UPDATE NEA - Raise Your Hand

NEA - Raise Your Hand:

Raise Your Hand for Public Education

Empowering Educators to Lead

Pin It

Join us for a day of innovation, inspiration and invitation! Are you on Facebook? You can RSVP to this event there.

Agenda

Pre-opening Music Presentation – DJ Spinderella

Moderator: Pat Dolan, TURN (Teacher Union Reform Network)

Opening Remarks – NEA President Dennis Van Roekel

Collaboration to Lead the Profession

Speaker: Dr. Jerry D. Weast, Former Superintendent of Schools, Montgomery County, MD
Affiliate Engagement: ISTA ESP’s Leading the Profession with School Safety – Donna Nielsen,La Porte Community School Bus Driver, Driver Trainer Team Leader, Safety Team Lead and NEA Board of Director ESP at Large
Audience Participation

Assessment, Common Core and the Future of Education

Speaker: Linda Darling-Hammond, Professor of Education at the Stanford University School of Education
Affiliate Engagement: Empowering Educators to Lead - Jonathan Knapp, President Seattle Education Association
Audience Participation

Leading by Reaching Out to the Community

Speaker: Dr. Valerie Kinloch, Professor of Literacy Studies, Ohio State University
Affiliate Engagement: Bringing Learning to Life - Rhonda Johnson, President Columbus Education Association and Tori Washington, Service-Learning Teacher, Beechcroft High School, Columbus, OH and Beechcroft H.S. studentsRendell Buckhalter, Taryn Lewis-Smith, Chelsey Rodgers, & Christian Scase
Audience Participation

Closing Remarks – NEA Secretary-Treasurer Rebecca Pringle

Click to download the agenda.

2013 Teacher of the Year: Let’s Talk More About How Public Schools Succeed

by twalker

By Edward Graham

In April, Jeff Charbonneau, a chemistry, physics, and engineering teacher at Zillah High School in Zillah, Washington, was formally recognized by President Obama as the 2013 Teacher of the Year in a special ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House.

A 12-year teaching veteran, Charbonneau is a National Board certified teacher, co-president of the Zillah Education Association, and the recipient of numerous awards for his commitment to education. Charbonneau also founded and directs the Zillah High School Robotics Challenge, which he established after collecting over $25,000 in grants and donations from local businesses. Charbonneau has opened up the program to schools throughout Washington State, involving almost 2,000 students across 75 school districts in the last school year.

On June 19, Charbonneau sat down with National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel to answer questions about his own teaching experiences, practices, and the future of public education.

Van Roekel: How have you evolved into the teacher that you are today?

Charbonneau: I’ve shifted from more of a focus on grades to learning, because that’s what it should really be about. I want to know that my students understand the material before they leave my classroom, not that they have ‘x’ number of points in my grade book.  Where I teach and where I work is a paradise to me. It’s a place that I want to be, and that’s what I want my classroom to be. I want it to be a place where students know when they enter it that I care about them, and that everyone else in that room cares too.

You say everyday to your students, “Welcome back to another day in paradise.” How do you translate that greeting into practice in the classroom?

When I say that, it’s a recognition to the students that we’re in an air conditioned facility, that you’re sitting in a chair, that you’ve got food in your belly, that you’ve got people around you that support you. Shouldn’t you be excited about that? Shouldn’t you be ready to invest your time to continue making that paradise better? I try to convince my students of their own abilities, of their own expectations, and then use that to the fullest.

Education Reform at 20: What Lies Ahead |

Education Reform at 20: What Lies Ahead |:

Education Reform at 20: What Lies Ahead

June 20, 2013 by Alyssa Haywoode

Noah Berger, president MassBudget; Eileen Rudden, founder, Sankaty Growth Partners; John Jackson, president and CEO, Schott Foundation for Public Education; John Bissell, executive vice president, Greylock Federal Credit Union. Photo: Strategies for Children

“Since the 20-year history of education reform, Massachusetts has emerged as the top ranking state in the nation for overall student performance, but there is still more work to be done to fulfill the promise of a high-quality public education. Future reform efforts should allow for greater differentiation of supports with the end goal of fostering 21^st century skills in all students in the Commonwealth.”

 - Representative Alice Peisch, co-chair of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Education

It’s time to start a new conversation about education for the children of the commonwealth.

On June 18^th, the 20^th anniversary of the signing of the Education Reform Act of 1993, Strategies for Children began that conversation along with its partners the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (MassBudget) and the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education (MBAE). The three organi

First Lady Michelle Obama and Epicurious Announce Winning Recipes in Nationwide “healthy Lunchtime Challenge” | The White House

First Lady Michelle Obama and Epicurious Announce Winning Recipes in Nationwide “healthy Lunchtime Challenge” | The White House:

First Lady Michelle Obama and Epicurious Announce Winning Recipes in Nationwide “healthy Lunchtime Challenge”

by The White House

54 Kids to Attend "State Dinner" at White House on July 9
To Celebrate Nutritious, Delicious Lunchtime Dishes

 
Washington, DC – First Lady Michelle Obama, Epicurious, the Department of Education and the Department of Agriculture today announced the winners of a nationwide recipe challenge to promote healthy lunches as part of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! initiative.  The Healthy Lunchtime Challenge & Kids’ “State Dinner” will recognize 54 winners, representing all U.S. states, three territories and the District of Columbia, who will attend a Kids’ “State Dinner” at the White House hosted by Mrs. Obama on July 9. The group will join The First Lady for a healthy lunch, featuring a selection of the winning recipes, followed by a visit to the White House kitchen garden.
“Our Kids’ State Dinner is one of my favorite events of the year, and the kid chefs who come from around the country never cease to impress and inspire me with their creativity and ingenuity.  I’m counting down the days until the winners join me at the White House to celebrate these healthy and delicious meals that kids everywhere will love,” said First Lady Michelle Obama.
For the second consecutive year, The Healthy Lunchtime Challenge & Kids’ “State Dinner” invited a parent or guardian to work with their child ages 8-12 to create a lunchtime recipe that is healthy, affordable, original and delicious.  In support of Let’s Move!, launched by the First Lady to help solve the problem of childhood obesity, each recipe adhered to the guidance that supports USDA’s MyPlate (at ChooseMyPlate.gov) to ensure that the criteria of a healthy meal were met. Entries had to represent each of the food groups, either in one dish or as parts of a lunch meal, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins and low-fat dairy foods, with fruits and veggies making up roughly half the plate or recipe.
The second Healthy Lunchtime Challenge, originated by Epicurious to promote healthy eating among America’s youth, received more than 1,300 entries featuring wholesome, tasty ingredients, including salmon, black beans and ground turkey.  The winners and featured recipes include:

• Rowan Bean, 9, (Seward, AK) – “Alaskan Ceviche with Mango”
• Kindall Sewell-Murphy, 10, (Selma, AL) – “Kale Broccoli Chicken and Apple Salad”
• Emma-Kate Schaefer, 8, (Fayetteville, AR) – “Confetti Spring Rolls - Orange-Cilantro Sauce”
• Alexandra Nickle, 10, (Phoenix, AZ) – “Banana's Black Bean Burritos”
• Rose Scott, 12, Menlo (Park, CA) – “Pork and Tofu Lettuce Cups”
• Nicholas Hornbostel, 8, (Edwards, CO) – “Sushi Salad”
• John Breitfelder, 9, (New Canaan, CT) – “Quinoa "Risotto" with Shrimp and Kale”
• Braeden Mannering, 9, (Bear, DE) – “Tortilla Bowl Deluxe”
• Nicole Medina, 10, (Miami, FL) – “Summer Salmon”
• Regan Matthews, 12, (Atlanta, GA) – “Sweet Potato Turkey Sliders”
• Eleanor Cowell, 8, (Honolulu, HI) – “Curried Chicken Salad & Taste of the Tropics”
• Corrine VanderGaast, 9, (Tipton, IA) – “Stone Curry with Brown Rice”
• Adam Wirth, 8, (Boise, ID) – “Veggie Barley Salad with Orange Honey Vinaigrette”
• Taddy Pettit, 10, (Oakwood, IL) – “Black Bean Wrap with Jicama - Grilled Corn Salsa”
• Lydia Graham, 9, (Carmel, IN) – “Sneaky Chili Surprise”
• Olivia Neely, 10, (Lenexa, KS) – “Fun Mini Pizzas with Veggies & Cauliflower Crust”
• Regan Strehl, 11, (Lexington, KY) – “Raisin Bran Muffins”
• Brynna Robert, 12, (Metairie, LA) – “Sweet and Spicy Stir Fry”
• Shefali Singh, 12, (Falmouth, MA) – “Shefali's Scrumptious Spring Rolls”
• Emma Scielzo. 10, (Chevy Chase, MD) – “Chicken Masala Wrap”
• Noah Koch, 9, (Waterville, ME) – “Vegan Powerhouse Pesto Pasta”
• Jacob Hirsch, 8, (West Bloomfield, MI) – “Picky Eater Pita Pizza Pockets”
• Kaitlyn Kirchner, 9, (Madelia, MN) – “Garden Stir-Fry”
• Henry Oates, 8, (Adrian, MO) – “Confetti Peanut Ginger Party Pasta”
• Reed Lindsey, 10, (Booneville, MS) – “Pan Seared Mississippi Catfish on a Bed of River Rice”
• Joshua Garrigues, 8, (Bozeman, MT) – “Healthy Vegetable Fried Quinoa”
• Vijay Dey, 12, (Chapel Hill, NC) – “Spring Rolls”
• Charli McQuillan, 8, (Oxbow, ND) – “Asian Fajitas”
• Bence Brown, 9, (Omaha, NE) – “Terrific Tuna Casserole”
• Olivia Beauchesne, 12, (Nottingham, NH) – “Liv's Curry Chicken Salad Sandwich”
• Goldie Siegel, 8, (Clifton, NJ) – “Hawaiian Turkey Sliders with Mango-Pineapple Salsa”
• Louis Teich, 10, (Las Cruces, NM) – “Spinach Frittata”
• Isabella Gross, 11, (Henderson, NV) – “Chex Chicken and Bellaberry Smoothie”
• Peter Murphy, 8, (Manhasset, NY) – “Super Rescue Soup”
• Anisha Patel, 11, (Blacklick, OH) – “Kickin, Colorful, Bell Peppers stuffed with Quinoa”
• Ogden Johnson, 10, (Tulsa, OK) – “Taco De Camaron”
• Audrey Russell, 10, (Portland, OR) – “Salmon Fried Rice”
• Ganesh Selvakumar, 9, (Broomall, PA) – “Lentil Spinach Soup and Mint Chutney”
• Samantha Mastrati, 12, (Cranston, RI) – “Italian Garden Salsa with Crunchy Chicken Tenders”
• Corbin Jackson, 9, (Mount Pleasant, SC) – “Bring it On, Brussels Sprout Wrap!”
• Owen Kerkvliet, 9, (Huron, SD) – “Hidden Veggie Lasagna”
• Makenna Hurd, 9, (Mascot, TN) – “Makenna's Bodacious Banana Muffins”
• Devanshi Udeshi, 12, (Sugar Land, TX) – “Slam Dunk Veggie Burger”
• Cecily Asplund, 10, (Provo, UT) – “Lucky Lettuce Cups”
• Campbell Kielb, 8, (Sterling, VA) – “Orange Chicken Lettuce Wraps”
• Colin Hurliman, 9, (Burlington, VT) – “Champ's Maple BBQ Turkey Burgers”
• Amber Kelley, 10, (Woodinville, WA) – “Nummy No-Noodle Lasagna”
• Liam Kivirist, 11, (Browntown, WI) – “Wisconsin Solar Oven-Simmered Chili”
• Jessica Wolfe, 9, (Shepherdstown, WV) – “Spicy Tofu Lettuce Cups”
• Breeze Petty, 11, (Thermopolis, WY) – “Scrumptious Chili with Zucchini Cornbread”
• Ingrid Lamberg, 9, (Washington, DC) – “Inga Binga's Salmon Salad”
• Genzo Gonzales, 11, (Saipan, MP) – “Kangkong Pomegranate Salad”
• Aliana Piñero, 9, (San Juan, PR) – “Yummy Eggplant Lasagna Rolls”
• Sakari Clendinen, 8, (St. Thomas, VI) – “Zucchini Pancakes & Passion Fruit Banana Smoothie”

The winners were chosen by a panel of judges that included:  Tanya Steel, Epicurious editor-in-chief; Sam Kass, Executive Director of Let’s Move! and Senior Policy Advisor on Nutrition; Dr. Robert C. Post, Associate Executive Director, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, USDA; Susan Winchell, Assistant General Counsel for Ethics, USED; Sam Myers, Jr., White House Liaison, USED; Mike Curtain, CEO of DC Central Kitchen and The Campus Kitchens Project; and two Washington, D.C.-based children who are graduates of Share our Strength’s Cooking Matters program. For a behind the scenes look at this year’s judging, click HERE.
The full list of winners and recipes can be found online at recipechallenge.epicurious.com. Additionally, a free downloadable and printable e-cookbook of the winning recipes, including nutritional analyses and photos, will be available in July at the contest site, epicurious.com, letsmove.gov, USDA.gov, and Ed.gov.
“This year, we received very sophisticated recipe entries from all over the country that featured healthy ingredients like salmon, Greek yogurt, and ground turkey, which made it a delicious challenge to select the finalists,” said Tanya Steel.  “Each recipe also included anecdotes explaining the importance of healthy eating.  The insight from the kids who entered the challenge demonstrates that today’s youth understands the need to strengthen their bodies and minds with the most wholesome ingredients available.  We are, once again, incredibly thankful to Mrs. Obama for joining Epicurious to continue to raise awareness for the importance of healthy eating for future generations.”
 “Healthy eating can help spur academic success,” said Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education.  “And it’s exciting that our young people have harnessed their creativity to come up with fresh, new recipes that are nutritious and healthy. This competition is just another example of how kids can rise to any occasion—whether inside or outside the classroom—when challenged.”
“The Healthy Lunchtime Challenge makes healthy eating fun and educational, and I am inspired every year by the creative efforts of these kids to create healthy recipes,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.  “By taking steps today to help our young people adopt healthy eating habits, we’re not just improving their health in the short term – we’re giving them important tools that will last a lifetime.”
The children’s arrivals on July 9 through the East Wing/Booksellers will be pooled press and the First Lady’s remarks at the lunch will be open press.  Members of the media interested in covering this event must RSVP toFirstLadyPress@who.eop.gov with their full name, date of birth, social security number, gender, city and state of residence and citizenship by Wednesday, July 3, at noon ET.

Teachers won't give up when it comes to common sense gun laws | Lily's Blackboard

Teachers won't give up when it comes to common sense gun laws | Lily's Blackboard:

Any Gun to Anyone, But We Will Never Give Up

by Lily

Columbine. Aurora. Newtown. Virginia Tech, We can whisper a litany of locations like a prayer, and without saying anything more than the names of these places, heads will bow and people understand how they are connected. Gabby Giffords greeting voters in an Arizona supermarket parking lot. Patients waiting in a Ft. Hood doctor’s office. Folks standing in a movie to see Batman in Colorado. We don’t need to say anything more.

The disconnected becomes tragically connected as one after another we have seen a gruesome and growing play-stop-rewind-repeat-play thriller where easily-obtained, rapid-fire, high-capacity guns connect to the hands of dangerous people whose motive is to kill as many innocent bystanders as possible before dying themselves.

A friend who knew how passionate I was about doing something about senseless, insane gun violence casually said to me, “Well, you gave it a shot (not sure if the pun was intended)

Accumulation by Dispossesion | educarenow

Accumulation by Dispossesion | educarenow:

Accumulation by Dispossesion

Posted on June 19, 2013 | Leave a comment

Kirsten L. Buras has written a scathing indictment of the neoliberal reform agenda in Race, Charter Schools, and Conscious Capitalism: On Spatial Politics of Whiteness as Property (and the Unconscionable Assault on Black New Orleans).. Though it was written 2 years ago (2011), and though it focuses on New Orleans in its Post Katrina reform, this paper outlines what is now going on across the country. It’s an important contribution to naming and recognizing a pattern constituted of pieces that, when considered separately, are seemingly harmless pieces of policy. However, when considered as a whole, as Buras does so well, it becomes clear that these policies work towards the deconstruction of the ‘common’ in public education and replace it with a privatized conception of the market that benefits the elite. Buras’s paper is also important in that in excavates the importance of race in the creation of policy, and the ways in which race is used to leverage policy in favor of the privileged in spite of the language the privileged generate.

Buras argues that, regardless of the stated intent of restructuring education for 

Daily Kos: Badass Teachers Association - teachers fight back

Daily Kos: Badass Teachers Association - teachers fight back:

Badass Teachers Association - teachers fight back

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

Mark Naison is a professor of African-American Studies at Fordham University, and an activist FOR public education and against the "reform" movement.
Earlier this week he established a Facebook Group called Badass Teachers Association  (and yes, I have joined).
News of this has spread like wildfire.
Today is the 6th day of the group's existence.  It is already over 5,800 members as of 8 AM EDT.
It is one more example of pushback at how the so-called "reform" movement is destroying public education.
You will certainly want to take a look, to see the posts being put up by members.
Who knows, maybe you too are a Badass Teacher!  You refuse to be intimidated, you will stand up for your school and your students.
In which case you should join us.
Peace?

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 6-20-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

Yes, There Is Hope for Change in Florida

by dianerav

This reader says that there is a growing move to push back against Jeb Bush’s disastrous reforms.
Twice, the state’s parent activists have defeated the efforts of Jeb Bush and Michelle Rhee to pass a “parent trigger.” Why would parents join to defeat “parent empowerment”? They knew that the parent trigger was a corporate reform trick to allow more public schools to be handed over to corporations for profit and power. The parents banded together to stop privatization, and they won.
The reader comments about the growing resistance:
I know that it’s way too soon to claim that the worm is turning but I’m fascinated by the pushback down here in 

Alan Singer: Why Did Newsday Defame Teachers?

by dianerav

Alan Singer points out that instances of verified cheating are extremely rare.
Newsday identified 36 cases in a 10-year person on Long Island in New York. He flips the narrative and says that teachers did not cheat 99.99999% of the time.
The media misses the point. The problem with high-stakes testing is not cheating, which is rare, but the way it distorts education.

South Carolina Will Adopt Privatization Strategy

by dianerav

Public education in South Carolina, already suffering because of underfunding and intensely segregated schools in some districts, will sustain another blow. The privatization movement claims another victory. Now parents will be able to get a tax-credit when they send their children to little religious academies where the teachers are uncertified and the curriculum is Bible-based.

South Carolina poised to become 23rd state with private school choice

Adopted state budget includes tax-credit scholarships for students with special needs

COLUMBIA, SC (June 19, 2013)—South Carolina is on the verge of becoming the 23rd state to enact private 

Teacher Educator: How to Respond to the NCTQ Report

by dianerav

This advice was received as a comment, and it is directed to others in teacher education programs.
This teacher educator from one of the California State universities writes:
In reading each of your own campus reports, you are already well aware of how inaccurate the NCTQ “findings” are. In reading the report in full, I can assure you that it does not improve in the aggregate. It is almost unbelievable how wrong they have managed to be. It is after reading their full conclusions and assertions that it becomes obvious that presenting NCTQ with additional data or evidence regarding programs will not result in true 

Michigan: How to Destroy Communities

by dianerav

I was tempted to call this post “the outrage of the day.” It is hard to read it without a sense of blood-boiling rage. It was written by Stacy Erwin Oakes, a Democratic legislator from Saginaw.
Governor Rick Snyder wants to eliminate public education. He wants a state where every family shops for an education provider. As this article shows, his latest gambit was an effort to dissolve the state’s school districts.
That would set in motion the free market of consumer choice he wants.
But he couldn’t convince even his own allies in the legislature. One by one, they said, “not my district.” In the 

Philadelphia: Blame Teachers First Is a Bad Strategy

by dianerav

Philadelphia, which has been under state control for a dozen years, has a massive deficit. Governor Corbettt imposed draconian budget cuts when he took office.
The state’s solution to Philadelphia’s fiscal crisis: strip the schools bare. Lay off thousands of teachers, gut the arts and sports, libraries and guidance counselors. This hurts students. Which suburb would tolerate the gutting if its public schools?
That is not “shared sacrifice,” as Daniel Denvir explains in this article.
He writes:
“The School District is demanding $133 million in labor concessions to plug its $304 million budget gap. That’s 

Arne Offers More Time for Everyone to Get on Board Common Core Express

by dianerav

To prove that he is definitely not over-reaching, definitely not telling states what to do, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is giving states more time to meet his deadlines to tie Common Core test results to teacher evaluation.
He is apparently responding to Randi Weingarten’s request to postpone “high stakes” until teachers have 

Anthony Cody: Things That Money Can’t Buy

by dianerav

Anthony Cody has a piece of good advice for Bill Gates: You can’t buy the respect of teachers. You have to earn it. You have spent hundreds of millions of dollars coercing teachers to do what you want. Teachers know that you know less about teaching than they do. And they are tired of having you not only criticize them but use your fortune to control the conditions of their work.

Republicans in NC Step Up Their War Against Public Education

by dianerav

Far-right Governor Pat McCrory has brought in an aggressive leader for his strategy to privatize public education and dismantle the teaching profession. That is Eric Guckian, the governor’s tip advisor on demolishing–re, transforming –North Carolina’s education system.
Guckian is a TFA alum with long experience in the corporate reform movement. He wants “an aggressive K-12charter school environment in the state.”
At a meeting of the governor’s task force on education (which has no teachers on it), “Guckian presented five pathways for education in North Carolina that included a call to dismantle walls and textbooks for “digital online 

Diane in the Evening 6-19-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 3 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Breaking News: Secret Penn. Poll funded by Pro-Voucher Group PennCAN by dianerav An earlier post described a secret GOP poll that acknowledges Governor Corbett’s weakness and recommends that he could gain popularity by attacking the Philadelphia teachers’ union. The strategy is that he can portray himself as a “leader” and “reformer” trying to solve the Philadelphia fiscal disaster by blaming the union. New documents Secret Poll Urges Pa. Governor to Attack Philly Union to Improve His Image by dianerav A secret p... more »

Connecticut: The Republic of Debt - Wait, What?

Connecticut: The Republic of Debt - Wait, What?:

Connecticut: The Republic of Debt

by jonpelto

The 2013 session of the Connecticut General Assembly ended with the adoption of record amounts of additional state borrowing. 

They adopted $750 million in state bonds to pay a portion of the cost associated with moving Connecticut to Generally Acceptable Accounting Principles (GAAP).  Then there was the $1.6 billion for Malloy’s UConn initiative “to overhaul the state’s flagship university over the next decade,” this coming after the state’s $2.3 billion UConn 2000 program.  And then, of course there are hundreds of millions more in bonding for programs and services that should be funded out of the State’s General Fund rather than state borrowing, such as Malloy’s massive corporate welfare program and the state’s Stem Cell Research Program.

The fact is that the FY14-FY15 state budget relies heavily on record borrowing.

More on today’s Quinnipiac Poll Results: A captain who has lost the support of his crew….

by jonpelto

For a Democrat to be elected governor in the State of Connecticut he or she must have the overwhelming support of Democratic voters and receive a sizable share of unaffiliated voters.

By simply focusing on the projected vote between Governor Malloy and Tom Foley, the media is missing the most critical piece of the story.

Since Malloy converted from being Dan Malloy to Dannel Malloy he has consistently 

Guess how much we invest in our students | EdSource Today

Guess how much we invest in our students | EdSource Today:

Guess how much we invest in our students - by Jeff Camp / commentary

by Jeff Camp / commentary

Jeff Camp

In the course of a public K-12 education, how much money will be invested in the average California student? How much does a basic, public K-12 education actually cost?

Do you know? Can you guess?

I will answer the question in a moment. But first, I want to help you feel as uncomfortable as possible about the fact that you don’t know. Because I bet you don’t, and I think you should. After all, you are a voter and a taxpayer, and also the kind of person who cares about education, right? You may even think (as I do) that we should be willing to spend more, particularly in California.

Average Alex.  Let’s imagine a fictitious, average California public student. (Let’s call this student Alex, a name that is almost perfectly androgynous according to the Social Security Administration.) To remind ourselves that averages lie, let’s remember that Average Alex is about half Latino, 50% poor, and of course about half male. Alex is also obese, but only on Tuesdays. Again: averages lie.

So how should we quantify the total investment in the education of Average Alex?

It’s a trickier question than it might seem. Money for education comes from local, county, state and federal sources. The accounting to combine them is neither straightforward nor, apparently, the priority of anyone with a sense of urgency. The U.S. Department of Education collects and publishes the data at the state level through the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), but at a delay of about three years.

Based on the NCES figures, the total 13-year public investment in the education of California’s Average Alex, adjusted for inflation, comes to about $122,000.

$122,000.  Most people raise their eyebrows at this number. It’s enough to buy a small foreclosed-

Ed Notes Online: Oh, No, Thompson

Ed Notes Online: Oh, No, Thompson:

Oh, No, Thompson

by ed notes online

Another UFT/AFT-devised disaster in the making.....the UFT leadership instead went with the candidate who said Bloomberg did the right thing by screwing teachers out of the 8% pattern. ... You can be sure if Thompson is elected, he will turn his back on teachers and pursue the ed deform policies his co-chair, Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch, and his DFER/charter buddies want him to pursue.... Perdido Street School

We predicted this on May 18:

3-card monte scam

UFT Tilts to Thompson: Tisch, D'Amato, New Action Overjoyed, de Blasio branded as"Left" While SEIU Endorses him

Before the DA yesterday there were actually some people who had doubts about the Thompson endorsement as UFT insiders tried to fool people into thinking there was actually a democratic process by leaking, "This is not a done deal, de Blasio is still in the running." I told everyone I was putting $2 

New augmented reality glasses let teachers know when their students are falling behind | toteachornototeach

New augmented reality glasses let teachers know when their students are falling behind | toteachornototeach:

New augmented reality glasses let teachers know when their students are falling behind

by aristotlethewise

New augmented reality glasses let teachers 
know when their students are falling behind

By Lauren Hockenson
For teachers, it can be tough to tell when students are actually absorbing new information. They’re often so focused on the materials and on trying to keep the class alert that they can easily miss body language that suggests that a student is completely lost.
Researchers at la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid have developed the Augmented Lecture Feedback System (ALFs), a HUD glasses interface that teachers can wear while giving a lecture. From the display, teachers can see little icons that appear above each student’s head, indicating their comprehension of the given lesson as well as an overall chart indicating how many students are “getting it” compared to the rest of the class. The symbols 

Bill Schecter: Remembering a Teacher With an Uncommon Core - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Bill Schecter: Remembering a Teacher With an Uncommon Core - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Bill Schecter: Remembering a Teacher With an Uncommon Core

by Anthony Cody

Guest post by Bill Schecter.
A Boston-area college recently asked if I would like to blog about the Common Core, the national curriculum standards soon to be implemented in Massachusetts and elsewhere. Supposedly the brainchild of the nation's governors, the Common Core represents the latest approach to reforming our educational system and ensuring equal opportunity for all American children. The goal is a national curriculum based on uniformly high standards.
While always happy to share my opinion, I demurred, feeling I should actually know something about the Common Core before rendering judgment. I confess had grown a bit weary of the panaceas whizzing by me on the ed reform superhighway. I also had to cop to cynical preconceptions that the Common Core approach would quite similar to the "MCAS" version of education reform we've been suffering under in this state since 1993. The tyranny of high stakes, standardized tests, the narrowed curriculum, the test prep in place of teaching, and the teacher evaluations based on data points-these predictable and lamentable consequences were familiar to me. 

On gunfights in Old Sacramento, school-board lawsuits and Kevin Johnson as Kings salesman - Bites - Opinions - June 20, 2013

Sacramento News & Review - On gunfights in Old Sacramento, school-board lawsuits and Kevin Johnson as Kings salesman - Bites - Opinions - June 20, 2013:

On gunfights in Old Sacramento, school-board lawsuits and Kevin Johnson as Kings salesman

On shoot-outs in Old Sacramento, school-board legal woes and Kevin Johnson as the Kings' No. 1 salesman

 The Sacramento City Unified School District Board intentionally sacrificed poor neighborhoods and protected affluent ones with its school-closure plan earlier this year. That’s the gist of a lawsuit filed by several Sacramento students and their families last week, aimed at overturning the decision to close seven schools in some of Sacramento’s most disadvantaged communities.

The attorney working on their behalf is civil-rights lawyer Mark Merin. Bites was skeptical when Merin first described what he was trying to do with the case: prove that the school board and the district intentionally discriminated against low-income and minority communities.

There’s plenty to suggest its policy amounts to discrimination—98 percent of the displaced students are low income, 93.4 percent are students of color—but that’s not good enough for the court. Merin has to prove the discrimination was deliberate. As opposed to just dumb and negligent, which is what Bites had assumed.

“I think we can show it was intentional,” said Merin, explaining that the discrimination is in protecting more affluent neighborhoods while gutting low-income communities. “They, in fact, intended to discriminate against those who were powerless and those who were poor and those who would just take it.”

There could be a hearing within a month or so. Bites doesn’t know if the judge will buy Merin’s argument. But a temporary injunction would at least give the board one more opportunity to reboot the process it bungled so badly.

Or maybe not. In reaction to the lawsuit, Superintendent Jonathan Raymond and school board president Jeff Cuneo took the classic “blame the victim” approach last week, criticizing the 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Put school closings behind us? 'NO WAY'! Families occupy classrooms at Lafayette.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Put school closings behind us? 'NO WAY'! Families occupy classrooms at Lafayette.:

Put school closings behind us? 'NO WAY'! Families occupy classrooms at Lafayette.

by Mike Klonsky

Three weeks ago, a well-orchestrated call could be heard, coming from Clark Street and the 5th Floor at City Hall. "“We are putting the past behind us,” Byrd-Bennett said. “It is time to turn the page” on school closings. Yesterday, the community resistance movement answered back.

As the first wave of schools were being shuttered, with more than 850 CPS teachers and staff being fired, angry parents, teachers and community groups protested outside the auditorium where Byrd-Bennett spoke,

"There's something about these folks who use little black and brown children as stage props at one press conference while announcing they want to fire, lay off or lock up their parents at another press conference," CTU president Karen Lewis said. 

Rosemary Vega and family stand-in at Lafayette. Credit: OCPress/Twitter

The community also rallied outside of Lafayette School to support families who occupied classrooms in a last-ditch effort to save their