News Update: Public Education Champion Diane Ravitch reports More on financial problems Ed. Chair Kenneth Moales, Jr. a- Wait, What?

News Update: More on financial problems facing Bridgeport Board of Ed. Chair Kenneth Moales, Jr. and his church - Wait, What?:

Warning! Warning! Alliance Districts Beware:

by jonpelto

Tomorrow, Connecticut’s poorest and most challenged school districts must submit their “Year 2 Alliance District Plans” to Commissioner Stefan Pryor and his loyal band of education reformers. If you are a student, parent, teacher or administrator in one of the following towns…you should be worried….very worried. The towns include: Ansonia, Bloomfield, Bridgeport, Bristol, Danbury, Derby, [...] (Read more...)

Public Education Champion Diane Ravitch reports on the latest news about Paul Vallas’ New Orleans Miracle

by jonpelto

There were countless incredible moments during the recent Bridgeport trial about Paul Vallas’ lack of qualifications to serve as Bridgeport’s superintendent of schools. First Vallas took the stand, bragging about his “accomplishments.”  Half of them were in the works long before Vallas ever hit town, while the other half explored that fine line between unbelievable [...] (Read more...)

News Update: More on financial problems facing Bridgeport Board of Ed. Chair Kenneth Moales, Jr. and his church

by jonpelto

More on the troubles facing Malloy, Finch, Pryor and Vallas ally Kenneth Moales Jr

On December 12, 2007, Kenneth Moales, Jr. and his Tabernacle Church of Love, Inc. borrowed $6,123,000 from Foundation Capital Resources, Inc. a Georgia company that loans money for the construction of fundamentalist churches.

As collateral for the loan, Moales and his church pledged 15 separate properties owned by the Prayer Tabernacle Church of Love, Inc.

On December 19, 2008, Moales and his church borrowed another $1,175,000 from the same lender.  The same properties were used to secure the 2^nd mortgage.

Four years later, in March 2012, the loan between Prayer Tabernacle of Love, Inc. and Foundation Capital Resources was modified to require Moales to pay the lender $10,000 per week for the first three Sundays of each month and $15,000 for the fourth Sunday of 

John Thompson: What Can We Learn From Alternative Schools? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

John Thompson: What Can We Learn From Alternative Schools? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

John Thompson: What Can We Learn From Alternative Schools?

by Anthony Cody

Guest post by John Thompson.
Education Week's special edition, "Second Chance: Turning Dropouts into Graduates," reports that the nation's graduation rate has increased to nearly 75%, and it may be approaching our all-time high point. This good news is the result of innovations that are the antithesis of test-driven "reform." They point the way towards humane policies that could be the cornerstone of the next era of school improvement.

One of the successes was described by Lesli Maxwell, in "Chicago Charter Network Specializes in Dropouts."These schools began in 1972 and they have "mostly kept their distinctive instructional approaches and practices for re-engaging students." For instance, students are captivated by aquaponics, or the raising of fish in a sustainable urban food network. This is precisely the type of project based learning that teachers used to see as a real reform, as opposed to the faux "reform" of high-stakes testing.

Ironically, these hands-on, real-world methods of making school relevant have helped save the bacon of data-

MOOCs and Reforming Higher Education (Kentaro Toyama) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

MOOCs and Reforming Higher Education (Kentaro Toyama) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

MOOCs and Reforming Higher Education (Kentaro Toyama)

by larrycuban

This post appeared in “Educational Technology Debate: Exploring ICT and Learning in Developing Countries,” in April 2013. The debate is managed by three editors. They can be reached athttp://edutechdebate.org/contact/
The following biography is taken from Toyama’s description of himself.
Kentaro Toyama is a researcher in the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley, and a fellow of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT.
 Until 2009, he was assistant managing director of Microsoft Research India, which he co-founded in 2005. At MSR India, he started the Technology for Emerging Markets research group, which conducts interdisciplinary research to understand how the world’s poorer communities interact with electronic technology and to invent new ways for technology to support their socio-economic development. The award-winning group is known for projects such as MultiPoint, Text-Free User Interfaces, and Digital 

Daily Kos: Obama thinks same sex marriages should be recognized everywhere

Daily Kos: Obama thinks same sex marriages should be recognized everywhere:

Obama thinks same sex marriages should be recognized everywhere

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

I just received a breaking news email from Politico, the key contents of which are this:

President Barack Obama said on Thursday that he believes that same-sex marriages performed in one state should apply in another."It's my personal belief -- and I'm speaking now as a president [not] as a lawyer -- if you're married in Massachusetts and you move someplace else, you're still married," he said at a press conference with his Senegalese counterpart, in Dakar, Senegal.
"But again, I'm speaking as a president and not as a lawyer," he cautioned, saying that lawyers in his administration are working out the details of what Wednesday's Supreme Court rulings will mean. That work is being done by the executive branch in a "systematic and prompt way," he 

Three paragraphs from Charles M. Blow

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

in his New York Times column, Joining Together in Justice, provide as good a summary of the Supreme Court decisions this week as I think can be made.
The whole column is worth reading.  I will urge you to do so.
But let me offer these three paragraphs, the final three of his wonderful column, which he prefaces by reminding us of the words of King that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

And remember that it is no coincidence that there is quite a bit of overlap among the states that were covered by the Voting Rights Act, those that have constitutional bans on same-sex marriage, those with some of the most restrictive abortion laws and those that have considered or passed 

Jersey Jazzman: Chris Christie Must Go

Jersey Jazzman: Chris Christie Must Go:

Chris Christie Must Go

by Duke

New Jersey's problems aren't my fault! Nothing's my fault! It's all you greedy teachers!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am so very, very tired of this crap:

[NJ Governor Chris] Christie said parents must stand up to organizations who he said care more about pensions, wage increases, generous benefits packages and summers off than about extending quality education to all students.

And yet this pompous fool has done more to decimate New Jersey's excellent public schools than any man ever, and his carnage has hit the poor particularly hard. He has refused to follow the law and provide the proper amount of state funds to districts as determined by the School Funding Reform Act. The dramatic retreat from funding equity in New Jersey has led to an increase in the funding gap under his administration.

How has he used these funds, which should be going to schools?

New Jersey has provided more corporate tax breaks in the past three years than in the entire previous decade, yet the state's economy continues to lag, 

Ed Notes Online: Video: Chicago Students Tossed From Board of Education Meeting

Ed Notes Online: Video: Chicago Students Tossed From Board of Education Meeting:

Video: Chicago Students Tossed From Board of Education Meeting

by ed notes online

Video of Chicago students taking over the Board of Education Meeting to save schools, prevent education cuts.
From Xian Barrett:

Published on Jun 26, 2013

Members of Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools speak out against unjust and illegal school closing and draconic budget cuts.

The Board of Education continues to sabotage public education and divert money to their political allies. We stood up as the only unscripted student voices at the meeting. We were forcibly removed. The Board continues to destroy our educations, but we will keep fighting!

Sign the petition to support Chicago students:
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/save...

The Last Day: Teachers Party All Over the City

by ed notes online

I party with Christine Rubino and crew at Clementes in Sheepshead Bay.

One thing I miss about teaching: the absolute joy of the afternoon of the last day. The feeling of floating, the incredible lightness of being off for 65 days with no responsibilities or anxieties about school.

But then you wake up the next day and think: damn, only 64 to go.

Christine was celebrating her recent court win over the Tweedle dees and even though she is still not back on payroll after her 2 year suspension was up June 14 because the DOE keeps trying to appeal, she invited all her 

Lessons from a budget battle | Parents United for Public Education

Lessons from a budget battle | Parents United for Public Education:

Lessons from a budget battle

by helengym

Last Thursday, City Council decided democracy was inconvenient.
Faced with a deluge of phone calls and an unprecedented outpouring of parent action around the progressive Use & Occupancy tax, City Council President Darrell Clarke shut down an expected vote on the tax and instead announced that the City would seek over $74 million for schools through a tax on cigarettes and improved delinquent tax collection.
One City Hall insider told me certain members of City Council were “sh*!%ing bricks” at the number of phone calls they were receiving and were unhappy at the idea of taking a public vote on the Use & Occupancy Tax.  At least one City Council office said they had received almost 100 phone calls on Wednesday, the day before the vote.
Council members said that the passage of U&O would threaten cigarette tax legislation moving through Harrisburg. Clarke echoed the sentiments of Council when he said that the City wanted to shift attention away 

Goldman Sachs Gets Into Public Education | toteachornototeach

Goldman Sachs Gets Into Public Education | toteachornototeach:

Goldman Sachs Gets Into Public Education

by aristotlethewise

Goldman Sachs Gets Into Public Education

By DSWright
The corporate “ed reform” movement to privatize public education is quite lucrative – public education spending runs in the billions across the country. So should anyone be surprised that Wall Street has stepped out of the shadows to get in on the action?
Wall Street has already been the funding base for Michelle Rhee and other privatizers but has always presented itself merely as trying to benevolently control people not control people to exploit them. But now Goldman Sachs is creating new financial instruments to finance public education.
Goldman Sachs is making its second foray into an experimental method of financing social services, lending up to $4.6 million for a childhood education program in Salt Lake City. This “social impact bond,” in which Goldman stands to make money if the program is successful but will lose its investment if it fails, will support a preschool program intended to reduce the need for special education and remedial services. The upshot, in 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The Mayor 'bristles' while budgets burn

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The Mayor 'bristles' while budgets burn:

The Mayor 'bristles' while budgets burn

by Mike Klonsky

At yesterday's protest, teachers wore stickers with the cut amounts on them: -$535K on Tracy Barrientos from Jungman. -$1.1 million on several students from Whitney Young Magnet High School.

As hundreds of people braved yesterday's storms to protest Rahm's draconian budget cuts, the mayor was busy "bristling" at reporters questions and spreading more manure around.

Rahm put the blame for his $82 million budget cuts on greedy retirees and on the legislature for not acting to cut 

After legal ruling leaves some parcel taxes in jeopardy, clarity must come from Legislature | EdSource Today

After legal ruling leaves some parcel taxes in jeopardy, clarity must come from Legislature | EdSource Today:

After legal ruling leaves some parcel taxes in jeopardy, clarity must come from Legislature - by John Fensterwald

by John Fensterwald

State law mandates that parcel taxes be levied equally on all property owners in a district, regardless of parcel size or number of living units. Some school districts have sought creative approaches to raise additional revenue from larger parcels, but a recent Court of Appeals ruling puts those approaches in jeopardy. Photo: Flickr

The state Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal of a parcel tax case with statewide implications, leaving it up to the Legislature, if it chooses, to change the law that undid one district’s parcel tax and left similar parcel taxes in other districts vulnerable. A bill that would do that failed to move this year but will resurface in 2014.

Proposition 13 banned new taxes based on a property’s value, so parcel taxes, most of which impose a flat dollar amount per property, have became one of the few ways that districts can raise extra money. Only about one in eight districts – 124 over the past 30 years – have passed one, according to an EdSource report. Because owners of cottages pay the same amount as ownersof office buildings, about a dozen school districts have explored other approaches to spread the burden, like charging by the lot size or a building’s square footage. Now, a state court has 

Education Research Report: The Magnitude of Student Sorting Within Schools

Education Research Report: The Magnitude of Student Sorting Within Schools:

The Magnitude of Student Sorting Within Schools

The authors of this study use administrative data from three large urban school districts to describe student sorting within schools. Students are linked to each of their teachers and students’ classmates are identified.

There are differences in the average achievement levels, racial composition, and socioeconomic composition of classrooms within schools. This sorting occurs even in self-contained elementary school classrooms and is much larger than would be expected were students assigned to classrooms randomly.

Much of the racial and socioeconomic sorting is accounted for by differences in achievement, particularly at the high school level. Classrooms with the most low-achieving, minority, and poor students are more likely to have novice teachers.

Sorting students by achievement level exposes minority and poor students to lower quality teachers and less resourced classmates.

Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2012

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

A joint effort by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and National Center for Education Statistics, this annual reportexamines crime occurring in school as well as on the way to and from school. This report presents data on crime at school from the perspectives of students, teachers, principals, and the general population from an array of sources--the National Crime Victimization Survey, the School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the School Survey on Crime and Safety and the School and Staffing Survey. Data on crime away from school are also presented to place school crime in the context of

Teachers Spend $1.6 Billion of Their Own Money on Educational Products for their Classrooms

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

The National School Supply and Equipment Association (NSSEA) has just released the 2013 NSSEA Retail Market Awareness Study estimating that public school teachers spent $3.2 billion in educational products in the 2012-2013 school year, $1.6 billion of it from their own pockets. This study reports on teachers' knowledge of parent-teacher stores, including their spending patterns, funding sources, shopping preferences, and factors that influence their purchasing decisions.
Other highlights:

• On average, teachers surveyed said they spent a total of $268 on school supplies in the 2012-2013 

Why it’s time for a reset of education reform:

Why it’s time for a reset of education reform

By Valerie Strauss, Published: June 27, 2013 at 5:00 amE-mail the writer

www.freepik.com/

It’s the end of a difficult school year, and the education world is in some turmoil. Here’s a piece about where we stand by Jeff Bryant, an associate fellow at theCampaign for America’s Future and the owner of a marketing and communications consultancy that serves organizations including Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders and PBS. He writes extensively about public education policy at The Education Opportunity Network, where this appeared. He was also involved in the creation of the  new Education Declaration to Rebuild America, which has been signed by nearly 30,000 people. You can follow him on Twitter at jeffbcdm

By Jeff Bryant

The end of another school year is leaving a bad taste in many people’s mouths. A steady diet of government austerity and top-down “accountability” mandates have left numerous communities across the country with a severe case of sour stomachs over how their schools are being governed.

As the school year closed in Michigan, hundreds of protestors gathered at the state 

Fireworks at Chicago school board meeting

by Valerie Strauss

Here’s a short video showing what happened when some Chicago public school students went to Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting to protest budget cuts and the largest mass school closing in American history. At about 1:57 into the video, the … Continue reading →

What's good for the goose apparently isn't for the gander

by Valerie Strauss

What's good for the goose -- educators in this case -- apparently isn't good for the gander -- top administrators at New York City's Education Department.
The Wall Street Journal reports in this story that at the same time that city education officials were pushing controversial new evaluations for teachers and principals and insisting that educators must be held accountable, the people who run the department weren't getting formal job assessments. The paper filed a 2012 public records request seeking evaluations of the department's senior staff and got an answer.
Read full article >>

Thomas publishes new book on education

Thomas publishes new book on education:

Thomas publishes new book on education

By Vince Moore Filed in Education, Feature Stories, Homepage News June 26th, 2013 @ 8:02 pm

GREENVILLE, S.C.—Furman University education professor Paul Thomas has published his 15th book, De-Testing and De-Grading Schools.

The book, a collection of essays co-edited by Thomas and Canadian educator Joe Bower and published by Peter Lang USA, looks at a century of education and education reform along with the last three decades of high-stakes testing and accountability to show the failure of testing and grading.

“Education has a steadfast commitment to testing and grading despite decades of research, theory, and philosophy that reveal the corrosive consequences of both testing and grading within an education system designed to support human agency and democratic principles,” says Thomas.

The volume offers practical and detailed examinations of ways to teach and learn free of the weight of testing and grading. The book explores the theoretical and philosophical arguments against testing and grading; the negative influence of testing and grading on social justice, race, class, and gender; and the role of testing and grading in perpetuating a

- See more at: http://newspress.furman.edu/?p=7098#sthash.kp7C9Dxw.dpuf

Report Card: Activists, Dickinson use drama to examine disciplinary issues

Report Card: Activists, Dickinson use drama to examine disciplinary issues:

Activists, Dickinson use drama to examine disciplinary issues

The state Capitol featured theatrics Wednesday, but not on the Assembly floor.

In a committee room, student actors put on a 10-minute play called "Willful," in which a black high school student named Tom heads to the principal's office for yet another disciplinary action. His mother is sick, and his family has problems at home.

Tom expects a suspension. But this time, Principal Burton decides to send the student to counseling and urges him to seek similar help whenever he's feeling troubled.

That sympathetic response happens too rarely, according to the Black Parallel School Board and Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, among those who brought the play to the Capitol on Wednesday. Nearly half the 2,200 students suspended from California schools each day are punished for "willful defiance,"

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/report-card/2013/06/forty-percent-of-the-2200.html#mi_rss=Education#storylink=cpy

Jersey Jazzman: Once Again, Joel Klein Is Full Of It

Jersey Jazzman: Once Again, Joel Klein Is Full Of It:

Once Again, Joel Klein Is Full Of It

by Duke

Thanks to Leonie Haimson and Lisa Fliesher, we now know that there is no accountability whatsoever at the top of the New York City schools: nobody gets evaluated, even as they scream for more test-based evaluations for teachers.

But there was one other part of Fliesher's story really caught my eye:

Joel Klein, schools chief from 2002 to 2010, said he received constant feedback from the mayor, and evaluated his team daily. "When a member of my team's performance wasn't up to standards, I didn't issue a report," he wrote in a emailed statement. Mr. Klein works for News Corp., which owns The Wall Street Journal. "They were terminated." [emphasis mine]

Oh, really?

- When then-Deputy Commissioner Chris Cerf violated city law by not disclosing his equity stake in Edison Schools, Inc - even as the company was doing business with the city's schools - was he fired? No.

- When the NYCDOE gave millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to a firm that didn't even have offices, was anyone fired? No.

When Jeanne Allen Comes Out Against the CREDO Study, the News Can’t Be Good for Charters – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER

When Jeanne Allen Comes Out Against the CREDO Study, the News Can’t Be Good for Charters – @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER:

When Jeanne Allen Comes Out Against the CREDO Study, the News Can’t Be Good for Charters

by Jim Horn

Apparently, world champion charter industry promoter, Jeanne Allen, did not get the memo from the corporate ed offices that all corporate education welfare recipients should pretend that the new CREDO study was full of good news for the corrupt charter school industry.

Jeanne, who otherwise is a lifelong member of the Test and Punish Society for High Stakes Test Preservation, has come out with all barrels blazing against those CREDO creeps, who have the audacity to use test scores to say which charter schools are good or bad.

From Randy Shaw at BeyondChron:

Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) released its long-awaited study on charter schools this week, and the news was not good for those promoting charters as superior to traditional, unionized public schools. Thereport found charters gave students “a minimal boost on their reading scores,” and that “charter students in 16 states lost a bit of ground 

Jersey Jazzman: Dennis Walcott Makes Case For Cutting His Salary

Jersey Jazzman: Dennis Walcott Makes Case For Cutting His Salary:

Dennis Walcott Makes Case For Cutting His Salary

by Duke

Diane Ravitch points us to a piece by Lisa Fleischer in the Wall Street Journal about the complete lack of accountability at the top of New York's City's schools under Generalissimo Mike Bloomberg's rule:

Top administrators at the city's Department of Education haven't been subject to formal evaluations during the Bloomberg administration, a break from past practice and an unusual occurrence among school districts across the U.S.

The disclosure follows the culmination of a yearslong battle by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to implement tougher teacher and principal evaluations in the district.

Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, who has been on the job since April 2011, said formal job reviews weren't necessary because he informally evaluated his staff daily, and he was evaluated daily by the mayor. Teachers, he said, were in a different position.

"They're in front of the classroom and teaching our children, and we need to have a sense of how well they're doing," he said. "With us, we're not teaching children directly, we're setting policy. And I don't think it's hypocritical at all." [emphasis mine]

Yeah, see, Dennis Walcott is only in charge of the schools - he's not actually in the schools! It's completely different! It's like, we have to know how well teachers are doing - but we don't have to know how well their bosses are doing! It's just so obvious...