Monday, January 20, 2014

1-20-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Want to Keep Those After-School Activities?

I wanted to pull this issue out from the Seattle Schools This Week thread because I believe this could affect many, many schools and their after-school programs.Amending School Board Policy #4260, Use of School Facilities. It has come to my attention that the district wants to create a change in usage of facilities. The district says it is "working with SCPTSA" over using facilities and

by Melissa Westbrook / 44min

Thank You, Reverend King

by Melissa Westbrook / 20min

1-19-14 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Schools This WeekMonday, January 20thNo School in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. DayWednesday, January 22ndSchool Board Meeting, starting at 4:15 pm. Agenda. Note: there is to be an Executive Session after the Board meeting for 30 minutes. Action Items- removal (basically) of open choice seats in high school from the New Student Assignment Plan Transit

by mike simpson / 16h

On Inefficiencies and Value Added In Private Schools: A follow up on the Chubb research summit | School Finance 101

On Inefficiencies and Value Added In Private Schools: A follow up on the Chubb research summit | School Finance 101:

On Inefficiencies and Value Added In Private Schools: A follow up on the Chubb research summit

Posted on January 20, 2014

Reblogged from Private Schooling & the Public Interest:

Bruce D. Baker, Rutgers

A few weeks back I posted a rather harsh critique of a summit convened by NAIS President John Chubb which he described as a gathering of leading researchers intended to generate ideas on the future of private independent schooling. Among other things, I critiqued the chosen researchers balance of ideology, knowledge of private independent schools and in some cases, generally lacking substance of their body of work on educational productivity.

Fighting for the dream continues | Teaching Between the Lines

Fighting for the dream continues | Teaching Between the Lines:

Fighting for the dream continues

posted in CCSS, Common Core, Heroes of Education, High Stakes Testing, My Story,NCLB, Reading, Visions of Education, Writing by Laura

This was my very first blog post, written in 2011, in response to my growing frustrations and fears over NCLB. I had met and spoken with Stephen Krashen, who encouraged me to start blogging, to get my voice of experience out there for others to hear. Although our ongoing battles in education may not compare to the historic (and ongoing) struggles for civil rights, we do know that inequality in the schools contributes a great deal to inequality in opportunities: opportunities for higher education, income, job security, health care, etc. While NCLB may be on its way out, the Common Core and its Smarter Balanced Assessments are on their way in. And so the struggle continues…

Ten years ago [now 13], President George W. Bush, in whose symbolic shadow our children now shiver, signed the No Child Left Behind legislation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of children who had been seared in the flames of educational injustice. It promised a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their inferior education.

But ten years later, many children have indeed been left behind. Ten years later, many children’s minds are still sadly crippled by the manacles of under-funded schools and the chains of standardized tests. Ten years later, many children still live on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. Ten years later, many children still languish in the corners of American schools and find themselves an exile in their own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

When the architects of our education system wrote the magnificent words of every state standard and

Honoring MLK: Remembered For the Extremist That He Was | Cloaking Inequity

Honoring MLK: Remembered For the Extremist That He Was | Cloaking Inequity:

Honoring MLK: Remembered For the Extremist That He Was

“The question is not whether we will be extremists… but what kind of extremists we will be…” Would MLK be a “school reformer” in the mold of Rahm, Bloomberg, Rhee or Broad? Do you think he would be a member of the anti-union Democrats for Education Reform? Or anti-union Students First? Or support organizations that take money (Teach For America) from the anti-union Walton Foundation?… What do you think MLK had to say about “Right to Work”? What do you think he would say about the corporate-funded Center for Union Facts personal attack on Randi Weingarten in Times Square in NYC?

MLK was an ardent support of unions … MLK was an extremist, he spoke out against neoliberalism and economic oppression.

The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, government relief for the destitute and, above all, new wage levels that meant not mere survival but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome. When in the thirties the wave of union organization crested over the nation, it carried to secure shores not only itself but the whole society.
Negroes in the United States read the history of labor and find it mirrors their own experience. We are confronted by powerful forces telling us to rely on the goodwill and understanding of those who profit by exploiting us. They deplore our discontent, they resent our will to organize, so that we may guarantee

When Schools Stay Open on Martin Luther King Day - Emily Richmond - The Atlantic

When Schools Stay Open on Martin Luther King Day - Emily Richmond - The Atlantic:

When Schools Stay Open on Martin Luther King Day

“It always seems like Martin Luther King day is the first one they are willing to give up.”

EMILY RICHMOND

Joshua Roberts/Reuters

Today is a federal holiday, which means schools are closed in Washington, D.C. However in some states, districts have abandoned plans to observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and instead hold classes to make up for time lost during the recent record-setting spate of winter storms.

The decision to hold classes in some districts in Indiana isn’t sitting well with Mark Russell, director of education, family services and housing at the Indianapolis Urban League.

“Given the history of this nation and the unique role that race and race relations has played from its inception, this one long-hard-fought-for holiday—I would hope there would be some recognition that this is not just another holiday,” Russell told the Indianapolis Star.

A few years ago similar decisions to turn the holiday into a makeup day in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina drew sharp criticism from civil rights leaders who said it was an insult to King’s memory.

“It always seems like Martin Luther King day is the first one they are willing to give up,” Dot Scott, president of the Charleston branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, told the New York Times.

10 Questions on Expanded Learning Time

Guess Who Supports Homeschooling?

Sequestration Rollback? Federal Funding Bill Gains Traction

In Iowa City, school is in session today not because of the recent “polar vortex” but instead due to a quirk in state law. The local school board had considered observing the holiday but was informed by the Iowa Department of Education that it didn’t have the authority to keep students out of class for that purpose. Community leaders said while they realized the school board couldn’t buck the

The greatest MLK speeches you never heard - CNN.com

The greatest MLK speeches you never heard - CNN.com:

The greatest MLK speeches you never heard

By John Blake, CNN

updated 8:14 AM EST, Mon January 20, 2014

American civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is best known for his role in the African-American civil rights movement and nonviolent protests. His life's work has been honored with a national holiday, schools and public buildings named after him, as well as a memorial on Independence Mall in Washington. Take a look back at the civil rights leader's defining years.

HIDE CAPTION

The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

King's "overlooked gems" spotlight leader's hidden side
Some MLK works never got attention they deserved
Scholar: "He was a revolutionary"
One speech even infuriated civil rights leaders

(CNN) -- Here's a pop quiz for anyone who calls the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. an American hero.

Can you name any of his great speeches or written works without citing "I Have a Dream" or the "Letter from Birmingham Jail"?

Most Americans would likely flub this quiz. King may be a national hero whose birthday the country commemorates on Monday, but to many he remains a one-dimensional hero -- the vast body of his work unknown. Though he wrote five books and delivered up to 450 speeches a year, he's defined by one speech and one letter.

What then are the great works by King that never get the attention they deserve?

Martin Luther King speaking at Vermont Ave. Baptist Church in Washington, Febuary 1968.

That's the question CNN put to some members of King's inner circle as well as top King scholars. We asked them to pick their favorite overlooked gems from King, any extraordinary spoken or written words people don't typically hear during King commemorations.

Six entries made our final cut: three sermons and speeches, King's most radical book, an astonishing letter he wrote as a college student, and a "eulogy" he delivered for a friend that revealed a side of him the public rarely saw.

'A Time to Break the Silence'

Sermon delivered at Riverside Church in New York on April 4, 1967.

Why it's important: This was King's most controversial speech. Even some members of his own staff warned him not to give it. With this sermon, King decisively came out against the Vietnam War at a time when many Americans still supported it. People were furious. President Lyndon Johnson stopped talking to him. Civil rights leaders criticized him, and major newspapers told him to stick to civil rights. Yet King put principle over personal popularity and continued to oppose the war. One year later to the day he gave this speech, King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

King: Holiday to focus on 'nonviolence'

Hear lost interview of MLK Jr.

What he said: Money that should have been spent on Johnson's War on Poverty was being lost in Vietnam's killing fields. He said, "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." The speech distilled King's belief that racism, economic exploitation and war were all connected as "triple evils."

Signature lines: "We are taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them 8,000 miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in Southwest Georgia and East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools."

What others say: "It's Dr. King's most underappreciated speech," says Vorris Nunley, a professor of rhetoric at the University of California, Riverside. "Former supporters, black as well as white, backed away from this too compassionate, too radical, too political King."

Rare recording of MLK Jr. talking about JFK released

'Our God is Marching On!'

Speech delivered on March 25, 1965, in Montgomery, Alabama, at the end of the Selma-to-Montgomery march.

Why it's important: It is one of King's most electrifying speeches. When the roaring crowd joins King in shouting "Glory hallelujah!" at the end of the speech, the march becomes a church revival. The speech was the culmination of one of the movement's most brutal but critical campaigns. Three civil rights activists were killed and other marchers were beaten at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. King gave his defiant speech while standing on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, a city known as the "Cradle of the Confederacy." This was the high-water mark of the civil rights movement. The Selma campaign would spark the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

What he said: King praised the white clergy and laypeople of various faiths who traveled to Selma to face danger with African-American protesters. He said that segregation was "on its deathbed" and the movement must now be prepared to "march on poverty."

Signature lines: "They told us we wouldn't get here. And there were those who said that we would get here only over their dead bodies, but all the world today knows that we are here and that we are standing before the forces of power in the state of Alabama saying, 'We ain't going to let nobody turn us around.'

"I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because 'truth crushed to earth will rise again.' How long? Not long, because 'no lie can live forever.' ... How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

What others say: The speech marked the triumphant end of the first phase of the civil rights movement -- seeking legal and political rights -- and the beginning of a new phase focused on economic

Court ruling in New Orleans could have big consequences for the city’s schools | Hechinger Report

Court ruling in New Orleans could have big consequences for the city’s schools | Hechinger Report:

Court ruling in New Orleans could have big consequences for the city’s schools

By Hechinger Report

Last week’s Louisiana appeals court ruling that the New Orleans school board improperly dismissed thousands of teachers in the wake of Hurricane Katrina vindicated the fired educators and their supporters. It also raised serious questions about the system’s financial viability moving forward: If the decision is upheld, the state and school board will likely be liable for hundreds of millions in back pay and benefits.

A panel of judges for the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal said the 7,500 fired employees were denied due process rights, and that many of them are entitled to two years of back pay and benefits. News of a possible appeal could come as early as this week.

In the months after Hurricane Katrina, the school board fired the teachers and state officials swept most of the city’s public schools into the state-run Recovery School District. The two decisions paved the way for massive and controversial changes in the city’s public school system: This year, more than 90 percent of New Orleans public school children attend charter schools, and most of their teachers are at-will employees. While some charters rehired mostly veteran educators, others have relied heavily on young Teach For America instructors and recent alumni of the alternative teacher preparation program, who are much more likely to be white and come from outside New Orleans.

Defenders of the decision argue that it was financially and logistically necessary with the city

Blend, flip, disrupt

When she introduced Khan Academy videos and quizzes to her sixth-grade math students, Suney Park had to “give up control,” she said at a Blended Learning in K-12 conference at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. “That’s hard.” But the software lets her students work at their own level and their own pace, moving on only when they’ve mastered a lesson. More are reaching proficiency, says Park, who teach

by Joanne Jacobs / 16min

Martin Luther King 2.0, Now with More Excellence | EduShyster

Martin Luther King 2.0, Now with More Excellence | EduShyster:

Martin Luther King 2.0, Now with More Excellence

No one could lead a civil rights movement like Martin Luther King Jr. But let’s face it: the movement he led was old school. The civil rights issue of our time is the achievement gap, and closing it often requires doing the opposite of what Dr. King stood for.Which raises some important questions: if Dr. King returned today would he be an achievement gaptivist? Which billionaires would fund his important work? And with poverty and racism now officially regarded as excuses, what would he talk about? Meet Martin Luther King 2.0, now with more excellence.

No excuses
I have it on excellent authority that at the top of Dr. King 2.0′s itinerary is a visit to an urban No Excuses academy of excellence and innovation that has “cracked the code” and discovered the “secret sauce” for putting poor minority students on a path to college and 21st century employment. Note to welcome committee: Dr. King will likely be puzzled by hyper-segregated nature of schools and predominantly young white teaching staff so you may want to have extra brochures on hand. Also, the No Excuses culture with its emphasis on silence, compliance and punishment will likely be new to him, or uncomfortably familiar, so may want to schedule visit for after 8PM when school day

Diane Ravitch and technology: Once more into the breach… | Dangerously Irrelevant

Diane Ravitch and technology: Once more into the breach… | Dangerously Irrelevant:

Diane Ravitch and technology: Once more into the breach…

I’m trying to see Diane Ravitch’s pro-technology stance. I really am. I thought she was more tempered in Reign of Error. She actually noted some positive affordances of instructional technologies for students and teachers and also appropriately noted concerns about some cyber charter schools. But after yet another derisive statement about how technologies are ‘distracting toys,’ I left the following comment on Diane’s blog:

Diane, lately you have been more tempered with your language regarding educational technology, noting that it has powerful potentials when used correctly and also properly noting the stupidity of some implementation efforts (e.g., L.A. Unified and its iPads). However, you undercut your messaging – and reinforce my earlier concerns about the anti-technology tone of your blogging – when you use phrases like this:

“the ubiquity of distracting electronic toys”

As you know, how we say things is important. I wish you would be more consistent with your nuanced language when it comes to instructional technology. Laptops and iPads and smartphones and other computing devices in schools are not ‘toys’ (as you have stated several times) but instead powerful access vehicles to our increasingly-digital information, economic, and learning landscapes. If a particular implementation is dumb, go ahead and label it as such. But please don’t label all