Monday, April 8, 2013

by Shane Vander Hart

Parent-Led Reform (@ParentLedReform) will host a Twitter Rally on April 16, 2013 which will start will go from 12:00p-2:00p (EST). We will discuss how the Common Core State Standards effect your family, community and schools? We invite you to participate.

There will be an expert panel and several organizations that will discuss #StopCommonCore. So far I know the panel will consist of:

Me (@shanevanderhart) representing Truth In American Education (@TruthinAmEd)
Emmett McGroarty of American Principles Project (@approject – Emmett will use this handle)
Joy Pullmann ( @JoyPullmann) an education research fellow at The Heartland Institute (@HeartlandInst) and editor of School Reform News (@SchoolReformNews)
James Shuls (@shulsie) an education policy analyst at the Show-Me Institute (@showme)
Ben DeGrow (@bendegrow) the Sr. Education Policy Analyst at the Education Policy Center of The Independence Institute (@i2idotorg). (I believe he’s joining us. If that isn’t the case, I apologize in advance).

I’ll update with a live link for the Twitter Rally (or you can just follow the hashtag #StopCommonCore) and as the

Indiana Governor Mike Pence Breaks Silence on Common Core

by Shane Vander Hart

After a long silence we finally have a feel of how Indiana Governor Mike Pence may handle Common Core legislation that could hit his desk.

Joy Pullmann of School Reform News reports:

Indiana leaders will “take a long, hard look” at Common Core, said Gov. Mike Pence in response to a School Reform News question at a public event Friday…

…Pence said he believed states created Common Core but the federal government has begun to get overly involved. He suggested Indiana could mimic Virginia, which has not adopted Common Core or corresponding national tests, but has compared its education standards to Common Core

Obama to announce Tobacco Tax plan for funding Pre K | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC

Obama to announce Tobacco Tax plan for funding Pre K | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC:

Obama to announce Tobacco Tax plan for funding Pre K

by Deepa Fernandes

White House confirms universal pre-K plan will call for increased cigarette taxes.; Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
California is seen as a shining example of how tobacco taxes can be used to both dissuade smoking and also improve children’s health and readiness for school. Now President Obama is following California’s lead. When he presents his budget Wednesday, the president will outline a similar scheme to fund universal preschool, the White House has confirmed to various media outlets.
After Prop 10 passed in 1998, California became one of the first states to raise taxes on cigarettes to fund early education programs. A new agency, First Five California, was created to hand out the money to schools and nonprofits to run education and health programs for children under five.
Scott Moore, a political analyst with Early Edge California, a nonprofit that advocates for increased early education, said California’s experience shows that the president’s plan to increase tobacco taxes to fund universal preschool can provide two returns on the investment.
“You get the return from investing in young kids,” Moore said, “and you get the return in reduced healthcare

Parents:: We have a NEW fact sheet re: opting out of #highstakestesting! | Change the Stakes

Parents: CHOOSE TO REFUSE! | Change the Stakes:

Open link in full window : https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7wdDUUSR15dMXk0cHNyWHphNk0/edit?usp=sharing

Education's Greatest Common Factor — Whole Child Education

Education's Greatest Common Factor — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

Education’s Greatest Common Factor

April 8, 2013 by Walter McKenzie

Are you tired yet of working to the lowest common denominator? Think about it. Every problem under discussion in public education boils down to it. Funding. Staffing. Standards. What's the least, the minimum we can expect everyone to accept?

To make it sound reasonable, we reference "milestones" and "benchmarks" to suggest that anyone can go beyond these minimum expectations, but the reality is the lowest common denominator becomes the de facto goal. Bars are lowered. Expectations settle. Learning is minimized, meted out, and measured. But what if we changed the formula so that minimum measures of learning become the variable and student learning becomes the constant for success?

ASCD's Whole Child Initiative refutes the phenomenon of the lowest common denominator. It raises the dialog beyond seat hours and test scores. Learning is the internalization of new human experience; there is more in play than student attendance and making the grade. The whole child approach is based on the premise thatall children can learn. If you disagree with this assumption, stop reading now and start looking for work in a

A Whole Child Education Transformation

by Walter McKenzie

Everyone freeze! Stop right where you are and look around. Survey the landscape. With all the clamoring and commotion in education, have you stopped to notice? Education transformation is already well under way. I know, I know. With all the posturing and politicking going on from your local school board to the state house to the White House, there's a public perception that it's business as usual. Voices of self-interest continue to tout the status quo. Advocates for the public interest continue to toe the bottom line. Amidst all the noise and distractions, education in 2013 can look and feel like more of the same.

As an institution, education is susceptible to the pitfalls and pratfalls of change: inertia, resistance, and gridlock. For many educators, the focus on standardization and accountability feels like roadblocks. For others, forces of globalization and techno-constructivism feel like progress. And all the while, budget cuts and reform backlashes tighten the vise grips on agri-industrial education. After decades of lip service about retrofitting reforms on the existing model, nothing short of a societal sea change is raising it from its sedentary, sedimentary, seemingly cemented place at the core of civilization.
How? Families now run the gamut in how they look and operate. Information is now free and available everywhere. Learning and learner interests are developed long before children enter a classroom. Graduates are struggling to meaningfully plug into the workforce. And successful twentysomethings are demonstrating a set of

New York State Association of School Attorneys: Corporate #edreform Thugs? – @ the chalk face

New York State Association of School Attorneys: Corporate #edreform Thugs? – @ the chalk face:

New York State Association of School Attorneys: Corporate #edreform Thugs?

by Timothy D. Slekar

Please read the document pasted below carefully. This is a legal “opinion” that actually tries to convey to parents that they DO NOT have an opt out right.

What parents need to understand is that this is a legal opinion written by (lawyers) supporters of high stakes testing.
Notice how they refer to people fighting corporate education reform as ANTI -testing advocates.
No, we are not anti-testing advocates!

We are activists that support and believe in a well funded, powerful, PUBLIC education for all children.

As the Illinois House prepares to cut retired teacher pensions, remember the $100 M give-away to the CME? | Fred Klonsky

As the Illinois House prepares to cut retired teacher pensions, remember the $100 M give-away to the CME? | Fred Klonsky:

As the Illinois House prepares to cut retired teacher pensions, remember the $100 M give-away to the CME?

by Fred Klonsky

The odds makers are placing money on the Illinois House voting to cut retired teacher pension benefits this coming week.
But remember when they voted to give the Chicago Mercantile Exchange a one hundred million dollar tax break?
Don’t you think it is rubbing our faces in it to announce today that the former CEO of that same CME paid its CEO $6 million for four months work.
Chicago Tribune:

CME Group Inc paid its former CEO Craig Donohue $6.1 million last year, making him its highest-paid executive even though he held the post for only the first four months of 2012, according to a regulatory filing on Monday.
Donohue’s total compensation, including salary, bonus and stock and option awards, exceeded his previous year’s take of $6 million, the company’s 2013 proxy statement showed.
That was more than Phupinder Gill, who succeeded Donohue as CEO on May 1, 2012. Gill

Ten minute drawing. Margaret Thatcher.

by Fred Klonsky

Click on drawing to enlarge.

The Chicago Tribune’s Eric Zorn writes: “You are contemptible. You want to be taken seriously?”

by Fred Klonsky

A week ago I criticized a recent post by Chicago Tribune writer Eric Zorn. He had written a pretty ugly piece mocking the suggestion that the Mayor’s school closings were racist.
More than 90% of the students affected are African-American in a school district where 42% of the enrollment is African-American.
Zorn responds instead to a post I wrote about his reporting, or lack of it, on the Persepolis book banning issue.

Fred,
Didn’t we straighten this out before, Fred? My daughter told me about this on Thursday night. I thought it sounded like a student rumor but thought I’d check it out the next morning. By that time it was on the blog and local newssites. For you to try– again — to turn this into an example of laziness on my part is simply contemptible. I really had no idea you were so free in

Joy Resmovits: Amplify, Rupert Murdoch's Education Subsidiary, Does Not 'In Any Way Endorse' Donkey Sex

Joy Resmovits: Amplify, Rupert Murdoch's Education Subsidiary, Does Not 'In Any Way Endorse' Donkey Sex:

Amplify, Rupert Murdoch's Education Subsidiary, Does Not 'In Any Way Endorse' Donkey Sex

by Joy Resmovits

On Sunday, the blog Slashdot posted a bit of news regarding Amplify Education, Inc., the education division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

Murdoch has said that he sees a multibillion dollar opportunity in the education sector, and has followed up on the goal of capitalizing on that market share by buying Wireless Generation and launching Amplify. News Corp. announced Amplify's creation in July 2012 with the hopes of creating a new digital learning platform in partnership with AT&T. The subsidiary boasts Joel Klein, the former chancellor of New York City's public schools, as its CEO. The company recently announced the creation of its first product: a tablet that will be sold exclusively to school districts that contains a suite of educational software. Teachers will be able to periodically take students' immediately digital pulse on whether their lesson was effective.

On Slashdot, user "theodp" ran a Google cache search of the site. The results, as theodp put it? "Obscene."

Despite Amplify's policy against pornographic and vulgar content, a site search of the term "donkey" within

The Problem With Black & White Statements in Education | Connected Principals

The Problem With Black & White Statements in Education | Connected Principals:

The Problem With Black & White Statements in Education

by Chris Wejr

cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by the BCth: http://flickr.com/photos/bcii/4499830063/

I continue to hear how certain educational practices are harmful to kids. Things like homework, desks in rows, multiple choice questions, worksheets, and tests are stated as being “toxic” and “educational malpractice”. I think as educators we need to be careful when we make dichotomous statements like these as they tend to end the chance for any productive dialogue.
I have made this mistake before… many times. I have my areas of passion and there are mindsets and ideas that I have strong opinions about but I have learned (and continue to learn) that when we make statements that polarize people, you leave very little opportunity to engage.
I saw this tweet today by a few educators whom I truly respect and who continue to challenge the status quo:

I believe this came from a statement from Alfie Kohn and people were just sharing his message but I am not

Video by former TFA- message to education policymakers | Parents Across America

Video by former TFA- message to education policymakers | Parents Across America:

Video by former TFA- message to education policymakers

by pureparents

A Former TFA teacher speaks

PAA Board member Karran Harper Royal shared this video with the following comment:

If another state or local education board votes to fund TFA after viewing this video, they should be arrested for conspiracy to commit child abuse. This video along with the Baye Cobb videos from Blackboard Wars shows how ineffective some of these young teachers can be. They should not be in a classroom as the only teacher in the room and should always be under the direct supervision of an experienced veteran teacher from the community.

The speaker, John Bilby, says in the video,

I left the organization because I felt that it does not adequately prepare its people to serve the poorest children in public schools. I also think that TFA is more interested in power, access, and influence in the federal game of education than it is concerned with resolving educational inequity. Its “corps members” are merely a means to this end, providing the organization with a front while it pursues the goals of its donors, namely to remodel public education in this country in order to favor a high-turnover, non-unionized workforce in charters run by hedge-fund managers for tax breaks. I foresee this further stratifying our current system into one in which children with disabilities,

Diane in the Evening 4-8-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

Who Sold Out Children’s Privacy?

by dianerav

In 2011, when the U.S. Department of Education revised the regulations governing FERPA to allow third parties to access children’s data without the consent of their parents, the Council of Chief School Officers weighed in. Here is. Comment by Sheila Kaplan, whose organization (educationnewyork.com) is devoted to student privacy issues:
“Here’s Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) Comments on 2011 FERPA RULE CHANGE
CCSSO own the Common Core State Standards Copyright with the National Governor’s Association (NGA).

Why Is the US Department of Education Weakening FERPA?

by dianerav

In the past few years, the privacy protections built into federal law have been weakened by the U.S. Department of Education to allow third-parties to access confidential information about students.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center summarizes the chronology. It has filed a lawsuit and is fight the Department’s new policy, which will give the private sector access to confidential student data.
In December 2011, the U.S. Department of Education changed the regulations governing the release of student data to the private sector, without Congressional authorization to do so. At that time, “the ED issued final regulations implementing its proposed amendments, despite the agency’s admission that “numerous

Georgia: Missing Dropouts Discovered by Investigative Reporter

by dianerav

Myra Blackmon, who writes a column in the Athens (Georgia) Banner-Herald, has discovered an amazing and well-hidden secret: Most of our nation’s dropouts did not drop out of high school. She looked at Georgia’s high school graduation rate and did some fact-checking. The graduation rate is supposedly 67%, but many students who did not drop out are not counted as graduates.

Beyonce and Jay-Z: Their Trip to Cuba

by dianerav

I have been listening today to news reports that certain Florida politicians are very angry that Beyonce and Jay-Z went to visit Cuba. That’s ridiculous. I bet they had all the visas they needed.
Good for them.
As readers may recall, I visited Cuba in February. I had a great trip, visited artists and museums, and saw a poor and very beautiful country.
I came away convinced that the embargo keeps the Castro regime in power.
If we ended the embargo, the country would flourish. The regime would wither away in response to free trade in

Jeff Bryant on the United Opt Out Protest

by dianerav

Last weekend, United Opt Out sponsored a protest rally in front of the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C. The event was called Occupy the DOE.
Jeff Bryant of North Carolina reports on the protests here.
I spoke on Thursday afternoon of the first day. The crowd was small, which was not surprising, because it was a workday and it is expensive to travel a distance. And the event organizers had no money for travel. Everything was handmade and improvised. No funding from Gates or Walton or Broad or anyone else. No paid staff. All volunteers: teachers, parents, students, librarians, and others who were there to speak out against the DOE’s damaging policies and for a better vision for American education.
The slight media attention focused on one remark by one speaker but there were many speakers with inspiring

School Board Shenanigans in Hillsborough County, Florida

by dianerav

Here is an article in the Tampa Tribune that is remarkably supportive of public education.
This writer, Steve Otto, understands that the Florida legislature is determined to dismantle public education in Florida.
At the same time, he notes that the school board in Hillsborough County (where Bill Gates dropped a hundred million or so to push teacher evaluation) is engaged in its own shenanigans. In this reported episode, a member of the board got up and publicly denounced a teacher who happened to be running for her seat. He was non-

Update on Louisiana Legislature

by dianerav

Mike Deshotels reports on what is happening in the Louisiana legislature.
Bear in mind that Governor Bobby Jindal proposed to “reform” taxes by eliminating the personal income tax and the corporate income tax, shifting the entire tax burden to the sales tax. This is a very unpopular proposal, which appears to have driven his poll numbers down into the mid-30s. It will also hurt the state’s public schools, as you will see in this post.
Jindal also plans to fund the voucher schools by taking money from the state’s Minimum Foundation budget for public schools, even though a state court has already declared it unconstitutional. Same for Jindal’s plan to pay

Jersey Jazzman: Why X Months of Learning is a Phony Metriv

by dianerav

Jersey Jazzman is a music teachers who loves to dissect the latest claims with hard cold fact and reasoned analysis.
In this valuable post, he explains why pundits and policymakers shoud stop reporting test score increases as “X months” of growth.
Why?
Because it is nonsense.

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 4-8-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 3 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] California Charter Founders Convicted of Embezzlement by dianerav The founders of Ivy Academia in the San Fernando Valley in California were convicted of embezzlement and a variety of other charges stemming from their use of $200,000 in school funds for personal expenses. From the LA Times: “”This message is going to resonate throughout the charter school community,” said prosecutor Sandi Roth. “You can’t spend the charter school funds for anything you want. It... more »

A Part of Us is Dying in Chicago

A Part of Us is Dying in Chicago:

A Part of Us is Dying in Chicago

by Sam

I can’t reconcile the deep sense of community that filmmakers Amy and Tom Valens have captured in their 10-part video series about a year in the life of a public school in Boston, with the painful public clashes we’re witnessing in Chicago – where 54 of the city’s schools will soon be shuttered.
Indeed, although the nation’s attention is fixed on the historic fight for marriage equality in the U.S. Supreme Court, a part of us is dying in the Windy City – and no one in the mainstream media seems to care.
No one disputes the fact that Chicago, like so many American cities, has real problems to solve. Population is down. Money is tight. School choice is growing. Tough decisions must be made.
By the same token, can anyone dispute that we have reason to worry about the state of our civic discourse when Chicago’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, allows the announcement of something as contentious as 54 school closings while he is on a ski trip in Utah? And can anyone blame local community leaders who wonder what to think of the Mayor’s plan to hold additional hearings on the issue? “If nobody is going to be heard at the hearings, what’s the use of having the hearings?” said Marshall Hatch, a local pastor. “If it’s a done deal, then stop wasting everybody’s time.”
A part of us is dying in Chicago because so many of us are so increasingly convinced that on the most

Why School Test Resistance May Be About to Sweep the Nation - LA Progressive

Why School Test Resistance May Be About to Sweep the Nation - LA Progressive:

Why School Test Resistance May Be About to Sweep the Nation

By Mark Naison

Morna McDermott of United Opt Out, an Associate Professor at Towson University, Maryland

When people decide to resist unjust policies that have overwhelming support and for which there are few antecedents in their lifetime, mast movements do not erupt overnight. They are often inspired by the accumulation of individual acts of protest, taken at great risk. One of the best examples of this is the lunch counter sit-ins during the Civil Rights movement, which began when four black college students in Greensboro, North Carolina, decided to challenge segregation in their downtown business district, sparking a movement in scores of cities that eventually encompassed more than 35,000 protesters and led to the creation of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee(SNCC).

We can also see this occurring during the Vietnam War, where one of the most powerful dimensions of a movement which began with teach-ins, rallies, and marches, was draft resistance, individuals refusing induction into the military, and risking imprisonment for their actions. This form of protest, which began in 1966 when there was a dramatic escalation of the use of US ground forces in the fighting, became one of the most powerful weapons the anti-war movement had to awaken the conscience of the nation, as tens of

Arooj Ahmed- Changing Education Student Voice

Student Voice:

Arooj Ahmed- Changing Education

by admin

Popout
The need for education reform is evident. But what’s the practical solution? It is easy to point out the flaws of the current system, but it is much more difficult to come up with relevant, applicable solutions. And it is even more difficult for policy makers to bring about change.
But it has to be done.
The gaping flaws of America’s education system have to be dealt with. Students, teachers, administrators, and parents have to step out of their comfort zones and advocate for change. It has to be a collective effort that is

Hell in New Haven Education reformers convene | Yale Daily News

Education reformers convene in New Haven | Yale Daily News:

Education reformers convene in New Haven

BY HANNAH SCHWARZ
STAFF REPORTER

Monday, April 8, 2013

Last Thursday and Friday, New Haven’s Omni Hotel and Shubert Theater became home to hundreds of education reformers from around the country.

The seventh annual Yale School of Management Education Leadership Conference brought in roughly 700 attendees from organizations like Democrats for Education Reform, the KIPP Foundation, Teach for America, City Year and Achievement First. The two days included five discussion panels, two of which were keynote events featuring officials such as Providence, R.I., Mayor Angel Taveras and Louisiana State Superintendent of Education John White. The panels held during the conference, which this year centered on “Inspiring Transformational Change,” focused on topics including parental involvement in community education transformation, the role of technology in personalized learning, how to use New Orleans as a model for change and how to reach students of all socioeconomic backgrounds.

The conference’s first panel, moderated by Connecticut’s Commissioner of Education Stefan Pryor, focused on how Connecticut can begin to implement its recently passed education reform bill. The bill will create the Commissioner’s Network of Turnaround Schools, which will use top educational

Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee and Friends Too Weird Even for Tennessee's GOP | Pith in the Wind

Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee and Friends Too Weird Even for Tennessee's GOP | Pith in the Wind:

Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee and Friends Too Weird Even for Tennessee's GOP

POSTED BY JEFF WOODS ON MON, APR 8, 2013 AT 8:20 AM

WPLN's Blake Farmer reports this morning on the many so-called education reform bills that have died this legislative session. Despite an army of lobbyists and a massive TV and radio ad campaign, Michelle Rhee & Co. couldn't persuade even our Republican supermajority to make these radical changes.

Among the casualties are school vouchers and making it easier for disgruntled parents to throw out their school administrators.

“I think we gave the impression that we were forcing a whole lot of stuff down folks’ throats,” says Rep. John DeBerry, D-Memphis, who sponsored the parent-trigger bill. “And perception is reality.”

Reality is reality too.

But wait—it's never too late to exploit schoolchildren for corporate cash. Senate Education Committee

Commissioner Pryor, where is your Department’s mandated report on school safety and bullying? - Wait, What?

Commissioner Pryor, where is your Department’s mandated report on school safety and bullying? - Wait, What?:

Commissioner Pryor, where is your Department’s mandated report on school safety and bullying?

by jonpelto

It is one of the most important reports that the State Department of Education produces.

It was supposed to include recommendations for how to create safer school environments.

It WAS DUE February 1, 2012…almost fifteen months ago!

Where is it?

Although Connecticut is learning the hard way that lawyers, with no classroom or education background, don’t make the best education leaders, it’s impossible to believe that Governor Malloy’s Education Commissioner, Stefan Pryor, and his senior leadership team fail to understand that creating a safe school environment is one of the most important educational issues of our time.

At the very least, we would expect that as lawyers, these “education leaders” would

remnant 5: “an artist has an obligation to be en route” [George Carlin] | DISCOURSE as quilting

remnant 5: “an artist has an obligation to be en route” [George Carlin] | DISCOURSE as quilting: