8-28-13 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum:

SEA Rally at Eckstein Middle School

 From the SEA rally outside of Eckstein Middle School this afternoon. It was about 60 teachers and kids. Spoke with SEA head, Jonathan Knapp, who had no new information but said their issues were a "package deal" and "doable." He also said the teachers could strike but they also could just go to work on September 4th under their old contract and continue negotiations.  I spoke with a couple of tea

by Melissa Westbrook / 2h 

District Drops One of Contract Sticking Points

Publicola talked with Clover Codd and is reporting that the district has backed off on the issue of eliminating the weekly paid hour of collaborative planning for teachers.  Codd told PubliCola this morning: "We actually withdrew that proposal. The hour of collaboration time pay. We’re leaving that in the contract. And they still get the 2.6 percent compensation for that."Re: teacher pay, She adde

by Melissa Westbrook / 47min mark as read  //  save

What is Common Core For?

1 by Melissa Westbrook / 1h 

Washington State Charter Applications

The Washington State Charter Commission has released the application form/information for applying to be a charter school.  I am mostly happy because there are items in there that I believe are of great importance and I applaud the Commission for listening and including them in.  My hope was that no school community or district gets caught by surprise by any charter coming into their district (or

by Melissa Westbrook / 1h 

Odds and Ends

Good wrap-up of the current teacher contract negotiations by Josh Feit over at Publicola.   I got a little more clarity on the issue of elementary school teachers and the added unpaid half-hour of work.Calling one sticking point "a longer day for less pay," Knapp said teachers objected to a district proposal to contractually increase the length of the school day for elementary school teachers from

by Melissa Westbrook / 0min 

Charter Schools and Positive Discipline

Here is a story, from the New York Daily News, about the discipline practices at a group of charter schools in New York that are operated by Success Academy. The Success Academy schools have extraordinarily high suspension rates and extraordinarily high test scores.This would appear to provide evidence that suspensions improve education rather than worsen it. That's contrary to the story told by L

by Charlie Mas / 20min 

Seattle Schools: Not Open for Business September 4th?

The district sent out this e-mail to families:The Seattle Education Association (SEA), which represents teachers, rejected the district’s latest contract proposal. They plan to meet again on September 3 to vote on whatever the proposal is at that time. With the start of school on September 4, we are encouraging families to develop back=up plans should Seattle Public Schools not open on time. We re

by Melissa Westbrook / 5h 

8-27-13 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Pinehurst: Up in the AirFrom the Superintendent to Pinehurst families:Seattle Public Schools is considering the possibility of closing Pinehurst K-8 School after the 2013-14 school year. No decision has been made at this time. The schedule of events shown below has been created in order to determine whether the school is to be closed. The Superintendent will make a

by mike simpson / 44min 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Movement Envy

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Movement Envy:

Movement Envy

Protesters rally during "Moral Monday" demonstrations at Halifax Mall near the General Assembly in Raleigh, N.C., in July. More than 1,000 people have been arrested while protesting against policies being enacted by the North Carolina General Assembly. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

By Susan Klonsky

I admit it. We have a great movement here in Chicago, but still, I'm jealous of Mondays in North Carolina.

Reviving the spirit and moral compass of the Civil Rights Movement of the ‘60s, protest has become the Monday Lifestyle in NC.  People  put their Monday evening rallies on the calendar. “Mon. 5:30 pm:  Sit in, get arrested @ State Capitol.” It’s becoming sort of normal.

For the past 4 months in Raleigh, every Monday  is Moral Monday. Late in the day, as people get off work, they surround the Statehouse with rings of protesters. Mass arrests are scheduled, followed on Thursdays by well-organized press conferences by those arrested.  Every Monday the protests get larger—now exceeding 15,000 in Raleigh, with big rallies throughout the state. The movement is multiracial and has spread well beyond North 

Louisiana Educator: DOE Changes Rules for School Bonus Points

Louisiana Educator: DOE Changes Rules for School Bonus Points:

DOE Changes Rules for School Bonus Points

Shortchanges Schools That Made the Most Progress

Some of the schools that made the most progress in improving the achievement levels of low performing students in Louisiana public schools will be denied bonus points promised before the beginning of the school year because they have performed too well!!That's the conclusion some principals are coming to after receiving a memo from Ms Baghian of the DOE informing the schools that they would not be receiving bonus points because the improvement in their students' scores moved them to the proficient level. According to the memo, schools will get bonus points only if the students scores of the sub-groups improvebut remain below the proficient level. This particularly penalizes schools that have made the most progress in improving student performance for previously low achieving students. It can actually lower the letter grades that some schools were originally qualified to receive. The following is quoted from an email sent to the DOE by Iberville Parish Superintendent, Dr Edward Cancienne: "The decision to withhold bonus points from schools that brought non-proficient students in the super subgroup to proficiency has had a negative impact on the letter grade of the individual school and on the morale of the entire Iberville Parish School System."

The original proposal approved by BESE for awarding bonus points said nothing about students in sub-groups remaining in the non-proficient category in order for their schools to receive bonus points. It simply does not make sense to change the rules after the end of the school year to penalize the schools that made the most progress in working with low performing students. The whole 

Old and New Ads for Computer Hardware | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Old and New Ads for Computer Hardware | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Old and New Ads for Computer Hardware

Even though I try to avoid looking at ads on billboards, television, in newspapers and magazines, and at  websites, it is inevitable that I see them for the millisecond in my mind’s eye. And that is all the time advertising writers need.

Ad copy writers tell viewers  of the unique features of the product compared to competitors (e.g., cost, speed, simplicity of use) and the benefits you will gain from buying it (e.g., efficiency, productivity). Ad writers also try to create positive feelings surrounding the product such as being the first to get the product, or keeping up with the crowd, or  being associated with an admired figure or that it will attract attention from the opposite sex should you buy the product. Psychologists point out that the best ads create positive feelings in viewers leading to increased sales.

In looking at ads for computer hardware over the past 40 years, one can see the features that ad writers stressed, the positive feelings they sought to create, and how many companies were in the hardware market then and are now gone.

Here is a sampling.

School reform: The problems — and some solutions:

School reform: The problems — and some solutions

By Valerie Strauss, Published: August 28 at 4:00 amE-mail the writer

0

Comments

More

I recently published an excerpt from a new book titled “Public Education Under Siege” edited by University of Pennsylvania historian Michael B. Katz and UCLA education scholar Mike Rose.  The book is a series of essays that discuss he problems with technocratic educational reform; the intersection of education, race, and poverty; and alternatives to modern school reform. Here is a Q & A I did with the authors about their book and public education today.

Q) Why did you write “Public Education Under Siege”?
A) Well, maybe the best way to answer that question is with an example from the news.  At the end of July, the Walton Family Foundation (the philanthropist arm of Walmart) donated $20 million to Teach For America to recruit and train close to 4000 teachers to work in underresourced schools across the country.  The largest percentage of these recruits will be coming to Los Angeles, where one of us lives.  If the past is prologue, most of the new TFA crew will work in L.A. charter schools.  There’s a lot about this story that is good news, right?  The Walton Foundation is spending its fortune and shining its considerable spotlight on education, and Los Angeles will get at least 500 sharp, idealistic young people in its schools.  This scenario fits well in the current mainstream school reform agenda.  But the story also raises for us a host of questions about contemporary reform, and we produced “Public Education Under Siege” as a kind of sourcebook to use in exploring those questions.

 Q) So what are those questions?
 A)  One set of questions has to do with teaching itself: What does it involve?  What does it take to nurture it and do it—and how can we determine when it is done well?  A

The most ridiculous ed idea of the week

The most ridiculous ed idea of the week so far comes to us from Florida, where Gov. Rick Scott organized a three-day education summit for ed leaders, legislators, teachers and parents. He sent interim Education Commissioner Pam Stewart to lead it, opting not to attend himself. Read full article >>    

1 by Valerie Strauss / 0min 

Twerk, MOOC, girl crush — words added to Oxford Dictionaries Online

Twerking, a sexually provocative way of dancing made famous by Miley Cyrus this week at the MTV Video Music Awards, is one on a long list of new words that have just been added to Oxford Dictionaries Online. The free … Continue reading →    

35 by Valerie Strauss / 2h 

In shadow of March on Washington, schools increasingly segregated in California | EdSource Today

In shadow of March on Washington, schools increasingly segregated in California | EdSource Today:

In shadow of March on Washington, schools increasingly segregated in California

August 28th, 2013 | Add a Comment | 
By Louis Freedberg

Louis Freedberg

Fifty years after the March on Washington, a major challenge facing California and the West in general is increasing segregation of black and Latino students, reviving a debate that Brown v Board of Education was supposed to resolve: whether it is possible to have “separate but equal” schools.

As Gary Orfield, director of UCLA’s Civil Rights Project, noted, “We seem to be on a path to return step by step to the ‘separate but equal’ philosophy that so clearly failed the country for six decades between 1896 and 1954.”  Orfield, then a recent college graduate and an intern at the State Department, attended the1963 March being commemorated today.

Echoing his remarks was a report issued this week by the Economic Policy Institute lamenting the increasing educational isolation of black students nationally.  ”The educational goal of the March on Washington — school desegregation — is a condition affecting black students in which we are sliding backwards,”  Richard Rothstein, its author, wrote.

The challenge is especially compelling in the West, including California, with its burgeoning Latino school population.  Latinos comprise 52 percent of California’s student enrollments. Whites, by contrast, comprise only 26 percent of public school enrollments, and blacks only 6.5 percent.

Researchers from The Civil Rights Project noted that “in states with significant shares of Latino students extreme patterns of isolation were evident.”

In California, in 2009-10, 91 percent of Latino students were in schools that had 50 percent to 100 percent minority enrollments – and 52 percent were in schools with 90 percent to 100 percent 

Duncan wants to end test for disabled students that California overused - by John Fensterwald

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is proposing to eliminate an alternative test for students with disabilities, arguing it undercuts their academic potential. The value of the test has divided the education and disability rights communities, with some advocates agreeing with Duncan and others saying the test accurately captures what students have learned. Critics of California’s version,...

by John Fensterwald / 5h 

Crazy Crawfish's Blog | Zesty Louisiana Education Politics

Crazy Crawfish's Blog | Zesty Louisiana Education Politics:

For those who missed the live WBOK show on 8/26/13: here is the link and summary

August 27, 2013

0

Summary and links to articles you might find relevant to topics discussed. Introduction of myself and background http://crazycrawfish.wordpress.com/2013/06/11/anti-ed-reform-history-from-my-perspective-part-i/ http://crazycrawfish.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/my-anti-ed-reform-in-louisiana-part-2-of/ http://crazycrawfish.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/me-and-anti-reform-part-iii-of/ Discussion of biased data LDOE disbursement policy : http://crazycrawfish.wordpress.com/2013/06/25/proof-ldoe-does-not-fill-data-requests-sci-academy-faux-grad-rate-and-a-prism-through-which-to-view-the-credo-study/ The Federal lawsuit over the Louisiana voucher program http://cenlamar.com/2013/08/25/us-department-of-justice-bobby-jindals-school-voucher-program-is-illegal/ St Helena’s RSD problems (RSD hypocritical and false information provided to federal desegregation judge) http://crazycrawfish.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/the-st-helena-rsd-saga-begins-2/ http://crazycrawfish.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/reform-fairytales/ MFP […]

8-28-13 Jersey Jazzman

Jersey Jazzman:

Newark's Teachers Get Screwed on Merit Pay

The editorial board of the Wall St. Journal may be clinically insane, but Lisa Fleisher at the education desk is paying attention to important stuff: Newark, in a first for a large New Jersey public-school system, has given out bonuses of up to $12,500 to its highest-rated teachers, inaugurating a controversial merit-pay program being watched across the nation.  A group of 190 Newark teachers le

10 by Duke / 21min 

 

8-27-13 Jersey Jazzman

Jersey Jazzman: Paymon Who?I had the great pleasure of talking for while today with a teacher from Newark. This is someone who is very up on education policy and politics, so I thought he was the perfect person to ask about the new state superintendent of Camden, Paymon Rouhanifard. After all, according to Chris Christie, the governor who installed Rouhanifard: Paymon has a proven track record of

by mike simpson / 9h 

UPDATE: State offers new test-out option + Watch this APS teacher: Was she pressured into cheating? | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com

Watch this APS teacher: Was she pressured into cheating? | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:

Get Schooled: State offers new test-out option for high school exams. Will students do it?

Advanced high school students can now take the state's End of Course Tests before they sit through the corresponding course to see if they score high enough to test out of the class. Will this ever happen? How many kids are advanced enough to score in the Exceed level of ...

1 30min 

Watch this APS teacher: Was she pressured into cheating? 

• COMMENT(6)
•  0 0 0 New

Previous Posts

• High teacher turnover in charters: Does student achievement suffer? 
  August 27, 2013
• Wondering where your kids can hide in a school shooting
  August 27, 2013
• Feds block vouchers in Louisiana districts under deseg orders
  August 26, 2013

By Maureen Downey

Testimony is under way in the first APS cheating trial. On Monday, a former Atlanta teacher told jurors she caved into pressure to cheat on her students' tests to meet targets at her school.

"I feel horrible, " said Stacey Smith. "I did my babies a disservice." Smith was one of three ex-teachers to testify that they changed test answers. They were called to  in the trial of former Atlanta regional schools director Tamara Cotman, the first defendant in the chearing scandal to go to court.

Cotman, who has pleaded not guilty, and 34 other former educators, including former Superintendent Beverly Hall, face criminal charges. Here is a link to the latest development in the case.

Here is some of Smith's testimony: