12-11-13 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online:

Substance: Chitown CEO Nixed in NYC!... Byrd Bennett strikes out in New York City as her slavish adherence to Rahm's school closing quota catches up with her

Chicago schools Chief Executive Officer Barbara Byrd Bennett completed her main assignment from Mayor Rahm Emanuel at the Board of Education's May 22, 2013 meeting when she recommended the gutting of the city's real public school system with the unprecedented closing of 49 of Chicago's real public schools. The recommendation, which was passed unanimously by the seven member school board of the nat

by ed notes online / 2h

12-10-13 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online: Eva Moskowitz' Success Academy Gets Preferential DOE Treatment, Emails Show- DUHHH!NEW YORK CITY — When Eva Moskowitz starts a new charter school, top officials at the city’s Department of Education move heaven and earth to meet her demands.During the past two years, the DOE gave Moskowitz’s controversial chain, Success Academy, rent-free space in city school buildings to open 14

by mike simpson / 8h 

12-11-13 THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG Throughout December and January: Personalized Learning — Whole Child Education

Throughout December and January: Personalized Learning — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

Throughout December and January: Personalized Learning

December 11, 2013 by Klea Scharberg

How do we help each student succeed? One promising way is to personalize learning and put each student at the center of her learning experience. Broader than individualized or differentiated instruction, personalized learning is driven by the learner. Ensuring personalized learning for all students requires a shift in thinking about long-standing education practices, systems and policies, as well as significant changes in the tools and resources. To address students’ abilities, interests, styles, and performance, schools need to rethink curricula, instruction, and technology tools to support giving learners choices and schools flexibility.

Join us as throughout December and January as we take a look at how personalized learning has the promise to ensure equity, engagement, ownership, and achievement for each child, in each school, and in each community so that she is college, career, and citizenship ready and is prepared for success in our global, knowledge-based society.

The Whole Child Podcast

This month, download two episodes of Whole Child Podcast featuring ASCD author Yong Zhao in conversation with ASCD's Sean Slade and a panel discussion among educators who are currently personalizing learning for students in their schools.

The Whole Child Blog

Check out the Whole Child Blog for contributions from experts and practitioners in the field; whole child partners; and ASCD staff, who will share free resources, provide examples, and answer your questions. Be sure to leave your questions, ideas, and stories in the comments.

Social Networking

Connect (if you haven't already) with the Whole Child Initiative on Facebook and Twitter and be part of changing the conversation about the importance of a whole child approach to education with more than 23,000 people from around the globe.

12-10-13 THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG ED Pulse Poll Results: How Interested Are You in Multicultural Competency Training? — Whole Child Education

ED Pulse Poll Results: How Interested Are You in Multicultural Competency Training? — Whole Child Education: ED Pulse Poll Results: How Interested Are You in Multicultural Competency Training?ASCD continually seeks to provide solutions to the challenges that face educators of all levels. Recently, the ASCD SmartBrief ED Pulse poll addressed the need for and the interest in multicultural competency

by mike simpson / 5h 

12-11-13 With A Brooklyn Accent

With A Brooklyn Accent:

The Regents and Collateral Damage- Thoughts from a Bronx Common Core Forum

The amount of "collateral damage" those who call themselves "School Reformers" are willing to endure in their quest to prepare children ( including those not yet born) ready to compete in the Global Economy never ceases to amaze me. They claim to be motivated by idealism and a passion for equity, yet they are totally unmoved by stories of real life hardship, difficulty and abus

by Mark Naison / 3h 

 

12-10-13 With A Brooklyn Accent: Summary of My Remarks to Regents Chair Tisch at Common Core Forum in the Bronx

With A Brooklyn Accent: Summary of My Remarks to Regents Chair Tisch at Common Core Forum in the Bronx: Summary of My Remarks to Regents Chair Tisch at Common Core Forum in the BronxWhat I will say to Regents Chair Tisch after describing the fear and humiliation and demoralization among students and teachers in Bronx schools that have been inspired by testing, test based evaluation of schools and

by mike simpson / 8h 

A letter to the President: 'Teachers work in fear.' | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com

A letter to the President: 'Teachers work in fear.' | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com: A letter to the President: 'Teachers work in fear.' Previous PostsCharter schools increase as more existing schools seek to 'convert.'December 10, 2013Snow day turns into bad day for Oregon football December 10, 2013Excuses, excuses: The lies students tell their teachersDecember 10, 2013By Maureen DowneyHere is a let

by mike simpson / 9h 

12-11-13 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University)

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University):

Our Real-World Dystopia

As a science fiction (SF) fan, partial to dystopian SF, and writer, I would have a great novel on my hand if this weren’t simply the way things are. How to create a real-world dystopia: Identify “privilege” as “achievement” using a mechanism that you label “scientific” and “standard.” Use “achievement” to create the authority class. Repeat. Sounds easy, but some may call this outlandish. So let

by plthomasedd / 1h 

Schools Matter: Seeking Equity: Not “If,” But “How” and “Why”

Schools Matter: Seeking Equity: Not “If,” But “How” and “Why”: Fiction offers avenues to Truth, often hard Truths, that remain closed or less often traveled otherwise. While many people associate Middle...

by P. L. Thomas / 2h 

12-10-13 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University): VAM Fails Test, Again: The Bizarro World of Education ReformThe great state of South Carolina (and for full effect, you should hear that with “great” and “state” rhyming, sort of, with “pet” because that is how the good ol’ boy patriarchy says it around here) continues d

by mike simpson / 8h 

12-11-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

Some Of The Same CCSS/Students First Shills Show Up Two Nights Running

It's getting a little nauseating.Miranda Cohen FORMER teacher w/ StudentsFirst says she 150% supports CCSS & testing.She spoke last night 2.— CriticalClassrooms (@lapham_katie) December 12, 2013Leonie notes how even when the speakers are different, they all say the same things phrased in the same ways: Guy next to me sez they're all saying same things where's the critical thinking?— leonie hai

by reality-based edu... / 0min 

State Senator Polls On Common Core Standards

From Ken Lovett at the Daily News politics blog:State Sen. Kathy Marchione, a Saratoga County Republican, is robocalling to urge her constituents to take an online poll about the controversial state common core standards. "I, too, have real concerns about common core and it's possible impact on our children, teachers and schools," Marchione says in the call, which I just received. Marchi

by reality-based edu... / 16min 

Contract Negotiations Between UFT and City In State Hearing

Via James Eterno and Jeff Kaufman at ICEUFT, there is a must read Reuters piece about the contract negotiations between the city and the UFT:With just three weeks remaining before his team cedes power to Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, Bloomberg's administration will cite accounting rules at a closed-door state hearing on Wednesday as it tries to shut the door on any retroactive raises being paid out

by reality-based edu... / 2h 

12-10-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School: Is Carmen Farina Now The Frontrunner To Be Chancellor?From Capital NY:Carmen Farina, a leading chancellor contender, not only shares an educational philosophy nearly identical to Bill de Blasio’s, but helped to construct the mayor-elect’s beliefs during the decade she has advised him on school issues.“They are of one mind,” said Dorothy Siegel, an education advocate, former

by mike simpson / 8h

Shanker Blog » Being Kevin Huffman

Shanker Blog » Being Kevin Huffman:

Being Kevin Huffman

Posted by Matthew Di Carlo on December 11, 2013

In a post earlier this week, I noted how several state and local education leaders, advocates and especially the editorial boards of major newspapers used the results of the recently-released NAEP results inappropriately – i.e., to argue that recent reforms in states such as Tennessee and D.C. are “working.” I also discussed how this illustrates a larger phenomenon in which many people seem to expect education policies to generate immediate, measurable results in terms of aggregate student test scores, which I argued is both unrealistic and dangerous.

Mike G. from Boston, a friend whose comments I always appreciate, agrees with me, but asks a question that I think gets to the pragmatic heart of the matter. He wonders whether individuals in high-level education positions have any alternative. For instance, Mike asks, what would I suggest to Kevin Huffman, who is the head of Tennessee’s education department? Insofar as Huffman’s opponents “would use any data…to bash him if it’s trending down,” would I advise him to forego using the data in his favor when they show improvement?*

I have never held any important high-level leadership positions. My political experience and skills are (and I’m being charitable here) underdeveloped, and I have no doubt many more seasoned folks in education would disagree with me. But my answer is: Yes, I would advise him to forego using the data in this manner. Here’s why.

It is, I admit, tempting to justify my advice in a self-righteous manner – that is, to say that using NAEP data in this manner is wrong when Mr. Huffman’s opponents do it, and so it would be wrong for him to do it. But I am not quite so naïve as to believe that one can separate politics from policy, and I realize that people in positions of 

Mississippi’s child poverty rate is twice as high as Lithuania’s. Why are we OK with that? | Hechinger Report

Mississippi’s child poverty rate is twice as high as Lithuania’s. Why are we OK with that? | Hechinger Report:

Mississippi’s child poverty rate is twice as high as Lithuania’s. Why are we OK with that?

By Jake McGraw

This story also appeared at:

Rethink Mississippi

Here’s a question. If the United States’s child poverty rate ranks second-worst among the world’s developed countries, and Mississippi has the highest child poverty rate in the U.S., then how do Mississippi’s kids stack up globally? We wouldn’t even be on the chart.

Over 35 percent of Mississippi’s children fall under the international poverty standard as defined by this report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Compare that to 24 percent in Romania, the highest rate in the developed world:

Before we go any further, a caveat: the UNICEF report defines poverty as less than 50 percent of national median household income — a relative measure that doesn’t offer comparisons about absolute well-being across countries. Americans make four times as much as the average Eastern European (and 10-20 times more than the average Sub-Saharan African), so most of Mississippi’s underserved children are materially better off than comparable populations in poorer countries.

Nevertheless, child poverty is best understood in a domestic context because its implications for opportunity and mobility, two foundational ingredients of America’s national identity. Mississippi 

4LAKids - CHARTER SCHOOL GROUP WRITES REPORT THAT SAYS REGULAR SCHOOLS SUCK - 6 months later newspaper reports it as news

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: CHARTER SCHOOL GROUP WRITES REPORT THAT SAYS REGULAR SCHOOLS SUCK - 6 months later newspaper reports it as news:

CHARTER SCHOOL GROUP WRITES REPORT THAT SAYS REGULAR SCHOOLS SUCK - 6 months later newspaper reports it as news

Report: In Silicon Valley, 'successful' schools fail poor and English-learning students

BY SHARON NOGUCHI SNOGUCHI@MERCURYNEWS.COM | HTTP://BIT.LY/1BV3EGM

Posted:   12/09/2013 12:18:29 PM PST | Updated:   a day ago  ::  MOUNTAIN VIEW -- Silicon Valley public schools are largely failing poor students and English learners, a report issued Monday  in Mayasserts, indicating that even schools in wealthy neighborhoods perceived to be highly successful are inadequately preparing these students, considered the hardest to educate.

"Broken Promises: The Children Left Behind in Silicon Valley Schools" highlights two tiers of achievement, based on state test scores from 2012-13. Only 14 percent of English learners, 21 percent of African-American students, 24 percent of Latinos and 29 percent of low-income students tested proficient in algebra at the end of eighth grade. That's compared with 58 percent of white students and 80 percent of Asians.

Historically, those numbers carry over into high school, with huge gaps in college readiness.

"We've got a big problem in the valley for low-income kids and English-language learners," said Matt Hammer of Innovate Public Schools, the year-old nonprofit that published the report. At the same time, he said, the report found encouraging news. "There are some schools that are showing you can do amazing things and achieve high performance with kids in 

Services For Lausd Board Member Marguerite Poindexter Lamotte

LA Times Thursday, December 19, 2013 Lying in Repose Visitation Hours – Noon to 5 p.m. Angelus Funeral Home 3875 S. Crenshaw Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90008 Friday, December 20, 2013 Lying in Repose Visitation Hours – 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Angelus Funeral Home 3875 S. Crenshaw Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90008 Saturday, December 21,

7h 

NY Times Series Is About Homelessness, Poverty, Inequality and Public Education | janresseger

NY Times Series Is About Homelessness, Poverty, Inequality and Public Education | janresseger:

NY Times Series Is About Homelessness, Poverty, Inequality and Public Education

Posted on December 11, 2013 by janresseger

This week’s New York Times feature series, Invisible Child, about a gifted Brooklyn preteen and her life for several years in a decrepit homeless shelter with her parents and six siblings, explores—from the point of view of the child herself—the mass of ways opportunity can be crushed.  Andrea Elliott, the reporter, traces Desani’s journey from crisis to crisis over the several years her large family resides together in a 520-square-foot room.

This is also a story of the role of a public school in the life of a child who lacks another anchor.  At school she has her own place to hang her coat.  School is a place where much of the time she can hide the fragility of her family’s stability and where the principal and a special teacher willingly care for her and her siblings.

Here is a child whose parents both struggle with drug addiction and whose mother counsels her to fight to secure her place.  But Desani also listens to the teacher she respects, someone who grew up in the neighborhood, and who advises, “I don’t ever wanna hear, ‘Well, my mother told me to do this,’ unless you know that’s the right thing.  I am telling you, as sure as I’m sitting here, you’re gonna be held responsible for the choices you make.” “You care about your life.  There are people out there

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: D.C.'s Mayor Gray under fire for Rhee-ism without Rhee

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: D.C.'s Mayor Gray under fire for Rhee-ism without Rhee:

D.C.'s Mayor Gray under fire for Rhee-ism without Rhee

Like President Obama, who campaigned as a critic of the war in Iraq but then continued many of George W. Bush’s military policies once in office, Gray ran as a skeptic of the reforms being implemented by Rhee but continued them under Henderson, who also has closed more than a dozen schools and fired hundreds of teachers. -- Melinda Henneberger, Washington Post

D.C. students protest 2010 teacher firings.

Following up on Monday's postwhich was critical of WaPo's excellent education writer Valerie Strauss. Remember, Strauss was dismissive in her response to D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray's drawing parallels between the conditions black people face today in the nation's capital with those faced under South African apartheid. I defended Gray on that one, but also pointed out that I was also critical of Gray who seems to be following in the path of his horrible predecessors Adrian Fenty and Michelle Rhee.

It was Fenty who brought in Rhee as his appointed school chancellor. In a matter of months, Rhee, with heavy backing from corporate school reformers and power philanthropists, threw the school system into financial chaos. Her regime was marked by a massive test-cheating scandal along with a successful effort to weaken the teachers union and take away many of the teachers' collective bargaining rights. Rhee fired hundreds of good teachers and

A letter to the President: 'Teachers work in fear.' | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com

A letter to the President: 'Teachers work in fear.' | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:

A letter to the President: 'Teachers work in fear.' 

Previous Posts

• Charter schools increase as more existing schools seek to 'convert.'
  December 10, 2013
• Snow day turns into bad day for Oregon football 
  December 10, 2013
• Excuses, excuses: The lies students tell their teachers
  December 10, 2013

By Maureen Downey

Here is a letter to President Obama by one of the founders of the Badass Teachers Association, Mark D. Naison, a professor at Fordham University in New York.

I received several emails last week asking me to post the essay from Naison's blog "With a Brooklyn Accent."  I set it aside as we had a lot of local education news to discuss last week.

However, the piece inadvertently posted over the weekend -- without all the necessary coding. When I took it down to add the coding, several of you sent me notes asking what happened and wondering if complaints led to the letter being pulled from my blog.

Somehow, a lot of readers found their way to this posting even though it was not coded to appear on the AJC Get Schooled index or on the AJC Get Schooled Facebook page. And nearly 100 comments were made, all of which have reposted.

So, here we go again -- with coding and a headline. This is an excerpt. Please go to Dr. Naison's blog to read the entire piece:

Dear President Obama:

As a scholar in African American History and a teacher and coach for more than 45 years, it is my unhappy duty to inform you that your education policies have contributed to the lowest morale among teachers that I have seen in my lifetime, while failing to narrow gaps in opportunity or achievement based on race or class.

You may not believe me, but if you were, as I am, in daily contact with thousands of teachers from inner city to suburb to small town, you would be as worried as I am. Judging teachers on the basis of student test scores, as your Race to the Top policy requires, has been an unmitigated disaster; so has closing allegedly failing schools on the basis of such scores. Teachers everywhere now feel they have to teach to the test; in poor neighborhoods, they fear they will lose their jobs if they don't make this their sole priority.

The joy and creative learning that your own children experience in one of the nation's top private schools are being driven out of public schools throughout the nation with 

OH THE HUMANITY – OUR STUDENTS AREN ‘T CHALLENGED ! | Teachers Fight Back

OH THE HUMANITY – OUR STUDENTS AREN ‘T CHALLENGED ! | Teachers Fight Back:

OH THE HUMANITY – OUR STUDENTS AREN ‘T CHALLENGED !

leave a comment »

Chicago Tribune, you are hilarious. The Tribune is now boasting on page one how they obtained last year’s state school survey that was, “so provocative that the state withheld a full analysis of it from the public”.

Here is an excerpt from the Tribune article. “Across Illinois, sixth through 12th-graders were asked some simple but revealing questions on a statewide survey: Does your teacher ask difficult questions in class?  What about on tests ?  Their answers were an eye-opener, with nearly 50 percent – almost 360,000 students – disclosing that they never or seldom are asked hard questions in their main academic classes.”

“As for exams, 42 percent said they never or only occasionally are given challenging test questions, raising concerns about the rigors of instruction at a time when students are supposed to be preparing for tougher state exams.”

After reporting the above results, the Tribune writes this conclusion, “Not only do students not feel challenged —”.

There you have it folks, those lazy, incompetent teachers, especially unionized ones), AREN’T CHALLENGING OUR KIDS! Way to go Tribune, now there’s a foolproof scientific conclusion if I ever saw one! Does the Tribune 

12-10-13 Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog:

Budget Deal Reached!

As we all know a budget deal has been the issue in the House and Senate BUT today a budget deal has been reached by the House and Senate budget negotiators averting any future government shutdown in January. The agreement eliminates about $65 billion in across-the-board domestic and defense cuts while adding an additional $25 billion in deficit reduction by extending a 2 percent cut to Medicare th

by Susanna Gonzalez / 21min  

12-9-13 Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog: Alabama death penalty cases in politicsThe issue of capital punishment has been gaining ground in American politics. It has gone so far to the point where it begins to ruin our court systems along with our economy. Alabama is one of the three states that allows for judges to override the jury's sentence to life in prison without parole and heighten it to the death penal

by mike simpson / 1d 

Patrick Kennedy, Welcome to the website for my Campaign for Sacramento County Supervisor, District 2.

Patrick Kennedy, Sacramento City Unified School District Board of Education, Area 7:

Welcome to the website for my Campaign for Sacramento County Supervisor, District 2.

For 23 years, I have committed myself to the service of my community, first as a neighborhood leader and volunteer parent of four wonderful daughters, then as a planning commissioner. And for the past five as a member of the Sacramento City Unified School District Board of Education. These experiences have fostered in me a growing desire to serve our neighbors, particularly those whose lives have seen, and continue to see, great challenges.

District 2, and Sacramento County as a whole, is a wonderful place to live for many of us. For others, the difficult times of the past six years have taken a tremendous toll. I understand this adversity. Raised by a single mother whose alcoholism and drug addiction led to her death when I was just a boy, I know what it means to be on public assistance, not knowing one day to the next if my family would lose our home.

Now, many years later, I am blessed with a wonderful family and many opportunities. In many ways, I am the product of the community I now run to represent.

I am running for Supervisor because I believe I can make a difference. Whether it’s economic development and job creation, safer neighborhoods, more equitable county services, improved physical and mental health care delivery, opportunities for our youth, or protecting our rivers and parkways, my candidacy is based on the conviction that we can do better. I hope you will join me.

Please call me at 916-743-0876, or email me at patrick@patrick-kennedy.com if you have any questions.

Patrick