4-3-14 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online:

Memo from the RTC: Professionalism, Personality, Talent – and Me

  How to Succeed cast (most of them) photo --   Follow the red line straight|down to a tiny head - mePublished in The Wave, April 4, 2014www.rockawave.com

by ed notes online / 1h 

NYSUT Update: EIA Analyzes NYSUT Delegate Vote

My unscientific extrapolation estimates Revive NYSUT holds about 56 percent of the delegates, Stronger Together 24 percent, and 20 percent are unknown or undecided... EIA Mike Antonucci crunches the numbers based on endorsement of big local presidents for the Mulgrew/Weingarten Revive Slate.Is he missing something by assuming the rest of the delegates from the big locals will vote the way their le

by ed notes online / 1h 

PS 321K Rallies Friday Morning to Protest Awful ELA Test

...the teachers and administration are truly devastated by what a terrible test it was and how little it will tell us about our students.  This is just the beginning. Let the deformers attack the staff and parents at one of the highest performing schools in the city and the actions of one of the top principals (who also happens to be the spouse of Mark Naison).Will Carmen Farina repeat her recent

by ed notes online / 52min 

Video: Change the Stakes Rocks Opt-Out Movement

“I had people come up to me on the street and explain that their kids were sick this morning going into school, because they knew they have to take the test,” Dromm said.There is so much opt-out news I can manage to share much of it - stuff is just flying around.Former teacher and current City Councilman Danny Dromm held a press conference: More Parents Refusing NYC Standardized School Tests.A par

by ed notes online / 9h 

4-2-14 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online: Janine Sopp, Opt-OuterIt was an incredible honor to stand with all of the parents, elected officials and press in Brooklyn today. It felt like a real movement, with the most lively opt out signs to decorate our celebration!.. Janine Sopp Some press on the Press Conference: Brooklyn Parents Opt Out of State Testshttp://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/education&id=948778

by mike simpson / 9h 

4-3-14 Wait What?

Wait What?:

Malloy’s new charter schools – 1st up the Booker T. Washington Charter School in New Haven

Time to review the facts surrounding Malloy’s new charter schools… Number #1: The Booker T. Washington Charter School. The Booker T. Washington School may very well be Connecticut’s first foray into using public funds to pay for what appears to be a religiously connected school.  (We’ll pretend for a moment that such a move is […] The post Malloy’s new charter schools – 1st up the Booker T. Washin

6 by jonpelto / 16min 

A very bad day for public education in Connecticut

Yesterday was a dark day for public education in Connecticut. Before voting to give away $80 to $100 million in taxpayer funds over the next five years to private companies that want to open four new charter schools in Connecticut, Governor Malloy’s State Board of Education voted unanimously to re-commit our state, our public schools […] The post A very bad day for public education in Connecticut

28 by jonpelto / 1h  

4-2-14 Wait What?

Wait What?: Merging Church and State – The Booker T. Washington Charter SchoolGovernor Malloy’s State Board of Education is expected to approve the New Haven charter school application proposed by Jumoke/FUSE Inc. at its meeting today. The cost to Connecticut taxpayers over the first five years of the school exceeds $27 million. In addition, the taxpayers of New Haven will continue to pay for the

by mike simpson / 9h 

The Answer Sheet 4-3-14

The Answer Sheet:

Web site of anti-testing group is hacked

Why would anyone do this? The web site of United Opt  Out National, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to eliminating the use of high-stakes standardized tests, has been hacked. The site posted this message:   United Opt Out The Movement to end Corporate Education Reform Our site has been maliciously hacked and destroyed in […]    

26 by Valerie Strauss / 5h 

The Answer Sheet 4-2-14

The Answer Sheet: Why the SAT drives us N.U.T.S.What is it about the SAT that drives people nuts?  Ned Johnson explains. Johnson is president and self-described tutor geek at Prep Matters, a tutoring and test prep company with offices in Bethesda, Md., McLean, Va., and Washington D.C. By Ned Johnson Did you ever feel a bit of stress when you took the SAT […]    by Valerie Strauss / 51min hide  // 

by mike simpson / 9h 

4-3-14 Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida

Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida, red in Washington, dark sky-blue in Israel and public school in Education:

Gainesville Sun: Lawmakers Need to Be Honest About Voucher Program

From the editors of the Gainesville Sun: Lawmakers still haven’t addressed the fact that voucher recipients aren’t required to take the same standardized tests as public-school students. Private schools that receive vouchers are also exempt from state standards such as requiring that teachers have bachelor’s degrees. About 80 percent of vouchers go to religious schools that, as Politico.com recen

by Bob Sikes / 3h 

4-2-14 Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida

Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida, red in Washington, dark sky-blue in Israel and public school in Education: Step Up For Student’s Desperate Spin to Save Florida Voucher ExpansionOne would think that an entity which assumed to be the primary steward of almost $1 billion dollars in money belonging to Florida taxpayers would have their numbers straight. Whatever number families o

by mike simpson / 9h 

We’re Not No. 1! We’re Not No. 1!

We’re Not No. 1! We’re Not No. 1!:

We’re Not No. 1! We’re Not No. 1!

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That is the title of this this Nicholas Kristof op ed in today's New York Times

It examines the result of the Social Progress Index, which is

a brainchild of Michael E. Porter, the eminent Harvard business professor who earlier helped develop the Global Competitiveness Report. Porter is a Republican whose work, until now, has focused on economic metrics.

  Porter told Kristof

that he became increasingly aware that social factors support economic growth: tax policy and regulations affect economic prospects, but so do schooling, health and a society’s inclusiveness.

Porter and his team spent two years examining lots of data

reflecting suicide, property rights, school attendance, attitudes toward immigrants and minorities, opportunity for women, religious freedom, nutrition, electrification and much more.

For some of the results please continue beneath the fold.

The index is based on three distinct themes: Human Needs, Foundations of Wellbeing, and Opportunity.  Because of how each theme is calculated, using four dimensions,

Louisiana Educator: A Disappointing Vote

Louisiana Educator: A Disappointing Vote:

A Disappointing Vote

The House Education Committee, after debate that went into late evening hours yesterday, voted to kill HB381 by Gueyman, Pope and Kostelka that would have provided a process to create Louisiana based school standards in the place of the Common Core State Standards. Big business in Louisiana represented by LABI and CABL once again wielded their power over the legislature. It did not seem to matter that most of the real experts in Louisiana education led by some of our most successful local superintendents warned that the present CCSS may not be appropriate and that the PARCC test may be more harmful than helpful. John White and his big business buddies were determined to put our schools through another round of gut wrenching reform and condemnation. The committee also defeated HB 558 by Cameron Henry that would have stopped the PARCC testing and substituted Louisiana developed tests instead.

I want to thank Superintendent Pujol of Ascension Parish, Superintendent Folse of St Tammany Parish and Superintendent Puyau of Vermilion Parish who led the effort by educators to restore sanity to the process of education reform in Louisiana. There were many other superintendents present also who made their support known for HB 381, along with many supervisors and teachers. LAE and LFT representatives and the School Board Association also supported HB 381.

Many parents stayed to the bitter end of the debate to support this and a bill by Rep. Cameron Henry, HB 558, that would have 

Are Charter Schools Really ‘Helping Poor Children?’ | PopularResistance.Org

Are Charter Schools Really ‘Helping Poor Children?’ | PopularResistance.Org:

Are Charter Schools Really ‘Helping Poor Children?’

EDUCATE! EDUCATION 
By Jim Naureckas, www.fair.org
April 3rd, 2014

 Richard Cohen doesn’t understand why people are so down on the rich.  The Washington Post columnist (3/18/14) writes:

The rich are incessantly accused of being slyly manipulative and self-serving. For instance, they support charter schools. Apparently, there is nothing worse.

I am mystified. Charter schools are not private schools. They are free public schools open to any student, usually by lottery. Some rich people support them, provide funds for special programs and, in return, get vilified for their efforts.

“They’re helping poor children,” Cohen insists, while opponents of charter schools, he suspects, “would rather hurt the rich than help the poor.”

But are charter schools really helping poor students–or any students? “Say what you will about New York or Washington charters, but by the usual measurements–test scores, etc.–they are succeeding, some of them stunningly so,” the columnist writes–contrasting them with “the old system,” in which “failure was a certainty.”

Who can argue with success? (cc photo: Multitude)

The link on “test scores” goes to aWashington Post article (7/30/13) headlined “D.C. Students Reach New Heights in Annual Standardized Tests.” Note that the subject of the headline is “D.C. students,” because the story reports gains by students in both charter schools and the “old system” alike.

But not quite alike: If you look at test scores over the past seven years, you see that D.C. charter schools have raised  test scores by an average of 15.o percent–while the old  Are Charter Schools Really ‘Helping Poor Children?’ | PopularResistance.Org:

Common Core debate leads to mom's suspension from son's school:

Common Core debate leads to mom's suspension from son's school

SACRAMENTO - As California prepares to adopt the new state educational standards known as Common Core this fall, more parents are speaking out against them. Now one local mom says she was suspended from her son's school for doing so.

"I was outraged," 12-year-old Christopher Duran said.

The boy couldn't believe it when he found out his mom had been suspended from Mark Twain Elementary School.

"Why would the principal sign a withdrawal of consent to my mom, and furthermore, why would she send the police to the house?" Christopher asked.

That withdrawal of consent, delivered by a police officer, banned Christopher's mom from school for 14 days. Last week when we asked the school district why, they told us Katherine Duran was disrupting the school.

"It appears went a little too far with regards to how she distributed information at school sites, distributing information to children directly," Sacramento City Unified School District spokesperson Gabe Ross said last Thursday.

"To blame me and say that I had personally handed a child that information on school property during school hours and disrupting the school. No, none of that is true," Christopher's mom Katherine O'Neal Duran said.

After speaking to Katherine, we followed up with the school district. Ross admitted they were mistaken on that point, that it was actually Christopher who distributed forms to his classmates encouraging them to opt out of Common Core testing.

"I wanted to pass out these forms so that the students could give them to their parents," Christopher explained.

So why was his mother suspended? When Katherine found out the school had confiscated the letters her son was distributing she went to see the principal. The district says that confrontation is what led to her suspension, but Katherine says they are exaggerating what happened.

"I think it's an effort to undermine the anti-Common Core movement," she said.

According to Katherine, the principal insisted the letters were inappropriate, so Katherine tried to take them off the principal's desk.

"She slammed her hand down on top of those letters and said, no they're not yours anymore; you left them here," Katherine said describing the principal's reaction.

Katherine took the letters and left. Within a few days a police officer was at her door letting her know she had been suspended, but she didn't let that officer leave her home empty-handed.

"I asked him if he had children, he said yes, so he took a couple of my opt-out forms," Katherine said.

We Need Changes Beyond School, Too - Bridging Differences - Education Week

We Need Changes Beyond School, Too - Bridging Differences - Education Week:

We Need Changes Beyond School, Too

By Deborah Meier on April 3, 2014 8:53 AM

Deborah Meier continues her conversation with Robert Pondiscio. The two will finish co-blogging next week.

Dear Robert,

Let's use these last letters—our blog partnership ends next week!—to pursue your question: Do We Need Changes In Our Schools? Yes. Yes. Yes. (But maybe "reform" was never quite the right word.)

Given the nature of the beast, we are probably doing better than we ever have. That's important to remember.  And we always needed better-educated citizens! But we won't get them until we identify both (1) what it is we are looking for and (2) what we know it would take to get there. That's where there's a serious divide among "reformers."

At present, we apparently have settled for closing the test-score gaps between the poor and rich on at least math and reading tests. Some, more realistic, just insist they all be proficient—although what that really means may be just as utopian. (Some may even not care as long as the reforms end teacher unionism and public education.)

But that's not the goal that has driven me (or you) for the last 50-plus years.

"Closing test score gaps" is probably an absurd goal even if we had great assessment tools. E.g. I could design an objective, standardized test that would close the score gaps between my three children or three different tests that put each in turn in the top spot—if I had the power to choose 

4-3-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE:

Common Core Can’t Bring Teaching Back to Teachers

Before attending the United Opt Out conference in Denver, I began to do a little more research on the trends in the Common Core debate for some of my upcoming presentations.  One of the interesting things I came across was a PowerPoint created by Ellen Bernstein of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation (ATF), a local chapter of […]

36 by Kris Nielsen / 42min 

National Poetry Month: “What is the message when some children are not represented in those books?”

National Poetry Month: “What is the message when some children are not represented in those books?”. via National Poetry Month: “What is the message when some children are not represented in those books?”.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical

1 by plthomasedd / 18min 

4-2-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE: On Children and ChildhoodOn Children and Childhood. via On Children and Childhood.Filed under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical1 by plthomasedd / 52min hide  //  saveYESTERDAYSome High-profilers Gunning for Common CoreSome High-profilers Gunning for Common CoreThe Common Core State Standards (CCSS) surely are causing quite a stir. That is what happens when non-teachers try to impose

by mike simpson / 9h 

4-3-14 the becoming radical A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness by P. L. Thomas, EdD

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University):

National Poetry Month: “What is the message when some children are not represented in those books?”

National Poetry Month 2014 comes not on “little cat feet,” like Carl Sandberg’s “Fog,” but in the wake of Walter Dean Myers and his son, Christopher, responding to reports of the whitewashing of books for children. Walter Dean Myers explains: But there was something missing. I needed more than the characters in the Bible to identify with, or even the characters in Arthur Miller’s plays or my belov

3 by plthomasedd / 20min 

4-2-14 the becoming radical A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness by P. L. Thomas, EdD

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University): On Children and Childhoodchildren guessed(but only a few and down they forgot as up they grew “[anyone lived in a pretty how town],” e.e. cummings In one of those early years of becoming and being a teacher, when I was still teaching in the exact room where I had been a

by mike simpson / 9h