Bring Yourself to Work Every Day to Build Trust, Morale, and Culture — Whole Child Education

Bring Yourself to Work Every Day to Build Trust, Morale, and Culture — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

Bring Yourself to Work Every Day to Build Trust, Morale, and Culture

February 27, 2014 by Whole Child Podcast

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Educators working in a positive school culture experience collegiality, trust, and tangible support as leaders and peers, creating an environment where there are high expectations, involvement in decision making, and open communication. Students entering a positive school culture feel safe, engaged, and connected and see school as a place where they can learn and contribute to the world around them. A positive school culture—morale—is the cornerstone of a good school and the foundation for school improvement.

School cultures should support, reinforce, and reflect the well-being of everyone in it, ensuring that students and adults feel valued, respected, and cared for and are motivated to learn, lead, and teach. In this episode, we take a look at how we build school morale so that administrators, teachers, students, and parents are energized and positive about learning. You'll hear from

• Dave Burgess, award-winning U.S. history teacher at West Hills High School in San Diego, California; semi-professional magician; highly sought-after professional development speaker; and author of Teach Like a PIRATE: Increase Student Engagement, Boost Your Creativity, and Transform Your Life as an Educator;
• David Culberhouse, former teacher and principal of a California Distinguished School, currently senior 

@Every Learner: Someday Is Now — Whole Child Education

@Every Learner: Someday Is Now — Whole Child Education: THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG@Every Learner: Someday Is NowFebruary 26, 2014 by Whole Child SymposiumNow is the time to make a difference in the lives of our learners, to propel them into the world as beacons of success and hope. ASCD's 69th Annual Conference and Exhibit Show is two weeks away—it's not too late to participate!The conference will be he

by mike simpson / 12h 

It’s a Trust Thing – redqueeninla

It’s a Trust Thing – redqueeninla:

It’s a Trust Thing

Written by redqueeninla in LAUSD

My first Earful Of Schoolboard Member involved mapping ‘three critical things’ about education (at 9:21), the middle of which was that:  “…we have a sacred bond of trust that is enacted every day at the schoolhouse gate…”

And I think this is very much true.  When I pass along my child, I trust that s/he will be safe physically, and I trust that his/er mandate to learn will be safely protected as well.

The whole ipad debacle has shattered this myth.

These ipads have been sold to us as a matter of “civil rights”:  that youngsters of impoverished circumstances must retain the same access to technology as their privileged counterparts, otherwise their civil rights will have been violated.  That these devices are a critical pedagogical tool, without access to which constitutes a violation of civil rights.

But it isn’t true.  The term civil rights is being coopted as an icon to obscure 

Cashing in on Kids

Cashing in on Kids:

New Orleans charter school employee embezzled $70,000, audit says

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2014 | Tags: Finance and Facilities, Oversight

From the Times-Picayune:

An employee of New Orleans' second-largest charter school network embezzled $69,840 in the 2012-13 academic year, according to an audit released Monday. The money has been recovered, the employee was fired and a criminal investigation is underway, KIPP spokesman Jonathan Bertsch said. Short for "Knowledge Is Power Program," KIPP New Orleans educates 3,755 students, or 8 percent of New Orleans' public school enrollment. It will open its sixth school this summer. The network received $37.4 million in public money in 2012-13, according to the audit report. The fired employee worked in the organization's central administration office and took two checks in April 2013 from batches waiting to be sent to vendors. The second time, the employee signed on to a co-worker's computer and created the check herself. The theft was discovered when the vendors asked why they hadn't been paid. KIPP administration reported the matter to the police, bank and insurance company. The employee admitted to the theft and was immediately fired. Auditors said the theft could happen because the accounts payable department both created and mailed checks. Management has since changed procedures so signed checks are sent out by people who are not in the accounts payable department.

Read the full article here.

READ MORE »

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CA Charter Handed $750,000 to Board Member

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2014 | Tags: Finance and Facilities, Oversight

Lack of oversight isn’t always immediately apparent, though sometimes it eventually becomes apparent months or years later when a crime is reported.* That’s what happened in Orange County, Calif., when prosecutors filed charges against a former board member of the California Virtual Education Partners, an online charter school in California. According to the Los Angeles Times, former board member Jeremy Landau persuaded the board of the charter school chain to give him $750,000, which he would speedily turn into $3 million dollars and return to the charter school. But Landau never returned the money, instead laundering the money for personal gain by moving it through various bank accounts, Orange County prosecutors said.

READ MORE »

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NEPC charter study: for-profit education management organizations surpass non-profits in enrollment

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2014 | Tags: Charter Chains, Charters, K12, Transparency, Transparency

For the past fourteen years, the National Education Policy Center has published an overview of the charter school management landscape. Detailing the reach of so-called "education management organizations" (EMOs), the vendors that manage the daily operations of charter schools. NEPC charts trends and exposes the relationship between EMOs and the schools they manage-- which is not always transparent. This year's figures are interesting becuase they show that, despite huge growth in enrollment at non-profit charter schools, which jumped from 237,591 in 2009-10 to 445,052 in the 2011-12 school year, enrollments at non-profit EMOs are still lower than at for-profit schools. The largest for-profit EMO? K12 Inc., which educated more than twice as many students in 2011-12 school year than KIPP, the largest non-profit EMO.

READ MORE »

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Evaluations For Moms Vs. Evaluations for Teachers

Evaluations For Moms Vs. Evaluations for Teachers 

Check this list, Do you do all of these things everyday for your kids:

1. Brushing their teeth

2. Having clean clothes ready

3. Remembering any doctor/ dentist/ opticians appointments

4. Getting the kids to school on time

5. Keeping on top of calendar dates classmates birthdays/ anniversaries/ important dates

6. Laundry

7. Making kids' breakfast

8. Remember lunch boxes/ dinner money

9. Making sure they have a good meal to come home to

10. Making sure the cupboards are stocked

11. Getting the children to bed on time so they are not tired in the morning

12. Making sure they actually eat their breakfast

13. Making sure they take a drink to school

14. Ironing

15. Reading homework/ preparing kids for tests

16. If it is raining making sure they have a rain coat

17. Remembering P.E. kit and other essentials

18. Permission slips

19. Remembering to brush the children's hair

20. Making sure they take their homework in to school

21. Putting sun cream on them before they go to school

22. Make sure they've gone to the toilet before getting in the car

23. Making sure the pets are fed

24. Keep on top of uniform/ patch up holes

25. Remembering afterschool clubs

26. Keeping on top of daily medications/ vitamins/ supplements

You Do All of This

And your kids still are a Mess

It Works the Same for Teachers!

Major Charter School Chain To Lose Space Under New De Blasio Plan:

Major Charter School Chain To Lose Space Under New De Blasio Plan

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio talks with children after reading them a book in a pre-kindergarten class at P.S. 130 on Feb. 25, 2014, in New York City. (Photo by Seth Wenig-Pool/Getty Images) | Pool via Getty Images

NEW YORK -- Mayor Bill de Blasio is pulling back the space-sharing arrangements for three charter schools that are part of Success Academy, a high-profile school chain whose leader has been a frequent de Blasio target, sources within the charter school movement tell The Huffington Post.

Success Academy was founded as Harlem Success Academy by former city council member Eva Moskowitz in 2006, and has since grown to 22 schools. The chain, which was favored by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has been criticized for itsdisciplinary policies, although its students tend to perform well on standardized tests.

De Blasio is expected to make an official announcement on Thursday afternoon, and organizers are already mobilizing parents to fight back. Administration officials would not confirm the news, telling HuffPost an announcement would be forthcoming.

Sources said that two of the three schools whose arrangements were rolled back have not yet opened their doors: Success Academy City Hall and Success Academy Jamaica in Queens. But the other that's said to be losing its shared space, Success Academy Harlem 4, is operational, and the move would leave 210 fourth and fifth graders without school for the 2014-15 academic year.

Charter schools are publicly funded but can be privately run. Under the Bloomberg administration, such schools proliferated, with Schools Chancellor Joel Klein 

Now is the time to seize the parent engagement moment | EdSource Today

Now is the time to seize the parent engagement moment | EdSource Today:

Now is the time to seize the parent engagement moment

February 26th, 2014 | Add a Comment | 
By Colleen You / commentary

Colleen You

Well-informed, engaged parents make a vital difference in the health and education of children. When families, schools and communities work as partners, student achievement is boosted and children are better prepared to lead happy and productive lives.

With new academic standards, new tests and new funding and local accountability systems all underway in California, it’s more crucial than ever that parents engage, not only to support their own children’s education, but to help guide decision-making at their schools.

The new Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) offers a historic opportunity to usher in a new era of greater parent and family engagement in our schools. This is an exciting time – a moment we all must seize to help all children succeed.

And yet, a recent EdSource poll showed 57 percent of parents with children in public schools are not aware of the new funding formula. This is not entirely surprising, since it takes some time for statewide initiatives to resonate locally – but it’s also a call to action. Simply adding a requirement in a law for more parent engagement is not enough. Engagement takes hard work, and it starts with getting the word out to make all parents aware of the new opportunity and importance of the new funding formula and the new Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs) it requires.

As we work to make all parents aware of the new funding formula – and as school districts, educators and parents prepare to set goals and measurements for parent engagement – here are some key ideas to keep in mind, based on PTA’s extensive research and experience connecting parents and schools.

Parent and family engagement is an investment

There are no shortcuts to raising student achievement – or to successful parent and family engagement. It takes an investment of time and resources, and ongoing commitment.

Authentic engagement is much more than a one-time check-box on a form. It’s about building a culture at every school where parents and family members feel welcomed, respected and 

Teachers Wish More People Would Listen to Them - Emily Richmond - The Atlantic

Teachers Wish More People Would Listen to Them - Emily Richmond - The Atlantic:

Teachers Wish More People Would Listen to Them

A new survey asked 20,000 teachers for their views on everything from educational technology to teacher evaluations.

 

Steve Ruark/AP Photo

Teachers overwhelmingly say they aren’t being listened to on matters of education policy at the state or national level. At the school level, however, 69 percent of teachers said their opinions carried weight, according to the third edition of the "Primary Sources" survey by Scholastic and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which was published Tuesday.

That figure dropped dramatically as the size of the sphere increased. Only one in 20 teachers said they were being heard statewide, and one in 50 teachers felt they had a voice nationally. It would be tough to find a profession facing greater scrutiny by policymakers at every level than what teachers currently experience, which makes it notable that so many of them perceive themselves as not being heard at the levels where most of the major policy decisions are made.

The report is based on a remarkable amount of input, given that more than 20,000 teachers shared their opinions both online and through in-person interviews. At the same time, it’s important to remember that a survey is a snapshot, not a definitive litmus test. As I’ve previously argued, it’s wise to proceed with caution in interpreting the findings.

Teachers overwhelmingly said they joined the profession to make a difference in 

UPDATE: Common Core Assessments May Be Content-Neutered | Truth in American Education

Common Core Assessments May Be Content-Neutered | Truth in American Education:

Indiana House Votes to Repeal Common Core

The Indiana House passed SB 91 on a 67 to 26 vote.  SB 91 authored by State Senators Scott Schneider (R-Indianapolis) and Dennis Kruse (R-Auburn) in effect repeals the Common Core State Standards.Here is the bill digest:Adds a definition of "college and career readiness". Provides that before July 1, 2014, the state board of education (state board) shall adopt Indiana college and career

by Shane Vander Hart / 59min hide  //  save

Indiana’s Draft Standards: A Scoop of Common Core with Some Junk on Top?

The idea for pausing the Common Core in Indiana and then putting the kibosh on them is that the Hoosier state would actually come away with better standards.Somebody needs to tell that to the review committee working on them.  I’ve already written that it looks like the math standards will continue to use fuzzy math.   Hoosiers Against Common Core have discovered a stacked deck on the panel.Joy Pu

by Shane Vander Hart / 1h 

Common Core Assessments May Be Content-Neutered

Filed in Common Core Assessments by Shane Vander Hart on February 27, 2014 • 0 Comments

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David Steiner

Ze’ev Wurman pointed out to me (and others) an interesting article written by David Steiner, former New York State Commissioner of Education and Common Core advocate, in Education Next.  In it he unwittingly makes a case against the Common Core.

First he points out how content poor the Common Core ELA standards are:

Formally, the ELA Standards “lay out a vision of what it means to be a literate person in the twenty-first century” by specifying and encouraging the development of “the skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening that are the foundation for any creative and purposeful expression in language.”

These skills are important, but one cannot learn skills in the abstract: imagine trying to think critically about nothing in particular. In a February 2013 essay on the topic, E.D. Hirsch cites a 2012 study by the National Research Council, which found that “21st-century skills [are] dimensions of expertise that are specific to–and intertwined with–knowledge within a particular domain of content and performance.” Skills must be tied to content if they are to be learned effectively…

…Unfortunately, realizing this skill-knowledge potential requires more than simply adopting the 

Teachers Union, Advocacy Group Call for More Charter School Accountability - US News

Teachers Union, Advocacy Group Call for More Charter School Accountability - US News:

AFT, Advocacy Group Want More Accountability for Charters

The American Federation of Teachers and In the Public Interest claim some for-profit charter school operators aren't held to the same accountability standards as public schools.

Randi Weingarten and the American Federation of Teachers banded with another public school advocacy group to raise concerns of transparency and accountability among some charter school operators.

By Allie BidwellFeb. 26, 20142 Comments SHARE

Charter schools were created to serve as incubators of good practice, and have the freedom to operate independently with public funds, assuming they meet certain accountability standards. But the rapid expansion of charter schools throughout the country has some worried that they lack critical elements of transparency, accountability and quality, according to a new collaboration between the American Federation of Teachers and advocacy group In the Public Interest. 

Cashing in on Kids, as the venture is called, looks into concerns that have been raised with five different for-profit charter school operators: K12 Inc., Academics, Imagine Schools, Charter Schools USA and White Hat Management. The group claims the operators do a poor job of serving students and taxpayers, and that private interests have trumped the public good.

[READ: Bill de Blasio's Education Plan Proposes Tax Hikes, Attacks Charter Schools]

"This is a simple exercise of following the money," says Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT, one of the nation's two largest teachers unions. "How many times do people simply get up on a pedestal and say we care about kids, and then you realize that they care about profits, they care about tax deductions, they care about privatizing the public system?"

For each charter operator, the website compiles a collection of news stories, official documents, reports and investigations of the operator, which Weingarten says is intended to serve as a resource for the public. 

"This is not an opinion website," she says. "If accountability and transparency should go all ways, let's look at the accountability and transparency in terms of charter schools, not just in terms of public schools." 

On the page dedicated to Charter Schools USA, for example, the group points out the for-profit operator contributed more than $200,000 to political candidates and organizations during the 2012 election cycle. In contrast, thus far in the 2014 election cycle, AFT has given more than $2 million in political contributions, according to  OpenSecrets.org.

Public Education Justice Alliance of Minnesota(PEJAM): Corporate Reformers: Architects of Apartheid Education

Public Education Justice Alliance of Minnesota(PEJAM): Corporate Reformers: Architects of Apartheid Education:

Corporate Reformers: Architects of Apartheid Education

Alfie Kohn, a leading author and lecturer on progressive education, spoke Thursday evening at Macalester college in St. Paul, MN as part of the Theodore Mitau Lecture Series.  The event was hosted by Macalester's political science department.  A regular speaker at education conferences, Kohn noted the unique setting and focused more on educational policy than pedagogy.  His speech was titled, "Many Children Left Behind: "School Reform" and Corporate-Style Education Policy."

Kohn highlighted a number of destructive features of the corporate education reforms.  Among these, he discussed the increasingly poor experience forced on children who have historically been the most underserved: children of color, low-income students, English language learners, and special education students..   He was visibly angered by what the corporate reformers are doing to the children they claim to be trying to help, such as depriving them of recess time and exposure to the arts and music.   He also highlighted the "reformers" obsession with competition as a strategy to improve schools, as they ignore the fact that competition means there must be "losers." 

Corporate reformers have been using the "invisible hand" of the "free market" to actively destroy our system of universal public education for decades.  Blind faith in competition has