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Saturday, December 28, 2013

12-28-13 Perdido Street School Week

Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School Week




Clinton To Administer Oath Of Office To De Blasio
The only oath Bill Clinton should be taking is raising his right hand in court and promising to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth:Former President Clinton will administer the oath of office for the mayor-elect at his Jan. 1 inauguration ceremony at City Hall, the transition team announced Saturday.And former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — who hired de Blasio as her ca


NY Sttae Politiicans Are Doing Little To End The Ravages Of CCSS, APPR And InBloom
As the public protests over the Common Core State Standards, the APPR teacher evaluation testing that has added so much extra testing to schools and the inBloom data project that is forcing districts to hand over student information to Bill Gates and Rupert Murdoch gain steam, some politicians in NY State have begun to talk about rolling back some of this education reform agenda being imposed by t

YESTERDAY

FLASHBACK: Governor Cuomo Issues Ultimatum To NYC Over APPR Teacher Evaluation System, Mulgrew Applauds
Sheriff Andy Cuomo makes believe like he never heard of the Common Core State Standards, inBloom or the SED Endless Testing regime that has been in part imposed by Cuomo's own APPR teacher evaluation system, but here was Sheriff Andy last January warning NYC they had better get a system in place soon or he would do it for them:Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo warned the Bloomberg administration and the New Yo
No Chancellor Pick Announcement Again Today
From Daily Politics:Mayor-Elect de Blasio is in Connecticut. There are no public events scheduled.More and more it's looking like come January 2, some of the same demented people running the NYCDOE now will still be in charge.

DEC 26

Governor Cuomo Is Vulnerable Over CCSS, APPR and InBloom
A very interesting item in Fred Dicker's NY Post column:Cuomo has privately told groups of “progressive’’ Assembly Democrats that despite his election-year plans to reduce some state taxes, he’s sure he can find funds to help soon-to-be-Mayor Bill de Blasio deliver on his pledge of universal pre-K throughout the city. Cuomo, in recent meetings he initiated with black and Hispanic caucus members an
No Chancellor Pick Announcement Coming Today
From Daily Politics:While Chiara’s revelation is, by all means, a big story, attention still likely turns now, with the holiday over, to when the new Mayor will fill out his cabinet -- and with whom! With only six days remaining before de Blasio’s inauguration, he still hasn’t named a schools chancellor. The only thing we do know is that the announcement won’t come Thursday -- de Blasio’s public s

DEC 25

Chiara de Blasio, Bill de Blasio And The Politics Of Manipulation
I thought the video the de Blasio transition team released of Chiara de Blasio talking about her struggles with drugs, alcohol and depression was on one level an important one.We live in a high stress society in which many people are suffering from depression or other emotional problems, in which many people are trying to numb out with drugs, alcohol or other harmful behaviors.I hope that Chiara d

DEC 24

De Blasio Releases Video Of Daughter Talking About Her Addiction, Depression Issues
Clearly somebody was about to run a story about de Blasio daughter Chiara having drug and alcohol problems because the de Blasio people just released this video:It's an important video, no matter what the reason the de Blasio people had to go up with it now.Wouldn't it be nice if Mayor Bill de Blasio used the experience his daughter has had with depression and alcohol/drug use to provide schools t
Mulgrew's Sister Hit With Conflict Of Interest Warning
From the NY Post:The sister of teachers-union President Michael Mulgrew was wrist-slapped Monday for operating a booming tutoring company that was awarded $40 million in work from the city while she was employed as a public-school teacher. The overlapping gigs got Kathleen Mulgrew-Daretany a warning letter from the city Conflicts of Interest Board, after it determined that her work for Brienza’s A

DEC 23

NYCDOE Chancellor Announcement Not Coming This Week - But De Blasio Did Appoint Former Goldman Sachs Employee To Administration Post
De Blasio: "Very likely" to announce Chancellor next week. "There will be some interim leadership... until new chancellor fully on board"— Beth Fertig (@bethfertig) December 23, 2013No chancellor announcement, but de Blasio did appoint a former employee of Goldman Sachs, the Vampire Squid of Wall Street, as a deputy mayor for urban affairs:For all his campaign bluster against t
NY Times: APPR Teacher Evaluation System Complete Mess In NYC
Left another tweet for Sheriff Andy, this time with a link to a NY Times story chronicling the mess that it is his APPR teacher evaluation system:@NYGovCuomo APPR eval system total madness. Time to change it or vote out pols who support it! http://t.co/BsOWZhNoeY— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) December 23, 2013
A Christmas Wish
It's a traveling day for me, won't be back on the Internets until later this afternoon, but I wanted to leave this Christmas wish, via Leonie Haimson, before I head out on the road:"@McFiredogg: All I want for Xmas a School Chancellor who actually respects teachers. What's up, Mayor Elect DeBlasio?" & respects parents!— leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) December 23, 2013
Andrew Cuomo: APPR Teacher Evaluation System "Costless Way To Improve Schools"
Responding to the Newsday article that reported Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch told a middle school principal from Brooklyn that Andrew Cuomo screamed at her over the state's education reform agenda implementation, saying if she didn't get it done he'd get some guys to make sure she got it done (a story that Tisch denied happened), Carol Burris tweeted the following:@NYSchoolSupts @Newsday I was

DEC 22

Calling Randi Weingarten Out On Her Bloomberg Criticism
Randi Weingarten on Twitter:Bloomberg closed 160 schools, disrupting #edu of students while we are no closer to closing achievement gap #BloombergLegacy — Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) December 16, 2013My response:@rweingarten @TeacherArthurG True, but you helped him along the way to destroy schools in NYC http://t.co/3jvgTJ2n9I— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) December 22, 2013Here was
Class Size Up, Teacher Numbers Down While Edu-Entrepreneurs Get Fat Off Reform
From the NY Times:COATESVILLE, Pa. — The recession may have ended, but many of the nation’s school districts that laid off teachers and other employees to cut payrolls in leaner times have not yet replenished their ranks. Now, despite the recovery, many schools face unwieldy class sizes and a lack of specialists to help those students who struggle academically, are learning English as a second lan
Time To Make Andrew Cuomo Pay Politically For His Teacher Evaluation Reforms
Carol Burris in the Times Union on how to reduce the damage over-testing is doing to students, teachers and schools:The real solutions are simple but courageous. First, follow the lead of California and do not engage in grade 3-8 testing this year. Have early childhood experts review the standards and curriculum to determine whether they are indeed appropriate for young children, and fix what is n

DEC 21

There Is Money For Municipal Worker Raises In NYC
Every time the subject of all those expired municipal union contracts comes up at the NY Post and other right wing media outlets, we hear how the city is broke, the city cannot afford raises for workers, employee benefit packages are turning NYC into Detroit blah blah blah.But the reality is this: Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio may be inheriting a city in better financial shape than he had expected.
Taking Back Newark From The Privatizers
In case you missed this:@KarenLewisCTU @deBlasioNYC @berthalewis Ras Baraka for Mayor of Newark http://t.co/7PjLgIioQx …— Mark Naison (@McFiredogg) December 21, 2013Electing a pro-public school mayor to Newark would be a big thing, a really big thing.Hedge fund crony Cory Booker has gone on to do bigger and more damaging things at the federal level now, but maybe, just maybe, somebody can come in
Carol Burris: Tisch Did Blame Cuomo, But It Was Over APPR Teacher Evaluations
I managed to miss this tweet when I was writing up this morning's post about Andrew Cuomo going Corleone on Merryl Tisch over Common Core.First, let's recap the story:Newsday reported that a principal from a middle school in Red Hook said the following:Karyann (Katie) Zahedi, principal of Linden Middle School in Red Hook, told the panel of Assembly members Wednesday night that she and other educat
Andrew Cuomo Allegedly Goes Corleone On Merryl Tisch
Newsday has a very interesting story out tonight about something Merryl Tisch allegedly told to a middle school principal from Red Hook:A Long Island Republican has posted on the Internet video from a forum this week on the Common Core academic standards where a Hudson Valley middle school principal relayed a conversation she said she had with state Regents Chancellor Meryl Tisch, touching on Gov.

12-28-13 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness by P. L. Thomas, EdD


THE BECOMING RADICAL

Radical Scholarship

the becoming radical 
 A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness 
by 


Anatomy of Charter School Advocacy
When I wrote Why Advocacy and Market Forces Fail Education Reform in 2011, the acceleration of charter school advocacy hadn’t quite gathered the momentum that we are experiencing at the end of 2013. If charter school advocacy has proven anything, however, it is that my basic premise has come to fruition: Once again, the caution of evidence - advocacy is the enemy of transparency and truth. Like me
The Answer Sheet: The invisibility of teachers
The Answer Sheet: The invisibility of teachers
Spellings Doubles-Down on “Incredibly Complicated” High-Stakes Testing
Spellings Doubles-Down on “Incredibly Complicated” High-Stakes Testing.
Truthout: Why Charter Schools Are Foolish Investments for States Facing Economic Challenges
Truthout: Why Charter Schools Are Foolish Investments for States Facing Economic Challenges

DEC 26

Education Reform: Our Field, Our Voices Simply Do Not Matter
“I am an invisible man,” announces the unnamed narrator of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, adding: I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me….When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, of figments of their imaginations—indeed, everything and anything except me….That invisibility to which I refer occurs because of a peculiar disposition of the eyes of

DEC 25

The Socialist Objective: “I can see the dawn of the better day for humanity”
Under a pen-name for a newspaper in 1943, George Orwell wrote about Christmas, veering into a declaration of the Socialist objective, predating by many decades Kurt Vonnegut’s career of making similar and powerful claims about the need for human kindness: The Socialist objective is not a society where everything comes right in the end, because kind old gentlemen give away turkeys. What are we aimi

DEC 24

Top Posts of 2013, and Thank You
This year, 2013, is when I took the plunge and began blogging at my own site—despite trepidation about “who was I..” and “who would bother….” Because of the kindness of my fellow educators, bloggers, and Twitter-friends, I am very pleased with how many read and share my work. It is something I value as someone driven to write. I am now tiptoeing into another commitment that started this month, but

DEC 23

Faces of Free Speech
The controversy over comments by Phil Robertson in GQ has become a public (although jumbled) debate about free speech. Matt Bruenig has done a valuable job highlighting how that public discourse has ignored a much more complicated admission, by comparing how the Right has responded to Robertson as that contrasts with the Right’s reaction to the 2003 Dixie Chicks controversy: It is not mysterious w
This Is the Common Core You Support?
This Is the Common Core You Support?.

DEC 22

Teachers of Conscience and the Common Core Scylla and Charybdis
In our popular discourse, we are prone to say we are caught between a rock and a hard place, a veiled allusion to Homer’s Scylla and Charybdis. For K-12 public school teachers over the past thirty years, our Scylla and Charybdis have been federal, state, district, and school mandates on one side and our own professional expertise and autonomy on the other as we navigate the rough waters of serving
I Don’t Need Standards To Teach, I Need Students
Just days ago, I completed my twenty-eighth year as a teacher [1]—eighteen as a high school teacher of English followed by ten years as a professor of education. And I am excited about the coming semesters because, as I have felt every year of my teaching life, I know I failed in some ways this past academic year and I am confident I will be better in my next opportunities to teach. As a teacher,

DEC 21

Supporting Common Core Is Supporting Entire Reform Machine
Supporting Common Core is supporting either an increase or diversion of education tax dollars for funding CC-aligned textbooks, CC-aligned materials, CC-based high-stakes tests, CC-related teacher inservice and workshops, and expanded analysis of CC-based test data. Supporting Common Core is supporting a continuation (at least) or an expansion (likely) of high-stakes testing for children, despite

Anatomy of Charter School Advocacy
Anatomy of Charter School Advocacy
The Answer Sheet: The invisibility of teachers
The Answer Sheet: The invisibility of teachers
Truthout: Why Charter Schools Are Foolish Investments for States Facing Economic Challenges
Truthout: Why Charter Schools Are Foolish Investments for States Facing Economic Challenges

DEC 23

This Is the Common Core You Support?
This Is the Common Core You Support?

DEC 22

Teachers of Conscience and the Common Core Scylla and Charybdis
Teachers of Conscience and the Common Core Scylla and Charybdis
I Don't Need Standards To Teach, I Need Students
I Don't Need Standards To Teach, I Need Students