Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Stemming the Flow of the School-to-Prison Pipeline | NEA Today

Stemming the Flow of the School-to-Prison Pipeline | NEA Today:

Stemming the Flow of the School-to-Prison Pipeline

May 15, 2013 by twalker
Filed under Featured News, Top Stories

Missouri Education Watchdog: Watching the DESE Countdown Clock. Citizens Still Waiting for Answers to Questions from the May 2 Hearings.

Missouri Education Watchdog: Watching the DESE Countdown Clock. Citizens Still Waiting for Answers to Questions from the May 2 Hearings.:

Watching the DESE Countdown Clock. Citizens Still Waiting for Answers to Questions from the May 2 Hearings.

by stlgretchen

Time elapsed since DESE Common Core May 2 meetings:

We've installed a DESE clock to determine how long citizens have to wait for the answers to questions DESE promised to answer from its May 2 Common Core standards statewide meetings. Citizens were told questions/answers would be listed within a week on the DESE website. In fact, the commissioner referred legislators many times to use the DESE website for their various questions in the House Education Committee hearing on May 13, rather than answer their questions at the hearing. But what happens when the answers to your questions aren't listed because DESE refuses to even entertain the question?

Here's what you find when you link to DESE's site looking for answers to questions from the Common Core

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 5-15-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch

How Wisconsin’s Government Is Cheating the State’s Children and Public Schools

by dianerav

The Forward Institute of Wisconsin released a new study of education policy in the state.
This is a statement made by the Institute’s Chair, Scott Wittkopf:

Wisconsin has always been a leader in K-12 public education because we have long valued the right of every child to receive a quality public education. The fundamental nature of our values is reflected in the State Constitution, which guarantees all children equal access to educational opportunity in our public schools. That constitutional right is now being systematically eroded and defunded. The research presented in this report shows that current fiscal policy and education funding are depriving our poorest students access to a sound

How Grassroots Groups in Texas Are Beating the Testing Lobby

by dianerav

In my list of categories on this blog, the words “Texas” and “testing” are side-by-side. One of the biggest stories in the nation today is how ordinary folks–moms, dads, and students–in Texas are slaying the monster that ate their education.
Over the past 20-30 years, Texas became drunk on testing. The lobbyists for Pearson–headed by Sandy Kress, the architect of NCLB–made sure that Pearson won a five-year contract for nearly $500 million in 2011 at the same time that the legislature striped away $5.4 Billion from the public schools.

How Cyber Charters Waste Taxpayer Dollars

by dianerav

Cyber charters are profligate in wasting taxpayer dollars. A recent article on the Huffington Post reported that they spent nearly $100 million on advertising over a five year period. The biggest cyber charter, K12, spent more than $20 million in the first eight months of 2012.
In Ohio, home of rapacious and inefectivecyber charters, it costs the cyber operator $3,600 per student. But the

Will Public Education in Texas Survive the Next Two Weeks?

by dianerav

On May 27, the legislature ends its session. Supporters of public education are keeping fingers crossed that no damaging measures pass in the next two weeks.
The head of the Senate Committee on Education, Dan Patrick, loves vouchers and most anything except public schools. The head of the House Committee on Public Education, Jimmie Don Aycock, is a Republican who

Does Cincinnati Have the Right Formula?

by dianerav

People often wonder if there is any district or state that is working to support children and to strengthen public education. In the age of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, it is difficult to find districts that manage to keep their focus on students instead of carrots and sticks.
But there are success stories.
One is Cincinnati. When I visited there a couple of years ago, I met with the community leaders working together

How Useful Are the US News HS Rankings?

by dianerav

Matt Di Carlo takes a close look at the US News high school rankings and finds that they don’t tell you much about school quality. The information is self-reported. Only about half the high schools responded. The measures favor schools in affluent districts or schools with selective admissions.
This echoes what I heard from a reporter in Arizona. Two charter high schools are at the top end of the US News ratings. One has a tough selection process, accepting only accomplished students. The other requires that

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 5-14-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 10 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] An Appeal to UTLA: Please Help Monica Ratliff by dianerav Dear UTLA Members: I am writing to urge you to throw your full support behind the candidacy of Monica Ratliff for the Los Angeles school board race. Monica deserves and needs your help. I know you endorsed both her and her opponent. I am calling on you to help your colleague. Her opponent has collected over $2 million from the the same wealthy elites, the billionaires and millionaires who The Obama-Dunc... more »

Brown commits $1 billion for Common Core, sticks with funding formula | EdSource Today

Brown commits $1 billion for Common Core, sticks with funding formula | EdSource Today:

Brown commits $1 billion for Common Core, sticks with funding formula - by John Fensterwald

by John Fensterwald

Gov. Brown explains how the Local Control Funding Formula would work during a press conference in Sacramento on the May revision of the state budget

Gov. Jerry Brown proposed Tuesday to direct all ofthe extra $2.8 billion in revenue that the state expects to receive this year to K-12 schools and community colleges, mostly for one-time uses, including $1 billion to implement the Common Core standards.

There had been projections of even more money this year, but in a news conference releasing hisMay budget revise, Gov. Jerry Brown tempered expectations; the drag of federal tax changes, sequestration of federal spending and new payroll projections had led the administration to lower its bottom-line estimates in the May revision of the state budget. Administration officials warned that the minimum guarantee for school spending, after rising to $56.5 billion in 2012-13, is projected to fall nearly $1 billion next year.

Brown is not suggesting any changes to the basic design of his Local Control Funding Formula, as suburban districts had hoped and Senate Democrats had proposed.Instead, he defended his sweeping school finance reform, which would direct significantly more money to low-income students and English learners, as “just.” And he juxtaposed the “moral power” of his plan, treating “unequals in a more equal way,” with the “political power” of the opponents.

Advocates for high-needs students praised

America’s Education Spring: A Growing Revolt Against ‘Reform’ Mandates

America’s Education Spring: A Growing Revolt Against ‘Reform’ Mandates:

America’s Education Spring: A Growing Revolt Against ‘Reform’ Mandates

by Jeff Bryant

“It’s always hard to tell for sure exactly when a revolution starts,” wrote John Tierny in The Atlantic recently. “I’m not an expert on revolutions,” he continued, “but even I can see that a new one is taking shape in American K-12 public education.”

Tierney pointed to a number of signs of the coming “revolution:”

Teachers refusing to give standardized tests, parents opting their kids out of tests, and students boycotting tests.
Legislators reconsidering testing and expressing concerns about corruption in the testing industry.
Voucher and other “choice” proposals being strongly contested and voted down in states that had been friendly to them.

Tierney linked to a blog post by yours truly, “The Inconvenient Truth of Education Reform,” explaining how the movement known as “education reform” has committed severe harm to the populations it professes to serve while spreading corruption and

UPDATE: when considering school performance Daily Kos: country with most Catholics effectively legalizes gay marriage

Daily Kos: country with most Catholics effectively legalizes gay marriage:

a point to remember when considering school performance

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

we have seen some schools claiming they are showing improvement in educating students on free or reduced lunch, the standard measure used for children in poverty.
There's something to remember.
First, school performance is highly correlated with family economics and education (children of graduate students qualify as poor but that is offset by parental education0
Second, we have seen increasing numbers of students going on to free and reduced lunch as result of the extended recession - many families have even run out of unemployment benefits. The children of such families were not RAISED in poverty but now live in poverty, so they tend to retain the academic performance of the economic class in which they live.
So be careful about claims made by some about how well they are doing educating poor kids. They may just have seen the number of poor kids increase as families continue to slide downward from the middle class.
Just saying . . .

country with most Catholics effectively legalizes gay marriage

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

RIO DE JANEIRO — The council overseeing Brazil’s judiciary ruled on Tuesday that notary publics cannot refuse to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies, a decision that opens the way for gay couples across Latin America’s largest country to marry.

That is the lead paragraph in Brazilian Court Council Removes a Barrier to Same-Sex Marriage.A few things to note
1. the council is headed by the the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
2. it had previously voted to allow civil unions, but some notary publics and some of the local judges supervising them had refused to even do that.
3. the vote on the council was 14-1.
4. the ruling also means notaries reregister civil unions as marriages upon request
5. this is not in isolation: 10 of Brazil's 27 states had already legislatively legalized same-sex marriages

Still, there is some room for judicial appeals of the Brazilian decision, potentially within the high court, the Supreme Federal Tribunal, and resistance may emerge in Congress, where gay-marriage legislation has faced opposition from an influential bloc of evangelical Christian lawmakers. Even so, supporters of same-sex marriage described the council’s decision as pioneering.

Brazil has over 140 million Catholics. The next largest catholic population is in Mexico, with 98 million. Same sex marriage is legal in Mexico City, and a few months back the nation's Supreme Court ruled that legislation in Oaxaca state banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional under the national constitution.Uruguay, Argentina, France, Portugal, Spain - all predominantly Catholic countries which already had marriage equality, with Brazil and Mexico now seemingly joining them, and countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, and Scandinavian countries.
News i thought worth sharing.
PEACE>

in praise of Wegman's

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

about which my wife has raved since she first encountered one. Nearest to us in Arlington VA is one in Fairfax, about a 20 minute drive in non-rush hour traffic.
We were feeling a bit celebratory this evening. The report from her oncologist was quite good. We went and she got her hair washed, and then, in search of bitter lemon, we went to Wegman's.
This particular store does not carry Canada Dry, but something a bit pricier, which we will try. But in wandering the store I was incredibly impressed. It was after 9 when we got there, a lot of the stuff was being packed up for the evening. But still . . . .
I was AMAZED at the range of products in a number of categories. Their house brands on a variety of products have prices that blow away those of other local changes. I was simply amazed at the range of kosher products they carried.
We did not have enough time to thoroughly explore the store. But I was impressed. Very impressed.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Yesterday's Tweets

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Yesterday's Tweets:

Yesterday's Tweets

by Mike Klonsky

Fred Klonsky toon.

Tweet from Randi Weingarten ‏@rweingarten
The Illinois Senate pension proposal is a good and fair agreement: http://bit.ly/10FkSub #1u

Reply from Mike Klonsky ‏@mikeklonsky
It's that much harder to fight cuts to our pensions and health care when @rweingarten is calling them "good" & "fair".. But we will.

Tweet from SmallSchoolsWorkshop‏@Smallschools
@rweingarten How can you call SB 2404 which calls for major cuts in retired teachers' pensions and health care, a "fair solution"?

Tweet from Randi Weingarten‏@rweingarten
@Smallschools- have you seen the other proposals? This is the agreed upon bill-and I believe retirees were not

Why we need a moratorium on the high stakes of testing

Why we need a moratorium on the high stakes of testing:

Why we need a moratorium on the high stakes of testing

By Valerie Strauss, Published: May 15, 2013 at 4:00 amE-mail the writer

Comments

The president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, called late last month for a moratorium on the high stakes attached to new Common Core-aligned standardized tests. (You can read about that here.) Here’s a piece in support of that call, written by Jeff Bryant, an Associate Fellow at the Campaign for America’s Future and the owner of a marketing and communications consultancy. It serves numerous organizations including Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, PBS, and International Planned Parenthood Foundation. He writes extensively about public education policy at ourfuture.org. Follow Jeff on Twitter:jeffbcdm

By Jeff Bryant

By now it’s become clear to anyone willing to pay attention that our nation’s obsession over education standards and testing has gotten out of hand.

Ratcheting education standards ever higher at the same time we cut supports that schools and students need to reach those standards never made any sense to begin with. And the value placed on testing isn’t yielding the return promised in terms of

What if Finland’s great teachers taught in U.S. schools? (Not what you think)

by Valerie Strauss

Finland’s Pasi Sahlberg is one of the world’s leading experts on school reform and the author of the best-selling “Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn About Educational Change in Finland?” In this piece he writes about whether the emphasis … Continue reading →