3-12-14 Perdido Street School Week

Perdido Street School:

What It Takes To Be A Member Of The New York State Board Of Regents

From a commenter here at Perdido Street School blog:All the other members of the board of Regents are unqualified political appointees. It sure helps to be the wife of a billionaire without appropriate experience to become the Regents Chancellor. Skill, competency, educational background are irrelevant in the NY state crony culture of Regents appointments. What matters? Do you have a billion dolla

by reality-based edu... / 4min 

New Member Of The Board Of Regents Not To Sure What Common Core Controversy Is All About

From Capital Confidential:There will likely be at least one new member of the state Board of Regents Tuesday, now that incumbent James Jackson has announced his resignation. The contest to replace him may be close, however. Lawmakers brought in a final applicant on Monday after grumblings that they weren’t overly impressed with the candidates for what would be Jackson’s seat, which is defined by t

by reality-based edu... / 22min 

Cuomo Says CCSS Tests Won't Count For Students, But Will Count For Teachers

From State of Politics:In a Capital Tonight interview on Tuesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aide Larry Schwartz said overhauling the implementation of the standards will be part of those budget talks.“Why not? Why shouldn’t it be part of the budget? Why shouldn’t we let students in New York state and their parents know ASAP — as soon as possible — that we’re going to reduce the amount of testings fo

by reality-based edu... / 13min 

Legislature Appoints "Spiritual Entrepreneur" To Board Of Regents

You can't make this stuff up.The legislature tossed one Regent overboard yesterday, communicating to him that he did not have the votes to be re-elected to the Board of Regents, and then proceeded to replace him with this:ALBANY—The newest member of the Board of Regents runs a consulting practice in which she charges thousands of dollars for “spiritual” weight loss sessions. Josephine Finn, a town

by reality-based edu... / 1h hide  //  save

Michael Mulgrew: More Than 32,000 NYC Teachers Have Quit In Last 11 Years

From State of Politics:At 1 p.m., UFT President Mike Mulgrew releases a report showing that more than 32,000 teachers walked away from NYC classrooms in the last 11 years, with many going to suburban districts, 52 Broadway, Manhattan. Yes, Bloomberg, along with his chancellor henchmen, were largely responsible for that.So were Obama and Duncan. But so too was the UFT leadership, which made deals w

by reality-based edu... / 2h 

3-11-14 Perdido Street School Week

Perdido Street School: Ask Eva Moskowitz About The Attrition Rate At Success AcademiesFrom State of Politics:At 6:30 a.m., Success Academy Harlem Central Middle School scholars will appear on MSNBC’s Morning Joe with their principal, Andrew Malone. Yesterday the hosts of the Morning Joe Clown Show beatup on Mayor de Blasio over the Success co-location issue.Today, they let Eva use the program for

by mike simpson / 12h

UPDATE: solidaridad: Vote to transform UTLA into an effective defense of public education and humane pedagogy

solidaridad: Vote to transform UTLA into an effective defense of public education and humane pedagogy:

Vote to transform UTLA into an effective defense of public education and humane pedagogy

Boyle Heights Parents and Students Rally to Save Beloved School

**************************** Media Release March 11, 2014 For Immediate Release Boyle Heights Parents and Students Rally to Save Beloved School333 Beaudry Ave, Los Angeles, CA. 90017 4-6pm For the third week in a row, students and parents from Roosevelt High School's Academy of Environmental and Social Policy (ESP) will take to the streets in protest of LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy's decisi

1 by Robert D. Skeels ... / 1h 

SKrashen: Yes, let's drop the SAT essay. While we're at it, let's drop the SAT

SKrashen: Yes, let's drop the SAT essay. While we're at it, let's drop the SAT: Sent to the NY Times, March 11 Re: "Can writing be assessed?"  March 10. There is no point in testing writing form, i.e. the use ...

1 by Robert D. Skeels ... / 1h 

Return Dr. Rangel, OUR Principal, back to Maya Angelou High School, Fine Arts Academy!

Return Dr. Rangel, OUR Principal, back to Maya Angelou High School, Fine Arts Academy! #LAUSD http://t.co/2GbsKiHClM pic.twitter.com/FkAOw1Z47Y— Robert D. Skeels (@rdsathene) March 12, 2014 Petition | Rally & Press Conference

by Robert D. Skeels

Chicago Teacher Explains the Infamous Viral PD Video She Shot - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Chicago Teacher Explains the Infamous Viral PD Video She Shot - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Chicago Teacher Explains the Infamous Viral PD Video She Shot

By Anthony Cody on March 11, 2014 11:34 PM

About two weeks ago I saw a video of a Chicago "professional development" session posted on Facebook. Shortly thereafter, it appeared here in Valerie Strauss' Answer Sheet blog, and has been viewed more than 126,000 times since then. Today, for the first time, I share the firsthand account of the teacher who recorded this session. Due to the tense environment in Chicago, she has asked to remain anonymous, but was connected to me by a trusted source who has worked for years in the Chicago schools.

Guest post by an anonymous Chicago teacher.

This now viral video shows a consultant modeling a lesson to be taught to 5th and 6th graders. The professional development is part of Chicago Public Schools' OS4 network. This network is a special project of CPS CEO Barbara Byrd Bennett that was funded for over $20 million even while 50 schools were being closed around the city.



Some have defended the video, saying that it may be out of context. I want to clarify that context. The presenter's script is meant to be repeated (and repeated) verbatim. She made it quite clear that fifth and sixth grade human beings are meant to say the exact words used in the video: "We will use accurately grade appropriate general academic and domain specific words and 

Slogans in Businesses and Schools | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Slogans in Businesses and Schools | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Slogans in Businesses and Schools

Located in Menlo Park (CA) near the tidal marshes at the southern edge of San Francisco Bay, Facebook has 11 open-space buildings holding 6,000 employees. Open space architecture means no one has an office with doors.  You want privacy, wear earphones.

None of the open-space arrangements surprised me. What did, however, surprise me in the description of Facebook’s workplace was that there were posters everywhere that “exhort changing, hacking, and fearlessness.” Corporate slogans like “Hack,” “Taking risks gives me energy,” and “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” adorned walls, partitions, and employee entrances as constant reminders of what the company values (see slide show of Facebook, Google, and Twitter buildings).

My surprise may well be because of my limited exposure to these companies other than what I have read in articles and books plus what I heard from friends and their sons and daughters who work in these organizations. Apparently, 

The Failure of Test-Based Accountability

The Failure of Test-Based Accountability:

The Failure of Test-Based Accountability

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is the title of this blog at Education Week by Marc Tucker.  Diane Ravitch calls it the best thing she has ever read by Tucker, who is  the president and CEO of the National Center on Education and the Economy and an internationally recognized expert on education reform and a leader in benchmarking the policies and practices of the countries with the best education systems in the world. (background courtesy of this Wikipedia entry).  In short, Tucker is eminent in education, and is considered very much of a centrist.   Thus what he writes SHOULD carry great weight for anyone paying attention, who really cares about attempting to do what is best for our schools and our students.

He begins his post with these two paragraphs:

In my last blog, I pointed to the data that shows that, after 10 years of federal education policies based on test-based accountability, there has been no perceptible improvement in student performance among high school students (which, when you get right down to it, is what really matters) as a whole, or when the data are broken down by different groupings of disadvantaged students.  There is little doubt—whether test-based accountability is being used to hold schools accountable or individual teachers—that it has failed to improve student performance.

That should be reason enough to abandon it.  But it is not.  The damage that test-based accountability has done goes far deeper than a missed opportunity to improve student achievement.  It is doing untold damage to the profession of teaching.

And lest anyone have any doubt, you are NOT going to effectively educate our children without dedicated, and effective, teachers.  The real effect we teachers have is NOT the raising of 

3/12/2014 – De Blasio Is Right About Charters:

3/12/2014 – De Blasio Is Right About Charters

March 12, 2014 Subscribe

THIS WEEK: Schools Need Nearly $200 Billion To Improve Facilities … School Funding Declared Unconstitutional … Education Reform Drives Gentrification … Socialization Technique Helps Academic Achievement … College Aid Benefits The Rich

TOP STORY

Mayor De Blasio Has It Right On Charter Schools

By Jeff Bryant

“Newly elected New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has become the target of charter school proponents … This is what the debate about education policy – and charter schools in particular – so often comes to: So much sturm and drang about a favored trinket from the ‘education reform’ tool box while matters of way more importance get neglected or even abused.”
Read more …

NEWS AND VIEWS

Public Schools Need Nearly $200 Billion To Improve Facilities, Survey Finds

Education Week

“Upgrading the nation’s public K-12 school buildings to a ‘good overall condition’ would cost about $200 billion … 53% of public schools need to spend money on repairs, renovations, and modernizations … For schools where 75% or more of students are eligible for free and reduced-price meals, the percentage in need of substantial upgrades to reach good condition is 60%. A higher percentage of schools in the Western states (59%) reported a need for major repairs and renovations than in the three other major regions of the country… 31% of public schools use portable buildings for classroom space on their sites, but such temporary buildings are more commonly found in schools that serve large numbers of poor and minority students.”
Read more …

Kansas School Funding Declared Unconstitutional By State Supreme Court

The Huffington Post

“The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday ruled the state’s funding of public schools to be unconstitutional … The opinion sets no legal precedent outside Kansas. But it provides clear language on school funding that may influence courts in New York, Texas and Connecticut that are considering similar cases that argue states are not funding schools adequately and equitably … The court ruled the state must immediately restore two matching funding streams … that had helped poorer school districts compensate for property tax bases significantly smaller than wealthy districts. The legislature had slashed the funds after the recession.”
Read more …

How Education Reform Drives Gentrification

Aljazeera

“Public school teachers in Portland, OR … This is a process playing out nationwide … Middle-class families eye Northeast Portland for its undervalued homes but choose different schools because neighborhood ones are pegged as bad. Declining enrollment bleeds money from already underfunded schools, making them less attractive and creating a downward spiral in which the schools are rated as failing, subsequently closed and eventually replaced by charter schools that can cherry-pick students … As public schools in Northeast Portland shutter, black households are displaced as redevelopment pushes rents upward … The success of Portland teachers in fighting off misguided educational policies could help counter the swelling inequality that is pulverizing the city’s neighborhoods.”
Read more …

Socialization Technique Helps In Academic Achievement, Trial Study Finds

The Washington Post

“In a randomized, controlled trial that examined the technique known as Responsive Classroom, researchers found that children in classrooms where the technique was fully used scored significantly higher in math and reading tests than students in classrooms where it wasn’t applied … The practices that form the backbone of the technique are designed to create positive classroom relationships – between teachers and students and among students. They aim to teach young children to cooperate with each other and feel that they are part of a ‘community’ that cares about them … The academic gains made by children in Responsive Classes were of the same magnitude, regardless of whether they came from poor or affluent families.”
Read more …

College, Federal Financial Aid Increasingly Benefits The Rich

The Hechinger Report

“Tuition tax credits and other tax breaks to offset the cost of higher education … disproportionally benefit more affluent Americans. So do tax-deductible savings plans and the federal work-study program … Even though only one-fifth of American households earn more than $100,000 per year, that group got more than half of the deductions for tuition, fees and exemptions … A new coalition of advocacy organizations … is pushing for the tax credits to be streamlined and redirected to the poor … A bill in the U.S. House … would gradually lower the income eligibility to $86,000 from the current $180,000.”
Read more …

Rocketship, charter schools dealt setback by San Jose court ruling - San Jose Mercury News

Rocketship, charter schools dealt setback by San Jose court ruling - San Jose Mercury News:

Rocketship, charter schools dealt setback by San Jose court ruling

By Sharon Noguchi

snoguchi@mercurynews.com

POSTED:   03/11/2014 03:37:32 PM PDT | UPDATED:   45 MIN. AGO

SAN JOSE -- The South Bay movement to fast-track the opening of charter schools has been dealt a setback, with a court ruling that county school boards can't override local ordinances while deciding where to place campuses.

In a widely anticipated order, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Franklin Bondonno has ruled that the Santa Clara County Board of Education lacks authority to exempt charter schools from zoning rules.

The judge affirmed a tentative decision he issued last fall, when he wrote, "If the Legislature had intended to grant the power to override local zoning to county boards of education, the Legislature would have so stated. It has not done so."

Supporters of Rocketship Education's expansion plan rally outside San Jose City Hall, November 2013. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

The ruling could spell difficulty for 20 Rocketship charter schools approved by the Santa Clara County Board of Education. The first of the schools was scheduled to open in August.

Bondonno ruled in favor of San Jose Unified School District and Brett Bymaster, who lives near a site near the Tamien light-rail station, where Rocketship Education hopes to locate a K-5 charter school. Both sued the County Board.

"We are pleased that the court ruled on the side of the community, ensuring that decisions on school placement are made by local authorities," Bymaster said.

The order isn't intended to prevent the growth of charter schools, noted Vincent Matthews, 

NYC Educator: Paper Report Cards a Thing of the Past?

NYC Educator: Paper Report Cards a Thing of the Past?:

Paper Report Cards a Thing of the Past?

In our school administration decided to stop giving out paper report cards. They say they've received only 5 requests for paper report cards, and that they've printed them. And yet, virtually every teacher I know opposes this. I understand that admin wants to lure parents and students online so they can experience the wonders of the internet, but I'm not at all persuaded this is a good idea.

For one thing, I've spent a few days in the auditorium this year, as it's tough to get to the trailers when there's three feet of snow, or a sheet of ice, or whatever lurks out there on harsh winter days. One day, I asked my kids whether or not they'd seen their report cards. I teach two double period classes, so I don't have that many students, but out of my small sample, only one had seen the report card. I showed the grades to every other kid, which is kind of a pain in the neck on Skedula. The geniuses who wrote Skedula have the default report card as the current semester, which is of course blank, so after you find your way to it you have to change not only the marking period, but also the cycle. It's big fun.

Now there are people who disagree. They say that a lot of kids don't show their parents report cards anyway, and that those kids still won't show them. That's indisputable. But what about kids who don't even know they're there? What about kids who haven't bothered getting a password, or those who haven't used it in so long they've forgotten what it is? My kids are from other countries, and don't speak English that well. Nonetheless, they're likely as not to 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Test boycott support grows. Berrios takes a vow of silence.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Test boycott support grows. Berrios takes a vow of silence.:

Test boycott support grows. Berrios takes a vow of silence.

There's 3 good letters and one crappy one in this morning's Trib. Julie Woestehoff writesre. the ISAT test boycott calling on Rahm, BBB, the Board and ISBE to "respect parents' rights to direct our children's education, to treat students who opt out respectfully and ethically, and, most important, to change the fundamental values in this district and this state that continue to prioritize test scores above high-quality education for all our children."  

We believe that schools are the most important democratic institutions in America, and that our children are our democracy's future.

Boycott Support...The CTU has received statements of support from the Faculty Association of the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff and nationally recognized educators for families and teachers who have opted out of the ISAT. Nearly 2,000 students at 90 schools—including charter schools—were opted out of this year’s ISAT, joining teacher-led decisions to teach instead of test at Saucedo 

Newark’s School Crisis and the GOP’s War on Our Cities

Newark’s School Crisis and the GOP’s War on Our Cities:

Newark’s School Crisis and the GOP’s War on Our Cities

We recently interviewed Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, on “The Zero Hour” on the school crisis currently taking place in Newark, N.J.

The Newark story is part of a larger pattern in which Republican governors override local governments, especially urban ones, to serve both their ideology and their corporate patrons. Today’s Republicans preach local governance, then sacrifice it to their own self-interest. That’s who they are.

Here is an excerpt of the interview.

Gov. Chris Christie’s administration is cutting school funding and turning schools over to charter organizations while his hand-picked superintendent runs roughshod over local school officials, community leaders, and the city’s children.

Christie’s authoritarian and high-handed treatment of Newark’s teachers, students, and families is of a piece with the Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-union moves in Wisconsin and Gov. Rick Snyder’s gutting of pension plans in Detroit, Michigan.

Schoolgate

Jeff Bryant looked behind Christie’s “rage at school teachers” and found that the “real ugly truth hiding behind Christie’s bluster is that schools throughout his state, especially in communities of low-income and minority schools, are descending into severely worse conditions.”

A study from the Education Law Center recently found “alarming slippage” in New Jersey’s