Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Leave no unwealthy child behind

Posted by Valerie Strauss on May 7, 2013 at 4:00 am

How does growing economic inequality affect student achievement? Here to discuss it is Mike Rose, a highly respected professor at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and author of several books. His latest book is “Back to School: Why Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Education.

By Mike Rose

Stanford sociologist Sean Reardon wrote an important opinion piece for The New York Times last week, “No Rich Child Left Behind,” and I would like to add a few thoughts to it. Growing economic inequality between the wealthy and just about everyone else has been in the news for some time now. What Reardon does is offer data that demonstrates how that economic inequality is being reflected in educational achievement.

Examining math and reading test scores over the past 50 years, Reardon found that “the rich-poor gap in test scores is about 40 percent larger now than it was 30 years ago.” Other researchers are finding that “the proportion of students from upper-income families who earn a bachelor’s degree has increased by 18 percentage points over a 20-year period, while the completion rate of poor students has grown by only 4 points.” And it’s not just low-income kids who are being left behind; one of Reardon’s striking findings is that “the rich now outperform the middle class by as much as the middle class outperform the poor.” It’s not that poor or middle-class kids (of any racial or ethnic background) are doing worse;

What schools need and what they don’t need

by Valerie Strauss

Veteran educator and education blogger Anthony Cody wrote a piece on his Education Week blog, Living in Dialogue, about a new proposal by Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, to postpone for a year the high … Continue reading →

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: On the removal of Principal Zoila Garcia from Whittier Dual Language School

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: On the removal of Principal Zoila Garcia from Whittier Dual Language School:

On the removal of Principal Zoila Garcia from Whittier Dual Language School

by Mike Klonsky

Parents, teachers, and community members meet to protest the removal Principal Garcia. (Photo: Un-Official Whittier Dual Language School)

To the extended Whittier Dual Language School Family

Whittier Dual Language School, under the direction of Zoila Garcia, was visited before she was abruptly removed by PLV Network Chief Steve Zrike, with no input from the LSC or Whittier School Community, by the one of the national authorities on Dual Language, The Dual Language Education of New Mexico, who participated in an all day instructional round observation in nine classrooms. The DLeNM is an organization that knows more about dual language education than anyone in CPS.

In the report, they wrote the following of our principal, Ms. Zoila Garcia:

"School principal, Zoila Garcia, possesses an exemplary understanding of dual language instruction and

UPDATE: State releases new school grades + National Teacher Day: Instead of coffee mug or flowers,... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com

National Teacher Day: Instead of coffee mug or flowers,... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:

Get Schooled: State releases new school grades. How did your school fare?

The state Department of Education just released grades for all k-12 public schools in Georgia based on a brand new measures called the Georgia College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI). There are scores for districts and schools.
Find your district school here. Once you do, please post about ...

Get Schooled: National Teacher Day: Instead of coffee mug or flowers, teachers want trust

By Maureen Downey

I have been inundated with statements and releases on National Teacher Day, which is today. I thought this poll was the most interesting of the stuff sent to me.

This is from the National Education Association:

As part of this year’s celebration, the National Education Association conducted an online poll, asking teachers, “What do you want for National Teacher Day?”

Nearly 1,000 educators participated in the poll. Poll responses indicate that teachers still appreciate thank you cards, flowers and drawings from their students, but teachers also expressed growing concern and frustration with high stakes testing and the lack of classroom autonomy.

According to those participating in the online poll, the best “thank you” would be to:

•“Trust my education and experience. Give me control over my students’ instruction and assessment” (29.1%)

•“Stop the standardized testing mania (28.06%)

•“Pay me the salary I deserve” (19.98%)

•“Smaller classes so I can give more

Monday, May 6, 2013

Special Late Nite Cap UPDATE 5-6-13 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

Nite Cap UPDATE

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

CORPORATE ED REFORM

'Ted Talks Education': A Sneak Peek of Tonight's Television Debut

by Emily Richmond

TED Talks makes its first foray into television tonight, and the decision to focus on public schools wasn’t a tough call, said Chris Anderson, curator of the nonprofit organization that built its niche showcasing inspirational speakers in a variety of live and online formats.

“Re-imagining education is a topic we love at TED because we think figuring it out will be the key to a more hopeful future,” Anderson said.

Co-sponsored by WNET and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (as part of its American Graduate: Let’s Make it Happen campaign), “TED Talks Education” is hosted by musician John Legend, taps well-known innovators such as Geoffrey Canada (CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone), and author Sir Ken Robinson,

Smith-Blum Finalists for BOE Position

by Melissa Westbrook

The Seattle Times is reporting that Kay Smith-Blum is one of six finalists for an interim seat on the Washington Board of Education. She is being interviewed tomorrow for the seat. She says she is not sure what she will do if offered the position. The position is only for nine months and then she would have to run in November to stay in the position. The election would be by members of school boards from the Western Washington region.

If she did accept, she would have to resign her position on the Seattle School Board. That would then prompt the Board to have to take applications and then appoint a candidate from Smith-Blum's district. That person

New Schools for New Orleans: Don’t You Believe It

by deutsch29

In April 2013, New Schools for New Orleans (NSNO) released this report, called, “Accelerating Academic Gains in New Orleans.” Please know that the only way to “accelerate the gains” is to manipulate what the public sees. This report is an optical illusion that relies upon both combining data for two different school systems and quoting stats on subcategories as though such are full categories.

Readers might find it helpful to open the link for the report and view the graphs prior to reading about them. (I could not reproduce them in my post.)

Here is how it works:

On page 3 of the report, NSNO presents a beautiful color graph labeled, “District Performance Scores for the

Stop Data Rape!

by teachbad

Have you ever heard the term data-driven instruction? It’s where data is used to drive instruction. Just by itself, it isn't clear what kind of data would be most useful, how best to collect it, how it should be used or by whom. But as long as we repeat the phrase often enough, and have lots of data being collected and laying all over the place, we’re good. No worries. Data-driven instruction is the bomb. However, it can also trigger an aggressive kind of arousal and single-mindedness in Read more [...]

Testing for exactly the opposite of what we need

by alicemercer

via Tom Hoffman at TuttleSVC:

Choice Quotes on the NYS ELA Exam

Many thanks to Lucy Calkins for having someone throw up a site to gather comments about the recent Common Core-aligned ELA exams in New York state. It is a bit of a mess, but kind of charming that in 2013 they chose to hack something together from scratch in PHP instead of just giving Google all the data directly.

Here are some quotes I plucked — sorry they aren’t attributed or individually linked. I spent way too

Gov. Christie teaches kids how to handle unwanted spiders: smush ‘em

by Valerie Strauss

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gave some visiting school children a lesson in how to handle unwanted bugs: smush them with the palm of your hand. (See video below.) That’s what he did Friday when he spotted a little spider … Continue reading →

BREAKING NEWS!! PRINCess PAL Misconduct at PS 154 in the Bronx!!

by noreply@blogger.com (Bronx Teacher)

Sorry been away so long. Baseball season has started for my son and been busy. He is playing in the local Little League and practicing for his summer travel team as well. Been running back and forth between games, practice, and lessons.

There is so much news and information that I am currently sitting on that needs to come out. To sum it all up in a nutshell, Rome is burning and Nero is clueless.

The breaking news that came into the SBSB newsroom today shows hypocrisy and a lack of ethics at its worse, and incompetency as never seen before.

Today, a 2nd grade student by the name of Hymie Morgenstern was all alone in the main office. No on

Too much Money being spent on Education: Not! by John Stoffel

by Timothy D. Slekar

To every person who comments on an Indiana online newspaper article with, “We continue to throw more money at education and we aren’t getting any better results…” I say, “I couldn’t disagree with you more.” Millions of dollars to McGraw-Hill for an online ISTEP test is not money spent on education. Millions more dollars for [...]

Navy Steals: The Military’s New Interest in STEM Education | DailyCensored.com - Breaking Censored News, World, Independent, Liberal News

Navy Steals: The Military’s New Interest in STEM Education | DailyCensored.com - Breaking Censored News, World, Independent, Liberal News:

Navy Steals: The Military’s New Interest in STEM Education

by Danny Weil

Here is a nice piece of news about the military, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education that the Obama Department of Education and its kitchen-cabinet, The Lumina Foundation have been pushing for some years. The military industrial complex have been marketing themselves to the little seven and eight year olds for years.

http://comdsd.org/article_archive/NavyandSTEMeducation.html From Draft

Noptices, April-June 2013
Navy Steals: The Military’s New Interest in STEM Education
– Seth Kershner
[Originally published by Bitch Magazine, December 2012,

http://bitchmagazine.org/article/navy-steals

Although women make up about half of the United States workforce, they represent just 24 percent of careers in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). In order to correct this,

On the need for unions and seniority | InterACT

On the need for unions and seniority | InterACT:

On the need for unions and seniority

by David B. Cohen

This blog post was originally composed as a response to a comment by Kelly Amis, but as the post grew, I figured it could hold its own as a blog post.
Thanks for continuing the dialogue, Kelly. I like a good back-and-forth with people who push my thinking.
You wrote: “I’m pro-union (for jobs in which people are nearly powerless and easily replaced, like farm or factory workers, I’m just not sure it is helping teaching as a profession).” Regarding unions, I think it’s not only a matter of skill and replaceability, but also power imbalances. Teachers I know and hear from in non-unionized states describe the arbitrary and punitive use of power to silence troublemakers and embolden poor, unethical, even illegal practices in administration and school governance. There’s also considerable political pressure and involvement in education that necessitates the strength in numbers that comes with unions. Think of the science teachers who dare to teach about evolution as a fact, health teachers who mention birth-control, LGBTQ

Ed Notes Online: NYCDOE Charter Hits Keep Coming on PAVE Favoratism as DOE to Hold Hearing But Won't Tell Anyone Details

Ed Notes Online: NYCDOE Charter Hits Keep Coming on PAVE Favoratism as DOE to Hold Hearing But Won't Tell Anyone Details:

NYCDOE Charter Hits Keep Coming on PAVE Favoratism as DOE to Hold Hearing But Won't Tell Anyone Details

by ed notes online

Please note that if you would like the specific amendment to PAVE’s charter, please file a FOIL request with the DOE’s Records Officer. .... Sonia Park, NYC DOE Charter Schools Accountability & Support, 212.374.6883

The hearing is today. Another Tweedie perpetrating another outrage unreported by the semi-useless NYC Press corps.

Remember billionaire run PAVE charter, which we give credit to for turning on the motor of activism for Julie Cavanagh? They moved out of PS 15 and got their own 34 million building. You see charters aren't supposed to have Pre-K. But if pre-k kids go to a great public school like PS 15 they won't want to leave to go to semi-dysfunctional PAVE. So PAVE is trying the oft-used ploy used by Eva's Success chain of going around the rules

WAGPOPS Has Partner in LAPOPS in Cross Country Battle Against Citizens of the World Charter

by ed notes online

Eric Grannis (Eva's husband) should be strapped to a public school he is invading and have his liver eaten by buzzards (his heart has been gone a long time). The amazing Brooke Dunn has done it again and keeps doing it. See a previous item in Citizens of the World charter from Brooke at Norms Notes: Brooklyn Charter School Targets Rich, White Parent... as the Ed Deform so-called "civil rights issue of our times" support racist segregation policies while the major media is complicent - or just too busy trying to find out where parent activists are sending their kids to school.

Many of you know that WAGPOPS! (Williamsburg and Greenpoint Parents: Our Public Schools!) has been fighting Los Angeles based Citizens of the World Charter Schools for the past year and a half. The good news is that we have a sister organization, LAPOPS! (Los Angeles Parents: Our Public Schools!) in Los Angeles. We've also developed partnerships with parents who attend Citizens of the World Charter Schools (CWC) in Hollywood (CWCH) and Silverlake (CWCSL).

The Tennessean’s Inaccurate Editorial | Truth in American Education

The Tennessean’s Inaccurate Editorial | Truth in American Education:

The Tennessean’s Inaccurate Editorial

by Shane Vander Hart

The editorial board at The Tennessean clucks it tongue at parents and citizens who recently showed up to protest the Common Core State Standards being implemented in their state in an editorial yesterday. Apparently Tennessee legislators, parents and citizens are to blindly accept as fact the talking points circulated by those who advocate for the Common Core.

They editorial board asks “where have they (the opposition) been until now?”

They then make several points:

The Common Core State Standards have been in the works since 2008.
Access to information has been readily available.
“The tenor of the complaints suggests that the standard

Buena Vista Michigan Teachers Agree To Work For Free As District Goes Broke

Buena Vista Michigan Teachers Agree To Work For Free As District Goes Broke:

Buena Vista Michigan Teachers Agree To Work For Free As District Goes Broke

by Joy Resmovits

A small school district in Michigan has run out of money to pay its teachers. But the school year isn't over until June 23.

The Buena Vista Education Association convened most of its 27 teachers on Monday for what some described as an emotional meeting. They voted to continue teaching, despite learning on Friday that the school district would be unable to pay their salaries starting in mid-May -- because it had run out of money.

What a way to ring in Teacher Appreciation Week.

The teachers voted to continue teaching because, as Joe Ann Nash, president of the teachers' union, put it: "We stick together." Nash teaches third grade. On Friday, her students asked her if she'd been fired. "I told them, look, the district doesn't have any money to pay us," she recalled. "They told me, wherever we go, they're going

Torlakson Notes Contribution of Teachers - Year 2013 (CA Dept of Education)

Torlakson Notes Contribution of Teachers - Year 2013 (CA Dept of Education):

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Notes Contribution of Teachers

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson urged Californians to honor teachers during National Teacher Appreciation Week on May 5-11, National Teacher Appreciation Day on May 7, and California Day of the Teacher on May 8. California's Day of the Teacher theme this year is "California Teachers: Honoring our past. Guiding the future."

"I believed it when I started my career as an educator, and I'm even more certain of it now: Teaching is the most important job there is," Torlakson said. "As we celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week, we should reflect on the fact that teachers are often the greatest champions our children have. Their care and skill inspire our students, motivate them to do their best, and prepare them for the world beyond the classroom. Inside those classrooms, teachers are not only the brains—they're also the heart. Let's celebrate them not only for what they teach, but also for giving us all the great gift of learning to believe in ourselves."

This week also marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of the California Teachers Association

by former State Superintendent of Public Instruction John Swett.

# # # #

Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Major Bill Actions in Education - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress

Educational technology and distance education - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress:

Bill Introduced: H.R.1617 Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act

Open Congress : Major Bill Actions in Educational technology and distance education - 12 minutes ago

To create an emergency jobs program that will fund 2,242,000 positions during fiscal years 2014 and 2015.

Bill Introduced: H.R.1802 Sandra Day O'Connor Civic Learning Act of 2013

Open Congress : Major Bill Actions in Education programs funding - 3 hours ago

To authorize the Secretary of Education to award grants to promote civic learning and engagement, and for other purposes.

Bill Introduced: S.840 School Principal Recruitment and Training Act

Open Congress : Major Bill Actions in Education programs funding - 3 hours ago

A bill to recruit, support, and prepare principals to improve student academic achievement at eligible schools.

Bill Introduced: H.R.1736 School Principal Recruitment and Training Act of 2013

Open Congress : Major Bill Actions in Education programs funding - 3 hours ago

To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to recruit, prepare, and support principals through capacity-building measures that will improve student academic achievement in high-need schools.

Bill Introduced: H.R.1709 Securing American Families by Educating and Training Youth (SAFETY) Through Nonviolence Act of 2013

Open Congress : Major Bill Actions in Education programs funding - 3 hours ago

To authorize the Attorney General to award grants to eligible entities to prevent or alleviate community violence by providing education, mentoring, and counseling services to children, adolescents, teachers, families, and community leaders on the principles and practice of nonviolence.

Bill Introduced: H.Res.152 Celebrating the anniversary of the enactment of Public Law 87-788, commonly known as the McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry Act.

Open Congress : Major Bill Actions in Education programs funding - 3 hours ago

Celebrating the anniversary of the enactment of Public Law 87-788, commonly known as the McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry Act.