8-13-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE:

About the radio show

Join Drs. Shaun Johnson and Tim Slekar 

LIVE Sundays at 6PM EST and Wednesdays at 7PM EST 

on Blog Talk Radio for progressive, pro-public education talk radio. 

Call in to speak live with Tim and Shaun during the show, (805) 727-7111. 

You can also listen to our Monday "Sunday-Replay" at 7PM EST, and re-broadcasts of the archives every Tuesday and Thursday at 7PM EST.

Visit the @ the Chalk Face radio main page for more information on the show and syndication.

Robin Williams, Toys, and charter schools

I am for some reason feeling very sad about the loss of comedian and actor Robin Williams. Just a quick note. A few weeks ago, I was for some reason thinking about his movie Toys. It’s interesting, if only for its sets and costumes. Actually, now that I think about it, I was reminded of the […]

1 by Shaun Johnson / 6min

History Rises Again

History Rises Again.

1 by David Greene / 5min

Stop Gritting Your Teeth When You Hear “Grit”

STOP GRITTING YOUR TEETH WHEN YOU HEAR “GRIT”.

1 by David Greene / 55min 

8-12-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE: About the radio showJoin Drs. Shaun Johnson and Tim Slekar LIVE Sundays at 6PM EST and Wednesdays at 7PM EST on Blog Talk Radio for progressive, pro-public education talk radio. Call in to speak live with Tim and Shaun during the show, (805) 727-7111. You can also listen to our Monday "Sunday-Replay" at 7PM EST, and re-broadcasts of the archives every Tuesday and Thursd

by mike simpson / 23h 

UPDATE: STOP GRITTING YOUR TEETH WHEN YOU HEAR “GRIT” | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing

STOP GRITTING YOUR TEETH WHEN YOU HEAR “GRIT” | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing:

History Rises Again

Curtis Wilkie’s AUG. 12, 2014 NYT column entitled, The South’s Lesson for the Tea Party provides a lesson for all of us. History is the lesson. Wilkie examines the rise and strength of the Tea Party in the south which many of us simply see as a 21st century event provoked by the Koch brothers and anti Obama sentiment. He depicts it, as I do, as another cycle of “nativism and populism” that reared

by David Greene / 4min 

STOP GRITTING YOUR TEETH WHEN YOU HEAR “GRIT”

 There is nothing wrong with GRIT.

Why do we have such a knee jerk reaction to a word when the wrong people usurp it?

Isn’t true grit is a characteristic we need to fight back against these interlopers? We need to take back that word just as we need to take back other words and phrases like assessment, challenging, and critical thinking.

So I propose we make a list of what True Grit really is.

Please add to these examples:

True Grit is the poor kid from the streets of Philly who fights through the stigma of doing well in school and the resulting beat downs to succeed in school, becomes the first in his family to graduate college and goes back to teach in his own community.

True grit is the student who takes risks by learning how to learn outside the box of the classroom experientially and the school that fosters that method.

True Grit is the teacher who, given the constricting conditions in the school she teaches in takes risks to do what she knows works best for her kids and let the chips fall where they may.

True Grit is the school administrator who tells her staff not to worry about all that APPR crap and to continue to teach to the kids not to the test.

True Grit is the state Regent or Commissioner who says we will not accept the strings to the RTTT and CCSS bribe.

True Grit is the state legislator or congressman, who, regardless of her party affiliation, will not take campaign funds to influence her vote against pubic STOP GRITTING YOUR TEETH WHEN YOU HEAR “GRIT” | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing:

8-13-14 Wait What? - Jonathan Pelto: Gubernatorial Candidate and A Really Nice Guy

Wait What?:

Wait What?

 Pelto/Murphy 2014 

State Deficit?  What State Deficit…

In a recent interview with the CT Mirror, Governor Dannel “Dan” Malloy said, “We really don’t have a deficit.” However, if the truth be told, according to the non-partisan Office of Fiscal Analysis, the State of Connecticut continues to face a monumental fiscal crisis.  In fact, here are the projections from the experts for the […] The post State Deficit?  What State Deficit… appeared first on Wai

by jonpelto / 35min 

8-12-14 Wait What? - Jonathan Pelto: Gubernatorial Candidate and A Really Nice Guy

Wait What?:  Wait What? Pelto/Murphy 2014 Connecticut Primary Day – Just don’t spoil things with your vote!A recent editorial in Connecticut’s Journal Inquirer newspaper included the headline, Nader, Pelto, and the spoilers in our two-party system.  The JI’s owner-editorial writer pontificated, The Hartford Courant recently reported that Ralph Nader, the Winsted critic, has signed a petition to pl

by mike simpson / 18h 

8-13-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

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

Wednesday Night Tweets From Ferguson, Missouri & Beyond

I’m adding this Storify to How Many Of Our Students Feel This Way? (Resources On The Shooting Death Of Michael Brown): [View the story "Wednesday Night Tweets From Ferguson, Missouri & Beyond" on Storify]

by Larry Ferlazzo / 27min 

Videos: Nemo Demonstrates “Transfer Of Learning”

© 2009 Joel Kramer, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Thanks to reader Pam Pryer, here is an excellent example of transfer of learning demonstrated by everybody’s favorite fish, Nemo. In the first video, he learns what “swimming down” can do and, in the second, he uses that knowledge to save hundreds of other fish. I’m adding the two clips to The Best Movie Scenes, Stories, & Quotations About “Trans

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h 

“Educational Movements, Not Market Moments”

Educational Movements, Not Market Moments is an important post by Mike Rose. Here’s an excerpt: I’m adding it to I Am Tired Of “School Reformers” Using The Civil Rights Movement Legacy To Support Their Agenda.

by Larry Ferlazzo / 8min hide  //  save

More Valuable Resources On Race & Racism

© 2012 Dominic Dominic Jacques-Bernard, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio I’m adding these next two tweets to How Many Of Our Students Feel This Way? (Resources On The Shooting Death Of Michael Brown): RT @chrislhayes: I interviewed the key witness to the Michael Brown shooting last night. The police haven't. Think about that. — Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) August 13, 2014 #journalism RT @LynnMag

by Larry Ferlazzo / 8min 

More Resources On The Ebola Crisis

© 2014 SouthernBreeze, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are new additions to The Best Resources For Learning About The Ebola Virus: Ebola outbreaks from 1976 to now – interactive map is from The Guardian. This detailed model of the Ebola virus is about as terrifying as you’d expect is from The Washington Post. Using a Tactic Unseen in a Century, Countries Cordon Off Ebola-Racked Areas is from The N

by Larry Ferlazzo / 8min 

“My Best Posts On ‘Conditional Cash Transfers’”

© 2012 Philip Taylor, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio I’ve just published My Best Posts On “Conditional Cash Transfers” over at my other blog, Engaging Parents In School. Conditional Cash Transfers are payments made to families to encourage them to do things like go to doctor appointments, and to children for increased school attendance and higher standardized test scores, and have been in the news lat

by Larry Ferlazzo / 12min 

8-12-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: Contribute A Post To The Next “ELT Carnival” – “Back To School Tips”David Deubelbeiss over at ELL Classroom 2.0 will be hosting the next ELT Blog Carnival (formerly known as the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival). The deadline is September 1st and the topic is “Back To School Tips.” Here’s what he wrote: Post any and all entries HE

by mike simpson / 23h 

8-13-14 With A Brooklyn Accent: Us VS Them- A Guest Post on the Larger Implications of Ferguson by Dr Lori Martin

With A Brooklyn Accent:

Imagination- A Poem for Michael Brown

I can only imaginewhat its like to bewatchedfearedseen as a threatwhen i walkwhen i drivewhen i go to schoolNever knowingwhen i will bestoppedsearchedthrown on the groundor when words thatI sayand gestures that Imakecan lead to mydeath

by Mark Naison / 52min 

 Us VS Them- A Guest Post on the Larger Implications of Ferguson by Dr Lori Martin

The systematic killing of people of color provides the best evidence that many Americans have been wrong about racism all along. For far too long racism has been understood as an illness, a sickness, or a disease, that older and uneducated individuals come down with because they are ignorant, ill-informed, resistant to change, or are mere products of their racially segregated environments. Racism

by Mark Naison / 5min 

8-12-14 With A Brooklyn Accent: Ferguson Missouri- Face of a Nation Where Poverty Has Moved to the Suburbs

With A Brooklyn Accent: Ferguson Missouri- Face of a Nation Where Poverty Has Moved to the SuburbsFegruson Missouri, where the police killing of an unarmed young Black man sparked rioting yesterday, represents the demographic contours of a society changed by gentrification and demographic inversion.. There are now more poor people living in suburbs than there are in inner city neighborhoods. In Ne

by mike simpson / 8min 

8-13-14 Curmudgucation

CURMUDGUCATION:

Dear Campbell Brown:

Today you made an appearance in Valerie Strauss's blog to respond to your many critics. I want to take a moment to respond to some of your questions.First, let me applaud you for taking the dialogue directly to your critics, rather than simply trashing or dismissing them elsewhere. Direct dialogue between the various sides of the ed debates (there are more than two)  is rare and needed. I'm going

by Peter Greene / 9min hide  //  save

Duncan Funnels Millions to College Board

This is how it works in our current form of government.Suppose you make left-handed widgets. You are a major player in the market, but you do have competitors. You would like to both cement your role in the market while growing your share of the revenue. What do you do? Well, you could work on marketing, product development, basically making your case to the potential left-handed widget market.Or

14 by Peter Greene / 1h 

Dear Michelle

Dear MichelleWell, we both knew this day would come. I never thought your love affair with education was a forever thing, but it still hurts to see that you've found a new flame. I know you'll still have a hand in education in a small way, but it won't be the same, will it.I stopped using your full name here months ago for a couple of reasons. For one, it seemed like the worst kind of clickbait, l

65 by Peter Greene / 2h 

8-10-14 Curmudgucation

CURMUDGUCATION: The 21st Century TeacherIf reformsters get their full laundry list of school system rewrites, the 21st Century teacher will be a very different animal from her 20th Century counterpart.* She will be paid little. If she sticks around, she will either face stagnant wages or her wage increases will put her in danger of being fired.* Her one real chance to make some extra money (and to

by mike simpson / 21min 

The Age-Old Question. Teaching: Art or Science? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

The Age-Old Question. Teaching: Art or Science? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

The Age-Old Question. Teaching: Art or Science?

By Nancy Flanagan on August 13, 2014 10:36 AM

For several years, I read and evaluated applications from teachers interested in becoming the Michigan Teacher of Year. The application consists of various lengthy essays on important questions around the profession of teaching. One of the first questions asked candidates how they came to the classroom-- what motivated them to consider teaching?

Invariably, there would be one or two applicants who would explain that they'd always wanted to be a teacher, from the time they were very young children.  They'd write: I'd line up my teddy bears/dolls/siblings and give them assignments! Playing school was my favorite game! 

My personal response to these revelations? Not "Wow! Born to teach!" More like "predisposed toward authoritarianism."  

I don't think there's a teaching gene. While would-be teachers may pursue the career because they're certain they will love it, genuinely excellent practice and enthusiasm for the daily routines of the classroom are hammered out over time. They don't emerge as a result of a package of innate abilities or temperament. They are learned--absorbed, honed, revised and tweaked, and occasionally dumped and retro-fitted, multiple times in a long-term teaching career. Good teaching is all about paying attention to your results.

Does that make proficient teaching a science? Saying that--teaching is more science than art--generally draws pushback, if not wrath, from accomplished teachers around the country, who understand expert teaching as artistry--a context-dependent blend of creativity, rich content, playfulness and love. Not a template to follow. 

In my educator heart, I want to see teaching as an art. (I'm a musician, after all.) I believe in the metaphor of good teaching as jazz--a creative art, open to individual expression. Here's the thing, though: Jazz, that most improvisatory art, cannot be played without a solid understanding of rhythm, melody, chord construction, traditional stylistic conventions and plenty of technical facility, learned The Age-Old Question. Teaching: Art or Science? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

8-13-14 Jersey Jazzman

Jersey Jazzman:

Book Review: This Is Not a Test, by José Luis Vilson

Let me start with the easiest part of this review:Buy and read José Luis Vilson's This Is Not a Test.@TheJVL is one of the better known teacher-bloggers around, and a prodigious tweeter. He asks hard questions and gives little quarter when it comes to issues of race and education (although I've noticed he also has greater patience with those who are willing to engage in a sincere, respectful dialo

by Duke / 8min

8-9-14 Jersey Jazzman NJ Ed News Round-up Jammin' All Week

Jersey Jazzman:Jersey Jazzman Jammin' All WeekEXCLUSIVE: Newark Teachers Union's Joe Del Grosso, In His Own WordsI really didn't think I'd be interviewing Joe Del Grosso yesterday.When I reached out to my contacts in the Newark Teachers Union, I was looking for a response from them regarding the news, first reported by the estimable Bob Braun, that a Newark parent group, PULSE, was pushing a feder

by mike simpson / 34min 

The Hidden Half: School Employees Who Don't Teach | The Thomas B. Fordham Institute

The Hidden Half: School Employees Who Don't Teach | The Thomas B. Fordham Institute:

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The Hidden Half: School Employees Who Don't Teach

Matt Richmond

August 12, 2014

The number of non-teaching staff in the United States (those employed by school systems but not serving as classroom teachers) has grown by 130 percent since 1970. Non-teachers—more than three million strong—now comprise half of the public school workforce. Their salaries and benefits absorb one-quarter of current education expenditures.
 

The Hidden Half: School Employees Who Don’t Teach analyzes how school staffing has changed over the last half-century, what might be driving the trends, and whether these developments are financially sustainable or educationally wise.

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 The Hidden Half: School Employees Who Don't Teach | The Thomas B. Fordham Institute:

Breaking News: @MichelleRhee (Johnson) Continues to Spread Fertilizer | Cloaking Inequity

Breaking News: @MichelleRhee (Johnson) Continues to Spread Fertilizer | Cloaking Inequity:

Breaking News: @MichelleRhee (Johnson) Continues to Spread Fertilizer

The Huffington Posts reports that Michelle Rhee Prepares To Leave CEO Job At StudentsFirst, Group She Founded. Is there a more polarizing figure for critics or uniting for supporters of education “reformers”?

In today’s Breaking News comic above, Michelle Rhee (Johnson) discusses her career change.

For all of the Breaking News comings click here.

For all of Cloaking Inequity’s posts referencing Michelle Rhee click here.

For my favorite Michelle Rhee post check out Michelle Rhee vs. Julian Vasquez Heilig on Twitter

For Michelle Rhee doing the Harlem Shake with a variety of other “reformy” types see photo below. Yeah, that dance craze happened. Harlem Shake: Rhee, Alter, Jeb, and Rick Perry

For all of Cloaking Inequity’s posts on segregation click here.

Please Facebook Like, Tweet, etc below and/or reblog to share this discussion with others.

Want to know about Cloaking Inequity’s freshly pressed conversations about educational policy? Click the “Follow blog by email” button in the upper left hand corner of this page.

Twitter: @ProfessorJVH

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Please blame Eli Broad for any typos.Breaking News: @MichelleRhee (Johnson) Continues to Spread Fertilizer | Cloaking Inequity:

One Houston Teacher and Future Teachers Reportedly Not to Be |

One Houston Teacher and Future Teachers Reportedly Not to Be |:



One Houston Teacher and Future Teachers Reportedly Not to Be

 Following up on a previous post about “Houston Teachers Suing over their District’s EVAAS Use,” an opinion piece released this summer via The Houston Chronicle about the realities of another teacher in Houston working for 15 years in the district, highlights some of the same and a few more of the unfortunate details, including details about those who are reportedly choosing, now, not to teach in the district.

The authors write, “the tool that the Houston Independent School District school board had hoped would keep its best teachers in the classroom is actually sending great teachers running,” and here are some reasons why:

The one teacher highlighted in this piece, “holds a mathematics degree from the University of Houston, has taught all levels of high school mathematics for 15 years…and has repeatedly pursued assignments in high-needs schools with large Latino populations. While administrators, parents and peers have consistently rated him as a highly effective teacher, his EVAAS scores have varied wildly. While at [one district high school], he earned one of the highest EVAAS scores and year-end bonuses possible. Two years ago, teaching the same subject at [another high school] he received a below-average EVAAS score.” This teacher decided to leave the high-needs school in which his students’ performance apparently “biased” his results. He explained, “I can’t afford to be heroic. I want to be in the toughest schools, but the EVAAS model interprets my students’ challenges as my personal [and professional] failure.” For this teacher the ‘unintended consequences meant leaving the students who needed him most.”

Likewise, there seems to be anecdotal evidence that the EVAAS model may be preventing other reportedly “great” teachers from entering the district as well. Although in the article no “hard” numbers are provided, the authors report that “Instructors for teaching One Houston Teacher and Future Teachers Reportedly Not to Be |: