Saturday, May 31, 2014

Nite Cap 5-31-14 #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2



James Baldwin said it best: 

"For these are all our children, and we will profit by or pay for whatever they become."


A BIG EDUCATION APE NITE CAP




The Truth About St. Marcus (WELS) | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!
The Truth About St. Marcus (WELS) | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!: The Truth About St. Marcus (WELS)Filed under: St. Marcus,Vouchers — millerlf @ 3:24 pm St. Marcus Lutheran School, located on Milwaukee’s near north side, is once again seeking to buy property from Milwaukee Public Schools. The site is located at 921 W. Meinecke, the site of Lee Elementary school.Last year, the St. Mar
LAUSD'S NEW MATH FOR SCREWING TOP TEACHERS - Superintendent John Deasy - Perdaily.com
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Russ on Reading: Five Ways Charter Schools Are Bad for Children and Other Living Things
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Our Missing $200 Million | Yinzercation
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Defend-Ed Action Map | Defend-Ed
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Why Are School Administrators Bullying Taxpayers? Stories from Arnold & Otterville, Missouri School Districts. | Missouri Education Watchdog
Why Are School Administrators Bullying Taxpayers? Stories from Arnold & Otterville, Missouri School Districts. | Missouri Education Watchdog: Why Are School Administrators Bullying Taxpayers? Stories from Arnold & Otterville, Missouri School Districts.inShareHave individuals with this watchdog group been libeled by public school administrators?The Fox-C-6 School District is in Arnold, Miss
What’s wrong with standardized testing…this month? Parents United for Responsible Education
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Newark Students Resisting Neoliberal Reforms In Their City | PopularResistance.Org
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2nd Banana 5-31-14 Recap of Last Week's Best Post #EDchat #EDreform #RealEdTalk #p2
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Morning Wink 5-31-14 AM Posts #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2
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MME Digital Learning Projects: An Antidote to Standardized Testing - Musical Media For Education
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Don’t Make Students Wait | Live Long and Prosper
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NYC Educator: Working Families Party--Maintaining the Status Cuomo
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Stellar Teaching in Failing Schools (Part 1) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
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Race for state superintendent heated despite agreement on two key issues | EdSource Today
Race for state superintendent heated despite agreement on two key issues | EdSource Today: Race for state superintendent heated despite agreement on two key issuesMay 30th, 2014 | Add a Comment | By John FensterwaldBut Tom Torlakson and Marshall Tuck, the two leading candidates, both Democrats, share similar views on the two biggest education initiatives – and challenges – of the decade in Califor
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5-31-13 Curmudgucation Week
CURMUDGUCATION:Welcome to Common Core HospitalNurse Duncan: Welcome to Common Core Hospital. How may I assist you?Chris: My name's Chris Wobble. I was just in a car accident. My arms seems to be broken in about three places.Nurse Duncan: All righty, then. We just need to do some assessments here to see what shape you're in. As a major health care provider, your health data determines our success r
5-31-14 NPE News Briefs ← from The Network for Public Education
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All Week @ The Answer Sheet 5-31-14
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BREAKING NEWS!! MULGREW PULLING WFP STRINGS FOR CUOMO!!!.southbronxschool.com
http://www.southbronxschool.com: BREAKING NEWS!! MULGREW PULLING WFP STRINGS FOR CUOMO!!!On March 15, 44 BC the Roman Senate, led by Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutusstabbed to death Julius Caesar. Caesar's dying words, according to William Shakespeare upon seeing that Brutus was amongst the conspirators was, "Et tu Brutue?"During the Last Supper, which The Crack Team belie
5-30-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL
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Thinking About Schools: The Right to Bear Standards
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Nite Cap 5-30-14 #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2
James Baldwin said it best: "For these are all our children, and we will profit by or pay for whatever they become."A BIG EDUCATION APE NITE CAPJune 2014 ACCS Meeting Agenda - Advisory Commission on Charter Schools (CA Dept of Education)June 2014 ACCS Meeting Agenda - Advisory Commission on Charter Schools (CA Dept of Education): ACCS Live Meeting WebcastMeeting NoticeAdvisory Commission





The Truth About St. Marcus (WELS) | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!

The Truth About St. Marcus (WELS) | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!:



The Truth About St. Marcus (WELS)



Filed under: St. Marcus,Vouchers — millerlf @ 3:24 pm 
St. Marcus Lutheran School, located on Milwaukee’s near north side, is once again seeking to buy property from Milwaukee Public Schools. The site is located at 921 W. Meinecke, the site of Lee Elementary school.
Last year, the St. Marcus leadership had elementary school children pounding on the building doors of the Malcolm X site, yelling “let us in.” The St. Marcus leadership and public school privatization supporters claim they have a right to public properties.
St. Marcus Lutheran School is seldom talked about by its superintendent, Henry Tyson, without the descriptor “high performing school.” But the data shows a different picture. This year’s reading results (school year 2013-2014) showed only 19% of St. Marcus students proficient in reading, a 2% decline from the previous year.
This is a school that serves less that 6% special education students with no public oversight while claiming to be a pillar of success.
Even with St. Marcus academic failures, their marketing and political strategies are well funded to gain market share. But the heart of the debate that surrounds them continues to be the funding of private, sectarian schools with public money; vouchers.
St Marcus Lutheran School Superintendent said last year on his blog that “St Marcus is unapologetically Christian and follows the teachings of the Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Evangelical Luther Synod.”
If you go to their official monthly publication, Forward in Christ, you can witness their teachings, unrestrained and unapologetic:
On Equality of Women “In order to avoid exercising leadership over men contrary to “the order of creation,” WELS women do not vote in church meetings.”
On Economic Inequality “It is egregiously impossible if you mean that the state can and should guarantee equality of education, income, or wealth. The only way that there could be equality of wealth is if the state seized all private assets and redistributed them. The only way there could be equality of income is if the state seized control of all businesses and The Truth About St. Marcus (WELS) | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!:

LAUSD'S NEW MATH FOR SCREWING TOP TEACHERS - Superintendent John Deasy - Perdaily.com

LAUSD, Superintendent John Deasy - Perdaily.com:



LAUSD'S NEW MATH FOR SCREWING TOP TEACHERS





 (Mensaje se repite en Español)


As the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is legally sanctioned for not having turned over photos in the Miramonte child abuse scandal- which can only be viewed as obstruction of justice- hopefully an awareness is finally starting to dawn on people as to what levels of dishonesty the leadership of LAUSD is capable in achieving their goals based exclusively on perceived self-interest, that is clearly diametrically opposed to the exigencies of running a good public education system.

Sigi Siegel is a lifelong teacher who was targeted by LAUSD, not for the fabricated wrong doing that they have charged her with, but rather for being too expensive. Other than making too much money, Ms. Siegel's sole crime was that she did a simple and harmless Type 2 diabetes blood test on one of her students without having previous obtained parent consent. Given that LAUSD is approximately three-quarters Latino- a population that has a 50% higher Type 2 diabetes rate than the general population- one can understand the teachable moment Ms.Siegel was tempted to take advantage of, even if she exhibited poor judgment in not first obtaining prior parent consent for this test. 

The question you must ask is whether her actions should warrant the termination of her otherwise exemplary teaching career and whether in the final analysis, her faux pas really had anything to do with why she was targeted. 

In making this judgment, I would ask you to take into consideration the very typical illegal manner in which Ms. Siegel continues to be treated. She was incarcerated in teacher jail aka the rubber room for an extended period of time, far beyond what would have been necessary to determine her innocence or culpability. It is also worth noting that she has subsequently won her case before the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH), which ordered that she be put back to work. However, this judgment was then appealed by LAUSD in their typical actions designed to drag out the process against her- LAUSD, Superintendent John Deasy - Perdaily.com:

Russ on Reading: Five Ways Charter Schools Are Bad for Children and Other Living Things

Russ on Reading: Five Ways Charter Schools Are Bad for Children and Other Living Things:



Five Ways Charter Schools Are Bad for Children and Other Living Things




Charter schools are the darling of the education reform movement. Appealing to the All-American ideal of “choice”, charter schools are sold to struggling communities as a way to improve student learning through competition. Well-funded public relations campaigns, underwritten by the Walton Foundation and other reform minded philanthropic organizations, work overtime to sell Americans on “choice.” Now rock stars, athletes and movie stars are getting in to the act, investing in and opening charters across the country.

The education reformers have stolen the narrative from those who truly care about public education. At any cocktail party or at the sidelines of a soccer game you are likely to hear people discussing “failing schools” and “bad teachers” and how choice, especially in the form of charter schools is the way to insure a child gets a good education.

But this is a false narrative. Research study after research study has shown that charter schools are no panacea, indeed they are simultaneously providing an inferior education, while draining public schools of needed resources. Even a cursory glance at what is happening in Philadelphia, Chicago and New Orleans will reveal the false promise of charter schools.

The next time the topic comes up at a cocktail party you are attending, here are six things you can say in rebuttal to the charter cheerleaders.

1. Failure to Improve Learning – Two consecutive reports from the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), 2009 and 2013, have shown that public schools outperform charter schools. In 2009, 83% of charters were the same or worse than public schools. In 2013 the figure was 71-75%, with the slight improvement being due to really bad charters being closed. It is true that some charter schools have been very successful and the Russ on Reading: Five Ways Charter Schools Are Bad for Children and Other Living Things:

Our Missing $200 Million | Yinzercation

Our Missing $200 Million | Yinzercation:



Our Missing $200 Million




We’d like our $200 million back, please. That’s how much money charter schools in Pennsylvania collected last year for special education in excess of what they actually spent on special education for students. Charter schools took in over $350 million, but spent only $150 million. (Or $350,562,878 vs. $156,003,034 to be exact.) So where’s our extra $200 million? (OK, $193,559,844 to be exact.)
Our colleague, Mark Spengler, who is a public education advocate in the Lehigh Valley and tracked down this data, points out that, “charter schools are not obligated to spend special education funding for special education purposes. That money can be spent for numerous miscellaneous reasons including billboards and mailer advertisements.” [Lower Macungie Patch, 5-26-14]
Last year, the Pennsylvania legislature created a Special Education Funding Commission to devise a new funding formula. Deplorably, the old formula did not reimburse schools for the actual cost of educating students with special needs, which resulted in great inequities (and under-funding for some of the state’s most vulnerable children). The bi-partisan commission’s recommendations formed the basis for House Bill 2138 and Senate Bill 1316 now under consideration. These bills would create a fair and rational system of funding special education in Pennsylvania based on actual costs. However, Harrisburg lobbyists are threatening to kill the two bills.
Our partner, Education Voters PA, is making it easy for us to help fight back: click here to send an email to your state senator and representative (you can keep the suggested wording on the form, or edit your digital postcards). This took me less than 12 seconds to do. EdVoters explains that our senators and representatives need to hear the following in support of SB 1316 / HB 2138:
  • “The current system of funding special education is broken and unfair. It does not provide enough resources for the services children need and it does not ensure that all special education dollars are spent on special education services. 
  • “State special education funding should be distributed to both school systems and charter schools based on the level of services that students need. Allocating taxpayer dollars differently to school districts and charter schools doesn’t make sense. All of our public schools should receive funding distributed by the same allocation formula.
  • “State special education funding should be spent ONLY on providing students with services. Any excess special Our Missing $200 Million | Yinzercation:

Defend-Ed Action Map | Defend-Ed

Defend-Ed Action Map | Defend-Ed:



Defend-Ed Action Map

Resistance is *not* futile!


Marches
Meetings
Workshops
Walk-outs
Pickets
Demonstrations
Protests
Legal actions
Opt-outs
Dual power
Free schools 


All these things are happening in the real world right now in the fight against education commercialization and bureaucratization. People are fighting every day to protect their families and to protect their classrooms. Frankly, it's real-world actions like these that will turn the tide, not the actions of sitting at a computer, or fiddling with a phone, while reading and posting on the Internet (although that has to be done, too - The Editor is doing it right now.)
If you've been involved in a real world action, or you have details on an upcoming event, please stick a pin on the new Defend-Ed Action Map. It's EASY. Just click on the link in the menu bar at the top of the page, and then click on the submission form link. If you have the details, they'll be pinned to the map in short order. Let's fill this map up.


*

Why Are School Administrators Bullying Taxpayers? Stories from Arnold & Otterville, Missouri School Districts. | Missouri Education Watchdog

Why Are School Administrators Bullying Taxpayers? Stories from Arnold & Otterville, Missouri School Districts. | Missouri Education Watchdog:



Why Are School Administrators Bullying Taxpayers? Stories from Arnold & Otterville, Missouri School Districts.

Fox C-6 Watchdogs
Have individuals with this watchdog group been libeled by public school administrators?

The Fox-C-6 School District is in Arnold, Missouri, just outside of St. Louis in Jefferson County.  Individuals from the Fox-6 Watchdogs have been investigating and reporting on what it considers nepotism and lack of transparency from the school board, superintendent and administrators.  Computers owned by school administrators (according to ISP addresses revealed via a lawsuit filed by citizens) were found to have been used to make libelous remarks about several individuals questioning administrative and district actions.  The taxpayers were accused of scandalous acts in Topix, an online chat room by then anonymous sources in 2013.  From stltoday and Derisive website comments linked to home of Fox school chief:


JEFFERSON COUNTY • Computers traced to the homes of Fox School District Superintendent Dianne Critchlow and another Fox administrator were used to make nasty allegations about three critics of the district, said an attorney representing those critics in a libel lawsuit.
Dan Herman filed suit in February on behalf of Arnold residents Sam Ferry, Rich Simpson and Michelle Tyler. All have been critical of the Fox School District, which sent them letters in recent years warning them to tone down their behavior or face legal action. They say they have become the victims.
But the defendant in their suit is listed as John Doe because they did not know who made the Why Are School Administrators Bullying Taxpayers? Stories from Arnold & Otterville, Missouri School Districts. | Missouri Education Watchdog:

What’s wrong with standardized testing…this month? Parents United for Responsible Education

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » What’s wrong with standardized testing…this month?:



What’s wrong with standardized testing…this month?


I’m talking with Dick Kay on WCPT this afternoon about standardized testing.

Tune in to 820 AM, or 92.5 FM (west side of Chicago) 92.7 FM (north) or 99.9 FM (south). Apparently you can also live stream the show here:

Here are some of the topics I hope we’ll be able to cover:

Testing fake facts? There’s a new, racist version of the fake test facts scandal that PURE broke last year, when we exposed a Scantron reading question that was obvious, and falsified, propaganda for charter schools.

The reading passage for that question included this statement: “Multimillionaire Charles Mendel sends his children to a charter school because he believes that that charter schools deliver the highest quality education.” Problem is, there is no such person. Other “facts” in the passage about charter schools were also false.

This month, CPS students have been taking REACH performance exams, which are standardized tests used to measure teacher effectiveness. Students were given REACH pre-tests in the fall, and their “progress” – and part of their teachers’ evaluations – will be determined by the results from these spring tests.

REACH tests are supposedly written by teams of CPS teachers. I say supposedly, because it is hard to imagine that any of our teachers had a hand in the poisonous, idiotic test that showed up on the REACH web site for spring administration.

The test asks students to respond to two commentaries on immigration, both rabidly anti-immigrant and both written by “authorities” who don’t exist. Students are asked, among other things, to decide who is the more “authoritative” of the two fake pundits.

CPS has pulled the test off the site, but still allows the test to be used. They have attempted to excuse the bias by explaining that last fall’s “pre-test” consisted of two pro-immigration essays, so this was a “balance.” OK. Sure.

Keeping in mind that “progress” is determined by the change in student performance from the fall to the spring test and that a large percentage of CPS students are immigrants or children of
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Newark Students Resisting Neoliberal Reforms In Their City | PopularResistance.Org

Newark Students Resisting Neoliberal Reforms In Their City | PopularResistance.Org:



Newark Students Resisting Neoliberal Reforms In Their City

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By Raven Rakia

On Tuesday, May 20, 2014, the Newark Students Union (NSU) called for a rally on 2 Cedar Street, at the Board of Education building. As their supporters rallied outside, nine high school students from the NSU entered the building where the Board of Education was holding a meeting and staged a sit-in. As they slipped Cami Anderson, the superintendent, a list of their demands and sat down on the floor of the meeting, the nine students declared they weren’t leaving until their demands were met. The four demands read as follows: (1) Cami Anderson’s immediate resignation (2) Local control over the education system (3) Public schools to be fairly and fully funded and (4) All schools remain open.
Back in December, the NPS administration issued the “One Newark” plan: a complete restructuring of Newark’s public schools to take place in time for the 2014-2015 school year. Under the slogan, “100 excellent schools,” they describe the plan as a “community-wide agenda to ensure all students are in excellent schools and thriving communities.” In reality, the One Newark plan is a top-down approach orchestrated at the state level, which exercises complete control over public schools. Under the plan, some public schools will be closed, others will be turned into charters, and yet other schools will face a complete staff overhaul with potential layoffs.
On Tuesday, the Newark students and their supporters effectively shut down the Board meeting. Cami Anderson and other individuals from the NPS administration left the building, although Rashon Hassan and Donald Jackson from the Board came back and took the time to speak to the students. The next day, Anderson released an official statement, where she said while she is “supportive of students expressing their opinions,” she accused the sit-in as being “coached by adults” and said the students refused her offer to meet with them. In the Newark Students Union response, they asserted that “autonomy is a really important word to our union and it is something that we all possess. Thus, we were not coached by adults,” and the “shut down and sit in has been planned strategically and has been a Newark Students Resisting Neoliberal Reforms In Their City | PopularResistance.Org: