big plus for people that don’t have politics in their heads 24/7.”

Here in Oakland, the lessons of the Chicago teachers are especially useful for us as OEA gears up for contract negotiations.  So if you’re interested in what Norine Gutekanst has to say here you might want to check out our Oct. 5 post with a video of Norine going in depth into the lessons of the strike.

Editors Note: This article was taken from zcommunications.org who reposted it from Labor Notes (we were unable to find the original link, apologies).  Thanks to both parties, and our friend, for spreading the words and work of CTU.

CTU teachers on strike. Note their signs raising working class wide demands calling for unity between teachers, parents, and students which the teacher organizers made real by fighting against school closures long before the 2012 strike.

How Chicago Teachers Got Organized to Strike

By Norine Gutekanst, CTU Organizing Director

The seven-day Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) strike in September didn’t just 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: 'Rowdy' Rauner and the 'Rahminator' are steamin' mad

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: 'Rowdy' Rauner and the 'Rahminator' are steamin' mad:

'Rowdy' Rauner and the 'Rahminator' are steamin' mad

by Mike Klonsky

The nerve! Doesn't the CTU know that you never mock the rich and  powerful? Billionaire fat cats like Bruce "Rowdy" Rauner, Robin "Robbing" Stains and Penny "Pincher" Pritzker, just don't like it. And even  "Rahminator" Rahm, who is already the target of so much public abuse by his own patrons, is so mad, he's spitting milk all over his whiskers.

Yes, the union's gone and done it. They've posted a 5-minute video of a scary bedtime story, “Stand Up to the Fat Cats,” accusing the mayor and cronies like Rauner and Pritzker of privatizing public education. Shocking!

The Sun-Times reports:

The union video mocks Mayor Rahm Emanuel as “The Rahminator,” plus venture capitalist and 

Are expelled students more likely to drop out? | Local News | The Seattle Times

Are expelled students more likely to drop out? | Local News | The Seattle Times:

Are expelled students more likely to drop out?

After two years of research, two Washington social-justice groups failed to determine just how many students are expelled from school or suspended for more than 10 days. The lack of data, however, underscored their concern that there are tens of thousands of students who end up in educational limbo, with no clear path to finish their schooling.

By Linda Shaw

Seattle Times education reporter

Information

The full report, "Reclaiming Students," can be found at: http://www.waappleseed.org/Reclaiming-Students.html

Post a comment

Two years ago, two social-justice groups set out to answer a seemingly simple question: How many students in Washington state are expelled from school each year or are suspended for more than 10 days?

They still don't have a clear answer. In a report released Tuesday, Washington Appleseed and TeamChild were able to identify 9,329 incidents involving an unknown number of students in the 2009-10 school year. Because of inconsistent and incomplete reporting by school districts and the state, they think that number greatly understates the total.

Yet their failure to find a complete answer only underscored their concern that tens of thousands of Washington students, once expelled or suspended, may end up in an educational limbo 

The educational and economic costs of exclusionary discipline in Washington State

Every year, tens of thousands of children are removed from Washington State schools through exclusionary discipline. While some students are excluded from school for just a few days, there is a hidden subset of students who are pushed out on a long-term or indefinite basis. Washington Appleseed, TeamChild, the ACLU of Washington and Garvey Schubert Barer came together in 2010 out of a mutual concern about the negative impact of these exclusions on Washington students. 

Together, we began to investigate the impact of state laws, state regulations, and school district policies and practices that remove students from school due to behavior or violations of school codes of conduct. Our investigation sought to answer these questions:

1. How many children are affected by exclusionary discipline in any given school year?
2. Who is being removed from the school setting? Do these exclusions disproportionately impact students of a particular race or socioeconomic status?
3. How does the use of exclusionary discipline vary across the state?
4. What happens to these children once they are removed from the school setting? Do they receive educational services?

Reclaiming Students

After more than two years of research, Washington Appleseed and TeamChild are happy to present the state-wide report, Reclaiming Students. The report presents five key findings from our team's research and a series of recommendations for addressing the challenges identified in each finding. Each section discusses a finding at length based on analysis of our own qualitative and quantitative data, as well as data available through the Office of Superindendent of Public Instruction. We have made efforts to include real stories from students around the state to bring the numbers to life and illustrate the tangible impacts of our findings. These stories are coupled with stakeholder feedback in each section.

The report also includes appendices with additional data tables, more detailed information from stakeholder interviews, and profiles of districts that are meeting the challenges of rethinking exclusionary discipline in innovative and successful ways.

Download a free copy of the report:

UPDATE: Who Gates is funding — the latest education grants

Who Gates is funding — the latest education grants:

Who Gates is funding — the latest education grants

Posted by Valerie Strauss on December 11, 2012 at 5:00 am

•   Text Size
• Print
• Reprints

• Share:
• More »

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation headquarters in Seattle

What/who in education has captured the interest of the powerful  Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation these days? The following list of education-related grants — all awarded in November 2012 — show that MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are big with the foundation, and, of course, the foundation continues to pour millions into its initiative around teacher evaluation based in part on student standardized test scores. Here’s the list,  assembled from the organization’s website:

The Education Trust

Date: November 2012

Purpose: to inform state and local policies on teacher evaluation as a significant and valuable tool

Amount: $2,101,177

Term: 2 years

Topic: Advocacy & Public Policy

Grantee Location: Washington, District of Columbia

4.0 Schools

Date: November 2012

Purpose: to support entrepreneurs responding to school needs through innov

Fiscal cliff: Schools would be affected inequitably

by Valerie Strauss

It is not certain that President Obama and Congress will come to a budget deal before the end of the year to avert automatic budget cuts, including in education. Here Anne O'Brien, deputy director of the Learning First Alliance, explains what would happen to school districts if the country goes over what is being called "the fiscal cliff." The Learning First Alliance is a partnership of 16 education associations with more than 10 million members dedicated to improving student learning in America's public schools.
Read full article >>

'Is homework one of the bad guys?' -- The New Yorker

by Valerie Strauss

I recently wrote a post about French President Fran ois Hollande's proposal to ban homework in his country because he thinks it is unfair that some children get help from their parents and others don't. To Hollande, it's an equity issue. Here's part of Louis Menand's take on all of this in The New Yorker; you can read the whole thing here:
Read full article >>

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle 1240 Stats (and no big surprises)

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle 1240 Stats (and no big surprises):

Seattle 1240 Stats (and no big surprises)

by Melissa Westbrook

I spent time today crunching vote totals for Seattle for 1240.  (And no thanks to King County Elections where apparently they can't even give you total votes for the city of Seattle for any race.  I couldn't believe it.) Thank you to my husband for his help (and the Excel tutorial). 

Here are the numbers (and could you please, after all that work, give me credit if you quote them somewhere else):

Total registered voters - 411,607
Total voting   - 330,246

Yes - 130,727 - 39.6%
No  - 199,519 - 60.4%

But boy, we looked at the precincts that DID vote yes and guess where 98% of them are?  In wealthy 

Jersey Jazzman: The Tall Tales of Wendy Kopp

Jersey Jazzman: The Tall Tales of Wendy Kopp:

The Tall Tales of Wendy Kopp

by Duke

Yesterday, Anthony Cody had a question for Teach For America's founder, Wendy Kopp: he wanted proof that her teachers really do stay in teaching for an average of eight years. I looked at the facts for a bit and came to the conclusion that it's very unlikely Kopp's claim is accurate.

Cody asked his question because he is a thinking person with an actual, working brain in his head. When he hears a claim like Kopp's - a claim that stands in contradiction to all of the evidence we have about TFA - he's inclined to be skeptical. He'd like to see some actual proof before he joins in the happy, reformy sing-a-long.

But we live in a world where journalists and pundits regularly refuse to fact-check reformy claims of awesomeness. And no one knows this better than Wendy Kopp.

All the way back in 2008, Kopp did a long interview with Charlie Rose. The interview was a mess; worse, no one seemed to care, save blogger Bob Somerby at the Daily Howler:

You see, this second tale, which served well for years, had recently hit some