5-17-14 Jersey Jazzman NJ Ed News Round-up Jammin' All Week

Jersey Jazzman:

Jersey Jazzman Jammin' All Week

Would Linda Brown's Parents Have Wanted a "Choice" District?

This weekend is this 60th anniversary of Brown v Board of Education, the landmark case that ended separate but equal public schools. The case was originally brought against the Topeka, Kansas school board by Oliver Brown, the father of Linda, a third grader.Oliver had tried to enroll Linda at their neighborhood school a few blocks down the street; he was told instead that Linda would have to go to

52 by Duke / 1d hide  //  save

MAY 14

Where In The World Is Cami Sandiego?

UPDATE: Found her!"Mayor-elect Baraka and I worked together at Newark public schools and had a productive working relationship which I have every intention of continuing," Anderson said. "While we may not agree on all issues, we certainly share a common passion for creating equity for our young people." Baraka worked as principal of Central High School for several years under A

84 by Duke / 2d 

MAY 11

Ras Baraka & Newark's Last Grasp at Democracy

If you believe that America is a democracy, you must also believe, a priori, that Newark, NJ, is not part of America.For the last couple of weeks, it has become painfully, disturbingly clear that Newark -- like many other communities populated by working-poor and working-class people of color -- operates under a set of circumstances that simply wouldn't be tolerated in a free, democratic society:-

100+ by Duke / 5d 

Teacher Appreciation Week Followup: The good, the bad and the ugly

Although Teacher Appreciation Week is officially behind us, I did promise you a Part 2 of my NJ BOE post—the testimony. But some other stuff happened after Part 1, and as a mom and teacher with only 5 weeks left of school, there's only so much I can fit into one day. I promise I'll get to it this weekend. In the meantime, here's what happened in the past week or so...The good: Newark has a new may

12 by noreply@blogger.c... / 1d hide  //  save

MAY 10

NJ Ed Truth Squad Call to Action Part 2: When bad things happen to good schools

In Part 1 I wrote about the recent Congressional vote on a charter school bill. Part 2 is about Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson's plans to convert Hawthorne Avenue School, a successful and beloved neighborhood public school, into a charter.A Newark teacher sent me this heartfelt post written in April by Hawthorne Ave PTSO President Grace Sergio about the successes this school has had under Pri

61 by noreply@blogger.c... / 6d 

NJ Ed Truth Squad Call to Action! Part 1

We interrupt this Teacher Appreciation Week to bring you a call to action:Two pieces of information crossed my cyber desk this morning at the crack of dawn:1. The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to approve bipartisan legislation to expand access to charter school funding.2. This very sad accounting of Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson's conversion of one of the city's—and state's—m

23 by noreply@blogger.c... / 7d 

Cami cuts 500 jobs

  State-appointed Newark schools superintendent Cami Anderson is cutting some 500 jobs, including 200 teaching positions, 200 central office employees, and nearly 100 non-instructional workers, including clerks and aides. The resulting layoffs will follow tenure and seniority laws and regulations despite Anderson’s apparently failed effort to obtain permission from the state to ignore seniority. S

200+ by Bob Braun / 10h 

MAY 15

Chris Christie. Socialist

What really boggles my mind is this: Chris Christie says he is a conservative Republican and hopes he will take that ideology all the way to the White House in 2016. Conservative Republicans rail against what they often call “social engineering” by public institutions that try to ameliorate social problems. That’s why they don’t like public schools […]

50 by Bob Braun / 2d 

MAY 14

Break a kid’s heart? Who cares?

Newark’s school superintendent, Cami Anderson, yesterday shrugged off the political embarrassment she dumped on Gov. Chris Christie—a national champion of education?–and stubbornly pushed her deeply flawed and unpopular “One Newark” plan. In a letter whirling with spin, Anderson tried to skip over the reality that thousands of city children and their parents were disappointed. The […]

100+ by Bob Braun / 2d 

MAY 13

Ras Baraka wins

                  Ras Baraka, a high school principal and the son of a poet, yesterday easily defeated a Wall Street-backed promoter of school privatization to become the next mayor of Newark. Baraka’s victory repudiated the policies not just of his rival, Shavar Jeffries, but  those of Gov. Chris Christie,   former Mayor Cory Booker, and state-appointed […]

1K by Bob Braun / 3d 

Help us, people of Newark

                This is not a burden they asked for, or even want, but, today, the voters of Newark go to the polls to decide the possible future of both public education and democracy as we now know them both to be.  The race has become bigger than a contest between  Ras Baraka and Shavar Jeffries.  It has […]

100+ by Bob Braun / 4d hide  //  save

MAY 10

Baraka for Newark mayor

                  If a city can be a victim, Newark is one. For decades, it has been the victim of an unfair tax system, cynical politicians, suburban dominance of the state Legislature, racism, greed, and a sense that it should be grateful for the pitifully small handouts it gets from the rest of New Jersey. […]

500+ by Bob Braun / 6d 

5-17-13 Curmudgucation Week

CURMUDGUCATION:

PA Charters Don't Want To Die By Sword

In Philadelphia, Irony has collided with Karma, casing an explosion of hilariously tragic tears.First, some history. Philadelphia schools have suffered from financial and political issues (PA's school funding system is messed up, but we'll save that for another day), as well as questions about how well it was actually teaching children. In the late 1990s this resulted in some lawsuits against the

4 by Peter Greene / 1h 

YESTERDAY

Computer Shmomputer

You do know, don't you, that today' students have been around computers their lives, right? So why do some folks still think that a boring worksheet will suddenly be cool if it's on a computer? Or that a lecture from a teacher who can't be questioned is more interesting if it's on a computer?I tell you what. For every fifteen year old you find me who says, "Wow! This instruction is on a compu

17 by Peter Greene / 15h 

Jack Schneider & That Woman

Jack Schneider is my hero.Over at EdWeek, he has spent the last month co-authoring, "Beyond the Rhetoric." The other co-author of the blog is She Who Will Not Be Named. In the opening piece, Schneider talks about the considerable tension created by the forces surrounding the fight for public education:Sometimes this tension has been fruitful—leading to the adoption of policies for which

14 by Peter Greene / 1d 

MAY 15

What is "Failing"?

(This started out as part of this previous column, but it got away from me) We've been hearing a ton of verbage spewed out over the past umpteen years about failing schools. We need Common Core because our schools are failing. We can't go back to the failing schools of yesteryear. Failing failing failing. Well, the next time somebody tells you that schools are failing, please ask them this for me-

24 by Peter Greene / 1d 

What Is "Working"?

At first this post started with a long embedded twitter conversation between @TeacherSabrina and @MichaelPetrilli, spinning off from a discussion of how charters and closings lead to re-segregation, but I've narrowed it down to a most revealing exchange:@TeacherSabrina "Who should get to decide what works and what doesn't?"@Michael Petrilli "What works and what doesn't work is a mat

21 by Peter Greene / 1d 

US DOE Ambassadors!

US Department of Edumacation press releaseThere has been much discussion lately of our Principal Ambassador program, a program in which US DOE-indoctrinated principals are inserted into school settings where they can sort of work for the school district while spreading the good word of Common Core Etc. This was spun off of our successful Teacher Ambassador program which replaced classroom teachers

9 by Peter Greene / 2d 

MAY 14

Jennifer Rubin Strikes Out

Over at the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin took her turn at propping up the ever-besieged conservative defense of Common Core. She did not succeed.Strike OneRubin starts out with the old standard "We were getting totes whupped on the PISA by all the other kids on the playground, which was completely a crisis because we're worse than Korea and the Netherlands." She crunches some of the s

23 by Peter Greene / 2d 

Where Are the Teacher Leaders?

Over at EdWeek, Nancy Flanagan is asking "Is genuine teacher leadership dead in the water?" It's one more way of asking the time-honored question, where the heck are all the teacher leaders?Flanagan has paid her dues on this subject. A Michigan teacher of the year, National Board certified, member of the Teacher Leaders Network and an organizer for the Institute for Democratic Education

89 by Peter Greene / 2d 

Brookings Whips Up Some Teacher Eval Research

The Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings has released a new report, "Evaluating Teachers with Classroom Observations,"  a study intended to Tell Us Some Things about teacher evaluation and how to do it best. Is this going to be a trip to the unicorn farm? The very first sentences tell us where this report's heart is:The evidence is clear: better teachers improve student outcomes

1 by Peter Greene / 3d 

Why Isn't the 21st Century Here Yet?

Technology is awesome and transformative, and will completely change the way we do business in schools and in the classroom. So why hasn't that really happened yet? Why aren't we all working in high-tech, super-duper computer driven schools yet? I think I know, and it has nothing to do with philosophies of education or resistance to change.I'm starting this piece on my laptop. I'm doing that becau

16 by Peter Greene / 3d 

MAY 13

PSEA Has Lost The Election Already

It's only May, and the Pennsylvania State Education Association is already in the weeds for this year's gubernatorial election.Democrats in Pennsylvania have been pretty excited about the chance to run a candidate against Tom "Most Beatable Republican in the Country" Corbett. Several started throwing hats at the ring a while ago, and for reasons that are not entirely clear out here in th

15 by Peter Greene / 3d 

Better Teacher Training

The US DOE recently revived an initiative for improving teacher training in this country. It's a dumb initiative. Pearson offers edTPA, basically a new gateway into the profession, to insure that only the qualified enter the profession. edTPA is a dumb program. TFA is only the most prominent of the many "alternative paths" into teaching. As a means of creating great teaching professional

13 by Peter Greene / 4d 

MAY 12

Edutopia Serves Up Grits (With Maple Syrup)

If you have been looking for ways to grittify your classroom, edutopia has you covered with a new addition to its "Research Made Relevant" series (and while I guess I understand what their point is, but I have mixed feelings because nobody is out there explaining how to make water wet-- if the research is relevant, why would we have to "make" it anything. So maybe what they mea

11 by Peter Greene / 4d 

MAY 11

Smart People Problems

"He doesn't understand how anyone can not understand."My daughter and I were discussing why somebody would make a lousy teacher, and this was her observation. I realized that I have seen student teachers with this problem-- they do not understand how anybody can NOT understand the concept at hand, and so they have no idea how to teach it.This is a smart person's problem. Some smart peopl

25 by Peter Greene / 5d 

Mixing With Politics

There's a great line, usually attributed to Rev Gene Carlson of Wichita, about religious getting involved in politics:When you mix religion and politics, you get politics.His point was that while you may think that political power gives you leverage you need to engineer the social changes you want (in Carlson's case, conservative Christian changes), politics always ends up in the driver's seat.The

26 by Peter Greene / 6d 

MAY 10

Common Core Leads To Use of Food and Air

Okay, that headline may be a slight overstatement, but it was my first response when I stumbled upon this item on the engageNY blog.In "Connecting Parents to the Classroom," we meet Michelle Labuski, a twenty-year teaching veteran currently teaching sixth grade in Smithtown. Apparently for all of those twenty years, Labuski has been wondering how to communicate with parents about what is

60 by Peter Greene / 6d 

Computerized Grit & Snake Oil

At last! Students can learn grit on their computers!!EduGuide (Motto: One more company that figured out how to work "edu" into its name!) is proud to announce "The nonprofit, evidence-based online training program that strengthens core learning skills." So, with trembling, excited fingers, I am going to scroll down this very long page and see what the secret of teaching grit wi

18 by Peter Greene / 7d