Sunday, February 23, 2014

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 2-23-14 Diane Ravitch's blog #thankateacher #EDCHAT #P2

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

New York Post Reveals Another Part of the Bloomberg-Klein “Failure Factory” Legacy

Over the past dozen years, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his schools’ chancellor Joel Klein had total control of the New York City school system. The Mayor controlled the “school board,” which dared not ever vote no. They could do whatever they wanted, and their PR team cranked out press release after press release. The news of the “New York City miracle” spread around the world, buoyed by ph

by dianeravitch / 10min

Teacher Exposés Graduate of Bloomberg “Leadership Academy”

The New York Post has been a vocal cheerleader for the hacksaw education policies of the Bloomberg administration, yet its reporters are usually first-rate journalists, and they exposed terrible conditions at PS 106. now, it published an article by an experienced teacher who left the school. The Post exposed dreadful conditions at P.S. 106, where the principal ruled with an iron hand when she was

by dianeravitch / 3min

What I Read on Vacation

I took two books with me on vacation. One was Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. The other was Walter Kiechel III, The Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World I also brought a copy of the New York Review of Books, which had a good article about data mining and what a big business it is. The thesis of Carr’s book is that the

4 by dianeravitch / 18min

A Teacher’s Advice to Bill Gates

A teacher sent me this letter offering helpful advice to Bill Gates. He hopes that someone will see it on the Internet and pass it along to Bill. Dear Mr. Gates, “I don’t know many business leaders who are satisfied with America’s schools. In fact, just about every CEO I know is worried that this country simply isn’t producing enough graduates with the skills they need to compete globally.” – Bill

11 by dianeravitch / 16min

Will Florida Pass Law to Exempt Severely Disabled Children from High-Stakes Testing?

Andrea Rediske appealed to Florida officials to exempt children who suffer extreme pain from high-stakes testing. This post contains her moving testimony about the ordeal her son Ethan experienced when he was compelled to take the state’s exam. Even when he was dying in hospice, the state harassed him to take the test. The state imposed cruel and unusual punishment on this child, violating his C

by dianeravitch / 0min

This Crazy Week and a Few Weeks More

I just returned from a wonderful, relaxing vacation in Turks and Caicos, a beautiful part of the West Indies, and I am now raring to go, with a schedule of events for the next week plus ahead. On Wednesday evening, I will join John Merrow in conversation at the JCC in upper West Side of Manhattan, 7:30-9:30 pm. On Friday, I will be in Indianapolis at Butler University, watching a showing of a scho

by dianeravitch / 21min

Instructions to Teacher in Chicago about Which Kids Count Most

This letter from a teacher in Chicago public schools shows how gaming the system has become more important than helping each and every child achieve their best. Data matter more than students. Data matter more than learning. Numbers trump education and equity. The advice: focus on the kids closest to passing. Forget those at the top and the bottom: They don’t matter. Here is the message: Today w

19 by dianeravitch / 52min hide // save

Newark: 700 Teachers May Be Laid Off and Replaced by TFA

Veteran journalist Bob Braun reports that Cami Anderson–the Christie administration’s state-appointed superintendent in Newark (and a graduate of Teach for America)–may lay off 700 Newark teachers and replace many or most of them with TFA. He writes: “The state administration of the Newark Public Schools (NPS) is expected to lay off hundreds of experienced city teachers and replace many with new

34 by dianeravitch / 1h

What Kids Are Reading These Days (Not)

These are fabulously witty tweets from @SpEdChat Enjoy! http://t.co/3n4gNyPx3X http://t.co/UA8YUDOmaX http://t.co/hE7cRI6yhY http://t.co/WrhV02LxfL http://t.co/stP6259Xwd

4 by dianeravitch / 1h

Schneider: What Is ALEC and Are They Writing the Laws of YOUR State?

Mercedes Schneider here reviews the extensive agenda that ALEC has for reshaping education in the audited States. Unlike Bill Gates, who works in tandem with the United States Department of Education to direct national policy, ALEC works through state legislators. ALEC writes model legislation, working through its committee structure, and its members submit them in their states. If the states are

11 by dianeravitch / 2h

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG Diane Ravitch's blog 2-22-14 #thankateacher #EDCHAT #P2

Diane Ravitch's blogLISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONGDIANE RAVITCH'S BLOGSchool Choice: Not for Students with DisabilitiesCharter schools and voucher schools –unless they are one of the few created specifically for students with disabilities–are noted for excluding them. A Gulen charter in Minneapolis took over a public school and immediately kicked out 40 autistic students. In this article, t

1 by mike simpson / 8h

2-23-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:

From The Archives: “Dancing Guy: Why teachers should ignore his advice”

I’ve recently re-started an effort I’ve tried to do previously by regularly highlighting previous posts and articles I’ve shared in previous years that I think might be worth a second look. One piece I wrote that received a fair mount of negative feedback was Dancing Guy: Why teachers should ignore his advice, which appeared in The Washington post. Here’s an excerpt. Let me know what you think:

by Larry Ferlazzo / 34min

Final Sochi Resources

Here are some final additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games: Sochi Winter Olympic Games closing ceremony – in pictures is from The Guardian. Closing Ceremony Draws Russia’s Big Moment to a Close is from NBC. 10 Inspiring Sochi Moments That Embody the Olympic Spirit is from Mashable. Sochi’s bleak future: What happens to Olympic cities after the Olympics

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1min

The “All-Time” Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly

I’ve been posting annual lists of the Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly for seven years. I thought it would be useful for readers, my students, and me to review them all and identify my choices for the “all-time” best ones. These web tools are excellent ways for English Language Learners, and others who might not be very tech-savvy, to have a good experience working with tec

by Larry Ferlazzo / 6h

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Week… 2-22-14 …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EF

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFLLARRY FERLAZZO’S WEBSITES OF THE DAYGreat Video For Language Development (& For Ethics Discussion): “Would you give your jacket to Johannes?”Here’s a great video created by an organization in Norway to raise awareness of the plight of Syrian refugee children. English Language Learners can describe what they see happening

2 by mike simpson / 8h

2-23-14 @ THE CHALK FACE

@ THE CHALK FACE:

Fiction changed to informational text, #commoncore

This looks about right.

7 by Shaun Johnson / 25min

A lot of discussion about these “data walls” lately

The concept of the “data wall” has been gathering some attention lately, more so than normal. They’ve been with us, I don’t know, for a few years now. To be honest, I don’t have much experience with them. I certainly don’t have one in my classroom, even though I was told I needed to have […]

5 by Shaun Johnson / 1h

All Week 2-22-14 @ THE CHALK FACE

@ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER: All Week @ THE CHALK FACE Why Teach For America Cannot ChangeThis past Monday, the group Students United for Public Education (aka SUPE)–led by two amazing college students, Stephanie Rivera and Hannah Nguyen–organized a highly successful twitter storm using the hashtag #ResistTFA. For a few hours, #ResistTFA became one of the top trending hashtags in the na

1 by mike simpson / 8h

2-23-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

Mulgrew Helps Push De Blasio's Pre-K Plan

Via State of Politics, here's a Crain's piece showing UFT President Mulgrew pushing de Blasio's pre-K plan:Ahead of budget negotiations in Albany, two of the state's most powerful labor leaders are meeting with New York City lawmakers to encourage them to push Mayor Bill de Blasio's city pre-kindergarten plan, a source in attendance said.The Friday afternoon meeting is being held at the headquarte

by reality-based edu... / 2min

The Daily News Can't Wait For The Security State To Replace Unionized Doormen

The Daily News has a propaganda piece cheerleading for technology that will replace doormen while still making sure the riff-raff don't get where they don't belong: An Israeli general is at work on a “biometric security” system that he believes will have New Yorkers tossing out their keys and maybe ditching their doormen, too. Using sophisticated scanners that can recognize a person’s face, voic

by reality-based edu... / 2min

How The Chinese Rig Their PISA Scores - And Why It Doesn't Matter Anyway

The next time some education reformer type spews alarmist clap trap around the PISA scores, you can lay this on them:Chinese experts are also less impressed than Truss by the Pisa scores. "Even though Shanghai students scored well on the test, this doesn't mean that Shanghai's education system doesn't have any problems," said Lao Kaisheng, a professor in the education department of Beiji

by reality-based edu... / 1h

2-22-14 Perdido Street School Week

Perdido Street School: Perdido Street School WeekHere's What Common Core And Education Reform Will Not FixWe keep hearing that Common Core is going to make kids the nation over "college and career ready," but that platitude assumes that there are actually "careers" available for kids to do (and get paid for) when they grow up.These days, that's a dicey proposition - as Robert R

2 by mike simpson / 8h

Open Letters To ‘D-List’ Reformers I Know. Part 1: Justin ‘Juice’ Fong | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

Open Letters To ‘D-List’ Reformers I Know. Part 1: Justin ‘Juice’ Fong | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:

A little over a year ago, I wrote a series of open letters to ‘reformers’ I’ve known throughout the years. I was not surprised that the majority of them did not respond. On average, they each are making over $300K a year in the ed ‘reform’ game, and I would expect that it would be quite risky to write a public response and to even admit that you once knew a rabble-rouser like me.

A few months ago, I started a series of open letters to ‘B-List’ reformers I know. These were people making about $250K a year. For these I got no responses at all. Again, probably too risky to publicly write something that is surely going to get shredded by commenters.

So I thought I’d skip the ‘C-List’ reformers and go straight to the ‘D-List’ and see if I can get someone who wants to defend against serious challenges. My first recipient is someone I’ve met just once, but have sparred for about six months on Twitter, Justin ‘Juice’ Fong. Juice is the Vice President of internal communications of TFA. I don’t know his salary, but I’m guessing that it is around $150K. He can correct me on this if he responds.

I first became aware of Fong when he wrote a ridiculous response to the “Organizing Resistance Against Teach for America and its Role in Privatization” summit in Chicago this past summer. Near the beginning of his post, he wrote “Knowing that you have an anti-TFA assembly tomorrow morning, here is my advice to you: Teach For America isn’t going away anytime soon, so work with us to make the organization better.“ His post was generally smug, patronizing, and disrespectful.

Over the past six months, Fong has showed more nuance in his posts. He even wrote something about how standardized testing data can be used more fairly, which got some

thoughts on living and teaching

thoughts on living and teaching:

I have not blogged much recently. I have put more of myself into teaching, and I have decided to make some major changes in my life.

As some may already know, on December 30, I took my first ever yoga class, at Flow Yoga Center on P Street, near Logan Circle, in DC. I had prior to that driven the woman who served as my wife's caregiver after her stem cell transplant to and from classes there, particularly picking her up late at night. She persuaded me it would not hurt to try, so I did. After that first class I made a number of commitments, starting with deciding to continue with yoga - It is now not unusual for me to take classes five or more times per week. The hour or more of a class requires me to slow down my mind, to be present in what I am doing, to pay attention to what my body is telling me.

At the same time I decided to change how I consumed. I have effectively given up meat, although I will partake when invited to someone's home, and on a rare special occasion when we are out. I have given up beer, having had exactly one since December 30, when t a get-together at a bar famous for its wide assortment. I had had no ice cream, and few other sweets.

There are multiple changes that have resulted.

First, I have lost a ton of weight. Before my weight now fluctuated around 200 pounds,

Austerity, health care and politics

There are two pieces featured in today's email from the Washington Post related to health care. In Richmond’s hell-no Republicans the P{ost editorial board takes to task the Republicans in Virginia's House of Delegates for their refusal to seriously address the issue of uninsured, refusing to take $$ from the federal government to fund Medicaid expansion. They offer a pittance of $81 million to r

by rss@dailykos.com ... / 1min

teacherken at Daily Kos This Week 2-22-14

teacherken at Daily Kos:teacherken at Daily Kos This WeekMilbank gets it right on Cruz and companyin a column titled High cost of an ego trip, written after watching what Cruz put Republican senators through on raising the debt ceiling. A couple of relevant snips: Cruz’s ego trip had come at a high cost. He had forced McConnell, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and other Republicans to cast votes that co

by mike simpson / 7h

Newark: 700 teachers may be laid off, many replaced by TFA | Bob Braun's Ledger

Newark: 700 teachers may be laid off, many replaced by TFA | Bob Braun's Ledger:

Newark: 700 teachers may be laid off, many replaced by TFA

The state administration of the Newark Public Schools (NPS) is expected to lay off hundreds of experienced city teachers and replace many with new hires, including more than 300 members of Teach for America (TFA). The report comes from union sources but is supported both by the latest version of the state’s “One Newark” plan and by the Walton Family Foundationwebsite. The foundation is expected to subsidize the hiring of the new teachers.

The NPS has not responded to requests for information or confirmation or denial of previous reports that Cami Anderson, the state-appointed superintendent of Newark schools, will ask outgoing state Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf to waive seniority rights of hundreds of Newark teachers. This would permit their firing without resort to the detenuring process. Members of the Newark school board, however, confirmed Anderson’s plans to “right-size” the teaching staff.

The Waltons will do to Newark teachers what they do to Wal-Mart workers

The Walton Family Foundation website posted this note: “Due to the impact of Teach For America’s corps members and alumni in the region, the Walton Family Foundation announced that they will support the recruitmen

NYC Educator: The Seat at the Table

NYC Educator: The Seat at the Table:

The Seat at the Table

This is something our leadership always appears to want. And it's certainly true that it pays to talk to everyone. I'm not a big fan of Bill Gates, but you never know. Maybe one day, even someone as impervious to fact and science as he is may decide to listen. But since there's little evidence to support that supposition, it's best not to bet the farm on it.

For example, there was the Gates Measures of Effective Teaching study, and we participated. Basically, this study wanted to determine what teachers could do to get better test scores. At my school Gates reps pretty much confused everyone, and gave us mixed messages on what they were trying to do. Fast forward to 2014, and we're being evaluated by test scores. The underlying assumption of the Gates study was that teacher effectiveness could be determined by test scores, despite no evidence to support it.

There's a lot of talk about how we could opt for portfolios, projects, or whatever. Unfortunately there's no evidence to support the assumption that any of these determine teacher effectiveness either. The mania to quantify teacher effectiveness may be something worth addressing, but until we can do so with some degree of confidence or accuracy, we ought not to be accepting of (let alone directly negotiating) abject nonsense.

To show our good faith, we allowed Gates to keynote an AFT convention. In gratitude, Gates turned around and trashed teacher pensions the

Strengthening Leadership Strategies On Tap at NEA Summit | NEA Today

Strengthening Leadership Strategies On Tap at NEA Summit | NEA Today:

Strengthening Leadership Strategies On Tap at NEA Summit

February 23, 2014 by egraham
Filed under Featured News, Top Stories

By Edward Graham

As educators all across the country work to tackle the most pressing issues facing public education today, a group of over 550 educational leaders convened this weekend to discuss solution-based and educator-led answers at the recent NEA East Leadership Summit held in Atlanta, Ga.

Educators from Arkansas to Louisiana to Maine eagerly came together to share ideas, sharpen their leadership skills, and learn what they can do to strengthen public education for both their students and fellow educators.

The NEA East Leadership Summit came on the heels of the NEA West Leadership Summit, held in Las Vegas, Nev., in mid-January. The 2014 Leadership Summits were both designed to provide unique leadership training for school and district leaders by pairing strategic planning and educator-led breakout sessions along regional concerns and ideas.

Breakout sessions at the summit focused on empowering teachers to lead their schools and districts through collaborative and transformative measures meant to strengthen the profession through a renewed focus on ground-up leadership.

Barbara Gray, an assistant principal from Tennessee, came to the summit to build her leadership skills and learn more about organizing and engaging educators within her school and district. She attended a session on how educators can develop strategic plans to transform low-performing schools for the better.

“The session I attended was about Great Public Schools (GPS) and the frameworks for improving schools for both students and teachers,” Gray says. “We talked about collaborating, delegating, and being advocates for public schools.”

Stephanie Bea, who serves as the at-large representative for education support professionals (ESPs) on the Tennessee Education Association’s board of directors, also attended the leadership summit to gain the skills she needed to further engage ESPs in Tennessee. Bea was concerned about the decrease in the number of ESPs within her local association after it merged with a neighboring association. Like Gray, she attended a session on GPS networking to learn the leadership skills necessary to engage her fellow ESP