UPDATE: Popular backlash against high stakes testing grows stronger NYC Public School Parents: Mayor's Appointees Force Big Testing Contract Despite Looming Classroom Cuts

NYC Public School Parents: Mayor's Appointees Force Big Testing Contract Despite Looming Classroom Cuts:

A Guide to Corporate Education "reform"

by Leonie Haimson

Lots of parents are confused by the large number of education organizations that have sprouted up like weeds in recent years, many of which have “Children” or “Students” in the title, and claim to be working in the interests of children but actually pursuing the free-market ideology of privatizers, hedge funders and billionaires. 

Yesterday on Diane Ravitch’s blog, I wrote  how one could identify these astroturf groups by their rhetoric and often contradictory positions; along with linking toa spreadsheet that lists the names of these organizations, their boards and funders. 

I hope this will be a helpful tool for parents, advocates and others who are trying to make out who is who in the battle to preserve and strengthen our public 

Popular backlash against high stakes testing grows stronger, but the Senate doesn't appear to notice (with video)

by Leonie Haimson

See the video below of the rally on Wednesday of the Seattle Garfield high school teacher boycott of the MAP test, with teachers, parents and the local NAACP speaking up about the waste of time and money and invalid teacher evaluation metrics that result, and reading statements of support from teachers, parents, and advocates around the nation. (Many of them are posted here).Here are just a few links from the past week, thanks to the newsletter of Monty Neill of FairTest.

Mayor's Appointees Force Big Testing Contract Despite Looming Classroom Cuts

by Patrick J. Sullivan

Wednesday's Panel for Educational Policy meeting held on Staten Island focused exclusively on contracts.

My resolution to rescind our prior approval of the tutoring services contract for Champion Learning passed unanimously.  Following the disclosure that the comptroller's office had rejected the contract due to an ongoing federal investigation even the mayor's appointees agreed to revoke our approval.  See here for text of the resolution.

Deputy Chancellor Polakow-Suransky presented an awful $19 million testing technology contract for Pearson.  The contract includes both assessment content and the assessment technology platform.  The platform includes important things like: "the capability to import and host ("ingest") content from varied and multiple sources".  You can read all the details of what we bought here.  I 

New Report: Profiting from Public Dollars | In the Public Interest

New Report: Profiting from Public Dollars | In the Public Interest:

New Report: Profiting from Public Dollars

Posted on 09/11/2012

For years, corporations have joined the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) for the opportunity to develop legislation that diverts public dollars into their corporate coffers.  A new report byIn the Public Interest, "Profiting from Public Dollars: How ALEC and Its Members Promote Privatization of Government Services and Assets," exposes ALEC's extensive privatization agenda.  The report details how private prison corporations, online education companies, health care corporations, and major industry players pay large membership fees to ALEC in exchange for valuable and unfettered access to state legislators.  Corporations are able to work with ALEC lawmakers to craft bills that allow private control of public functions, and guarantee a steady stream of tax dollars to enhance profits. 

Corporate and legislative ALEC members work together to jointly develop pro-privatization model bills, and then legislators introduce and push these bills in their state legislatures.  These bills make it easier to create virtual public schools, encourage states to privatize vital health programs that help vulnerable populations, force state governments to sell public prisons to prison corporations, and help other industries take control of public assets and services. 

In 2011 and 2012, ALEC model bills that sought to privatize core public functions were introduced in states across 

Vallas is not the only Bridgeport Board of Education “employee” out consulting - Wait, What?

Vallas is not the only Bridgeport Board of Education “employee” out consulting - Wait, What?:

Vallas is not the only Bridgeport Board of Education “employee” out consulting

by jonpelto

Paul Vallas is a busy guy.

As Bridgeport’s Superintendent of Schools, Vallas is collecting about $234,000 a year from the taxpayers of Bridgeport and Connecticut.  Although he hasn’t released his schedule since May 2012, Vallas claimed he was able to work full-time in Connecticut and take on consulting projects around the country and the world because he works no less than ten-hour days and usually works full-time through the weekends.

In addition to collecting his salary as Bridgeport’s superintendent of schools, Vallas also owns The Vallas Group, Inc., an education management consulting company that has various contracts, including a three-year, $1 million contract with the Illinois State Board of Education.  Vallas is (or was) also involved in a $19 million dollar, three-year contract with the City of Indianapolis.

Now, thanks to materials provided by the State of Illinois in response to a Freedom of 

Judith Butler at Brooklyn College last night: Brave and Brilliant « Bill Ayers

Judith Butler at Brooklyn College last night: Brave and Brilliant « Bill Ayers:

Judith Butler at Brooklyn College last night: Brave and Brilliant

by billayers

Editors Note: Despite a campaign to silence them, philsophers Judith Butler and Omar Barghouti spoke at Brooklyn College on Thursday night. In an exclusive, The Nation presents the text of Butler’s remarks.

About the Author

Judith Butler

Judith Butler is a professor in the Rhetoric and Comparative Literature department at UC Berkeley. She is the…

Also by the Author

You Will Not Be Alone (War and Peace, Regions and Countries, Higher Education)

As the UC Berkeley Student Senate votes to divest from two companies that profit from Israel’s occupation of Palestine, the noted philosopher reminds us of what’s at stake.

Judith Butler

Letters (Politics)

Judith Butler’s April 1 “Guantánamo Limbo” intelligently discusses the failure of the Geneva Conventions to take 

UPDATE: CSCOPE Announces Changes. Can This Happen In Common Core? Missouri Education Watchdog: Maxine Waters Confirms "Big Brother" Database

Missouri Education Watchdog: Maxine Waters Confirms "Big Brother" Database:

CSCOPE Announces Changes. Can This Happen In Common Core?

by stlgretchen

CSCOPE and Common Core have many similarities.

 From Donna Garner:

Message to the entire United States: It was grassroots citizens in Texas who got involved and uncovered CSCOPE.  We can make a difference when we do our “homework” and then contact our elected officials.  Our successful efforts in Texas to bring about change in CSCOPE can be replicated throughout this country to uncover the Common Core Standards.

*********************************************************************************** 

PRESS RELEASE – FROM TEX. SEN. DAN PATRICK, DISTRICT 7

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                CONTACT: Logan Spence (512) 463-0107

February 8, 2013       

 

SEN. PATRICK AND CSCOPE ANNOUNCE SWEEPING CHANGES

 

http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/members/dist7/pr13/p020813a.pdf

Maxine Waters Confirms "Big Brother" Database

by stlgretchen

We've provided information to readers over the years about the data to be mined from your child and given to various agencies and private research firms.  People are concerned about Facebook and credit card company breaches but for some reason, the divulging of personal student information has not garnered the same outrage and/or interest.  Maybe it's because  you can't see who is taking the information, who is receiving it and how it is being used by the government/private companies.

Maxine Waters stated that indeed, President Obama has established a massive database on American citizens that knows information about every individual.  She said the Democratic candidate in 2016 would "need to be down with that".

Popout

Technology: Use it, or lose it! « My Island View

Technology: Use it, or lose it! « My Island View:

Technology: Use it, or lose it!

by tomwhitby

I recently got into a discussion with my friend Errol St. Clair Smith, Executive Producer at BAM Radio Network on the effect that technology has had on the news media. Many of the old tried and true guidelines of journalism have been forever changed with the 24-hour news cycle, as well as, news on demand. There is also the ability of anyone to publish at anytime and have the capacity of communicating to
large masses with the click of a return button (command button for Apple Folks). This has had a vast and yet-to-be-determined effect on not just the media, but our entire culture as well. The computer is now the Publisher. The smartphone is the video cameraman. Woe has been the newspapers and Magazines that had failed to heed the call.
As educators we tend to only consider the effects of technology in Education. Technology has always moved us forward with many industries and professions falling by the wayside. Where have the blacksmiths gone? How many shopping center parking lots have one-hour Photo processing booths? When was the last time a college student walked the halls of the dorm trying to borrow a portable typewriter to finish a paper? How many surgeons 

School Tech Connect: Who Knew What When?

School Tech Connect: Who Knew What When?:

Who Knew What When?

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

More letters..

Seriously, the blocking of the media from the breakout sessions, the whole hiring of Loran by the Waltons---- this 

Illinois is broke. No money for promised teacher retirees. But $35 million more for those connected to the Chicago Democratic Machine and their patronage charters. « Fred Klonsky

Illinois is broke. No money for promised teacher retirees. But $35 million more for those connected to the Chicago Democratic Machine and their patronage charters. « Fred Klonsky:

Illinois is broke. No money for promised teacher retirees. But $35 million more for those connected to the Chicago Democratic Machine and their patronage charters.

by Fred Klonsky

Rahm and UNO Boss, Juan Rangel.
UNO’s Juan Rangel and Alderman Danny Solis’ patronage army get millions from their charter school scams.
Their latest multi-million dollar “soccer academy” skimmed millions from the state with millions more to come.
If Illinois is broke, here is why.
Reports the Sun-Times:

UNO’s insider contract deals go beyond the Soccer Elementary Academy. Records show the companies that benefitted from the 2009 state grant to UNO have included:

 ◆ D’Escoto Inc., owned by Federico “Fred” d’Escoto, whose brother Miguel 

Diane in the Evening 2-8-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

Diane Ravitch's blog:

Will This Historic School Live or Die?

by dianerav

Popout
DWC High: How A School Can Teach Us All (Trailer)
This is a preview of a new hour-long documentary about the fight to keep New York’s DeWitt Clinton High School alive. Based in the Bronx, home of the NY Yankees, “The Bronx Bombers” It has educated more than 200,000 students over a hundred years. It is now being faced with plans by “Educational Reformers” to scale it back in a threat to it’s tradition of excellence. Help us get the word out. See our Facebook page, Facebook.com/dwcfilm for how you can order and help distribute the whole film by Clinton grad Danny Schechter “The News Dissector.” Help us save DeWitt Clinton and public education.

Good News! Texas Republicans Turning Against Testing Fever

by dianerav

Texas Republicans are hearing from their constituents–in the grocery store, at the barber, wherever they go.
People think that testing in Texas is out of control.
The last state commissioner Robert Scott said so. He called the testing obsession a “vampire,” sucking the life 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 2-8-13 Diane Ravitch's blog

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Why We Need Public Schools! by dianerav Why do we have public schools? Would we be better off, as certain reformers now think, if everyone had school choice and went to a charter or used a voucher to go to a private or religious school? Do we need public schools? I asked Carol Burris, principal of South Side High School in Rockville Center, New York, how she would answer these questions. How would you answer? This is what Carol wrote: “When I think of the purpose of public schooling I always think of Dewey’s... more »

Jersey Jazzman: Rhee on Stewart: A Breakdown, Part III

Jersey Jazzman: Rhee on Stewart: A Breakdown, Part III:

Rhee on Stewart: A Breakdown, Part III

by Duke

I've been breaking down Michelle Rhee's extended interview with Jon Stewart: here's Part I and Part II. This segment is worth a close look as I believe it's one of the few times Rhee has been pressed to explain her agenda to a relatively well-informed skeptic.

Stewart makes the case several times that the fixation with schools as the primary cause of and primary solution to poverty misses a critical point: too many kids arrive at "failing" schools not ready to learn, which is why the schools "fail." Rhee, of course, will have none of this: in her view, "failing" schools are the cause of poverty, and improving schools - and by extension, improving teaching - is the best way to solve America's chronic economic inequality.

What's fascinating to me about this interview is how casually Rhee brushes aside the notion that children cannot be expected to learn - and, therefore, teachers cannot be expected to teach - if the problems of poverty are not 

SI&A Cabinet Report – Feds to streamline compliance rules, reporting

SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources:

Feds to streamline compliance rules, reporting

The Obama administration’s Office of Management and Budget released earlier this month a much anticipated proposal for revising compliance rules covering federal cost principles, federal administrative rules and non-federal audits.

The OMB also released an 89-page summary and description of the changes from the notice released last February. 

The proposed changes, of critical importance for anyone responsible for detailing the use of federal funds for a school district, is intended to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of federal grant programs by eliminating requirements that are duplicative or no longer necessary, as well as strengthening oversight of grant funds.

Among other changes are plans to simplify grantee reporting requirements related to justifying salaries and wages charged to grants; directing more audit resources to preventing waste, fraud and abuse; and ensuring robust sub-recipient oversight.

According to analysis from the Washington D.C.-based law firm of Brustein & Manasevit, the most significant changes include an increase in the single cost audit threshold from $500,000 to $750,000 —notably lower than the 

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Pritzker nomination causing problems for Obama

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Pritzker nomination causing problems for Obama:

Pritzker nomination causing problems for Obama

by Mike Klonsky

The Wall Street Journal reports that the nomination of Penny Pritzker as the next commerce secretary would threaten to divide President Barack Obama's political coalition, pitting women's advocates against labor leaders angry about the treatment of workers at her family's hotel chain.

Last July, a group of labor leaders, including Obama ally and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, joined Unite Here at a news conference in Washington, where Unite Here called for a global boycott of Hyatt Hotels.

How can you say you support women while supporting Pritzker too?

What WSJ misses, as do some women's groups (the National Organization of Women is part of the national coalition supporting UNITE and the Hyatt workers), is the fact that Pritzker's Hyatt Hotels are most oppressive to the hotel chain's largely female and immigrant workforce. Female immigrant workers are the backbone of the hotel industry. Not only that, Hyatt chain is a global company and labor opposition to the chain and disdain for the Pritzker name is also global. Her appointment could create even more widespread opposition to the pick than anticipated.

And let's not forget the thousands of women teachers who have to deal with Chicago's anti-teacher, corporate 

Texas Wingnuts Outraged By Their Own Schools Curriculum | Crooks and Liars

Texas Wingnuts Outraged By Their Own Schools Curriculum | Crooks and Liars:

Texas Wingnuts Outraged By Their Own Schools Curriculum

34 comments

By karoli

Oh, Texas. You never fail to reach a new height of strangeness, especially when it comes to your own schools.
On its face, this story appears to look like some librul doofus snuck Commie curriculum into their state-approved materials for online learning. Fox leads off with a big intro from AFP's Texas Director Peggy Venable, and segues into an interview with Texas senator Dan Patrick about horrible, awful, un-American, dirty commie hippie freak progressive lesson plans.
In the clips of testimony shown, one teacher is horrified that students are asked to design a flag for a newly-created socialist state. Damned radical commie lesson, it is! Another teacher testified that being forced to teach the CSCOPE curriculum is like being a surgeon

Calling Madigan. « Fred Klonsky

Calling Madigan. « Fred Klonsky:

Calling Madigan.

by Fred Klonsky

Popout

.

“Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. With kindest personal regards, I remain sincerely yours, Michael Madigan.”

mmadigan@hds.ilga.gov ormmadigan@ilga.gov; (773) 581-8000 or (217) 782-5350.

I made myself a cup of coffee and sat down at my kitchen counter. It doubles as my office.

This morning I was going to call Democratic Party Chairman and House Speaker Michael Madigan.

He had written a letter to the We Are One coalition of public employee unions saying that he had no time to meet with them about pensions.

No time?

Well, maybe he had time to talk to me.

Coffe made, I was ready to call.

Either he was so swamped with phone calls or he preemptively turned off his Capitol office phone.

After a half hour of working the speed redial I gave up.

I wrote him an email: “Speaker Madigan, As a retired teacher and a member of the Illinois Education Association I am disappointed at your refusal to meet with the leaders of the state’s public employee unions to find a real solution to the pension problem.”

And then I called his Chicago office.

A woman answered and said she would record my message.

Record?

Like tape record?

Nah. She probably meant make a  note of.

UPDATE: FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Friday, February 8, 2013

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

Large crowd lobbies against planned Sacramento City school closures

Education Headlines

Friday, February 8, 2013

Mira Monte student caught with gun on campus

A student was arrested Thursday after he brought a gun to Mira Monte High School, but authorities said they're not aware of any plans the boy had to actually use the weapon.

LAUSD, other districts, raid meal funds for poor students to cover other costs, state reports

Driven to desperation by historic funding shortfalls, school districts across the state in recent years have been illegally dipping into cafeteria funds meant to provide meals to poor students to pay other school expenses, according to a report released Wednesday by a state department.

Lucia Mar closer to getting millions of redevelopment dollars

A three-member board agreed unanimously this week to allow the Lucia Mar Unified School District to receive millions of dollars over the next two decades from the former Pismo Beach Redevelopment Agency.

School paper confiscated over front page story

Student journalists at Bear Creek High School were stunned to learn that their school principal confiscated 1,700 copies of the monthly The Bruin Voice newspaper Wednesday morning, citing concerns that a front-page article questioning campus safety policies would incite panic.

Schools push early retirement

Fifteen teachers age 55 or older could leave Sonora High at the end of this school year, perhaps to be replaced by less experienced -- and therefore less expensive — teachers.

Sylvan talks to parents about shifting school hours

Sylvan Union educators made their case to about 60 parents Wednesday night for shifting school day starts and stops through the week to give teachers time to work together.

Repeat gasoline theft hits Santa Rosa school district vehicles

Employees are now regularly monitoring surveillance cameras but some thefts are occurring in the dead of night with officials only finding out about the theft when they find their gas gauges bottoming out.

Another trophy in the case for Long Beach Unified

The state’s third-largest school district and winner of the Broad Prize for Urban Education was named Thursday one of the five top school districts in the world by Battelle for Kids, a Columbus, Ohio-based nonprofit organization that counsels school districts on school improvement and innovation.

Large crowd lobbies against planned Sacramento City school closures

Where confusion and heartbreak filled the Jan. 18 meeting, those speaking against the closure plan at Thursday's board meeting came prepared with specific questions regarding their school closure or dissected the logic and financial figures used by the district.

Educators celebrate first six months of transitional kindergarten

At a statewide conference in Pasadena this week -- the first large gathering since the program was implemented -- teachers, administrators and advocates talked about best practices and cheered what they see as long-needed reform.

Southern California online academy progressing, officials say

The school, which opened in 2011, serves a wide range of students -- from 5 year olds in transitional kindergarten to seniors in high school -- using a computer based curriculum.

School district tackles obesity, inactivity

Using a $1 million federal grant, Alvord Unified School District teachers, administrators and nutrition experts will try to reach the hearts and minds of students to teach them the important role a healthy, fit body plays in their school career.

Outside spending pours into L.A school board race

Outside groups are mounting campaigns to influence the outcome of three races for seats on the Los Angeles Board of Education.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

K-8 charter plan withdrawn from Orange Unified

A group hoping to open a charter school that allows students of different ages to learn in the same classrooms has withdrawn its petition to the Orange Unified School District.

Rios testimony finishes, final arguments Thursday

Going from crying to combative, Moreno Valley School Board member Mike Rios denied from the witness stand he was a pimp, procurer and rapist. “I did not do anything illegal” he insisted during testimony Wednesday, Feb. 6, that was marked with sharp exchanges with the prosecutor during cross examination.

County schools board seeks to remove member

San Bernardino County school board member Gil Navarro says he will fight efforts by fellow board members to strip him of that office now that he has also been elected to a local water board.

UPDATE: The Ignored Commons: Our Children + Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee is a terrible comedian – @ the chalk face

 Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee is a terrible comedian – @ the chalk face:

The Ignored Commons: Our Children

by plthomasedd

I have recently discovered an Eleventh Commandment: “Thou shalt not speaketh to the folly of charter schools.”
When I explain that charter schools perform no better than public schools, and in many cases, create problems worse than the ones we need to reform in our current system (see my recent primer), I incite the ire of charter advocates, many of whom are middle-class and progressive. And this has led to another realization: Charter schools allow middle-class progressives the ability to appease guilt-free their inner (and closeted) Libertarian.
When I offer accurate, evidence-based generalizations about charter schools, they respond, “But my child’s charter school is wonderful and much better than the school we were zoned for!”
Setting aside that one example doesn’t disprove a generalization (or that we could easily find a parent of a child who would say the exact same thing but with zoned school and charter switched), this comment is about a 

 Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee is a terrible comedian

from @ the chalk face by Chalk Face, PhD

Something was brought to my attention just yesterday and I thought I’d investigate. Emperor Rhee
Palpatine is all over the place because of her new book. I was told that she impersonated an African-American student during a welcome speech to DCPS teachers a couple of years back.
As it turns out, Bill Turque for DC Schools Insider already covered this speech in 2010 and raised very similar concerns, that her impersonation was a tad discomforting. Rhee is giving us a little anecdote of her two
weeksyears teaching in Baltimore City. She had a few students in her car after a field trip and was driving them home. Very hilarious! I’m not going to really go into the story, but here’s the transcript of her impersonation:

“I start to panic…my heart is beating 100 miles a minute,” she said. Then the other three children, sensing her worry, chimed in. She recalled one little boy saying:
“Lawwwd Ms.Rhee whatchu gonna do!!!!??” Rhee boomed, drawing a big laugh. “Lawwwd Ms. Rhee