UPDATE: Joy Resmovits: Michael Bloomberg Rails Against Teacher Evaluation Deals (And No Deals): Ed Tonigh +Tom Harkin's Retirement Will Leave Education Committee Gap: Ed Today

Joy Resmovits: Tom Harkin's Retirement Will Leave Education Committee Gap: Ed Today:

Michael Bloomberg Rails Against Teacher Evaluation Deals (And No Deals): Ed Tonight

by Joy Resmovits

Mayor Of New York State? New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has had it. Speaking to a joint legislative panel in Albany, Bloomberg said the school districts that submitted teacher evaluation plans that expire in a year have committed "fraud," reports the Buffalo News. Bloomberg also said that the holdup over NYC's evaluations -- the so-called "sunset" provisions -- surprised him. Ernest Logan, who heads the Council of School Supervisors & Administrators, is miffed, to say the least. "The mayor turned the truth upside-down," he wrote in a Monday letter to his membership that was forwarded to HuffPost. "We can't comprehend how he can claim surprise when the issue was on the table throughout both unions' negotiations and was approved ... for virtually every other district statewide."

Cheating Uncovered In New York City? GothamSchools FOIA'ed the Department of Education and foundpreviously unreported issues that put the integrity of some test results in question. Test security violations outlined in 97 reports written between 2006 and 2012 include inflated scores and inappropriate coaching. While 

Tom Harkin's Retirement Will Leave Education Committee Gap: Ed Today

by Joy Resmovits

Tom Harkin Out? This weekend, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) announced he won't be running for reelection. While the "liberal lion's" announcement made news, what I didn't see mentioned in many stories about the retirement is that Harkin is chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions committee -- the very one that is in charge of dealing with the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind. So what's next for HELP? Harkin has told me he intends to reset the reauthorization process while he's still there, but as the folks at Politics K-12note, that desire could "set up an interesting dynamic with the Obama administration," which is more focused on implementing the waivers it has issued from the law to 34 states and Washington, D.C. The White House wasn't exactly thrilled with the bill his committee moved last year.

Also, his retirement will leave a gaping hole in the chairmanship of the committee. Some have said that, by seniority, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), a former preschool teacher, is next in line. But taking into account other 

UPDATE: Am I qualified to piss? + Glen Brown responds to IEA President Cinda Klickna: It’s not what the petition says. It’s the people who wrote it. Welcome back Joe McCarthy. « Fred Klonsky

IEA President Cinda Klickna: It’s not what the petition says. It’s the people who wrote it. Welcome back Joe McCarthy. « Fred Klonsky:

Am I qualified to piss? All you need is a bladder that can’t hold no more.

by Fred Klonsky

Fred,
It sure is easy to set (sic) back and “piss and moan” about what other people are doing. Yes, Bob Haisman was able to post a pension petition, but he went through the proper procedures and got approval. Just because Brown’s petition was not aprroves (sic), “he didn’t go through proper procedures” you are making negative comments about the president of the IEA. What have you done as a member of the organiztion (sic)? Have you been an active member, a regional council, on the IEA Board of Directors, a delegate to the IEA-RA or the NEA-RA. The IEA is our (the members) organization. Just because things don’t do (sic) the way that you would like them to go doesn’t give you the right to go over board 

Glen Brown responds to IEA President Cinda Klickna.

by Fred Klonsky

Blogger and pension activist Glen Brown responds to President Klickna.

Dear Cinda,

First, let’s re-read the petition:
Illinois Revenue and Debt Reform, Not Pension Reform!
Many Illinois legislators want to challenge both Illinois and U.S. Constitutions instead of addressing the causes of the state’s budget deficits. Illinois public employees have earned their pension. Their pension is a constitutionally-guaranteed contract. That’s why I created a petition to The Illinois State House, The Illinois State Senate, and Governor Pat Quinn, which says:
“Illinois has a pension debt and revenue problem. Most legislators know this, and they also understand the concept of justice and what lawfulness demands: that people must keep their covenants with one another. No justice is accomplished when diminishing public employees’ earned benefits and rights because of decades of legislators’ irresponsibility, corruption and incompetence. Stop Illinois pension reform. It is immoral and illegal.”

IEA President Cinda Klickna: It’s not what the petition says. It’s the people who wrote it. Welcome back Joe McCarthy.

by Fred Klonsky

A reader sends along Cinda’s explanation for banning members’ petition on pensions.

I’ve had a couple of inquiries about why IEA has declined to formally support or promote a member’s e-petition on the pension issue. Let me explain:
The short answer is that the petition in question is not reflective of the IEA/We Are One Illinois coalition position on the pension issue.
The petition reflects its drafters’ very strongly held belief that we (IEA and the coalition) should not be trying to negotiate a solution to the pension problem. While anyone is entitled to hold an opinion on the pension issue, the view expressed in the petition conflicts with the position of the IEA officers, the IEA board and with the other members of the coalition (including any who might have signed the petition).
It also, most importantly, conflicts with the opinion of our members, who have told us repeatedly, 

Cinda Klickna, Leo Durocher and Joe McCarthy.

by Fred Klonsky

There is an old story, maybe true, about the Cubs (Dodgers and Giants too) manager Leo Durocher.
Leo was famous for getting into fights with umpires. One day he went out to argue a call and the umpire told him, “Leo, if you say one word, I’m throwing you out.”
Leo was reported to have said, “What if I just think it? You can’t throw me out for thinking something.”
The umpire said, “Well, I guess I can’t throw you out for thinking something.”

Leo looked at the umpire eyeball to eyeball, squinted to demonstrate he was thinking something. Something  

Common Core [sic] Standards (Susan Ohanian Speaks Out)

Common Core [sic] Standards (Susan Ohanian Speaks Out):

The Common Core State (sic) Standards Update on the Ten Commandments
And Bill Gates spake, "I am your master who brought you out of the wilderness of teacher individualism and put an earbud into your ear, 28-page evaluation rubrics into your manager's back pocket, and biosensitive bracelets on every kid's wrist. 

I. I am the State, which has brought students out of the wilderness of teacher-led classrooms and into the kingdom of Common Core State Standards. Thou shalt have no other guidance before thee, and then it will follow as night follows day that every child will be ready for the Global Economy. 

II. Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven images, not any likeness of anything that contradicts the Common Core and its TESTS. For the Teacher Value Added is a jealous god, 

Playtime's over, kindergartners: Standards Stressing Kids Out 
Stephen Krashen Letter to Editor: The "experts" who made up the Common Core standards have decided to ignore the idea of developmentally appropriate instruction ( Playtime's over, kindergartners) and are converting kindergarten into the second grade.

What's next, Kindergarten Kalculus? 

by Susan Edelman 

Kindergarten has come a long way, baby -- too far, some say. 

Way beyond the ABCs, crayons and building blocks, the city Department of Education now wants 4- and 5-year-olds to write :informative/explanatory reports" and demonstrate "algebraic thinking." 

Children who barely know how to write the alphabet or add 2 and 2 are expected to write topic sentences and use diagrams to illustrate math equations. 

Where Bill Gates Got the Idea to Call the Common Core 'State' Standards

Subway's answer to the 10 ¾-inch sub:

With regards to the size of the bread and calling it a footlong, 'SUBWAY FOOTLONG' is a registered trademark as a descriptive name for the sub sold in Subway® Restaurants and not intended to be a measurement of length. . . .

Calling Common Core 'State' standards is a descriptive name for the assessments pushed onto public schools and not intended to be a description of where they come from.

MORNING UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 1-28-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Mike Petrilli: Shame on the Garfield Teachers!

by dianerav

I think the Garfield High teachers are a model for teachers across the nation.
They show that collective action works. If one person speaks up, he or she gets fired.
When an entire faculty resists, together their voice is heard around the world.
Not everyone agrees, of course. Mike Petrilli of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute (where I once a trustee for many years but am no longer) strongly condemns the Garfield teachers. He thinks they are shirking their duty. He thinks they are trying to avoid being held accountable. He thinks they should not compare themselves to Martin Luther King Jr.
I disagree with Mike.
Martin Luther King taught the nation–and the Garfield teachers–about the power of collective action against 

Bobby Jindal’s Idea of Social Justice

by dianerav

A reader brought this column by Eric Zorn to my attention. It appeared in the Chicago Tribune.
The state of Louisiana is “reforming” hospice care for patients on Medicare. It will stop offering hospice care for many elderly people.
As part of his reforms, Jindal has started closing or privatizing the state’s public hospitals. See here and hereand here.
He cuts most where the needs are greatest. This could catapult him to national stardom. The prestigious Brookings Institution in DC recently invited him to discuss his historic efforts to privatize public education.
As the Shreveport Times described the situation:
“BATON ROUGE — The start of February brings an end to programs that care for some of the most vulnerable

Michigan Activist Joins the Honor Roll

by dianerav

Former state legislator Mary Valentine has spoken out against the privatization of public education in Muskegon Heights, Michigan. The district had a budget deficit, so the governor installed an emergency manager who turned the children and schools over to a for-profit charter corporation.
Mary Valentine joins the honor roll as a champion of public education, in a state where the governor and legislature are determined to end it.
Please read the following:
Muskegon Heights School District, in Muskegon County, Michigan, is the first school district taken over by a for-

Chicago Teachers Union Supports Garfield Teachers

by dianerav

                                                                                                                                                         StephanieGadlin@ctulocal1.com

Chicago Teachers Union Launches Campaign Against ‘High-Stakes’ Standardized Testing, Supports Seattle Teachers Boycott

CHICAGO—The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU has  launched a campaign in support of local and nationwide efforts to eliminate standardized non-state mandated tests—also known as “high-stakes testing”—from public schools. Test scores fail as measures of learning when high-stakes testing advanced by corporate education reformers dominates curriculum, and also fail to consider non-classroom stimuli that affects school-age children,

Today is Student Data Day, Read This

by dianerav

If you can help with answers to the questions below, please chime in. How do parents “opt out” of sharing personal information about their children that is collected by the state and shared for purposes of marketing?
Diane, I am not sure where to post this but this is a request for you. This impacts almost every public school parent, student and child in the country and your forum would reach out to many. Would you post this in a prominent place to make parents and teachers aware?
The new price of public education means that parents will give up the ability to protect their children’s privacy and data which may lead to possible abuse and misuse of information through potential security breaches or 

Do You Know Who Is Using Your Child’s Data?

by dianerav

This is a letter from Leonie Haimson, who leads the NYC advocacy group “Class Size Matters.” She suggests that you find out what is happening to the data collected about your child. This is what is happening in New York state.

Dear Parents:  today is Data Privacy Day.    Here are some questions you can ask your school about your child’s private education records.

Unfortunately, we already know that NY State intends to share the most private information from your child’s 

Rise and Fall of California’s Most Celebrated Charter School

by dianerav

Sharon R. Higgins is an Oakland parent activist who runs several blogs and does great research. One of her blogs is The Perimeter Primate. Another is Charter School Scandals. She also follows the Gulen charter chain.
Here she tells the amazing story of the American Indian Charter Schools in her own city of Oakland.
———————————————————————————–
Update on American Indian Model charter schools and Ben Chavis
This past week the Oakland school board voted 6-1 to issue a “notice of intent to revoke” the charters of the three high-performing, “no-excuses” American Indian-named charter schools associated with Ben Chavis, the foul-mouthed and controversial director. A public hearing will be held on February 13 and the final decision will be made in March. If the OUSD school board ultimately revokes the charters, the schools could appeal to the Alameda County Board of Education, and if unsuccessful, to the California State Board of Education.
This current situation is the result of an investigation which revealed “$3.8 million in questionable expenditures, 

More on the Famous American Indian Charter School

by dianerav

Is deregulation a good idea? I would say that it is. There are far too many rules, laws, regulations, mandates, etc. intended to circumscribe the actions of every educator.
But there is a bright line between giving professionals the autonomy to do their job and compete base nice of oversight and accountability.
How else to explain the scandal of the American Indian Charter School, whose founder was allowed to do and say whatever he wished, with no accountability for his actions or his spending.
Please read Jersey Jazzman’s take. As usual, he is right on target.
If the states don’t establish meaningful control over public spending as well as the treatment of children by 

Diane in the Evening 1-27-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog: What Hath Reform Wrought? by dianerav Veteran teacher Marc Epstein surveys the wreckage of “school reform” and wonders who will come along to put our nation’s education system back together again. He writes: “Today’s education reform rests on the premise that the civil rights movement that overturned Plessy and Chicago Charter Fines Mom $3,000 for Her Son’s Misbehavior by dianerav No excuses! The Noble Network of charter schools in Chicago is proud of its high test scores. Mayor Rahm Emanuel says Noble has some “secret sauce” that produces great success. ... more »

‘I would prefer to trust our teachers …’ | EdSource Today

‘I would prefer to trust our teachers …’ | EdSource Today:

‘I would prefer to trust our teachers …’ - by Charles Taylor Kerchner

by Charles Taylor Kerchner

Charles Taylor Kerchner

California’s back! Gov. Jerry Brown did himself proud in Thursday’s State of the State address, and he did California proud, too. In the details of the speech, there are prospects for boldness, greatness and innovation, not the tire patching and gridlock we’ve experienced as government.

Others will comment at great length on the wisdom of the San Joaquin delta tunnel project and whether high-speed rail is prescient or folly. And educational interests are putting the pencil to whether they win or lose under the governor’s plan for simplifying public education funding and regulation. (See David Plank’sLos Angeles Times commentary.)

Instead of joining these conversations, or commenting on the literary allusions in the governor’s speech, please zoom in on one sentence that has revolutionary importance:  “I would prefer to trust our teachers who are in the classroom each day, doing the real work—lighting fires in young minds.”

Brown knows that we live in a world that profoundly distrusts teachers. Most of what passes for education reform has been crafted with the assumption that teachers are incompetent or malfeasant. Education systems, therefore, are layered with micromanagement rather than characterized by useful feedback mechanisms that make teachers smart about their work. It bends 

Q&A: What do early childhood educators need to know? - by Lillian Mongeau

by Lillian Mongeau

Marcy Whitebook, the director of the Center
 for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley.
(Photo: Lillian Mongeau/EdSource Today)

Dr. Marcy Whitebook has been part of the early education world since the early 1970s, when she graduated college and went to work as a preschool teacher. Today she’s the director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley. As part of a new, occasional Question and Answer series with leaders in California education, EdSource Today’s Lillian Mongeau sat down with Whitebook...

Complaint will be filed today about the Georgia private school tax credit that operates in secrecy | Get Schooled

Complaint will be filed today about the Georgia private school tax credit that operates in secrecy | Get Schooled:

Complaint will be filed today about the Georgia private school tax credit that operates in secrecy

by Maureen Downey

The AJC is reporting that the Southern Education Foundation will file a complaint today with the state Department of Revenue alleging widespread abuses in the controversial private school scholarship tax credit program.
The tax credit has received national media attention because of allegations of misuse. Yet, state Rep. Earl Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, the sponsor of the 2008 law creating the tax credit, is introducing a bill today to

To test or not to test: Should parents be able to decide whether kids take state exams?

by Maureen Downey

Should parents in Georgia decide whether their children take annual state exams?
A reader told me that her daughter was showing signs of test anxiety because her elementary school was already in the midst of prepping for the April CRCT.
So, the parent asked, “Can we legally opt-out?”
No, says the state Department of Education, which sent me this response:  “Given both state and federal law 

Down the rabbit hole of education reform:

Down the rabbit hole of education reform

Posted by Valerie Strauss on January 28, 2013 at 4:00 am

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Former teacher Mark Phillips takes us on a scary trip through the Wonderland of Educational Reform. Phillips is aformer high school teacher and a former teacher educator at the University of California at Santa Barbara and at San Francisco State. He writes a monthly column on education for the Marin Independent Journal and blogs atEdutopia. A version of this appeared on the Edutopia website.

By Mark Phillips

I had a Lewis Carroll-like dream the other night….a  trip to the Wonderland of Educational Reform.

My story begins…

I fall down a rabbit hole. I look around and notice a little inlet just off to the west calledThe Institute of No Cliché Left Behind. As I enter I see a sign above a door: “21^stCentury Learning.”  Four people, evidently educational reformers (they’re each wearing an Arne Duncan T-shirt), greet me at the door. I ask them to explain what 21st Century learning means. Each gives a different answer.

“How can you use the same title and have different answers?” I ask.  “Ah, that’s the beauty of this,” they answer in unison, “the true beauty of clichés. They can mean whatever we 

Missouri Education Watchdog: This is Why We Are Against Common Core Standards

Missouri Education Watchdog: This is Why We Are Against Common Core Standards:

This is Why We Are Against Common Core Standards

by stlgretchen

But I'm too young to read informational text.  I'm only in kindergarten.

Is this scenario coming soon to a kindergarten class in your school district?  Teachers are mandated to teach developmentally inappropriate standards, assessments and curricula to district students.  What do you think will happen?  Will endlessly assessing students in kindergarten make them more ready for the global workforce or will they dissolve in tears and view school as something to avoid at all costs? 

THIS is what teachers, parents, school board members and legislators need to understand about Common Core standards.  When students implode, there is nothing your school can do.  Schools can't subtract 

Jeb Bush’s “Shaky Success Record” | Scathing Purple Musings

Jeb Bush’s “Shaky Success Record” | Scathing Purple Musings:

Jeb Bush’s “Shaky Success Record”

by Bob Sikes

Jeb Bush’s recent hyperbole is that of a man who knows he’s under fire. Consider this from Metro Pulse reporter Cari Wade Gervin:

On Monday, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush came to Nashville for a press event with Gov. Bill Haslam.
“This is a time of great importance for our country, and this is the single most important thing we can be doing,” Bush stated at one point.
What was this matter of such urgency? Did it involve national security? A fiscal crisis? The battle over gun control?
None of the above. Bush was referring to school vouchers (and, by default, education reform in general). In a brief media avail after the event, Haslam announced that he would indeed be 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES:

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

by Mike Klonsky

The Seattle Times/Associated Press"We've been raising our voices about this deeply flawed test for a long time," said Jesse Hagopian, who teaches history at Garfield High School,  But now that the district is using the test for evaluations, we've drawn our line in the sand." -- WSJ

Valerie Strauss, Wash. Post

Here’s a question: Has anybody told President Obama  that his education policies have resulted in a growing revolt against standardized testing? -- The Answer Sheet

Bill Gates

In the past year, I have been struck by how important measurement is to improving the human 

SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC EDUCATION CONFERENCE LAYS OUT THREE PRONGS OF THE PRIVATIZATION BATTLE PLAN (VIDEO) - Perdaily.com

SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC EDUCATION CONFERENCE LAYS OUT THREE PRONGS OF THE PRIVATIZATION BATTLE PLAN (VIDEO) - Perdaily.com:

SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC EDUCATION CONFERENCE LAYS OUT THREE PRONGS OF THE PRIVATIZATION BATTLE PLAN (VIDEO)

by Leonard Isenberg

On January 19, 2013 I went up to San Francisco for a conference on the privatization of public education. My part of the presentation at the conference had to do with the nationwide witch hunt to rid LAUSD and districts like it around the country of teachers at the top of the salary scale, about to vest in lifetime health benefits, or who run afoul of their administrator for not following orders, no matter how illegal or irrational they are.

In addition to my presentation public education veterans Danny Weil and Jack Gershon made incredibly insightful presentations. Take the time to watch the following videos, share them with your friends, network, and give us some feedback.

Rubber Rooms, Teacher Bullying, Privatization and The LAUSD and...

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The Corporate Privatization Raiders Destroying Public Education & ...