The Answer Sheet 7-8-14

Answer Sheet:

Why so many kids can’t sit still in school today

The Centers for Disease Control tells us that in recent years there has been a jump in the percentage of young people diagnosed with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, commonly known as ADHD: 7.8 percent in 2003 to 9.5 percent in 2007 and to 11 percent in 2011. The reasons for the rise are multiple, […]

by Valerie Strauss / 13min hide  //  save

Largest U.S. teachers union calls for Education Secretary Duncan to resign

Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s relations with teachers unions just got more difficult. Delegates of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, voted at their annual convention to call on Duncan to resign after similar efforts had failed in previous years. And the NEA is about to get a new president, Lily Eskelsen García, […]

38 by Valerie Strauss / 4h 

The Answer Sheet 7-7-14

Answer Sheet: How college remediation rates are distorted — and whyAre a large percentage of high school graduates so unprepared for college when they get there that they have to take remedial courses to catch up? School reformers like to say so, and throw out big percentages of students who are said to need remediation. But where do these figures come from, and are they […]83 by Valerie Strauss /

by mike simpson / 8h 

7-8-14 Schools Matter All Week

Schools Matter:

The Gild Is Already Off the Lily, But She is Golden for Gates

No sooner was the NEA president's office cleared of the sickly sweet stench of corrupt corporate lackey, Dennis Van Roekel, than a new CorpEd chief enabler was enthroned as head of the nation's largest dress-up-and-go-to-lunch teachers' professional organization.Enter Stage Right, Lily Eskelson Garcia, with her guitar and plenty of cute protest songs to titillate teachers who prefer to dance to th

by Jim Horn / 1min 

Doug Martin's Letter to the Indiana State Board of Education, July 8, 2014

Dear State Board of Education: As you seek to dismantle public education and democracy, I want to remind you of my book, HoosierSchool Heist, which is becoming quite popular.  Although it's hard to determine (since I don't have billionaires behind me to pay for someone to track the data), my educated guess is at least 250,000 people know about this book.  The FBI even reads Hoosier School Heist.

by Doug Martin / 10min 

Duncan's Latest Party Balloon Just Got Popped in Tennessee

When NAEP reported in May that Tennessee high school seniors finish next to last in NAEP proficieny in the latest testing derby (just behind West Virginia), it took some of the glory from the earlier report on NAEP scores for grades 4 & 8 that Kevin Huffman and his band of TFA lawyers plastered on every available wall space at the TN State Department of Education--even the elevators. But Huffm

2 by Jim Horn / 1h hide  //  save

The Meaningless Moratorium Has Ended Before Anyone Knew It Began

The union misleadership stooges of the NYSUT have signed on to a Gates-approved moratorium that just ended.  Under a plan that Cuomo will sign into law, teachers, as the headline goes, get a "break" from teacher evaluations based on test scores.  Or, rather, they got a break in 2012-2013 and 2013-2014. The moratorium is over before anyone could celebrate the big victory that Weingarten,

2 by Jim Horn / 2h 

Email the Indiana State Board of Ed: Another Power Grab in the Works

by Doug MartinOnce again, former conservative radio show host/free-market Christian/current Indiana Governor Mike Pence and his corporate theocrats on the State Board of Education (made up of Koch Brothers-connected Indiana Policy Review Foundation fake scholars, former Christel DeHaan operatives, and hedge fund Democrats, among others) are seeking to strip supt. of public schools Glenda Ritz of m

8 by Doug Martin / 3h 

7-7-14 Schools Matter All Week

Schools Matter: Kindergarten Achievement Tests Before KindergartenRiverdale and Horace Mann are now using a new test to make sure that only kids who can afford IPads and tutoring get in. Could you pass the test? Which flag completes the pattern?2 by Jim Horn / 1h 7-6-14 Schools Matter All WeekSchools Matter: Ravitch Waves Goodbye to Common Core "Testing" and Throws Kisses to Dennis and R

by mike simpson / 8h 

7-8-14 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.:

NY Magazine. Teachers unions turn against Democrats.

Newly elected NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia “talking a more Ravitch-esque public line.” New York Magazine: The results of the NEA convention reflected Ravitch’s militance. Not only did the union officially call for Duncan’s resignation — a measure that was introduced, but failed to pass, in each of the last four years — its new president Lily Eskelsen García, is taking a more Ravitch-esque p

by Fred Klonsky / 1min 

Bob Scharba’s cartoons.

The Evil Leprechaun. Re-fixed. Fred: I’ve featured your suggested “stars” of Illinois pension theft in the cartoon I mentioned to you the other day to you. I wasn’t even aware of what some of these people looked like till I researched this……what a gruesome bunch. Biss is sort of like a cross between Frankenstein’s monster and Lurch. I am loathe to say it to an art teacher, but I’m a much better

by Fred Klonsky / 2h hide  //  save

John Dillon. Justice Burke’s pension dissent.

- John Dillon is a retired teacher, a pension activist and pension blogger. In the recent Kanerva v. Weems decision, at issue was the appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court by members of three State Employees Retirement Systems that health benefits were protected by the Contracts Clause of the Illinois Constitution as well as safeguarded by the Pension Protection Clause. Other arguments by the Reti

by Fred Klonsky / 3h

7-7-14 Fred All Week 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.: Diane Ravitch’s blog. A Mass teacher’s hopes for Lily.Newly elected NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia and this blogger. - Diane Ravitch. This just in from a member of NEA from Massachusetts who is at the Denver convention. She hopes that Lily Eskelsen, the new president, will be a champion and fighte

by mike simpson / 16h 

7-8-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL, & EF

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:

“Ideas for strengthening English skills over the summer”

Ideas for strengthening English skills over the summer is my latest post over at The British Council. It’s a slightly revised version of a previous post here, and I share what I’m doing with my students over the summer through easy-to-set-up “virtual classrooms.”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 17min 

Videos Of The Week

In yet another effort to get at my backlog of resources to share, I recently began this feature to share useful videos. I’ll still periodically highlight certain ones on their own, but the rest will be found on this regular post: I’m adding this first video to The Best Video Clips Demonstrating “Grit” — as Digg describes it, “Watch A 2-Year-Old Amputee Learn To Walk Before Your Eyes”: I’m adding

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12min 

Useful Article: “How to Read Education Data Without Jumping to Conclusions”

How to Read Education Data Without Jumping to Conclusions is a good article in The Atlantic by Jessica Lahey & Tim Lahey. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Understanding How To Interpret Education Research. Here’s an excerpt:

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2min hide  //  save

All My Ed Week Posts On Implementing The Common Core — In One Place!

My latest Ed Week Teacher piece brings together all my posts from the past three years on implementing the Common Core. I’m adding it to The Most Useful Resources For Implementing Common Core. Here’s an excerpt:

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h 

7-7-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL, & EF

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: Our National Union Has A New President!Lily Eskelsen García was just elected President of the National Education Association. You can read more about her at: Eskelsen García: We Are Fearless and We Will Not Be Silent at NEA Today. Doug Robinson: Former lunch lady Lily Garcia goes to Washington to run for the NEA from Desere

by mike simpson / 8h 

Common Core: An Oligarchy of Tyranny of the Elite? | Missouri Education Watchdog

Common Core: An Oligarchy of Tyranny of the Elite? | Missouri Education Watchdog:

Common Core: An Oligarchy of Tyranny of the Elite?

inShare

Has our educational system moved from a rule of law (republic) to the rule of a few (oligarchy) via the Common Core States Standards Initiative?  Is the Common Core State Standards Initiative the vehicle for the rule of a few over the many?

If you examine the political structure and history of the initiative, the answer is a resounding yes.  State educational agencies (SEAs) have constitutionally been tasked with setting the educational direction/development for their citizens.  There has been encroaching Federal centralization to limit the powers of the state and local districts in decision making for their schools long before the Common Core States Standards Initiative was adopted and implemented.  If schools/districts/states do not meet goals set by Federal Agencies (testing goals, healthy eating goals, etc) funding is in jeopardy for the schools and SEAs.  The Federal government has allowed private organizations to fashion public policy (benefiting those private companies) without legislative approval or public vote.  The public/private partnership survives on public money but without public input.

The rule of law is superseded by mandates crafted by private non-governmental organizations complete with threats of the withholding of governmental funding by the Federal government.  This sums up the history of the CCSSI experiment in a nutshell.  Can any CCSS supporters contradict the assertion that the adoption/implementation circumvented the political process of having state legislatures and the voters decide if they wanted this plan?  One elected official (the governor) in Missouri signed onto the theory of the standards (they were not yet written).  The rest of the signatories are political appointees.  Does the governor have the authority as governor to Common Core: An Oligarchy of Tyranny of the Elite? | Missouri Education Watchdog:

Next NEA leader's first task: Win back public - Caitlin Emma - POLITICO.com

Next NEA leader's first task: Win back public - Caitlin Emma - POLITICO.com:

Next NEA leader's first task: Win back public

The new president of the largest teachers union in the country will become the voice of roughly 3 million teachers at perhaps the most critical moment in the National Education Association’s history.

First item on the agenda: Win back the public.

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NEA's Lily Garcia on Common Core

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Union watchers say the newly elected Lily Eskelsen García — a former school cafeteria worker teacher, folk singer and Utah teacher of the year — has a “hell of a job” ahead of her. She faces court cases challenging teacher tenure and job protections, the defection of historically loyal Democrats, growing apprehension over the Common Core, diminishing ranks, public relations campaigns painting her union as greedy and a complicated chessboard of state and local members with a variety of interests.

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Eskelsen García, elected Friday, has big plans: She wants to further shift the union away from its longstanding and reflexive support of Democrats — which it has already begun. She wants to banish what she says is a loaded word — tenure. And she wants to lead a campaign against high-stakes decision-making based on test scores at the same time she firms up her union’s support of the Common Core.

But to do any of it, she has to make clear not just what the union is against, but what it’s for, said Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform.

In an interview with POLITICO, Eskelsen García said indeed, the union must be clear about its agenda.

“People will take a bad idea if we don’t offer them something better,” she said.

DRAWING BATTLE LINES

At the union’s annual convention last week in Denver, where Eskelsen García was officially elected, some teachers said it’s time for a leader who will play hardball with the feds and push back against Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s agenda, which includes evaluating teachers in part by student test scores and supporting the growth of charter schools, often staffed by non-union teachers.

(Also on POLITICO: Full education policy coverage)

“We need a fresh face for the NEA, someone who will stand up to the conservatives — and stand up to Arne Duncan and say, ‘We don’t agree with your plans,’” said Reed Bretz, a high school fine arts teacher in the Kenowa Hills public schools in Grand Rapids, Mich. Current

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/lily-eskelsen-garcia-national-education-association-president-108596.html#ixzz36tKVLBod