Friday, July 26, 2013

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Harvard Law School grad Jane Robbins has penned a blistering dismissal of the Common Core Standards defense published by five former Florida state GOP chairs. Writing forAmerican Principles Project, Robbins effectively dispatches with seven false assertions the republican power brokers make in the letter they wrote to Florida republican legislators.

Five former Florida Republican Party leaders have urged the state GOP to ignore the parents and teachers who object to the centralization of education through the Common Core State (sic) Standards. Like other Common Core proponents, they repeat the talking points; like the others, they fail to produce evidence to support their statements. Below is a point-by-point response to their claims:
The nation’s Governors recognized this [education] problem almost 15 years ago and began a process that eventually led to states collaborating on the Common Core State (sic) Standards.
The claim that the Standards resulted from a “state-led” process is misleading at best. In 2007, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the

Obscure state law requires all students be taught the arts | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC

Obscure state law requires all students be taught the arts | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC:

Obscure state law requires all students be taught the arts

Mary Plummer | July 26th, 2013, 6:00am

Mary Plummer/KPCC

Calabasas High School musical theater students perform "Cool" from their production of West Side Story at the Pantages Theater.

As budgets worsened over the past several years, schools throughout California cut where they could, slashing arts budgets so deeply some students have been left with no arts education at all.

Arts educator Carl Schafer of Upland, has been on a campaign to increase that instruction for a year. And in his effort, he found a line in the California education code that shocked him: the state requires arts to be taught to California students.

He'd been advocating for arts education for decades without realizing the state has a law requiring things like dance, music and theater be taught in schools.

He recently wrote about his discovery for the website Zocalo Public Square.

While browsing through the state Education Code online, I learned (embarrassingly late in my career) that the law couldn’t be clearer. Since 1995, the teaching of the arts has been mandatory in California for grades one to 12.
Section 51210(e) mandates the Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA), which includes music, dance, visual art, and theater, be included in the school curriculum for all

NYC Educator: Gotham Schools Exercises Its Psychic Powers to Hype Astroturfer Teacher Bashing

NYC Educator: Gotham Schools Exercises Its Psychic Powers to Hype Astroturfer Teacher Bashing:

Gotham Schools Exercises Its Psychic Powers to Hype Astroturfer Teacher Bashing

“So how can Anthony run for Mayor, when a teacher for the same conduct would be fired,” Weingarten said in a tweet yesterday.

She was referring to a push to tighten punishments for teachers found
guilty of inappropriate behavior that the union here has opposed.

Gotham Schools has improved its reporting by adding the element of mind-reading. Apparently it knows what AFT Prez Randi Weingarten is thinking when she tweets. According to Gotham's crystal ball, Weingarten is thinking about legal expert Campbell Brown's campaign when she muses on the double standard between Anthony Weiner and working school teachers. She couldn't possibly be referring to the fact that teachersactually get fired sometimes.

Because in the world of legal expert Campbell Brown and Gotham Schools, teachers never get fired. Never mind that Brown and her regular partner, the New York Daily News, regularly write of some group of 128 teachers and

Schools Must Warn Students, Families If Big Brother Is Watching - NJ Spotlight

Schools Must Warn Students, Families If Big Brother Is Watching - NJ Spotlight:

SCHOOLS MUST WARN STUDENTS, FAMILIES IF BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING

JOHN MOONEY | JULY 26, 2013

New guidelines require districts to notify parents, kids that software and built-in camera can monitor use.

The provocatively named Anti-Big Brother Act arose out of a situation in Pennsylvania in which a school district was accused of spying on students through their school-issued laptops, including taking literally thousands of pictures.

New Jersey legislators seeking to prevent such incidents here passed the new law this past spring. It requires districts to notify students and their families that computers issued to them may be equipped to record their locations and use. It also says that such information will not be used “in a manner that would violate the privacy rights of the student or any individual residing with the student.”

But that’s where things can get murky, so the state Department of Education this week released additional guidelines about what the law covers and what other

Missouri Education Watchdog: MAJOR ALERT for Private School and Homeschool Parents. The Plan: Your Child WILL be Taught Common Core.

Missouri Education Watchdog: MAJOR ALERT for Private School and Homeschool Parents. The Plan: Your Child WILL be Taught Common Core.:

MAJOR ALERT for Private School and Homeschool Parents. The Plan: Your Child WILL be Taught Common Core.

State education departments can gain control of private education and homeschooling through more regulations, oversight, reporting requirements, teacher licensure mandates

Do you think you have freedom to educate your child as you, the parent, sees fit? Do you look to the State for educational development/delivery for your child or have you selected private/homeschool options? If you have chosen private/homeschool options, it may not be much different than the public school education offered by the state of Alabama. The state not only controls the public development/direction of education, it will also control both private/homeschool educational development/direction.

Watch this Alabama Department of Education Private School Licensure Meeting athttp://www.ustream.tv/recorded/35665549.

A reader contacted me and wrote:

This video of the Alabama State Department Education meeting with private, church, and home school representatives will make your blood boil. They are creating a new department, charging new fees, implementing unprecedented oversight and reporting requirements, and monitoring the list of those schools that do not register with the State Department of Education. If you do not register, your students are unable to attend a postsecondary institution (2-or 4-year). Home schoolers MUST report attendance, grades, coursework, etc. to the local school superintendent on a regular basis. I could go on and on. Please take the time to watch it! Please share this with everyone in our group and others...

You can scroll down on this link and read the Facebook comments. Common Core will be adhered to through these new regulations for private schools and homeschooled students. From a reader:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: After being ousted as Bridgeport Supt., Vallas gets schools to pay his legal fees

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: After being ousted as Bridgeport Supt., Vallas gets schools to pay his legal fees:

After being ousted as Bridgeport Supt., Vallas gets schools to pay his legal fees

“We thought we had a good guy,” said Tammy Boyle, a parent leader and mother of two children. “But at each and every turn, he has ignored the wishes and the voices of the people of Bridgeport.” -- New York Times

The great education hustler and architect of top-down "reform", Paul Vallas, has pulled off yet another great hustle. After being ousted from his job as Bridgeport's superintendent by a superior court judge, Vallas has the cash-strapped school district paying his legal fees.Vallas must have learned the tactic from Chicago's torturing cop, Jon Burge who soaked the city for millions in legal fees before finally being put away. Of course, I'm not comparing Vallas' to Burge. Just saying.

I received this statement from Taylor Leake, Communications Director of the Connecticut

Is School Enough? Of Course Not, But Its Role Is Important | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights

Is School Enough? Of Course Not, But Its Role Is Important | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights:

Is School Enough? Of Course Not, But Its Role Is Important

By Cheryl S. Williams on July 26, 2013

I recently attended a screening of a documentary titled Is School Enough? that’s scheduled to air on local PBS stations in early September. The film profiled four project based learning activities that took students outside the classroom to identify real life challenges, propose solutions, and work together as a team under the guidance of their teacher to solve the problem and learn while doing. (View a preview)
The projects were exciting and impressive, and the students involved were either economically disadvantaged or in an alternative education program. In one program a group of students became “citizen scientists,” using their smart phones to photograph plants and trees in an area that was to house a couple of elephants who were retiring from a circus. These students gathered data on the plants, shared the information with a scientist at Cornell University, and then convened with the scientist using Skype so he could answer their questions and provide suggestions for removing or replacing those plants that could prove toxic to the soon to arrive elephants.
Another project involved inner city students whose class had been given a vacant lot between two warring churches. The students had to evaluate what was needed in the neighborhood where the lot was located; gather information from the community on suggested uses for the space; and plan, design, and build the space into something that would contribute a positive resource to a blighted spot in the city. The students named their space “Switzerland” to indicate it was neutral ground that was open to all input and points of view.
A third project showcased the “Harry Potter Alliance” that drew fans of the Potter series

Cartoons from Robert Rendo | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Cartoons from Robert Rendo | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Cartoons from Robert Rendo

For this month’s feature on cartoons*, I chose a selection from Robert Rendo. We met through my blog and he sent along a sampling of his cartoons from which I selected some on students and testing. He sent me the following description of himself.

Robert Rendo grew up in New Hyde Park, New York. He lives in New York City and in Massachusetts with his wife Rachel, an educator and children’s clothing designer.

Robert Rendo is an editorial illustrator and president of PoliticalCartoonsOnline.com. A native New Yorker, Mr. Rendo’s work has earned him publication in the Op/Ed section of the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Sacramento Bee. Recently, Rendo designed the logo, masthead, and branding for educational historian Diane Ravitch’s Network for Public Education. His images can also be found on Stephen Krashen’s blog, Education Notes Online, and the blog “Susan Ohanian Speaks Out”.

“I hope to provoke all readers,” says Rendo. “Editorial art is a precise genre.”

When asked how he foresees illustration in media, Rendo said, “I think it’ll be shared more equally between hardcopy and the internet. For me, It’s more satisfying to hold a periodical in your fingers and turn the pages. Whatever the format, illustration will always help chronicle the follies of man. And we humans screwing up never seems to be out of vogue. “

Jersey Jazzman: How the Newark Teachers Union Shot Itself In the Foot

Jersey Jazzman: How the Newark Teachers Union Shot Itself In the Foot:

How the Newark Teachers Union Shot Itself In the Foot

By now, those of us in Jersey are well aware of the construction trade unions' endorsement of Chris Christie, the biggest foe of public worker unions in the Northeast. I guess these supposed "allies" of teachers and cops think Christie's "pro-business" policies will lead to more jobs, even though the evidence suggests Christie is very bad for economic growth and job development.

Whatever: it still stings mightily when, as a teacher, I see my union "brothers and sisters" out there shilling for a man who has done more to take money out of my family's budget than any other politician in the state, and who is gearing up for a run at national office. Weren't we all supposed to be sticking together as a united labor movement? After all, the leaders of New Jersey's public worker unions have happily stood up and endorsed public works programs when they meant creating union construction jobs.

Take, for example, the president of the Newark Teachers Union, Joe Del Grosso [annotation mine]:

Here's Del Grosso supporting the Teachers Village project in Newark that, apparently,

- See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-newark-teachers-union-shot-itself.html

Reflection on GLSEN/UNESCO Convening on Global Safe Schools for LGBT Youth « Feminist Teacher

Reflection on GLSEN/UNESCO Convening on Global Safe Schools for LGBT Youth « Feminist Teacher:

Reflection on GLSEN/UNESCO Convening on Global Safe Schools for LGBT Youth

During the World Congress on Comparative Education in Buenos Aires, I presented my Fulbright research on LGBT youth in Mexico City’s schools (photo: Steven Toledo/GLSEN).

Last month, I had the honor of attending a convening in Buenos Aires hosted byGLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) and UNESCO to launch a global network of activists and researchers to support LGBT youth in schools. Our daylong meeting created the foundation of a strategic plan for providing LGBT students and their teachers the resources, research, and advocacy they need to create safe schools for all.

Surrounded by advocates and scholars from over 20 countries, I learned how much global queer groups care about teachers and the work we do in supporting LGBT students. From Brazil to China to Slovenia and South Africa, the diverse contexts that students and teachers learn and teach in are being accounted for in the current research and activism of the global safe schools movement.

As the only teacher-researcher at the convening, I came knowing that my voice as a practicing educator was one that is rarely heard in these urgent conversations. I had been selected to join the convening due to my Distinguished Fulbright research on

‘Run, hide, fight’ new mantra for schools in post-Newtown environment | EdSource Today

‘Run, hide, fight’ new mantra for schools in post-Newtown environment | EdSource Today:

‘Run, hide, fight’ new mantra for schools in post-Newtown environment

July 26th, 2013 | Add a Comment |
By Jane Meredith Adams

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In an “active shooter” simulation at Alhambra High School in June, a staff member plays the role of an armed student threatening to jump off a landing. Credit: Betty Plascencia, Alhambra Unified School District

Traditional school safety techniques had students huddling in locked classrooms and waiting for rescue if danger approached during school hours. But tragic lessons in Newtown, Conn., and Columbine, Colo., have given rise to new recommendations from the U.S. Department of Education for keeping students safe: Run away and hide, they say. Or if you have to, fight.

The new school safety protocol for staff and students is “run, hide, fight,” a major shift from the static classroom lockdowns campuses have followed for years. The procedure asks teachers and staff to take a more assertive role in trying to survive the unlikely event of an “active shooter” situation on campus. As part of back-to-school preparation, educators throughout California are being trained in the technique, which includes giving teachers the leeway to ignore lockdowns requiring students to be kept inside, to run off campus with students, and to unleash a

7-26-13 teacherken at Daily Kos

teacherken at Daily Kos:

Lincoln Memorial vandalized and shut down

Not too many details, but the local all-news station, WTOP, including this story as the lead in their daily news email. Green paint was splashed at the base of the statue. Park Police believe the event occurred at about 1:30 AM this morning. The link I have provided will provide what details WTOP has in their story, as well as a batch of tweets in response to the tail. The closure is temporary unt

by rss@dailykos.com ... / 41min mark as read // save

Krugman on Republican Health Care Panic

Better-informed people on the right seem, finally, to be facing up to a horrible truth: Health care reform, President Obama’s signature policy achievement, is probably going to work. Which of course is why Republicans are desperately trying to block it from going into effect. Because, Successful health reform wouldn’t just be a victory for a president conservatives loathe, it would be an object

by rss@dailykos.com ... / 41min

Daily Kos: Charles M. Blow on Standing Our Ground

Daily Kos: Charles M. Blow on Standing Our Ground: Charles M. Blow on Standing Our GroundbyteacherkenFollowIn this New York Times column, he begins by telling usThis is not the time for evanescent anger, which is America’s wontThen after a paragraph in which he sets up the scene, including our fawning over the royal baby than we pay attention to the gunning down of American children, he offers thi

by mike simpson / 3h

Georgia school chief explains Common Core test retreat: We... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com

Georgia school chief explains Common Core test retreat: We... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:

Georgia school chief explains Common Core test retreat: We couldn't afford it. We will have similar test.

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Test tied to Common Core might be too expensive for Georgia

JOHNNY CRAWFORD / JCRAWFORD@AJC.

State School Superintendent Dr. John Barge listens to questions about Common Core on Wednesday, June 10, 2013 in Fayeville.

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By Maureen Downey

I asked Georgia state school Superintendent John Barge to explain the decision this week to withdraw from the 22-state consortium creating the new test for the Common Core State Standards. I also sent him questions from readers of the Get Schooled blog. He has addressed them in this column.

By Dr. John Barge

Last week, Georgia formally withdrew from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) consortium in order to pursue better options for our state.

Some have asked if this is a retreat from our standards or from a rigorous test to measure how well our students are performing and the answer to that is, absolutely not.

This is not a suspension of our current rigorous college and career ready standards in English language arts and math and the tests we develop will be more rigorous than we have ever seen. Without a doubt, the landscape for assessments in our state is changing.

While Georgia will be pursuing other options for developing its own state assessments in English