8-14-14 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.:

I’m retired. Not dead.

When you subtitle your blog, “daily posts from a retired art teacher…,” and you miss a day’s post, people assume the worst. There will be days when you may find nothing new up here at all. And days when I’ll show up to work. That’s because Anne and I are headed to the eastern seaboard. Why is it the west coast but it is the eastern seaboard? Why are roads closed and bridges out? Another mystery o

by Fred Klonsky / 38min 

Following seven year fight the Washington state Supreme Court okays pension cuts.

- From the Washington Education Association After a seven-year legal fight led by WEA, the Supreme Court has upheld cuts in retirement benefits for more than more than 100,000 K-12 educators. WEA President Kim Mead denounced the decision to reduce educators’ pensions . “It’s not right for the Legislature to unilaterally cut retirement benefits it promised – and to take away what educators already

by Fred Klonsky / 20min 

Guest drawing. Alonso Zaragoza. Rahmzilla.

by Fred Klonsky / 1min hide  //  save

Raise the maximum age.

1 by Fred Klonsky / 53min 

TMD. How did we get from, “Yes, we can,” to “Don’t shoot me”?

by Fred Klonsky / 25min

Gaza, MO. Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery’s account of his arrest.

-Wesley Lowery is an reporter for the Washington Post. An officer with a large weapon came up to me and said, “Stop recording.” I said, “Officer, do I not have the right to record you?” He backed off but told me to hurry up. So I gathered my notebook and pens with one hand while recording him with the other hand. As I exited, I saw Ryan to my left, having a similar argument with two officers. I r

by Fred Klonsky / 1h hide  //  save

Gaza, MO.

Michael Brown’s mother, Mrs. Lesley McSpadden. Last night, the people of Ferguson, Missouri were getting tweets from Gaza residents with information on how to deal with tear gas. Watching the images coming from the St. Louis suburb it was hard to tell the difference between the two occupations. How does a small suburban town get all this military equipment? Why do they have tanks and machine guns

by Fred Klonsky / 1h 

8-13-14 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.: TMD. Quinn runs against public employees.by Fred Klonsky / 1h hide  //  saveJames Keating and Betty Deitz. Debts and regrets.- This article by retired teacher James Keating and Betty Deitz also appears in the West Lake Shore Illinois Retired Teachers Association August newsletter. The state is in debt

by mike simpson / 8h 

8-14-14 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online:

NYSUT Double Switch Game Leads One Parent to State the proverbial WTF?

They did a big press op shredding the Pearson exams last week and today they say "The vast majority of questions do appear to be age- and developmentally appropriate."... NYC Parent.Oh, you mean Karen Magee and cohorts did one thing on one day and the opposite on the next? I'm shocked, just shocked. Oh, NYSUT, NYSUT Revivalists,Is there no end to your perfidy?(See Eterno at ICE: STATE UN

by ed notes online / 1min hide  //  save

Teacher Diversity Petition

MORE is helping sponsor this action of the work of the Teacher Diversity Committee, an independent group of teachers affiliated with MORE. Anyone who has been around for a while knows that Sean Ahern (who was one of the founders - co-conspirators) of ICE) has been relentless in his pursuit of this issue over the past decade. I think we all learned a lesson when Sean took things to a new level by c

by ed notes online / 1min 

When Mulgrew Won't Punch Someone in the Face: Breaking NYS Charter School Cap Will Doom Public School System and Unions

Will the UFT/NYSUT leadership oppose this with every bone in their body - witness the silence over the Cuomo charter giveaway law last spring. But the UFT/NYSUT leaders will challenge those who oppose the common core.Leonie Haimson comments: If the de Blasio administration doesn’t oppose this with every bone in their bodies we are doomed.Moskowitz] is sitting on a goldmine, and would make a great

by ed notes online / 32min

Paralysis

I'm having a very interesting problem. I, as everyone else, am under a bombardment of heavy exploding shells loaded not with shrapnel, but with information. Information which explodes in my mind, branching off into threads of thought processes, any of which could lead to a blog. So many threads that I can't make decisions on what to write about. Thus, paralysis.I always heard that as you get older

by ed notes online / 2h hide  //  save

YESTERDAY

Mel Levy

I just wanted to inform you Mel Levy head of TA Engineers union died this week.  He is a huge loss for all unions because he had a voice and was fearless.  It would be nice if the UFT would acknowledge him for all he has done for the city.  Barbra Nahoum Cheers, Norm Scott Twitter: normscott1 Education Notes ednotesonline.blogspot.com Grassroots Education Movement gemnyc.org Education columni

by ed notes online / 9h 

8-13-14 Ed Notes Online Week

Ed Notes Online: The Case for Tenure: South Bronx School Tells His StoryThere are so many personal stories out there about teachers under assault, while principals get off scot free no matter what they do. Peter Zucker tells his story.http://www.southbronxschool.com/2014/08/my-own-story-why-teachers-so.html One of the Campbell Brown parents has a kid at PS 106 in Rockaway where the principal, Marc

by mike simpson / 8h 

8-14-14 Curmudgucation

CURMUDGUCATION:

A Big Problem with Ed Research

I've always taken a skeptical view of education research. I was in college in the seventies, and I have memories of repeatedly discovering that the Gortshwingle study of How Students Learn was actually a study twenty male college sophomores at a small Midwestern college performed a particular task. Educational research seemed to suffer a experimental subject of opportunity problem. And like much r

1 by Peter Greene / 2min 

For (Some of) the Children

Children are the photo prop of choice for conflicts in war zones around the world. Photographic coverage of the Iraqi refugees trapped by Isis activity has been heavy on photographs of children in the camp. Shocking images from Syria have centered on children (upsetting enough that I'm not going to link). And current warfare in Gaza opened with children-centric coverage, to the point that it appea

47 by Peter Greene / 2h 

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

by mike simpson / 7h 

8-14-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

You're A Winner If You Predicted A Slight Increase In NY Test Scores

As many of us predicted, NYSED and the Board of Regents rigged the state testr scores this year to go up slightly so they could point to "progress":One year after scores plummeted following the state’s adoption of Common Core-aligned tests, city students collectively outpaced the rest of New York on both the math and English exams. In math, 34.5 percent of city students met or exceeded t

by reality-based edu... / 36min 

NYSUT Backs Indicted Senate Republican

Your union in action:There was also no consensus among union leaders about the effort to flip the Senate into Democratic hands – a push that largely originated with unions during the labor-backed Working Families Party’s debate over whether to endorse Gov. Andrew Cuomo or Fordham Law Prof. Zephyr Teachout. In a deal brokered by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, Cuomo ended up endorsing a Democrat-controll

by reality-based edu... / 5min 

Education Reformers Turn On Michelle Rhee

Mostly because she sucked:StudentsFirst was hobbled by a high staff turnover rate, embarrassing PR blunders and a lack of focus. But several leading education reformers say Rhee’s biggest weakness was her failure to build coalitions; instead, she alienated activists who should have been her natural allies with tactics they perceived as imperious, inflexible and often illogical. Several said her bi

by reality-based edu... / 0min 

NYSED To Release Common Core Test Scores Today

From WIVB:BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - The tests are over, and soon we will know the outcome of round two of Common Core testing. New York will release the results Thursday. Students took the math and English tests in April. This is the second year of the controversial testing standards. New York students scored lower last year than they typically do on standardized tests. The results are important beca

by reality-based edu... / 1min hide  //  save

Common Core "Expert," Candidate For Wyoming State Schools Chief, Now Says She Opposes CCSS

The Common Core rats are jumping as far away from the sinking Common Core ship as possible:Before Wyoming adopted the Common Core State Standards in language arts and math in 2012, state schools chief candidate Sheryl Lain worked for a private organization to train teachers how to use the standards to help their students learn to read.Lain, 70, an instructional leader in the Wyoming Department of

by reality-based edu... / 1h 

8-13-14 Perdido Street School

CURMUDGUCATION: Duncan Funnels Millions to College BoardThis 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

by mike simpson / 9h 

More Poetry on Teachers and Teaching | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

More Poetry on Teachers and Teaching | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

More Poetry on Teachers and Teaching

Last month I began a feature on poetry about teachers and teaching. Poets who write about teaching are educators, students, and non-educators. Across the globe, they share a common experience of being in classrooms for years. Capturing the feelings, thoughts, and special moments of teaching and studenting in vivid, crisp words and images is the province of poets. Here are some poems that struck me sufficiently to stop and ponder about something I thought I knew so well after decades of teaching and learning.

Forty-Seven Minutes*

by Nick Flynn

Years later I’m standing before a roomful of young writers in a high school in Texas. I’ve asked them to locate an image in a poem we’d just read—their heads at this moment are bowed to the page. After some back & forth about the grass & a styrofoam cup, a girl raises her hand & asks, Does it matter? I smile—it is as if the universe balanced on those three words & we’ve landed in the unanswerable. I have to admit that no, it doesn’t, not really, matter, if rain is an image or rain is an idea or rain is a sound in our heads. But, I whisper, leaning in close, to get through the next forty-seven minutes we might have to pretend it does.

__________

* Thanks to Ann Staley for sending this along

Mrs. Krikorian
by Sharon Olds
She saved me. When I arrived in 6th grade,
a known criminal, the new teacher
asked me to stay after school the first day, she said
I’ve heard about you. She was a tall woman,
with a deep crevice between her breasts,
and a large, calm nose. She said,
This is a special library pass.
As soon as you finish your hour’s work—
that hour’s work that took ten minutes
and then the devil glanced into the roomMore Poetry on Teachers and Teaching | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Why Checks and Balances Need to Include the Courts | janresseger

Why Checks and Balances Need to Include the Courts | janresseger:

Why Checks and Balances Need to Include the Courts

Posted on August 14, 2014 by janresseger

Just last week the Education Law Center, whose attorneys have litigated the landmark New Jersey school funding case in Abbott v. Burke, announced that the Education Law Center has “joined the legal teams in Maisto v. State of New York and Bacon v. NJ Department of Education, lawsuits on behalf of students in 8 Small City New York school districts and 16 poor, rural, New Jersey districts, respectively.  These cases challenge deep resource deficits and unconstitutionally low funding by each State, in violation of their state constitutions.”

It would be so nice to think that when school districts are short of money, citizens would raise their taxes to pay for what’s needed for the children. What does it say about our society that funding our schools has become deeply contentious?

According to the Education Law Center, the towns bringing the lawsuit in New York are Jamestown, Kingston, Mount Vernon, Newburgh, Niagara Falls, Port Jervis, Poughkeepsie, and Utica. Together they serve 55,000 students.  All have poverty rates over 50 percent; in at least one community the poverty rate is 94 percent. “All have low property wealth and income and have experienced substantial shortfalls and state cuts in school funding in recent years.”

In New Jersey, attorneys say that a remedial order from the New Jersey Department of Education in 2009 ordered that students in 16 rural districts be fully funded under the School Funding Reform Act of 2008.  The state has not complied.  David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center commented: “Governor Chris Christie’s stubborn resistance to investing in our children leaves no alternative but to take appropriate legal action.”  In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo continues to promise tax cuts as part of his platform for reelection this coming November.

Being free from such court oversight to enforce the mandates of a state constitution appeals to Chad Readler, a Columbus, Ohio attorney who chairs Ohio’s Constitutional Modernization Why Checks and Balances Need to Include the Courts | janresseger:

Randi Weingarten on Hillary Clinton and Partisanship in the Ed Debate - Education Writers Association

Randi Weingarten on Hillary Clinton and Partisanship in the Ed Debate - Education Writers Association:

Randi Weingarten on Hillary Clinton and Partisanship in the Ed Debate

MAY 19, 2014

AFT President Randi Weingarten talks support for Hillary Clinton, the possibility of a union-backed Republican candidate, and next year’s mayoral race in Chicago.

Recorded May 19, 2014 at EWA’s 67th National Seminar.

• Watch on YouTube

NYC Educator: E4E and Union Leaders--Strange Bedfellows

NYC Educator: E4E and Union Leaders--Strange Bedfellows:

E4E and Union Leaders--Strange Bedfellows

One of the interesting things about the corporate push to #SupportTheCore on Twitter was the E4E do-it-yourself page.

It had all these wonderful suggestions. First it told you how to join Twitter, if you hadn't yet done so. Then it gave you formulas for writing tweets, like I #SupportTheCore because it helps my students think for themselves, or whatever. Because no one wants kids growing up depending on Gates-backed astroturf groups to know what to say, or how to say it.

And yet, the teachers of E4E, the supposed role models, are doing just that. How do you set an example for free thinking when you need help doing it yourself, even when your target is 140 characters? Even more frustrating is who their allies appear to be.

Of course, E4E took the page down, because the truth hurts. But I saw it. I can only assume to them, "excellence" entails following directions NYC Educator: E4E and Union Leaders--Strange Bedfellows:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Waking up to a not-so-new American morning

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Waking up to a not-so-new American morning:

Waking up to a not-so-new American morning

"Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; ...or the right of the people peaceably to assemble" -- 1st Amendment, U.S. Constitution

“A riot is the language of the unheard.” -- Dr. M.L. King

This is supposed to be the 1st day of school in Ferguson, MO. Instead, the St. Louis suburb is shaken after another night of protests.
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) August 14, 2014

Shaken, disturbed, angry...that describes me this morning after watching the live streaming and follow-up news coverage on MSNBC of the violent, militarized police assault on the black community in Ferguson last night. The sounds and images of an unprovoked, small-town, 94%-white police phalanx moving on a crowd of unarmed, peaceful mainly black citizens, firing rubber bullets, tear gas and concussion grenades as they came, rekindled disturbing flashbacks of Watts 1965 and Chicago, 1968 -- two events that greatly shaped my own political consciousness.

Al Jazeera crew flees after taking a direct hit.

This was no police riot, but a well-executed Gaza-style assault on a defenseless community, still in shock after the cold-blooded police murder of Michael Brown.

High on the list of targets was the press with reporters being told to leave, turn off their cameras and stop recording well before the assault began. A camera crew from Al Jazeerawas fired upon and reporters from the Huffington Post and Washington Post were roughed up, arrested and then released with no charges. A St. Louis alderman was also jailed. Many of the police had removed their badges and identification and Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Waking up to a not-so-new American morning: