What’s Happening to Adult Education? | Edspace

What’s Happening to Adult Education? | Edspace:

What’s Happening to Adult Education?

March 7, 2013, 12:05 pm • Posted by Maxine Einhorn

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photo by Lillian R. Mongeau/Oakland North

In his budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2013-2014, Governor Jerry Brown announced that California is no longer facing a budget deficit. In relation to funding education, his budget increases state funding per student in K-12 schools to $2,700 by 2016-2017. For K-12 and community colleges, funding is projected to increase by $2.7 billion next year and $19 billion by 2016-2017.

What of adult education? The plan recognizes that K-12 school districts and community colleges are authorized to provide adult education instruction, but highlights a lack of coordination between the two systems in terms of serving adult learners. The contention is that the system is currently inefficient and unaccountable. The Governor’s plan proposes $300 million in new Proposition 98 General Fund revenues to fund a comparable K-12 adult education service delivery system within the community college system.

This plan would fund core instructional areas such as vocational education, ESL, adult basic and secondary education, and citizenship. Courses outside of these areas would require students to pay in full. Adult 

Louisiana Educator: No Trust in New MFP and Jindal "Deforms"

Louisiana Educator: No Trust in New MFP and Jindal "Deforms":

No Trust in New MFP and Jindal "Deforms"

by Michael Deshotels

In addition to all the changes in teacher evaluation, vouchers, course choice programs, and the transition to the common core curriculum, school systems will now have to contend with a radically changed MFP. It almost seems as though State Superintendent White and Governor Jindal are trying to implement every radical education change ever conceived and make the students and educators of Louisiana the guinea pigs of untested education reform.

There is apparently no check on the power and brashness of Jindal and White. At least not at BESE. Except for only three members, (Beebe, Hill and Lee) BESE members have performed like perfect puppets. This is a very unhealthy situation for our students and teachers.

The BESE meeting Thursday witnessed a parade of highly experienced education professionals led by 

MORNING UPDATE: LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 3-8-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

School Closings in Chicago: Call in the Lawyers

by dianerav

Chicago’s Superintendent Barbara Byrd-Bennett knows better, but she is following orders. Just following orders.
The “independent panel” that she convened advised her to go full steam ahead.
Who will be hurt? African-American children, African-American families and communities.
Barbara, don’t do it.
Barbara, tell Rahm no.
Barbara, you know this is wrong.
Serve the children, not the corporations, hedge

Does Democracy Matter?

by dianerav

In school, when we study history and civics, we learn about the principles of democracy. We learn that government “of the people, by the people, for the people.” We learn about how important it is for citizens to be informed and to participate in decision-making because the government is their servant, not their master, and we choose our leaders to represent us, not to rue us.
Except for school reform. Now the fashion is to say that the needs are so urgent, that we can’t wait for discussion and debate. Decisions must be made now, without consultation, and they must be imposed without 

Corporate Greed in Florida

by dianerav

Now here is an interesting debate topic: Who really controls the Florida legislature?
Jeb Bush or ALEC?
Or are they the same people with different organizational ties?
Read here to learn about ALEC’s role in Florida.
Recently, ALEC was about to pass a resolution condemning the Common Core standards, but Jeb intervened to stop it. He probably reminded them of the profits that corporations will make as the test scores plummet across the land in response to “tougher,” more “rigorous” standards.

TeacherKen on The Network for Public Education

by dianerav

Ken Bernstein is one of the nation’s best education bloggers. He blogs frequently at The Daily Kos. He has wise in the ways of federal policies and politics. He also is a gifted teacher and a great person. One of the great rewards of writing my last book was that I met this great and generous man.
Today, Ken wrote a great article about the new Network for Public Education. He explains more about the 

Students: Please Join Our Nation Campaign for Your Schools

by dianerav

This is a great suggestion for the Network for Public Education: we need students and student organizations to join with us!
If you are a student, please join us. If you are part of a student group, please join us!
This is where you can sign up: http://www.networkforpubliceducation.org/network-membership/
We need you.
“I’m sure you have many pressing priorities as a new organization, but I would strongly recommend that you devote considerable attention to actively engaging US high school students in the process of reversing the privatization of public education and ending the obsession with standardized testing.
“Students have intimate knowledge of what really works in the classroom and doesn’t. They have borne the brunt 

Proof: Bill Gates Has No Idea about Schools–or Children

by dianerav

They say that if you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
When you have billions in technology, you start thinking that you hold the answer to all the world’s problems.
Bill Gates thinks he has the answer to education: standardized testing, data, and measurement, with lots of technology.
Does he know that every child is different?
Does he know that standardized tests are subject to random error, human error, measurement error, and other 

Randi Weingarten Arrested in Philadelphia Protest

by dianerav

Randi Weingarten and other protestors were arrested and hauled off in handcuffs while demonstrating against school closings in Philadelphia. Neither the Mayor nor the School Reform Commission was willing to meet with Weingarten.
After her release from custody, said the article in the Huffington Post,
“Weingarten said she sees the school closure plan as siphoning money away from public schools, since the 

Bruce Baker: Where There Is a Con, Look for a CAN

by dianerav

In his inimitable style, combining wit and solid analysis, Bruce Baker dissects the latest “data-free drivel” from ConnCAN.
Baker responds to a report claiming that the state was helping low-performing, high-needs districts. Not true, says Baker.
And he has the evidence to back up his response.
The question: Why do the news media report “studies” by advocacy groups with an agenda without recognizing 

Why the Teachers in Strongville, Ohio, Are Striking

by dianerav

When I heard about Strongsville, I thought I was reading a children’s storybook about a wonderful, all-American city, a city where all the families are happy and have nice houses, and the children play in well-equipped playgrounds, and go to wonderful schools.
Think of it: Strongsville. It evokes Wheaties and Jack Armstrong, the all-American boy, the town where everything is just fine.
But then I got this letter from a teacher:
My name is Christina Potter and I have taught in the Strongsville City Schools in Strongsville, Ohio for the last 

Diane in the Evening 3-7-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 4 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: THE NETWORK FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION (CLICK PICTURE) [image: The Network for Public Education (click picture)] WE ARE MANY. THERE IS POWER IN OUR NUMBERS. TOGETHER, WE WILL SAVE OUR SCHOOLS. THE NETWORK FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION CPS Plans to Close Schools, Increase Class Sizes by dianerav I just received a press release from the Chicago Teachers Union, alerting the public that CPS plans to close schools and to increase class sizes. To call this “reform” is outrageous. The children in Chicago needs smaller classes, not... more »

UPDATE this Fred: Illinois has one of the best funded public employee pensions + Chicago students boycott the NAEP to demand safety. | Fred Klonsky

Chicago students boycott the NAEP to demand safety. | Fred Klonsky:

Contest entry.

by Fred Klonsky

To celebrate one million site visits I am sponsoring a contest.
Submit a tweet, haiku or limerick on a topic covered by this blog.
The deadline is March 31 or the millionth visit.
The winner gets the orange t-shirt.
The decision of the judges (that’s me) is final.
Here is latest entry:
From Ken:
There once was a Fred from Nantucket
who carried his thoughts in a bucket, 
And when he did log
A million Madigan thoughts in his blog
His readers all yelled,
“Madigan can just go and f…”
Oops! Fred Klonsky is from Logan Square. Wrong Fred.
Never mind.

Ten minute drawing. Madigan has no fear.

by Fred Klonsky

Click on drawing to enlarge.

Stand up. The day the teachers said no.

by Fred Klonsky

Popout

Illinois has one of the best funded public employee pensions in the country.

by Fred Klonsky

What?
That’s what I said.
Illinois has one of the best funded public employee pensions in the country.
Of course, I’m not talking about any of the Illinois state public employee pension systems.
Rather, I’m talking about IMRF, the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund.
Public employees who work for local municipalities outside of Cook County draw their pensions from IMRF.
Like the state pensions, it is a defined benefit system.
Unlike the state pensions, most employees covered by IMRF contribute only 4.5%. The rest is covered by local 

Chicago students boycott the NAEP to demand safety.

by Fred Klonsky

From Anthony Cody’s EdWeek blog, Living in Dialogue:
Hello my name is Leslie Leon. I am an 18 year old senior at Gage Park High School on Chicago Southwest side. I was born in Chicago, Illinois but raised in Imlay city, Michigan. My parents only wanted the best for my family, therefore we moved to Michigan for a safer life. My parents decided to move back to my hometown in 2010. My life took a whole “U” turn. Everything was different, I couldn’t adjust to it. Before Gage Park I used to love going to school eager to learn and make the most out of my high school life. Coming to Gage Park I slowly started to feel fear to go to school because of the surroundings.
It wasn’t until this year that I began to feel alarmed being inside the school. I don’t like this feeling. When I walk

Latest entry.

by Fred Klonsky

To celebrate one million site visits I am sponsoring a contest.
Submit a tweet, haiku or limerick on a topic covered by this blog.
The deadline is March 31 or the millionth visit.
The winner gets the orange t-shirt.
The decision of the judges (that’s me) is final.
Here is latest entry:
From Mark:
The Springfield Dragon
Gorging with reptile hunger
Ashes on its plate

Who caused Illinois’ debt?

by Fred Klonsky

Jersey Jazzman: NJ Teacher Evaluation Disaster: Here Come the Lawsuits!

Jersey Jazzman: NJ Teacher Evaluation Disaster: Here Come the Lawsuits!:

NJ Teacher Evaluation Disaster: Here Come the Lawsuits!

by Duke

I originally posted this piece on October 11, 2011. Given the disaster that is about to befall us with the Cerf proposals for teacher evaluation changes in New Jersey, I think I was quite prophetic. OK, I got the "Vice-President Christie" part wrong, but maybe I was just a little early...

TRENTON, NJ -- December 10, 2016

In a stunning blow to the crumbling education "reform" movement, the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that abolished the state's system of using standardized test scores to evaluate teachers.

The court ordered the 546 teachers dismissed in June of 2014 to be reinstated with full back pay in addition to compensatory damages. The teachers had been judged to be "ineffective" under the state's system, and had lost tenure rights before they were dismissed.

The unanimous decision states: "Rarely has this court seen a plan - governmental or otherwise - 

Diane Ravitch to lead new organization into political trenches | EdSource Today

Diane Ravitch to lead new organization into political trenches | EdSource Today:

Diane Ravitch to lead new organization into political trenches - by John Fensterwald

by John Fensterwald

Author Diane Ravitch, a hero of unionized teachers, is leading a new politically active national organization whose purpose is to “give voice to the millions of parents, educators, and other citizens who are fed up with corporate-style reform.”

The Network for Public Education, announced Thursday, hasn’t decided whether it will contribute to candidates, but it will promote them, in the hope that its endorsements will mobilize educators and parents to defeat candidates backed by big-dollar groups like former Washington, D.C., chancellor Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst and wealthy donors like New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Ravitch and her supporters staunchly oppose what those donors generally back – an expanded use of standardized test scores, including using them to evaluate teachers and principals, an expansion of charter schools and closure of poor-performing neighborhood schools ­– and have accused them of  trying “to elect candidates intent on undermining and privatizing our public schools.”

The Network will “grade candidates based on our shared commitment to the well-being of our children, our society, and our public schools. We will help candidates who work for evidence-based reforms and who oppose high-stakes testing, mass school closures, the privatization of our public 

Higher standards coming for state’s intern teachers - by Kathryn Baron

by Kathryn Baron

The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing signaled Thursday its intention to increase training requirements for intern teachers, including Teach for America members, before they’re allowed to teach any of the state’s 1.4 million students who are English learners. At a packed, highly charged meeting in Sacramento, Commission members staked out a compromise position to avert threatened...

Daily Kos: Global Temperatures Highest in 4,000 Years

Daily Kos: Global Temperatures Highest in 4,000 Years:

Global Temperatures Highest in 4,000 Years

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

That is the title of this New York Times story which warns that

over the coming decades are likely to surpass levels not seen on the planet since before the last ice age.

The article is reporting on new research

scheduled for publication on Friday in the journal Science, Shaun Marcott, an earth scientist at Oregon State University, and his colleagues compiled the most meticulous reconstruction yet of global temperatures over the past 11,300 years, virtually the entire Holocene. They used indicators like the distribution of microscopic, temperature-sensitive ocean creatures to determine past climate.

We know climate change deniers will attribute the increase in temperatures to normal natural changes.  Allow me to quote part of the article:  

Scientists say that if natural factors were still governing the climate, the Northern Hemisphere 

MAP Test Boycott: The Movie | Seattle Education

MAP Test Boycott: The Movie | Seattle Education:

MAP Test Boycott: The Movie

Schools Matter: Stacking Boards: Seating the "Reform Majority"

Schools Matter: Stacking Boards: Seating the "Reform Majority":

Stacking Boards: Seating the "Reform Majority"

by Storm

Guest Post by John Harris Loflin of the Education-Community Action Team, Indianapolis

 National agenda to seat "reform majority" school boards in key cities 

“Lead the effort to seat ‘reform majority’ school boards in several key cities.” 

~ Democrats for Education Reform, “A Year of Impact” 2012 DfER accomplishment

It looks like the January 7, 2013 Stand for Children (SfC) “celebration” for their 3 endorsed IPS school board commissioners (Arnold, Cosby, and Hannon) is one more of many this national lobbyist group conducts. 

SfC also “celebrated” the August 2012 election of 4 of the 7 candidates they endorsed in the Memphis, TN school board race. Two from the newly selected board are SfC members and 2 appointees were directly supported by SfC due to their alignment with SfC’s “core values.” 

According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal reporter Jane Roberts, SfC raised more than $300,000: $200,000 from a single out-of-town source and including $30,000 from local sources. SfC spent $154,000 on the seven school board races, including $60,000 in direct mail. The bigger expense ($90,000) was for training and dispatching hundreds of students that SfC paid $10/hour for a door-to-door campaign. 

Memphis reporter John Branston (The City Magazine) in his article “Stand for Something” pointed out that although the various media were confused as how to describe the SfC organization, he noted the, “One thing we [the Memphis media] agreed on is that Stand For Children is unusually well funded and spent more than $150,000 on the school board races, which is a huge amount.” 

SfC and DfER franchises are electing school boards elsewhere 

Evidently what happened in Memphis and Indianapolis is part of the national SfC/DfER organization efforts to 

Tony Bennett’s Curious Meddling in Parent Trigger | Scathing Purple Musings

Tony Bennett’s Curious Meddling in Parent Trigger | Scathing Purple Musings:

Tony Bennett’s Curious Meddling in Parent Trigger

by Bob Sikes

So Parent Trigger legislation predictably moved through a House committee yesterday along party lines by a 8-5 vote. But the most interesting news of the day came in the form of a letter that Florida’s new education commissioner, Tony Bennett sent to the bill’s sponsors, Sen. Kelli Stargel (R-Lakeland) and Rep, Carlos Trujillo (R-Miami). See this Kathleen McGrory story in The Buzz for the link. Consider this part of Bennett’s March 6 letter:

…..One of Florida’s strengths is the emphasis it places on local control and responsibility of education. The legislation as written includes language that may let local school board members off the hook when it comes to respecting a parent’s role in the process.
Rather than allowing an appeal process that shifts responsibility to the State Board of Education, which is not best equipped to understand the local sensibilities of these issues, parents, teachers, students and community members have a right to make sure that when parents vice an opinion, its gets considered. School boards should not have the ability shift the decision to the state. They owe it to parents to consider what they have to say without being able to avoid the tough 

Protesting ... mostly in vain | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Protesting ... mostly in vain | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Protesting ... mostly in vain

by thenotebook

by Bill Hangley, Jr. 

A day that began with big crowds, high spirits, and defiant speeches ended with disappointment for most opponents of Philadelphia’s school closing plan.

“I’m totally numb,” said veteran activist “Mama” Gail Clouden as the crowd filed out of the auditorium at School District headquarters in the wake of a series of votes that closed 23 schools and spared just four. “This is unbelievable to me.”

“There’s a way to do this, and do it right, and they chose to do it wrong.” said Rev. Dr. Alyn Waller of Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church. “This was not just emotional talk. We’ve given them facts, we’ve given them other proposals, and it is clear – they just did not consider them.”

Image: 

Image Caption: 

At Thursday's School Reform Commission meeting, the room was filled with critics of the District's massive closings plan

Photo Credits: 

Harvey Finkle

read more

SRC votes to close 23 schools, spares 4

by thenotebook

by Benjamin Herold for NewsWorks, a Notebook news partner

After an excruciating day of protests and pleas for mercy, Philadelphia’s School Reform Commission voted Thursday night to close 23 city schools and merge or relocate five others.

Four schools – T.M. Peirce and Bayard Taylor elementary schools, Roosevelt Middle, and Paul Robeson High – were spared.

All told, the SRC approved a total of 28 recommendations put forth by Philadelphia Superintendent William Hite, including three program relocations and a merger of the city’s two high school military academies.

read more

Weingarten arrested: take action to support Philadelphia schools

Mark Bostic - AFT - March 7, 2013 

 

Photo via AFT.

Breaking news via AFT:

AFT president Randi Weingarten was among a group of protesters arrested in Philadelphia Thursday evening for engaging in civil disobedience to protest the city's proposed public school closures.

Show your support for this courageous action. Tell Mayor Michael Nutter to fix, not close, Philadelphia's public schools.

Mayor Nutter and the School Reform Commission want to close 29 of the city's public schools, a reckless strategy that won't help kids and won't save money. These harmful closures will only destabilize neighborhoods and destroy schools. Local teachers, parents and community members are standing together to demand a moratorium on harmful closures.

Sign the petition. Tell Mayor Nutter to fix, not close, Philadelphia's public schools.

In unity,
Mark Bostic
AFT Northeast Regional Director