5-3-14 Jersey Jazzman NJ Ed News Round-up Jammin' All Week

Jersey Jazzman:

Jersey Jazzman Jammin' All Week

Derrell Bradford Takes Manhattan!

Hey, New York! Yeah, I'm talking to you! You and me, we got a beef:See, you guys are always shipping your reformy types across the Hudson to us here in New Jersey and, frankly, we're all sick of it. We're up to our necks in these corporate education reformers, with their "no excuses" and "think-tanky research" and Joel Klein-enhanced resumes.Chris. Cami. Paymon. Janine. They've

32 by Duke / 4d 

APR 27

Two Questions For Arne Duncan

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan gave an interview to Andrea Mitchell this past week that once again attempts to shift the blame for America's inequitable education outcomes on to everything and anything except the most obvious thing:Yeah, sure, that's the problem: the schools of education. I mean, what else could possibly explain this:Obviously, the difference in student outcomes between afflue

100+ by Duke / 5d hide  //  save

APR 26

Cami Anderson's Rusty Knife

Newark's state-appointed superintendent, Cami Anderson, is so hard at work fighting against "adult interests" that she doesn't have time to attend public meetings of her elected school board. She doesn't even have time to explain herself to the NJ Legislature.But she apparently does have time to hobnob with a bunch of edupreneurs for a few days in the warm Arizona sun. Speakers at the AS

100+ by Duke / 7d 

APR 25

Corporate Education Reform Buys Public Broadcasting - Again

A couple of months ago, David Sirota broke the story of how PBS took money from plutocrat John Arnold to push a story touting a non-existent pension crisis. I'll admit that since then my radar has been more finely tuned to corporate-friendly frameworks when watching PBS or listening to NPR.So, as I was sitting at the kitchen table this evening, my ears perked up at the 5:30 break for WNYC, the NPR

300+ by Duke / 7d 

The Cuomology of State Aid (or Tales from Lake Flaccid)

We’ve heard much bluster over time about school funding in New York State, and specifically how money certainly has no role in the policy debate over how to fix New York State schools, unless it has to do with providing more money to charter schools, or decrying the fact that district schools statewide are substantially over-funded.  See for example, this wonderfully absurd rant from DFER. Here’s

12 by schoolfinance101 / 1d 

APR 30

Uncommon Denominators: Understanding “Per Pupil” Spending

This post is another in my series on data issues in education policy. The point of this post is to encourage readers of education policy research to pay closer attention to the fact that any measure of “per pupil spending” contains two parts – a measure of “spending” in the numerator and a measure of “pupils” in the denominator. Put simply, both measures matter, and matching the right numerator to

5 by schoolfinance101 / 2d hide  //  save

APR 29

On “Dropout Factories” & (Fraudulent) Graduation Rates in NJ

This NJ Star Ledger piece the other day reminded me of an issue I’ve been wanting to check out for some time now. I’m skeptical of graduation rates as a measure of student outcomes to begin with, because, of course, graduation can be strongly influenced by local norms and practices. As such, it’s really hard to validly compare graduation rates from one place to another or even over time, as gradua

12 by schoolfinance101 / 4d 

APR 26

Welcome to Relay Medical College & North Star Community Hospital

Arne Duncan has one whopper of an interview available here: http://www.msnbc.com/andrea-mitchell-reports/watch/better-preparing-our-nations-educators-237066307522 Related to his new push to evaluate teacher preparation programs using student outcome data: http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2014/04/25/arne-ology-the-bad-incentives-of-evaluating-teacher-prep-with-student-outcome-data/ And his Whi

32 by schoolfinance101 / 6d 

APR 25

Arne-Ology & the Bad Incentives of Evaluating Teacher Prep with Student Outcome Data

As I understand it, USDOE is going to go ahead with the push to have teacher preparation programs rated in part based on the student growth outcomes of children taught by individuals receiving credentials from those programs. Now, the layers of problems associated with this method are many and I’ve addressed them previously here and in professional presentations. This post summarizes my earlier c

200+ by schoolfinance101 / 7d

#NJEdTruthSquad: Just Gimme Some Truth, Jersey!

#NJEdTruthSquad  #NJEdTruthRemember these hash tags.Education 'reform' may be stifling creativity and collaboration in the classroom, but it's had an unintended consequence: it's made many of us stronger advocates for public education outside the classroom. All across the country education professionals, parents and community members are joining together, taking action and speaking out against the

26 by noreply@blogger.c... / 6d 

APR 24

Tom Moran crosses the line in latest editorial

(Note: as I was drafting this post this week, Bob Braun wrote several excellent pieces on One Newark, which I quoted from extensively. Oh to be retired and have time… Well, I can dream, can’t I?)The Star Ledger is my newspaper of choice. I’m sorry to see it suffering so much financial hardship in recent days. On average I’ve tended to agree with editorial page editor, Tom Moran more than I’ve disa

17 by noreply@blogger.c... / 8d 

West Side erupts. Where’s Cami?

  Newark’s West Side High School erupts after a popular teacher is fired. Where is Cami Anderson, the state-appointed superintendent? At yet another education conference, this one in San Francisco, extolling the virtues of charter schools.   According to Twitter feeds coming from an individual and a charter school organization, she is in San Francisco at the annual […]

200+ by Bob Braun / 2d 

APR 29

Cry for Newark

Sad. There’s a word rarely heard in the context of the state’s war on Newark’s neighborhood public schools. Sad. Yet the story of how a cruelly tone-deaf state bureaucrat named Cami Anderson is singlehandedly destroying a community’s neighborhood schools is just that. Sad.  And nothing more illustrates that sadness than the brave but probably futile […]

400+ by Bob Braun / 3d 

5-3-13 Curmudgucation Week

CURMUDGUCATION:

Not One Size Fits All

I often criticize the core (and other standards-- while I know some decent, intelligent people like the idea of some sort of national standards, I do not) by calling it a "one size fits all" solution.But I'm wrong.It's a handy shorthand phrase-- just four words and everybody knows what you mean. But it's not precisely correct."One size fits all" imagines a world where tailors m

54 by Peter Greene / 2h 

Pearson Eats PARCC

Relax and stop resisting. You will be assimilated.Yesterday PARCC, one of the two giant consortia of high stakes standardized testing, announced that they will become part of the giant corporate beast that is Pearson. PARCC's negotiator described the contract as having "unprecedented scale." Pearson has promised a price cut ($24 per student, marked down from $29.50) but the scale of this

68 by Peter Greene / 3h 

YESTERDAY

Is This CCSS Criticism Fair?

The supporters of Common Core have eaten so much cheese with their whine that we may have to call a whaaaambulance.Their complaints have been percolating for a while, but the heat of the Louis C.K. flame-up has brought their big bowl of treacly tears to a roiling boil. The criticisms are not fair. Those stupid examples of bad assignments have nothing to do with the Core, and the terrible tests are

38 by Peter Greene / 12h 

Petrilli's Shovel At Work Again

I have a confession to make-- I kind of like Mike Petrilli. I've never met him. I've never met any of the big names in the ed biz, because I'm a high school English teacher in small town USA  (isn't the internet cool), so I depend on long-distance close-reading of all these folks, and while many of the Reformsters seem lost or confused or walking in that kind of dull cloud that people fall into wh

10 by Peter Greene / 22h 

Another Plutocrat for USDOE

Alyson Klein at EdWeek reports that Robert Gordon has been chosen to serve as assistant secretary for planning, evaluation and policy development at the US DOE.Gordon's previous work credits include the Office of Management and Budget, where he seems to have been a man behind the scenes for the various Fiscal Cliff negotiations. More recently he's been a guest scholar at the Brookings Institute, a

10 by Peter Greene / 1d 

MAY 01

Sorry, Newsweek, But You're wrong About Louis C. K.

My first thought when I read Alexander Nazaryan's response to Louis C. K.'s Common Core tirade was, "Wow! What an ass!"This is not an insult. Readers of this blog know that the what-an-ass writing style is one of my favorites, and I have been an ass frequently. I don't have the luxury of being an ass for a national newsmaga-- well, newsthingy. But it's a skill I respect.Unfortunately, th

100+ by Peter Greene / 1d 

Teacher Merit Badges

Earlier this week, Metro Nashville Public Schools unveiled a new virtual merit badge system to reward teachers who take on extras. The idea was facing resistance about fifteen seconds after it was introduced. Kelly Henderson, the districts executive director of instruction, compared the system to Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. Jill Speering of the school board responded, "I'm sorry-- that doesn'

40 by Peter Greene / 1d 

Throwing Away

It seems like some kind of joke to call a movement "un-American," but I think the Reformy Status Quo has earned that adjective.Here's the thing about us as a country, as a culture. We fight. We struggle. We have sometimes extremely violent, deadly battles among the many smaller tribes that make up this country. But as a nation we are built to accommodate all these differences, and so eve

17 by Peter Greene / 2d 

APR 30

Getting Stupical In NY

It seems that some state legislatures are competing to pass the worst education laws. Whether it's Kansas deciding to strengthen education by destroying teaching as a career or Florida beating up on disabled children and grieving mothers, there seems to be a race going on, and if it is to the top of something, that's a mountain I don't ever want to see.New York has most recently made its bid for t

35 by Peter Greene / 2d 

Computer Writer Vs. Computer Grader

Les Perelman is a hero of mine. The former director of undergraduate writing at MIT has been one of the smartest, sanest voices in the seemingly-endless debate about the use of computers to assess student writing. And now he has a new tool.Babel (the Basic Automatic B.S. Essay Language Generator) was created by Perelman with a team of students from MIT and Harvard, and it's pretty awesome as laid

9 by Peter Greene / 2d 

Is There No Common Ground? Well.....

I sympathize with Peter DeWitt, the former K-5 principal who has morphed into a pundit/trainer. In his blog at EdWeek he can often be found trying to chart a course between the Scylla of the CCSS-based Reformsters and the Charybdis of rabid opposition to any changey things in school while sailing under the Pigpen's Black Cloud of corporate deceitfulness with the Pebble of rhetorical purity tests i

19 by Peter Greene / 3d 

APR 29

Malloy: I Didn't Bring That Ugly Girl to the Prom

Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy has joined the parade of politicians working to backpedal like a boss away from the Common Core.On the CTMonitor site, Jacqueline Rabe Thomas recaps Malloy's Monday interview on NPR.Malloy does his best to create fear and trepidation for anybody considering an opt-out for testing, and his best includes raising the specter of the feds cracking down. "If to

10 by Peter Greene / 3d 

The New Enemies List

The Tea Party threat is over. Well, over-ish.I've been writing about this in the context of other topics, but I believe it deserves its own attention. Over the past ten days, the narrative about the Enemies of the Core has shifted.On April 21, The Daily Beast attributed attacks on the Core to "an unholy alliance between the Tea Party and the teachers' unions." That article got some play

14 by Peter Greene / 4d 

Petrelli Warns of the Day After

Fordham has deployed the Damage Control team of Michael Petrelli  to put up an article at the Governing website. Petrelli and his sidekick Michael Brickman (who, sadly, did not even get his picture on this article for which he's billed as co-writer) have a warning for Common Core foes:Like a dog that finally catches the bus he'd been chasing forever, what happens when opponents of the Common Core

7 by Peter Greene / 4d 

APR 28

Branding Education

What if we were serious about treating education like a business?I recently finished an advance copy of What Great Brands Do by Denise Lee Yohn. It is a book that has absolutely nothing to do with education. Instead, Yohn looks at how brands from Kodak to Nike fail or succeed, and how building a brand leads to a higher level of real success. Yohn has been around through several decades of corporat

21 by Peter Greene / 4d 

The Gates Wants Us To Take a Stand

Over at Inside Higher Ed, Dan Greenstein and Vicki Phillips are making yet another pitch for the Core on behalf of the Gates Foundation (Greenstein is director of postsecondary success and Pillips is director of education).  I would love to tell you that they have shiny new talking points to offer, but no-- it's the same old fluffernuttery. Here's the breakdown.They begin with a mystery-- why, the

24 by Peter Greene / 4d 

APR 27

Steve Kornacki & The New Narrative

The old narrative attributed Common Core opposition to the Tin Hat Wing of the Tea Party Wing of the GOP. Arne Duncan was fond of claiming that opponents were just a fringe group of (probably racist) looney tunes who could be easily dismissed. Good dependable conservatives, like, say, Jeb Bush, were those who distanced themselves from the crazypants wing of their party. Hey-- if those crazy tin ha

6 by Peter Greene / 5d 

Brookings Research Reveals Teachers Are the Problem

Brookings will release a new book this week with the charming title Teachers versus the Public: What Americans Think about Schools and How To Fix Them.And yes-- that title tells us where we're going right off the bat-- teachers really are the problem. In fact, teachers aren't just the opposition-- teachers aren't even American. Perhaps we are all bused in from Outer Slobovia?The blurb promises tha

80 by Peter Greene / 6d 

APR 26

MSNBC Re-affirms Its Uselessness in Education Coverage

Over at MSNBC, you can watch Andrea Mitchell interview Arne Duncan with all the hard-hitting journalistic thoroughness displayed by Arne's Rent-a-Teacher interviews produced by the DOE.  It's four and a half minutes of blood-pressurizing fluffernuttery. And I'm going to break it down for you so you don't have to watch it. Once again, you owe me, reader.Andrea starts out in front of a pretty pictur

53 by Peter Greene / 6d 

US DOE Revives Truly Terrible Proposal

President Obama has brushed the mothballs off one of the worst, dumbest proposals in Arne Duncan's USDOE toolbox (and that is not an easy bar to clear). As reported by Reuters, Duncan is poised to revive the plan for test-based evaluation of college teacher prep programs.There are already many dumb plans in place, from the content specific Praxis tests (because if you can pass a computerized bubbl

56 by Peter Greene / 6d