6-9-14 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:

Chicago Teachers Union. The Union will continue to vigorously fight this attempt at pension heist as part of the We Are One Chicago coalition and will support litigation to challenge the new law.

CTUNET: CHICAGO—The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is greatly disappointed at the signing today by Gov. Pat Quinn of Senate Bill 1922, a proposal by the mayor of Chicago that will cut the retirement savings of thousands of city workers and school employees, and a slap in the face to the citizens who put the governor in office. The Union maintains that this short-sighted proposal does not, in any w

by Fred Klonsky / 8min 

Life in Rahm’s Chicago. The Virgin Mary can stay but the homeless must go.

The altar to the Virgin Mary at Fullerton can stay, but the homeless at Belmont must go. In 2005 somebody thought they saw the image of the Virgin Mary under the Kennedy Expressway at Fullerton, about a mile east of my home. I thought it was just a salt stain. But the believers told me she was weeping. Soon hundreds gathered. People brought offerings. Flowers. Candles. Framed pictures of Jesus an

by Fred Klonsky / 19min 

Breaking. Quinn kills re-election chances with City pension theft.

Quinn signed the City pension theft bill today. Why would the Governor want to make his re-elections chances even worse by going along with Rahm’s pension theft? While early indications are that any impairment or diminishing of public employee pension benefits will have a hard time getting past the courts, that is unlikely to be decided before November. So Quinn owns pension theft. Both at the st

8 by Fred Klonsky / 54min 

Ten minute drawing. Nosferatu.

1 by Fred Klonsky / 42min 

Will Squeezy veto Rahm’s pension theft today?

He wants our votes next November. How badly does he want our votes? Today, Monday, is the deadline for Governor Quinn to veto Rahm’s pension theft bill. Otherwise it becomes law whether he signs it or not. And then it will be go before the courts and judges will decide whether it violates the pension protection clause of the Illinois Constitution. The bill, passed by state lawmakers, would raise

by Fred Klonsky / 4min 

FBI raids Indiana charter with ties to Chicago. “How long do you think it took to find a picture of Mr. Eksili with Rahm Emanuel?”

1. Suleyman Turhanogullari, president of the Turkish American Federation of the Midwest. 2. Salim Ucan of Concept Schools 3. F*ck You, Lewis! 4. Bilal Eksili, of the FBI-raided charter in Indianapolis. Also associated with Niagara. Leader of many, many junkets for policymakers. 5. Tamer Copuroglu, president Turkish American Chamber of Commerce. - Tim Furman at RPNPS Voices It’s weird how the fed

15 by Fred Klonsky / 1h  

Klonsky, Dillon, Brown and me: Conversation regarding leadership, communication and membership of the Illinois Education Association | Reclaim Reform

Klonsky, Dillon, Brown and me: Conversation regarding leadership, communication and membership of the Illinois Education Association | Reclaim Reform: Klonsky, Dillon, Brown and me: Conversation regarding leadership, communication and membership of the Illinois Education AssociationPosted on June 8, 2014by Ken PrevitiPart of continuing conversation among retired teachers, activists and bloggers Fr

by mike simpson / 4h 

6-8-14 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: Previti, Dillon, Brown and myself: A conversation regarding the leadership and membership of the Illinois Education Association  Part of continuing conversation between retired teachers, activists and bloggers Ken Previti, John Dillon, Glen Brown and myself. This conversation is cross posted on each o

by mike simpson / 8h 

Why Would WashPost Wait Three Months to Release a Gates Interview? | deutsch29

Why Would WashPost Wait Three Months to Release a Gates Interview? | deutsch29:

Why Would WashPost Wait Three Months to Release a Gates Interview?

June 9, 2014

On Saturday, June 7, 2014, Lyndsey Layton of the Washington Post published this article based on a 28-minute interview she had with billionaire Common Core State Standards (CCSS) funder, Bill Gates. In the interview, Gates spills quite a bit of “insider information,” not the least of which is that in the summer of 2008, then-Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) President Gene Wilhoit and national-standards-writing-company-gone-nonprofit Student Achievement Partners (SAP) founder and CEO– and CCSS “architect”– David Coleman approached him about bankrolling CCSS.

The Gates purse would fund not only organizations positioned on the inside of the CCSS effort, including CCSSO, SAP, the National Governors Association (NGA), the Hunt Institute, Fordham Institute, and Education Trust, but also scores of auxiliary organizations useful in “implementing” CCSS, including both national teachers unions.

As Layton notes, support for CCSS was intentionally strategized:

With the Gates money, the Hunt Institute coordinated more than a dozen organizations — many of them also Gates grantees — including the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, National Council of La Raza, the Council of Chief State School Officers, National Governors Association, Achieve and the two national teachers unions.

The Hunt Institute held weekly conference calls between the players that were directed by Stefanie Sanford, who was in charge of policy and advocacy at the Gates Foundation. They talked about which states needed shoring up, the best person to respond to questions or criticisms and who needed to travel to which state capital to testify, according to those familiar with the conversations. [Emphasis added.]

In the interview, Gates notes that he decided to financially support CCSS because he “believes in” the standards.  However, in March 2014, Gates is quite clear in an Why Would WashPost Wait Three Months to Release a Gates Interview? | deutsch29:

6-9-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE:

Living in Dialogue: The Problem Isn’t Just Common Core, but the Entire Reform Agenda

Living in Dialogue: The Problem Isn’t Just Common Core, but the Entire Reform Agenda. via Living in Dialogue: The Problem Isn’t Just Common Core, but the Entire Reform Agenda.

5 by plthomasedd / 48min 

Listening to a Teacher from a “No Excuses” Charter School

Listening to a Teacher from a “No Excuses” Charter School. via Listening to a Teacher from a “No Excuses” Charter School.

by plthomasedd / 2min 

Maxine Greene and the “Frozen Sea Inside of Us”

Maxine Greene and the “Frozen Sea Inside of Us”. via Maxine Greene and the “Frozen Sea Inside of Us”.

4 by plthomasedd / 2h hide  //  save

YESTERDAY

Why Would WashPost Wait Three Months to Release a Gates Interview?

On Saturday, June 7, 2014, Lyndsey Layton of the Washington Post published this article based on a 28-minute interview she had with billionaire Common Core State Standards (CCSS) funder, Bill Gates. In the interview, Gates spills quite a bit of “insider information,” not the least of which is that in the summer of 2008, then-Council of Chief State […]

15 by deutsch29 / 7h 

Defenders of the Status Quo

It never fails, at least in my state of New Mexico. Whenever one of us “little people” dares to speak up against the inept, dizzying, and out of control nonsense that continues to come from the “reformers” in our state government and education department, we are accused of “defending the status quo.”  In other words, […]

43 by Kris Nielsen / 7h 

6-8-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE: The well-meaning liberals of the world aren’t going to like the front page of the Washington PostHow Bill Gates bought us the Common Core. Thank you, and it wasn’t even my birthday. As a matter of fact, our right-wing brothers and sisters might not like this either since they believe this is a massive communist conspiracy. I’m also doubting, however, that many teachers know about

by mike simpson / 7h

6-9-13 Curmudgucation

CURMUDGUCATION:

Before We Get Too Excited About Crumbling CCSS

As the Common Core takes hit after hit, it's easy to get excited. We shouldn't. There are dangers to public education waiting in the wings.When the Lion Sleeps, the Jackals FeedAn antelope may fight off a lion, may even convince the lion that it's not worth the trouble. But the fight with the lion may leave the antelope weakened and easy prey for other predators.I've written before about the folks

4 by Peter Greene / 14min 

Never Mind the SAT

Today's Slate includes an intriguing report of the non-traditional application process for Bard College. Rebecca Shuman presents the new elective small-college alternative:Bard College, a highly selective liberal-arts school in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, is about to enter the second year of a revolutionary college-admissions experiment: four wickedly challenging essays, 2,500 words each, revie

by Peter Greene / 14min hide  //  save

Takeaways from Layton's Gates Interview

If you have not yet read Lyndsey Layton's extraordinary piece about How Gates Did It, you must do so. (And when you're done, also take a look at Mercedes Schneider's simple question-- why is the interview being published three months after it actually happened?)The article is a nice piece of work, and I'm not going to rehash it here. But I am going to underline just a few of the pieces that jumped

1 by Peter Greene / 2h 

6-8-13 Curmudgucation

CURMUDGUCATION: CCSS: Schooling for Wretched People in a Miserable WorldThe Council of the Great City Schools (yet another group apparently set up to make money by shilling for the Core) has created a marvelous promotional video for the Core. Done in the style of those high-speed marker-drawing videos that the interwebs love, and narrated by a possible-non-caucasian lady narrator, it does a fabulo

by mike simpson / 9h 

6-9-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

Teacher Evaluation Changes Said To Still Be On Legislative To-Do List

Buried in Ken Lovett's Daily News piece about the UFT threatening IDC head Jeff Klein if he doesn't stop governing with Republicans was this bit of news: As the legislative session enters its final two weeks and with the Senate politics now dominating at the Capitol, few believe much will get accomplished before lawmakers leave town for the year. But some issues are still percolating and could be

by reality-based edu... / 18min 

UFT Threatens To Pull Support For State Senator Jeff Klein

From Ken Lovett at the Daily News:ALBANY — Two influential labor unions are threatening to yank their long-time support of Senate co-Leader Jeffrey Klein if he and his group of breakaway Democrats don’t begin conversations to realign themselves with the chamber’s mainline Dems.The unions representing the city’s teachers and the hotel and motel workers threw down that gauntlet late last week to Kle

by reality-based edu... / 5min

Get Ready For Another NYSED Commissioner King Speech

Last time he gave a big speech, he compared the Common Core to the Civil Rights Movement.This time, given the venue for the speech, we'll hear more about how his education reform agenda is indispensable for making New York State into an economic powerhouse in the 21st Century economy:Also at noon, state Education Commissioner John King delivers remarks at a luncheon hosted by the Manhattan Institu

by reality-based edu... / 5min 

UFT President Mulgrew Takes On The Test

 From State of Politics:At 10 a.m., UFT President Michael Mulgrew will be joined by Sen. Adriano Espaillat, Assemblymen Karim Camara, Ron Kim, and other legislators to announce the introduction a bill that would mandate the use of multiple academic measures rather than the current single multiple-choice test, Stuyvesant High School, 345 Chambers St., Manhattan.There are no other details about the

2 by reality-based edu... / 2h 

6-8-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School: Bill Gates Exposed For All To See As An Arrogant, Whiny ElitistOkay, it's official:We're onto a new phase of the fight against the CCSS. News media outlets are no longer buying and using pro-Common Core boilerplate rhetoric in stories on the Common Core, they're no longer framing the CCSS the way CCSS proponents want the standards framed, and they're no longer buying into th

by mike simpson / 9h 

Feminist high school boys declare: “I am a feminist” « Feminist Teacher

Feminist high school boys declare: “I am a feminist” « Feminist Teacher:



Feminist high school boys declare: “I am a feminist”

Thinks boys can’t be feminists? The seven boys who have taken my high school feminism class in the last two years disagree. They even got together to make a video to share the ways in which feminism has made an impact on their lives as young men.

“My reason for taking the feminism course is that especially in high school, there’s not opportunities like this that come around, ever,” says Bruke Abraha, a high school senior who took my feminism class when he was a junior in the fall of 2012.

“At one point, we wrote an intersectionality essay, and that taught me that nothing is really one-dimensional. Like you can’t just be black. You can be black and gay; or like black, gay, disabled. There are many different things that don’t relate to the master narrative,” Nathaniel Magloire, senior, who also took my course in 2012 and later Feminist high school boys declare: “I am a feminist” « Feminist Teacher:

Louisiana Educator: The New Bill Gates Public Education System

Louisiana Educator: The New Bill Gates Public Education System:

The New Bill Gates Public Education System

This blockbuster article in the Washington Post gives the true history of the Common Core Standards. It shows how the entire public education system has been bought out, bullied, and snookered into a huge ill advised change in policy by one super wealthy, arrogant school dropout! If you really want to know the true story about Common Core, you must read every word of this story!

Here is what Diane Ravitch says about this story:

"I have written on various occasions (see here and here) that I could not support the Common Core standards because they were developed and imposed without regard to democratic process. The writers of the standards included no early childhood educators, no educators of children with disabilities, no experienced classroom teachers; indeed, the largest contingent of the drafting committee were representatives of the testing industry. No attempt was made to have pilot testing of the standards in real classrooms with real teachers and students.. The standards do not permit any means to challenge, correct, or revise them.

In a democratic society, process matters. The high-handed manner in which these standards were written and imposed in Louisiana Educator: The New Bill Gates Public Education System:

Philly Rally for Full Funding, Local Control and a Nurse in Every School | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity

Philly Rally for Full Funding, Local Control and a Nurse in Every School | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity:

Philly Rally for Full Funding, Local Control and a Nurse in Every School

Posted on: Monday June 9th, 2014

Govs. Corbett and Christie Are Coming to Philadelphia.
Join Us for a Rally to Demand Full Funding, Local Control!
At the Union League at 4pm on Monday, June 9th

Students, parents and teachers in Philadelphia will protest Pennsylania Gov. Tom Corbett and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at their joint event at the Union League, 140 South Broad Street, on Monday, June 9th. Join us and take a stand for full funding and community control for public schools!

The two governors have overseen drastic cuts to public education in their states. Philadelphia and Newark have been hit particurlary hard. Education “reform” in both cities has meant mass school closures, loss of community control and steep funding cuts that have put students in unsafe conditions and denied them a quality education. The burden of these reforms rests disproportionately on the shoulders of students and communities of color.

On the heels of the closure of 23 public schools in Philadelphia, two young Philly students tragically died this year while in school. While we can't know if having a nurse on the scene would have saved their lives, it's unconscionable that our public schools aren't given the resources to afford full-time nurses. Meanwhile, the “One Newark” district restructuring plan trumpeted by Gov. Christie also closes public schools (or hands them over to private charter operators) and excludes the public from shaping Newark’s education decisions.

At the event, protesters will demand:

1. Full, fair school funding to ensure that all students have equitable access to resources at excellent schools in their neighborhoods;
2. Local control of the schools, including parent and student involvement in decision-making and accountability to the local community; and
3. Fully staffed schools including appropriate numbers of full-time, on-site nurses and counselors in each school.

We hope you can join us on Monday! Click here for more details.
You can also show your support online by signing this petition to Gov. Corbett or Gov. Christie.

Share this event with your friends and colleagues on Facebook and Twitter!

 Philly Rally for Full Funding, Local Control and a Nurse in Every School | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity:

We Can Identify Likely Dropouts and Ensure They Stay in School to Graduate | janresseger

We Can Identify Likely Dropouts and Ensure They Stay in School to Graduate | janresseger:

We Can Identify Likely Dropouts and Ensure They Stay in School to Graduate

Posted on June 9, 2014 by janresseger

Robert Balfanz, who directs the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University,reported in Saturday’s NY Times that “half of the African-American boys who veer off the path to high school graduation do so in just 660 of more than 12,600 regular and vocational high schools” across the United States.  “These 660 schools are typically big high schools that teach only poor kids of color.  They are concentrated in 15 states.  Many are in major cities, but others are in smaller, decaying industrial cities or in the South, especially in Georgia, Florida and North Carolina.”

“This seemingly intractable problem is a national tragedy,” writes Balfanz, “but there is a solution.”  The research of Balfanz and his colleagues over the years has identified and documented the problem, and in Stop Holding Us Back he recommends steps society can take to improve significantly the high school graduation rate of African American and Hispanic young men growing up in deep poverty.

Balfanz explains that in each of the schools serving the most vulnerable young men, there are between 50 and 100 youths who demonstrate a need for much greater support.  African American and Latino young men are at highest risk between the ages of 11 to 21, at a time when all the institutions that  could help them weaken services: “At the very moment they are the most developmentally vulnerable, the response from schools, foster care, the health system and child protective services gets weaker, while the response from the justice system is harsher.”

The most vulnerable young men miss weeks or months of school. Many are suspended repeatedly.  By ninth grade almost all are above age for their grade, many need special education, many have work or family responsibilities, and many are chronically absent.  They are likely to fail their classes, repeat ninth grade, and subsequently drop out.  “This is a highly predictable, almost mechanical course, which is why we call those schools dropout factories.”  “These young men are waving their hands early and often to say they need help, but our We Can Identify Likely Dropouts and Ensure They Stay in School to Graduate | janresseger:

5 things you should know about L.A. schools' budget debate | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC

5 things you should know about L.A. schools' budget debate | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC:

5 things you should know about L.A. schools' budget debate

Annie Gilbertson | June 9th, 2014, 5:00am

Ken Teegardin/flickr Creative Commons

Los Angeles Unified school board will debate Tuesday how to spend next year's $6.8 billion dollar budget. It includes an estimated $332 million bump from Sacramento, a portion of which is meant to help disadvantaged kids.

Superintendent John Deasy put out a proposed budget last month. Already, some parents have complained that money for English Learner students isn't enough. And one coalition of neighborhood groups wants officials to funnel more of that extra money to high needs schools.

They don't have much time to argue about it. California has asked school districts to produce spending plans by July 1.

If you have a child in L.A. Unified, here are five things you should know about the debate around Deasy's budget proposal:

1. Mystery spending – Deasy's budget doesn't itemize about 40 percent of funds coming from Sacramento. It lists $2.9 billion for "other base programs." Staff said some of that goes to teacher salaries, but Deasy has not yet said what else. The district also gets separate funds from the U.S. Department of Education, but Deasy has not outlined a spending plan for those funds either - he hasn't even disclosed how much they add up to be.
2. iPad program – Deasy earmarked $16.4 million for new technology staff. Board member Monica Ratliff pointed out the staffing uptick is based on full rollout of the iPad program - but the board has yet to approve that (only about 15 percent students and teachers currently have iPads). She recommends redistributing all the funds, using $6.5 million of it to hire more custodians and putting most of the rest in a "rainy day" fund.
3. High needs schools – A coalition of community groups said they've figured out the 242 schools in the district that have the highest needs and should get more money. Board members Monica García, Richard Vladovic and Steve Zimmer have filed a motion asking the superintendent to "construct and adopt an equity-based student need index," but the resolution may prove to be toothless.  It asks that the schools be identified, not expressly funded.
4. English learner services – California's new Local Control Funding law targets more funds to needy students, those in foster care, in poverty5 things you should know about L.A. schools' budget debate | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC:

Are little boys hardwired to be less successful in preschool?

Aiden and Milo play in a tree at the Child Educational Center.; Credit: Mae Ryan/KPCC In recent years, magazine articles and mommy-blogs have decried that increasingly academic preschool classrooms cater to little girls, arguing their faster development makes them better suited to those new rigors. But one brain scientist said that's a myth. “No matter what measure of brain structure or function

by Deepa Fernandes / 59min 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES:

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Is Rahm toast?

Maggie Haberman

In Chicago, [Rahm Emanuel]is the ham-fisted gentrifer who’s been tripped up by the city’s entrenched racial politics. -- Politico

Eric Levitz at Salon

But a political system designed for gridlock, the grossly disproportionate influence of the rich, and Americans’ ideological aversion to class politics conspire to make it politically inadvisable for a Democratic president to even speak the words “income inequality” before a national audience. Absent the political will to explore redistributive structural reforms, we’re left with “ladders of opportunity,” and a vision of economic salvation through higher test scores. -- Capitalism vs. education: Why our free-market obsession is wrecking the future 

15th Ward Ald. candidate Raphael Yañez

“What I see is that a lot of the [school] closings are being made in communities that have been in bondage,” said the aldermanic hopeful Yañez, who believes that “our focus should be driven by supporting our teachers and giving themMike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES: