7-28-14 Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement"

Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement":

“Federal Data-Privacy Guidelines Urge Better Communication With Parents”

Federal Data-Privacy Guidelines Urge Better Communication With Parents is a new post over at Education Week. Here’s how it begins: The tug-of-war over student data privacy continues. Friday, the U.S. Department of Education released new, non-binding guidance containing suggestions for schools and districts to better inform parents about how their children’s sensitive educational data is being used

by Larry Ferlazzo / 16min 

“Raising Readers” Is A Scholastic Program For Teachers To Use With Spanish & English-Speaking Parents

Raising Readers is from Scholastic, and it has a lot of free materials — in both English and Spanish — to help promote activities parents can do with their children to encourage reading. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure exactly how useful they are, but it’s always nice to have some decent materials in a language other than English for parents. So, I’m adding it to The Best Multilingual Resource

4 by Larry Ferlazzo / 4h 

“Clinton launches Talk, Read, Sing campaign”

Ed Source reports on a recent visit by Hillary Clinton to Oakland: Hillary Clinton spoke to a friendly crowd at Oakland’s UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital on Wednesday about her new campaign (no, not that one) to get parents to spend more time talking, singing and reading to their young children. “Brain research is showing us how important the first years of life are,” Clinton said, “and how much

4 by Larry Ferlazzo / 4h 

Feds Open Civil Rights Investigation Into What’s Going On In Newark

I’ve published quite a few posts about the craziness that’s been going on in Newark schools — the misuse of Zukerberg’s millions in donations, their “Twilight Zonish” perspective on parent engagement, their banning of a parent leader from school grounds. Well, now the U.S. Department of Education has begun an investigation: The deeply flawed state school reorganization plan known as “One Newark” f

5 by Larry Ferlazzo / 4h hide  //  save

New Congressional Effort To Generate Funds For Community Schools

Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill. have announced they are introducing a Congressional bill that would generate funds to support the development of community schools. You can read more about it at: Bipartisan House Bill Would Boost Community Schools at Ed Week Bipartisan Bill Introduced to Expand Community Schools at the Coalition For Community Schools. I’m addin

2 by Larry Ferlazzo / 4h 

Useful Parent Involvement Infographic

Here’s a visual representation of parent involvement researcher Joyce Epstein’s work: Epstein's 6 Types of Parent Involvement for Successful Partnerships—> RT @GaDOEParents: pic.twitter.com/xh1Wu0qk20 #ptcamp #ptchat — Joe Mazza (@Joe_Mazza) July 23, 2014 I’m adding it to The Best Infographics About Parent Involvement In Schools.

2 by Larry Ferlazzo / 4h 

British Prohibition On Taking Kids Out Of School Reaches New Low: “Mother of terminally-ill boy fighting fine for taking son on ‘last holiday’”

I’ve posted a lot about the ridiculous British policy of fining parents if they take their kids on a trip while school is in session. The Telegraph reports on a new low in this article: Mother of terminally-ill boy fighting fine for taking son on ‘last holiday’ The headline says it all…

2 by Larry Ferlazzo / 4h 

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit 7-28-14

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit:

NEW CalArts RESIDENCY TRANSFORMS ARTISTS INTO TEACHERS

Mary Plummer  | 89.3 KPCC |  http://bit.ly/1nNQjmc Teaching artist in training Anthony "Chuck" Gloria, left, works with animation co-directors Ruah Edelstein and Masha Vasilkovsky on a performance blending music and animated pieces. Maya Sugarman/KPCC   3:45 Listen to Radio Story July 28, 2014  ::  A new program at the California Institute of the Arts is taking some of the

by smf / 14min 

CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS FACE LAWSUIT OVER PHYSICAL EDUCATION CLASSES + smf’s 2¢

By Sara Hayden, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/1qHdz7J A physical education classes at Van Nuys Middle School in 2006. Several California school districts are being sued for allegedly not providing enough time for kids to exercise. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)  ●●smf: This article and the subject lawsuit is about P.E. in elementary school. It is telling that The Times  photo editors

by smf / 19min hide  //  save

3 of 4 KIDS WITH MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS DON’T GET HELP, LAUSD CUTS MENTAL HEALTH FOR SPECIAL ED STUDENTS

Study finds 3 out of 4 children with mental health needs don't get treated by Adrian Florido  | 89.3 KPCC |  http://bit.ly/1Aq7iza 0:51 Listen to radio story UCLA researchers say only one-quarter of California children aged 4-11 with mental health needs receive treatment. Maya

by smf / 23min 

Suppose they hold a school board election and nobody votes? THE LAUSD BOARD ELECTION MATTERS; VOTERS SHOULD TURN OUT

  OP-ED by Jim Newton, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/1pujSor A lone voter fills out his ballot in the June 3 election at the International City Masonic Temple in Long Beach. (Christina House / For The Times) On Aug. 12, voters in Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education District 1 will choose between Alex Johnson and George McKenna.

by smf / 8h

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit 7-27-14

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: MOODY’S ASSIGNS Aa2 RATING to LAUSD’s GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS: $138.4 million new debt affected; rating affirmed on outstanding parity and COP debtThe Wall Street Transcript from Moody’s press Release  |  http://bit.ly/1zjrUb3 New York, July 25, 2014  Issue: General Obligation Bonds, Election of 2004, Series J (2014); Rating: Aa2; Sale Amount: $71,435,

by mike simpson / 1h 

7-28-14 Curmudgucation

CURMUDGUCATION:

David Coleman Is Superman!

Politico dipped into the David Coleman at Aspen Ideas festival file and pulled out a quote in which Coleman admits that “I think then we make a great mistake by caricaturing the opponents of the standards as crazies or people who don't tell the truth." They call this "a big takeaway." They also catch Coleman admitting that it's no sign of great paranoia to be concerned about how ind

3 by Peter Greene / 15min 

Seasoned Teachers Not Getting Filthy Rich

In other news, scientists anticipate the sun rising in the East tomorrow morning.Okay, this might actually be news to some folks. To listen to the merit-based pay crowd, you would think that we are currently throwing bales of teachers based on years of experience. But an issue brief  released last week by the Center for American Progress suggests that in many states that's simply not true."Mi

36 by Peter Greene / 2h

7-27-14 Curmudgucation Week

CURMUDGUCATION: Pearson Set Cut Scores for NYSOver at lohud, actual journalists like Gary Stern have been working long hours trying to pry loose some facts from the state of New York, and it's worth the while of folks from all states to see what they've dug up because it's a bright red warning flag about how the CCSS-linked testing program actually works.Gannett Publishing had to pry open the stat

by mike simpson / 8h 

7-28-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

Moreland Mess: The Parade Of The Browbeaten

Michael Powell on Twitter:The Parade of the Browbeaten. Various NYS Democrats issue Press Releases Hailing Moreland Commission and Himself.— Michael Powell (@powellnyt) July 28, 2014And indeed, that's what we got today from former Moreland Commission members as well - a coordinated PR effort, starting with a long statement released by Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick:Onondaga

by reality-based edu... / 27min 

Cuomo Says Moreland Commission Was "A Phenomenal Success"

Matthew Hamilton at Capitol Confidential:Throughout the back-and-forth with Buffalo and limited Albany media, Cuomo stuck to his guns and didn’t waver from his stance that the commission was a success and that there wasn’t interference from his office; rather, conversations and dialogue were just that.“The Moreland Commission was a phenomenal success,” Cuomo said. “It generated all sorts of intere

by reality-based edu... / 12min 

Cuomo Says He Disappeared To Finish His Book

Here's Governor Cuomo explaining why he has been MIA for seven straight days, five of those coming after the NY Times/Moreland expose:Cuomo: "I'm in the middle of writing a book."— Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) July 28, 2014 Cuomo says "it's really, really difficult" to write a book.— Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) July 28, 2014Here's the video: There you have it.

by reality-based edu... / 24min 

NY Post: Cuomo "Paralyzed" And "Humiliated" By Moreland Mess

Fred Dicker in his Monday column:Gov. Cuomo’s reputation has been severely damaged and his chances of running for president destroyed by revelations that he interfered with the Moreland Commission’s efforts to probe political corruption, influential Democrats have told The Post.The Democrats, who called the disclosures in last week’s New York Times “a political game changer” and a “Cuomo nightmare

by reality-based edu... / 2min 

7-27-14 Perdido Street School Week

Perdido Street School: Campbell Brown Uses A Paid Organizer Of StudentsFirstNY As The Face Of Her Tenure/Seniority LawsuitFrom the Daily News: Seven families will file suit Monday to end teacher tenure in the fiercest attack yet on job protections enjoyed by New York State educators. The families, including five from some of the most impoverished communities in the city, claim their children were

by mike simpson / 8h 

UPDATE byteacherken: One sentence says it all + take your yoga off the mat

take your yoga off the mat:


One sentence says it all

Having just read the opinion of the Fourth Circuit in the Virginia marriage equality case, where the judges agreed with the trial judge that Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, one sentence jumped off the page. Previously the Supreme Court had deferred to state courts on the interpretation of state laws of marriage. But the Windsor case changed the ground rules.  As the opinio

by rss@dailykos.com ... / 26min 

take your yoga off the mat

byteacherkenFollow

 
 
• 3 Comments / 3 New

and into the city and the rest of your life.

We all come to yoga, because we're seeking some sense of peace or increased happiness, whether that be in the body, mind or both. What does yogic philosophy have to say about the place of joy in an integrated life?

That is the description of a class each Sunday morning at 11 AM at Flow Yoga Center on P Street NW in Washington DC.

The teacher is the inimitable Greg Marzullo.  If you want to know more about Greg, two possible ways

1.  Go to this link for the class schedule at Flow and look for his name and click - there you will get some good information

2.  Go to his website where you can read his blog, about some of the retreats he does, and more.

Greg is my principal yoga teacher and now also a friend, so I am prejudiced.  I happen to think he is one of the best teachers of any sort I have ever encountered.

I cannot always attend this Sunday morning class, because it conflicts with Meeting for Worship at my Quaker Meeting, on whose committee on Ministry and Worship I serve, but I did attend yesterday, which is the occasion of writing this post.

I ask that you keep reading, even if you do not think you are interested in yoga, either as a means of physical condition or as a philosophic approach.

I began doing yoga on December 30.  A good friend of ours who lives near us, STK, is in one of the teacher training programs at Flow, and also takes a good number of classes.  Because she does not drive, my wife has been somewhat insistent that I at least pick her up after her 

We Need MANY More Teachers than Doctors or Lawyers | Paul Bruno

We Need MANY More Teachers than Doctors or Lawyers | Paul Bruno:

We Need MANY More Teachers than Doctors or Lawyers

By PAUL BRUNO | Published: JULY 28, 2014

It was a little surprising to see the AFT take a stand against the edTPA teacher licensing test given President Randi Weingarten’s support for similar “bar exams” for teachers, and it got me thinking about “professionalizing” teaching in general.

That teaching needs to be “professionalized” is a mostly-platitudinous claim, but you often hear from both sides in the education reform debates.

You often hear people reason about professionalization by analogy: that we need to change the way teachers are certified to make the profession more similar to law or medicine.

This is probably a bad way of thinking about teaching.

It’s easy to forget, but the United States actually needs a lot of teachers. In 2012, public and private K-12 schools employed roughly 3.7 million teachers.

For comparison, in 2012 the United States employed approximately 835,000 doctors and 1,268,000 lawyers.

In other words, we need three times as many teachers as we have lawyers and We Need MANY More Teachers than Doctors or Lawyers | Paul Bruno:

Why public education needs teachers unions | EdSource

Why public education needs teachers unions | EdSource:

Why public education needs teachers unions

July 27, 2014 | By Gary Ravani / commentary | No Comments



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“I consider it important, indeed urgently necessary, for intellectual workers to get together, both to protect their own economic status and also, generally speaking, to secure their influence in the political field.” – Charter member of AFT Local 552 (c. 1938)

There have been many assertions made over time about the negative effects of teachers unions on student performance. A number of states have moved legislatively to curtail the collective bargaining rights of teachers and, indeed, some states have never allowed teachers’ collective bargaining.

Conservative critics of teachers unions – the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, for example – claim there is no relationship between high levels of union membership and high levels of student achievement. There are 10 states where there is little or no collective bargaining by teachers. If Fordham and other teachers union critics are right, these states should demonstrate student achievement that ranks very high, or at least above the national average, on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). According to commentary in theWashington Post by Matthew Di Carlo, senior fellow at the Albert Shanker Institute, “out of the ten [non-union] states only one (Virginia) has an average rank above the median, while four are in the bottom ten and seven are in the bottom fifteen.” The article concludes that states “without binding teacher contracts are not doing better, and the majority are actually among the lowest performers in the nation.”

There are studies that refute the position of the conservatives and assert that teachers unions have a positive effect on student Why public education needs teachers unions | EdSource:

Union Leaders Agree – Our Strength Is In Fighting for the Public Good:

Union Leaders Agree – Our Strength Is In Fighting for the Public Good

JULY 28, 2014 BY K12NN SITE ADMIN LEAVE A COMMENT

By Julie Carson and Matthew Kogan, Teachers, United Teachers Los Angeles (group affiliation added for identification purposes only; this is not an official communication of UTLA)

The standing room only crowd at the AFT convention’s Social Movement Unionism vs. Corporation “Reform” panel discussion held earlier this month demonstrated that many union members are hungry to fight for an alternate narrative to the “corporate reform” agenda and teacher bashing going on in public education today. Teachers squeezed into every corner of the room – every chair was taken, walls were lined with people standing, every inch of floor space was occupied – as the crowd listened attentively to the officers from various unions across the country describe a different kind of unionism that focuses on the inexorable link between the workplace rights of educators and the broader fight for social justice in our communities.

The panel, hosted by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) and Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), featured the presidents of these two unions, Alex Caputo-Pearl and Karen Lewis respectively, along with Zeph Capo, Vice President of the Houston Federation of Teachers, Jerry Jordan, President, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, Michael Mulgrew, President, United Federation of Teachers [New York], and Mary Cathryn Ricker, President, St. Paul Federation of Teachers. Each one of these leaders related their union’s success stories about allying with the public to address some community need.

This type of unionism is an opportunity to change the narrative that Union Leaders Agree – Our Strength Is In Fighting for the Public Good:

Another YOUTUBE Video Wafts from Mountain Air of Aspen: Shows Chris Christie’s Arrogance | janresseger

Another YOUTUBE Video Wafts from Mountain Air of Aspen: Shows Chris Christie’s Arrogance | janresseger:

Another YOUTUBE Video Wafts from Mountain Air of Aspen: Shows Chris Christie’s Arrogance

Posted on July 28, 2014 by janresseger

Here’s a good rule.  If you have political ambitions, don’t go to the Aspen Ideas Festival or the Aspen Institute, get comfortable among friends, get on a panel, and then make insulting remarks about the folks who are the key to your future.

Jonah Edelman disparaged school teachers.  His organization, Stand for Children, has not yet recovered its reputation.  In a new little book about the 2012 Chicago teachers’ strike, Micah Uetricht tells the story: “In June 2011, Jonah Edelman, CEO of Stand for Children, gave an afternoon talk at the Aspen Ideas Festival, an annual gathering of ‘thought leaders’….  During the talk, Edelman,whose organization initially came to Illinois at the invitation of billionaire former private equity manager Bruce Rauner, spoke with astonishing candor; he explained calmly the backroom politicking necessary to ‘jam the proposal down [teachers and their union's'] throats.’  Soon after its beginnings in Illinois, his organization donated $600,000 to nine state legislative races in attempt to curry favor with State House Speaker Michael Madigan….”   Edelman’s influence helped pass a bill restricting teachers unions by requiring 75 percent of all the members of any teachers union be required to vote to authorize a strike.  Edelman bragged about this accomplishment at Aspen: “‘In effect, they wouldn’t have the ability to strike,’ Edelman says matter-of-factly in the tape. ‘They will never be able to muster the 75 percent threshold.’” (Strike for America, pp.  59-62)

Jonah Edelman forgot about youtube, where his speech went viral.  You may remember that, partly inspired by Edelman’s challenge, just a year later in June of 2012, 90 percent of the entire membership of the Chicago Teachers Union voted to authorize teachers to strike in September of 2012.

Now, thanks to Valerie Strauss’s Washington Post column on Saturday, we all know, once again, that New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie disdains the people of Newark.  This time he Another YOUTUBE Video Wafts from Mountain Air of Aspen: Shows Chris Christie’s Arrogance | janresseger:

NYC Educator: Random Families File Lawsuit Demanding Bazillion Dollar Raise for Teachers

NYC Educator: Random Families File Lawsuit Demanding Bazillion Dollar Raise for Teachers:

Random Families File Lawsuit Demanding Bazillion Dollar Raise for Teachers

Exclusive--Seven families have filed a lawsuit in Albany claiming that their children received an excellent education due to teacher tenure. The parents are claiming that if the teachers had not had job protections they may not have taught their children. They further claim if their children's teachers did not have the freedom to make decisions regarding the education of their children the quality of education may not have been the same.

"There's no reason my kid should not receive an excellent education," said one of the parents. "The law should be changed to give teachers a larger voice in policy. Why should we tie their hands with Common Core nonsense when we could let teachers work with our kids depending on their individual needs?"

"Who the hell is Campbell Brown and what the hell do we need her for?" asked another. "She's clearly a publicity hound who doesn't know anything about our kids. How the hell can she consider using a parent who's on the payroll of Students First?  We trust our teachers."

When asked about news stories regarding the Campbell Brown lawsuit, another parent picked up the paper and read the following:

The complaint does not name the allegedly incompetent educators, but argues that tenure laws lead to bad teachers, a claim supported NYC Educator: Random Families File Lawsuit Demanding Bazillion Dollar Raise for Teachers:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES:

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

"I am the decider, and you have nothing to do with it.” -- Christie to Mayor Baraka

Kristen Crowell

“Certainly, it is our opinion that the current leadership is not doing enough to take care of our folks." United Working Families will focus on “finding, recruiting and supporting candidates who are going to be with us.” -- Chicago Teachers Union, progressives form new Chicago coalition

Inquirer Editorial

No wonder 13 percent of the nation's 3.4 million public school teachers either change schools or quit the profession every year. Understanding the difficulties urban teachers face, many believe those educators in particular aren't paid enough for all they do. That sympathy has helped dampen criticism of Philadelphia teachers' refusal to agree to contract concessions. The estimated teacher Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES: