11-6-13 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:

IEA Retired members: Keep you eyes open for your mail-in ballot.

by Fred Klonsky / 10min 

Is another public employee pension going down?

There is just a few more hours and a day in the Illinois veto session. Most observers are now predicting that no action will happen on pensions But that isn’t exactly true. Greg Hinz is reporting that a bill is about to pass the General Assembly that significantly impacts employees of the Chicago Park District. Apparently it has the support of both management and the union. Under the amendment fil

1 by Fred Klonsky / 1h 

The in box. Jose Vilson on the De Blasio win.

Read the entire post on Jose Vilson’s blog. Voting, as simple as it seems, is not enough. It never was. When I see the history of suffrage, especially as it pertains to people of color and women, I see a struggle to get the opportunity to vote for the right candidate as conscious citizens should. I also see movements that didn’t stop at the legislative house. Whatever your particular brand of act

by Fred Klonsky / 13min 

All Chicago kids deserve a quality Arts education.

  We protested the closing of Lafayette last May. Photo: Fred Klonsky They closed Lafayette in August as part of Rahm’s 50-school massacre. By the way, Lafayette had a wonderful Arts program that served neighborhood kids. CPS swore that no charter school would replace Lafayette. However. late last week word leaked that ChiArts, a technically a contract school that focuses on the visual and perfor

3 by Fred Klonsky / 52min 

Ten minute drawing. Three mayors.

2 by Fred Klonsky / 32min 

Bridgeport voters fire Paul Vallas.

  Bridgeport, Connecticut school superintendent, Paul Vallas. Before Arne Duncan there was Paul Vallas. When Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley the second was handed mayoral control of the public schools, he handed them over to Paul Vallas. When Vallas’ vision of corporate reform went south, so did he. He was hired to run the charterization and teacher union busting of post Hurricane Katrina New Orlea

3 by Fred Klonsky / 19min 

11-5-13 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: Illinois’ CMS: “Can’t manage s**t.”Here’s the latest information from Central Management Services regarding retiree health insurance: Total Retiree Advantage Illinois (TRAIL) The enrollment period for the Medicare Advantage plans has been set for November 12 through December 13, 2013. The effective da

by mike simpson / 7h 

UPDATE: NAEP: Early gains and later losses. Why do American students... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com

NAEP: Early gains and later losses. Why do American students... | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:

NAEP: Early gains and later losses. Why do American students falter in high school?  

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Why do students falter in high school?

Previous Posts

• When bad boys get badder with age: Warning signs that should be heeded
  November 5, 2013
• What is at stake in APS school board election today? Just about everything.
  November 4, 2013
• Teens on violence, bullying: Half of high school boys admit to hitting out of anger
  November 4, 2013

By Maureen Downey

Mark Bauerlein is an Emory University professor and author of "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future."

In this column, he discusses the troubling drop in student scores in high school.  He says 4th- and 8th-grade scores mean absolutely nothing unless they are replicated in 12th grade.  A gain by 8th-graders is significant only if we see the gain maintained four years later.

 By Mark Bauerlein

With so much reporting and discussion of test scores these days, it’s easy to forget a simple fact.  This overlook-habit is reinforced whenever the U.S. Department of Education releases its biannual report on math and reading scores for 4th- and 8th-grade NAEP exams that shows steady gains in the past few decades. 

In her latest book "The Reign of Error," Diane Ravitch cites those scores and draws the broad conclusion, “Our students have higher test scores in reading and mathematics than they did in the early 1970s or the early 1990s”—evidence that schools are doing better than doomsayers would have us believe.

 But here’s the thing.  Academic achievement in elementary

Get Schooled: Despite mandate for change, voters didn't change all that they could have in APS board

It’s hard to unseat incumbents even when it appears voters are clamoring for change and everyone is fed up with the status quo. Proof of that are the APS school board election results where three of five incumbents who sought re-election won handily and one is in a runoff. ...

3 1min 

11-6-13 @ THE CHALK FACE

@ THE CHALK FACE:

The Two Sides of Education Reform in Washington, D.C.

Education reform is failing traditional D.C. public middle schools located east of the Anacostia River. Although certain popular education debates, i.e. discussions centered on the merits of school choice, common core, teacher evaluations, etc., may dominate the education policy world; The failures, or shortcomings, of education reform throughout D.C.’s high poverty neighborhood public middle scho

4 by Angel Cintron Jr. / 2h 

11-5-13 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE: Are Common Core and Testing Debates “Two Different Matters”?Are Common Core and Testing Debates \”Two Different Matters\”?. via Are Common Core and Testing Debates “Two Different Matters”?.1 by plthomasedd / 18min mark as read  //  saveIf I were a student, I would ask my…If I were a student in a high poverty public school, I would pose the following questions to my teachers, guid

by mike simpson / 8h 

11-6-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

How'd That Ballot Line Thing Work Out For Students First?

The corporate education reform group Students First had their own ballot line this year - Joe Lhota was on it.How many votes did Lhota get on the Students First line?765 votes.Not exactly a rousing success for either Students First or Joe Lhota.Bill de Blasio was on the Working Families Party line as well as the Democratic ballot line.De Blasio received 40,000 votes on the WFP line.

by reality-based edu... / 1min 

Cuomo Wants To Win Big In 2014 To Set Up A 2016 White House Run

From The Buffalo News:Political insiders say the governor wants to drive his showing up in 2014, in part, to keep his name in play for the 2016 presidential contest and to use as leverage with a State Legislature that has increasingly cool relations with Cuomo. And Western New York is key to that, which could be a problem for Cuomo if Buffalo developer Carl Paladino, who lost to Cuomo in 2010, run

by reality-based edu... / 2min 

The NY Times Leads Off With Some Bloomberg Propaganda Today

Income inequality has skyrocketed in NYC during the 12 years Mayor Bloomberg raigned.But if you read the NY Times opinion pages today, you learned just how much Bloomberg has done for poverty and how much more he will do not that he is freed from his municipal duties to focus on his "philanthropy" efforts.And so, the inevitable post-Election Bloomberg Propaganda Juggernaut begins.Ignore

by reality-based edu... / 1h 

How De Blasio And His Team Ran A Very, Very Savvy Campaign

Good summary in the Daily News on how de Blasio and his team crafted a message of change, stuck with that message, and rode it all the way to Gracie Mansion, with the help of his some affecting ads using his family and the ineptitude of his opponents.Nothing surprising in the article, but it does show how deft a campaigner de Blasio is.Whether he shows the same skill at governing is another matter

by reality-based edu... / 1min 

Don't Get Too Excited

So we have a new mayor, a so-called progressive mayor, who won yesterday's election by an overwhelming margin over his GOP challenger.Exit polls showed 3 out of 4 New Yorkers want the city to go in a different direction from where Bloomberg took it in his 12 years.And Bill de Blasio ran as just that candidate and was rewarded for it at the ballot box.Yet, I feel a tinge of concern over this de Bla

by reality-based edu... / 3h 

11-5-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School: Vote De Blasio, James, No To GamblingLet's go back to last April as Anthony Weiner was getting ready to enter the race for City Hall.Christine Quinn was firmly in front of all other candidates, the Anybody But Quinn group had just launched their advertising campaign against Quinn but the ads had yet to do real damage to her, Thompson and de Blasio were well behind Quinn in l

by mike simpson / 8h 

11-6-13 Wait What?

Wait What?:

Kishimoto’s Agenda: “Process for Identifying Schools for Redesign”

The Hartford Board of Education will be holding a “Workshop Meeting” tonight, November 6, 2013. Before the meeting, parents, teachers and public school advocates will hold a press conference about Kishimoto’s plan to close Clark School and hand it over to Achievement First, Inc. The press conference and rally is in response to the Hartford […]The post Kishimoto’s Agenda: “Process for Identifying S

4 by jonpelto / 1h mark as read  //  save

Capital Prep. Principal Steve Perry: What’s the story about your failure to implement that “corrective action plan” on bullying?

Steve Perry, the principal of Capital Prep Magnet School, managed to show up for work today. Steve Perry’s excessive absences make it hard to determine exactly what is going on at Capital Prep these days.  As a result of his extensive fee-for-speaking travel, Perry has missed at least 20 percent of the school days so […]The post Capital Prep. Principal Steve Perry: What’s the story about your fail

6 by jonpelto / 1h 

Malloy/Finch/Vallas lose in Bridgeport but questions remain about role of State Democratic Party

As reported in today’s Connecticut Post article, “City school board tips away from Finch,” thanks to broad support from Bridgeport voters, Democrats and Working Family Party members opposed to Bridgeport’s faux superintendent of schools, Paul Vallas, and the corporate education reforms being pushed by Governor Malloy and Mayor Finch have taken a control of Bridgeport’s […]The post Malloy/Finch/Val

4 by jonpelto / 3min  

11-5-13 Wait What?

Wait What?: Another day at Capital Prep Magnet – And Principal Steve Perry is AWOL – againNo, he isn’t MIA… He is actually on route to Prairie View A & M University just northwest of Houston. EVENT: Prairie View A&M University University’s MSC Auditorium 6:30 speech, reception to follow And while Steve Perry is out gallivanting, courtesy of the taxpayers of Hartford and Connecticut, he is

by mike simpson / 7h 

Testing flap may impact state request for federal SIG waiver :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet

Testing flap may impact state request for federal SIG waiver :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:

Testing flap may impact state request for federal SIG waiver

by Tom Chorneau

In a move rife with political irony, the California State Board of Education is likely to approve this week a request to the U.S. Department of Education for a time extension to spend about $63 million in School Improvement Grant money.

But what would otherwise be a routine appeal may be colored by the ongoing dispute between Gov. Jerry Brown and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan over the state’s plan to suspend most of its student testing next year.

Duncan has warned that some $15 million in administrative Title I money could be withheld but the department has also made a veiled threat about other federal money at risk – including School Improvement Grants.

Perhaps most problematic for California’s new request concerning SIG funds is that the decision-maker and recipient of the waiver is the very same federal official who issued a stinging threat via letter last month – Deborah S. Delisle, assistant secretary over the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.

State officials have little choice but to make the request given the complex circumstances 

 

Study suggests focus on lowest performers hurts high achievers

Education policies heavily focused on raising proficiency levels among America’s lowest-performing students have stalled the academic growth of a large percentage of bright, higher-achieving disadvantaged pupils, according to researchers at the University of Connecticut.

by Kimberly Beltran / 6h