LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 6-24-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Stunning Upset in Colorado: Educator Beats DFER Candidate

Valentina (Val) Flores, a career educator, won a surprising and decisive victory for a seat on the state board of education in Colorado. Flores won by a margin of 59-41, beating a candidate who was supported by the hedge funders’ Democrats for Education Reform, Stand for Children, and Education Reform Now. Her opponent had two years experience in Teach for America. Flores has more than 40 years

97 by dianeravitch / 1h 

Breaking News: Oklahoma Superintendent Loses Republican Primary

Janet Barresi, state superintendent in Oklahoma, was defeated in the Republican primary by Joy Hofmeister, a former teacher and state school board member. Barresi was a member of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change (which dropped from seven to six with Barresi’s defeat). . She supported Jeb’s A-F grading system for schools, which Hofmeister opposed. Like Jeb, Barresi supported Common Core until Oklahoma

100+ by dianeravitch / 1h 

Former Obama Spokesmen Join Attack on Teacher Tenure and Seniority

Stephanie Simon reports at politico.com that former high-level Obama advisors will help the fight against teacher unions and due process rights. Campbell Brown, a former CNN anchor who is highly antagonistic to teachers’ unions, is creating an organization to pursue a Vergara-style lawsuit in New York against teachers’ job protections. Her campaign will have the public relations support of an agen

5 by dianeravitch / 29min 

The Onion on the New Charter Lottery System

The Onion has created a new system for selecting charter students that is even faster and more effective than a lottery. So much for those old-fashioned public schools that let anyone at all enroll.

2 by dianeravitch / 1h 

NYC Educator: Why We Don’t Need Common Core

New York State is a hotbed of parent opposition to Common Core standards, but no one in charge in the state or in the city of New York seems aware of it. Governor Cuomo loves the Common Core, as does State Commissioner John King, most of the state Board of Regents, and the di Blasio administration. The conventional wisdom is that “the implementation was flawed,” but it may be more than implementat

11 by dianeravitch / 3h 

Belleville, N.J.: Why Teachers Need Tenure

Belleville, New Jersey, is the scene of a major battle between a heavy-handed supervisor and the district’s teachers. Although the district has a financial deficit, and many classes lack up-to-date technology and textbooks, the administration spent $2 million to install a state-of-the-art surveillance system for students and teachers. Jersey Jazzman writes: “Perhaps the worst decision the distric

60 by dianeravitch / 5h 

Louisiana: Untangling the State from CCSS and PARCC–or Not?

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal announced that he was withdrawing the state from Common Core and the PARCC test for Common Core. State Commissioner John White said that the governor was wrong and that the state is proceeding with both Common Core and PARCC. Governor Jindal cut the funding for PARCC. Mercedes Schneider tries to untangle the elaborate political standoff.

4 by dianeravitch / 6h hide  //  save

Detroit Free Press: Weak Charter Law Enables Scams, Nepotism

In a continuing series of articles about charter schools in Michigan the Detroit Free Press reports that the state’s weak charter legislation enables unscrupulous charter organizations to engage in self-dealing and conflicts of interest.   The article yesterday said that Michigan’s nearly 300 charter schools collect about $1 billion and have almost no accountability. The Michigan charters do no ou

39 by dianeravitch / 7h 

CCSS Writer Blasts CC Basic Reading Standards

Dr. Louisa Moats was part of the team that wrote the foundational reading standards for the Common Core. In “Psychology Today,” she strongly criticized the standards. Among other things, she said: “I never imagined when we were drafting standards in 2010 that major financial support would be funneled immediately into the development of standards-related tests. How naïve I was. The CCSS represent

95 by dianeravitch / 8h 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 6-23-14 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: BATS Vote “No Confidence” in Arne DuncanOn the eve of the national conventions of the two major teachers’ unions, the BATS–a voluntary association of 48,000 teachers–voted “no confidence” in Arne Duncan and called for his replacement. This is their statement: “Badass Teachers Association Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 22

by mike simpson / 8h 

Geaux Teacher!: Pulling Back the Curtain of the Louisiana Charter School Experiment

Geaux Teacher!: Pulling Back the Curtain of the Louisiana Charter School Experiment:

Pulling Back the Curtain of the Louisiana Charter School Experiment

This post is reblogged from The New Orleans Independent Media..  It is a must read.  The writer is anonymous (includes his/her email for contact) but because of the citations supporting the piece, I have chosen to publish it here.  My information, research and experience back up these claims.

New Orleans Independent Media Center

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Original article is at http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2009/07/14120.php Print comments.

BEHIND THE CURTAIN OF THE LOUISIANA CHARTER SCHOOL EXPERIMENT
by nolamommy Tuesday, Jul. 21, 2009 at 12:35 AM
concernedlouisiananative@gmail.com

Who's profiting from NOLA charter schools?

The Recovery School District has announced intentions to convert four “still failing” New Orleans public schools to “transition” charter schools: Drew, Wicker, Gregory, and Carver Elementaries. These traditional NOPS schools will be phased out by not accepting new students, while a new charter school will open in the same building, starting with lower grades and adding grades each year. (1) This creates two classes of students, teachers, staff, and types of governance on each campus. Additionally, multiple non-charter NOPS/RSD public school communities are saying that they have been recently told by RSD that they are now closing, consolidating, or relocating again. The Thurgood Marshall community, a prominent traditional Orleans Parish public school now operated by RSD, has just been told that Marshall is being closed entirely to turn the historic building over to a charter that has some of the lowest scores in the district. (2) Returning students, teachers, and staff have been told they may re-apply to the new schools but no one is given any assurance that they will be accepted and therefore have a place for this fall. None of these changes were discussed with the public in the multi-million dollar School Facilities Master Plan that was forced through by State Department of Education Superintendent Paul Pastorek and rush-approved by the outgoing Orleans Parish School Board in December 2008, only 5 months ago. (3)

There is no such thing as an all-charter district anywhere else in the country. This experiment has gone too far. There is not adequate oversight or quality controls in place. Many New Orleans communities do not know what is going on in charter and RSD schools in our own areas. RSD has been systematically keeping its non-charter schools unstable by continuous personnel and campus changes, “dumping” students, shorting supplies, unethical management and cronyism, fiscal mismanagement, and heavy-handed discipline that expects every New Orleans child to quickly become a college-bound factory model student. Families are left to fend for ourselves with no more neighborhood schools, and an ‘if you don’t like it you can leave’ attitude from the charter boards, far from the accountability the charters are supposed to deliver. Teaching conditions are very difficult with amateur charter boards, no oversight, and no job security whatsoever. It is known in the community that both RSD and charter schools will fire you if you so much as attend a meeting that questions them, or challenge the managers in any way. In the way it has been 

6-24-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

How Many Teachers Voted For Obama In 2012?

I didn't - not after Race to the Top and Arne Duncan and the Rhode Island teacher firings that Obama applauded.But I bet lots of teachers out there still voted for Obama because they were scared that Mitt Romney might get elected.Well, here's what Obama and his people are doing now, teachers:Teachers unions are girding for a tough fight to defend tenure laws against a coming blitz of lawsuits — an

by reality-based edu... / 2h 

How Many Christie Scandals?

Lots - as noted by a commenter at the NY Times:So we can tack this investigation onto the original GWB lane closures, the Hoboken extortion accusations from Mayor Zimmer, the mis-use of Hurricane Sandy funds to for unrelated projects, and the numerous conflicts of interest by David Samson in his Port Authority role. Have I missed any? Mr. Fishman is going to have a full-time job just investigating

by reality-based edu... / 1h 

Just Make Every Student A Former ESL Student And You'll Magically Raise Your Test Scores!

In case you missed this story in the NY Post:Students at the troubled William Cullen Bryant High School in Queens were falsely labeled as not fluent in English — to grant them extra time to finish last week’s Regents exams, The Post has learned.More than 100 teens in one teacher’s English classes were recently marked “FELL,” for “former English language learner.” The label grants students exam “ac

by reality-based edu... / 51min 

Chelsea Clinton Is As Full Of Shit As Her Parents

From The Daily News:Hillary Clinton insists she isn’t “well-off” and now daughter Chelsea, according to a recent interview, claims she couldn't care less about money.“I was curious if I could care about (money) on some fundamental level, and I couldn’t,” she told Fast Company in an interview that ran in the magazine's May edition, explaining why she gave up lucrative gigs to join her family’s phil

by reality-based edu... / 2h hide  //  save

WSJ: Campbell Brown Is Aiding Parent Group For Tenure/Seniority Lawsuit

Not a surprise:A new advocacy group is helping parents prepare a challenge to New York's teacher tenure and seniority laws, contending that they violate children's constitutional right to a sound basic education by keeping ineffective teachers in classrooms.Campbell Brown, a former CNN anchor who has been a critic of job protections for teachers, launched the group, Partnership for Educational Jus

by reality-based edu... / 5h 

Chris Christie Has Second Bridge Scandal On His Hands

From the NY Times:Investigations into the Christie administration and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have zeroed in on possible securities law violations stemming from a $1.8 billion road repair agreement in 2011, according to people briefed on the matter.While the inquiries were prompted by the apparently politically motivated lane closings at the George Washington Bridge last year

by reality-based edu... / 7h 

End Of The Year Meetings

We're having lots of end of the year meetings that make me want to stick a pencil through my eye and have to be taken to the hospital.I guess sitting at these meetings making it look like I actually give a shit about the nonsense they're talking about is good practice for the weekly PD crap that's coming at us via the new UFT contract.How about you - are you having a decent end of the year week or

by reality-based edu... / 10h 

6-23-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School: NYCDOE Should Expand Composting Program To Include Common Core/EngageNY ModulesFrom the Times:New York City’s school composting program, kicked off just two years ago by parents on the Upper West Side, is now in 230 school buildings in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island, and is expected to more than double in size and reach all five boroughs in the fall, with an ultimate

by mike simpson / 8h 

Superintendent: Pa. not providing Philly kids a 'thorough and efficient' education | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Superintendent: Pa. not providing Philly kids a 'thorough and efficient' education | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Superintendent: Pa. not providing Philly kids a 'thorough and efficient' education

By Kevin McCorry for NewsWorks on Jun 24, 2014 09:39 AM

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Photo: WHYY

Has Pennsylvania been coming through on its constitutional requirement to provide all children with a "thorough and efficient" education? In a recent interview at WHYY studios, Philadelphia School District Superintendent William Hite said, flatly, "No."

"Unfortunately we're left with a situation where we're trying to only spend what we have," said Hite, "and that provides resources that are inadequate and insufficient in order to educate children."

The right to high-quality education

In the extended interview above, Hite, having now finished his second school year at the District's helm, expounds on a variety of issues facing Philadelphia schools. 

"Regardless of where children live in this city, they have a right to a high-quality education," he said, "and poverty shouldn't influence that. Whether they are learning English shouldn't influence that. If they have an IEP should not influence that."

The District needs $66 million just to provide students next year with this year's admittedly "insufficient" resource levels. On top of this, Hite says he needs $224 million to begin implementing his vision for districtwide growth.

Hite argues that taxpayers should trust his leadership team's ability to use those funds to bolster student achievement.

"We know what works. We know it from evidence," he said. "We've done the research on these things that have worked on populations that we serve. And we're just saying, 'Let's do what works.'"

Read the rest of this story at NewsWorks

Notes from the news, June 24

​Superintendent Hite: Pa. not providing Philly kids a 'thorough and efficient' education. NewsWorks Teachers write about their love of the profession. Notebook Washington High students hit with more charges after brawl. Daily News As Phila. goes, so goes the state. Inquirer Mastery Charter's offer of 90 percent college tuition scholarship was 100 percent wrong. Inquirer Huey Elementary School gets

by thenotebook / 3h hide  //  save

Teachers write about their love of the profession

Several teachers from a handful of District and charter schools were asked what they love about teaching and what they would change if given the chance to improve conditions for students. About a dozen educators from Teachers Lead Philly, a professional network devoted to teacher leadership, recently came together to write down responses describing their love of teaching in Philadelphia and their

43 by thenotebook / 3h 

The What & Why of Backchanneling | My Island View

The What & Why of Backchanneling | My Island View:

The What & Why of Backchanneling

June 24, 2014 by Tom Whitby @tomwhitby

A few years back I spoke at a conference and experienced first hand what a backchannel was. Twitter is probably the best tool to do it. I did write a post on that experience back in November of 2009 and later reposted on my blog,Twitter’s Effect on Presentations and Presenters.

Backchanneling happens when someone on Twitter uses a hashtag to tweet out to followers what is happening at a conference, or more importantly, what is being said by a speaker at a conference session. THE BACKCHANNEL by Cliff Atkinson is a great book source for understanding the process.

ISTE 2014 will take place at the end of this week. The numbers of attendees will probably approach 20,000. Although that sounds like a huge number of people, it only represents a very tiny number of educators nationwide who get to attend such national education conferences. The attendance of connected educators however, has had a great effect on the transparency and sharing of these gigantic education events through social media, specifically, Twitter.

The Twitter Hashtag has played a huge role in sharing out the conference experience. Since most educators will not be attending the ISTE 2014 conference, many who are connected will rely on their connected colleagues, who will attend, to tweet out the happenings of the event. Those tweets will go from the broad events to individual sessions as well. Although ISTE 2014 is one of the most connected of education conferences, backchanneling is becoming evident at even the smaller local education gatherings. It is a key in sharing at local Edcamps

Conferences have taken notice of this new layer of experience and assign hashtags for the conference, as well as some specific sessions. Experienced connected educators in sessions will make up and share a hashtag on the spot at the beginning of the session. To broadly follow the ISTE conference this year, you need only to create a Twitter column on Tweetdeck or Hootsuite to follow The What & Why of Backchanneling | My Island View:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Duncan's disaster, Mississippi churns

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Duncan's disaster, Mississippi churns:

Duncan's disaster, Mississippi churns

The Race To The Top is stalling out over testing and evaluation. Common Core roll-out has been an abysmal failure. High stakes testing data is invalid, unreliable and running too late to be used in mandated evaluations. Several states, including RTTT winners, are threatening to pull back or put test-base evaluations on hold. Sec. Duncan either has to respond by pulling the plug on federal funding as he's threatened or get off the pot.

Time to go, Arne. Surely you can move over to Gates, Walton, or Broad foundations or spend more time with the family.

Lyndsey Layton's recent front-page article in the Washington Post tells us “How Bill Gates Pulled Off the Common Core Revolution” implying that Gates can and did  buy the policy result he wanted—with democracy potentially at risk. But now, even Gates who has more that $200 million invested in CCSS is urging a moratorium on using student test scores to evaluate teachers, students and schools.

Not surprisingly, Gates finds a cloying defender at Forbes. Howard Husock gives us a bit of untended irony when he writes:

"The idea that money alone can buy impact is no more true  in public policy than  it is in elections." 

Hello Howard. Anybody home?

MISSISSIPPI CHURNING...The race to the bottom continues in Mississippi today where T-baggers backing Chris McDaniel have their best chance to knock off a sitting senator, Thad Cochran in the state's GOP primary runoff. Some Dems are actually hoping racist McDaniel wins, possibly opening a Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Duncan's disaster, Mississippi churns:

Save Cheatham Schools Rally

Save Cheatham Schools  Rally

An American Tragedy: The Humiliation and Displacement of Veteran Teachers by Ruthless School Administrators - Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:



An American Tragedy: The Humiliation and Displacement of Veteran Teachers by Ruthless School Administrators
By:  Dr. Mark Naison 

Every day, i get an email or Facebook message from a teacher somewhere in the United States who has been driven our of their job by a school administrator after more than 20 years of loyal service to the profession, often with great distinction. These teachers have worked in all kinds of schools; have taught a wide variety of subjects, have sometimes been coaches, librarians and school counselors. The one thing they seem to have in common is that they loved their jobs, had developed their own effective methods of teaching, and were at the high end of the salary scale.


The number of people we are talking about here is very large- probably tens of thousands of teachers pushed out, maybe more than that. Each one of these forced departures is an individual tragedy- a life deprived of meaning and purpose, often in the context of a very public personal humiliation in front of the entire school community, sometimes plunging the individual into depression and their families into hardship


 But it is also a collective tragedy. At a time when the average teaching career is less than five years, when young people pour in and out of the profession at a staggering rate, the forcing out of skilled and veteran teachers deprives schools of mentoring, of continuity, and also of resistance to methods of administration and pedagogy which are poorly thought through fads rather than carefully researched strategies.


And perhaps the latter reason, along with purely budgetary concerns, is why these teachers have been targeted. In the last ten years, our public schools have been deluged with initiatives which have transformed the way teaching is conducted and teachers are evaluated- ranging from VAM ( rating of teachers on the basis of test driven measures of student achievement), to the Common Core Badass Teachers Association:

Bad Principals. What More Does it Take? southbronxschool

http://www.southbronxschool.com:

Bad Principals. What More Does it Take?

What does it take for a principal to be disciplined like a teacher? Real discipline, like the Rubber Room,

facing 3020-a charges, humiliation, etc...?

Principals have been in the news quite a bit the last month and we here at SBSB have perused and aggregated the latest news stories of principals and ask the question, "What does it take?"

We thought this to be quite interesting question as we read in the New York Post just moment ago how Principal of William Cullen Bryant High School, Namita Dwarka (check out this blog devoted to her!), in Queens allegedly falsely labeled as not proficient in English so they will get extra time on their exams and ostensibly make Ms Dwarka look better. This is the same Namita Dwarka who had issues back in October (here and here). Heck, on the WCB High website,Dwarka is quoted as saying;

"As we embark on our 'Relentless Quest for Excellence,' it is my vision that we work collaboratively in a warm, safe teaching and learning environment"

Meanwhile in the Bronx, a student is dead, another in jail, two families are devastated, all because Principal of IS 177, Delise Jones, was empowered, disempowered, or just didn't care to give the boy being bullied and the suspect in the murder case a safety transfer. According to the Post, Jones told the father the day before the murder;

"the school year was almost over and it was too late to do anything."

This coming from a woman that a state audit said;

"...should be re‐-evaluated . . . If necessary, changes should be made, or a mentor http://www.southbronxschool.com:

The United Way Now Promotes the Common Core | deutsch29

The United Way Now Promotes the Common Core | deutsch29:

The United Way Now Promotes the Common Core

June 23, 2014

United Way Worldwide offers the following as its mission statement:

United Way envisions a world where all individuals and families achieve their human potential through education, income stability and healthy lives.

Our mission: To improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities around the world to advance the common good.

The goal of the United Way is to “advance the common good.”

As of June 2014, it is an organization that is “advancing” a new “common”:

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

Yep. That’s right.

And one guess who forked over $1.2 million to make that happen.

Bill Gates.

Straight from the Gates Grants search engine:

Date: June 2014
Purpose: to build support for the Common Core State Standards by engaging stakeholders and community leaders nationally and locally
Amount: $1,212,571

In a March 2014 interview,  Lyndsey Layton of the Washington Post questioned Gates’ motives in financing CCSS. After some tense interaction, here is his response:

I’m saying, and I’ve, I hope I can make this clear, I believe in the Common Core because of its substance and what it will do to improve education, and that’s the only reason I believe in the Common Core. And I have no, you know, this is giving money away. This is philanthropy. This is trying to make sure students have the kind of opportunity I had. [Emphasis added.]

Gates had an education that defies the agenda he promotes for public education.

Both he and his children attendedThe United Way Now Promotes the Common Core | deutsch29:

The Good Old Days: Vintage Education Videos

The Good Old Days: Vintage Education Videos

NYC Educator: Statement of Purpose

NYC Educator: Statement of Purpose:

Statement of Purpose

There's something about the picture on the left that really touches me. When you think of all the kids who've driven you crazy over the years, especially the ones who were really good at it, it's hard to understand why. I always say it's their job.



For me, it's easy to forgive kids. The one who caused me the most trouble this year ended up with a 90 average. This kid was particularly perplexing because the behavior simply did not match the very high test average I kept seeing.



You have to remember, I guess, that as a high school teacher you see the kids for a short time, but whatever troubles them follows them home, and everywhere else. You hope that in some small way you've touched them, or relieved whatever troubles them. You can't always know. Unless of course, you're running your room like this:

Personally, I find that painful to watch. I suppose this is the logical conclusion of David Coleman's contention that no one gives a damn how you feel or what you have to say. I guess it's a lot cleaner to have routines like these and rapid-fire drills than it is to run a classroom like I do. I'm NYC Educator: Statement of Purpose: