9-13-14 Curmudgucation Week

CURMUDGUCATION:

Curmudgucation Week

Why So Politicized?!

Education Post is beginning to look like an organization dedicated to the proposition that it takes an entire village to replace She Who Will Not Be Named. Though they have not yet announced plans to run a large urban school district into the ground, they are laboring mightily to make themselves a clearinghouse for all the top talking points for the Core and its attendant reformy barnacles.They ha

51 by Peter Greene / 1h 

YESTERDAY

TNTP Proposes New Tenure Plan

TNTP, the Reimagine Teaching people and generators of plenty of fancy-looking reformy nonsense, have some more ideas for the post-Vergara world. They have decided to stake out a middle ground on the tenure wars, claiming that we don't need to eliminate it-- just fix it. And to that end, they have eight proposals to create "a more balanced system." It's all in this very fancy "paper,

33 by Peter Greene / 23h 

Magical CCSS Teachers

Over at EdWeek, the Teaching Ahead roundtable is having a little debate about the Core's burgeoning image problem. I've made my own entry in the argument (feel free to check it out and like it as a way to register your CCSS love).Tucked in among the various points of view, you'll find this piece by Jessica Keigan. "Abandoning the Common Core Would Be a Disservice to Students" belongs to

70 by Peter Greene / 1d 

SEP 11

Forever Less Than, Frederick Douglass, and No Excuses

My esteemed colleague and exceptional citizen journalist over at Edushyster has an interview up that is well worth your time to read.She talks to Joan Goodman, director of the TFA program at U Penn, about the no excuse charters of Philadelphia (among other things, the piece is a reminder that we can not knee-jerkingly sort good guys and bad guys based simply on their affiliations). The interview i

40 by Peter Greene / 1d 

SEP 10

What Should Arne Do?

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has taken plenty of grief.He has been criticized by folks on the right who believe he is, at the very least, a hood ornament on the Great Studebaker of Federal Instrusion into education. He has been criticized by folks on the left for being the faceplate on the great machine that is dismantling the US public school system.Arne is easy to pick apart (I should know

4 by Peter Greene / 2d 

Zephyr Teachout's Thank You Letter

Further proof that Teachout gets it. Here's the email that arrived today (I gave money to the campaign, so I'm on the list). I'm just putting it here in its entirety because it's a class act. And if you'd like a nice analysis of the results, read this piece for the New Yorker.Thank you. Last night, we exceeded all of the pundits expectations, keeping Andrew Cuomo at barely 60% of the vote, and won

500+ by Peter Greene / 2d 

Common Core 2.0?

Over at the Washington Post. Lindsey Layton is reporting on a survey by the Education Commission of the States about the Common Core. The ECS bills itself as a non-partisan research group, headed by a different governor each year, with a history stretching back to mid-sixties. They've produced a handy list that shows all the cool new names states have come up with for their states standards.Layton

32 by Peter Greene / 2d 

SEP 09

Arne Takes Search for Clues on Road

Arne Duncan took a three-or-so day swing through the south, and along the way her reminded us about the many things he doesn't really get. Let's take a look at what comes up in coverage by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.Not Answering QuestionsAJC.com reported that in a meeting with a small, select audience, Arne was asked an excellent question by a student:Noting how often Duncan cited the criti

62 by Peter Greene / 3d 

Adding Insult to Injury

It's a fair question. There have been plenty of reform movement imposed on education-- why is the current wave of reforminess evoking such a severe reaction among teachers. It's not just the injuries that NCLB, RttT and Waiverism (RttT Lite) have inflicted on education. It's the insults that have gone with them.First, there's the professional insult.Imagine a family member is having car trouble. Y

100+ by Peter Greene / 4d 

SEP 08

John Oliver, Student Debt, and the Edubiz Marketplace

I really have nothing to add to this, but boy do you need to see it..Okay, I have one thing to add to it. He actually missed the part where the fed bailed out Corinthian.This is what twisted market forces look like when they hit education. When the government sets up a system with the main function of using students to funnel loan dollars to education based businesses, this is what you get. You ar

44 by Peter Greene / 4d 

The College Bias

It's not new and it's not hard to explain. After all, virtually all teachers are college educated. We're pre-disposed to a collegiate bias.Add to that the correlation between more education and more money, and add to that the manner in which DC (by way of CCSS) has institutionalized college as The Goal, and it's no surprise that in education, we have a decidedly pro-college bias.In many high schoo

100+ by Peter Greene / 4d 

SEP 07

TFA 4.0 & Minority Teachers

Teach for America is nothing if not flexible.In the oft-told tale, TFA was a targeted response to a specific problem-- inner-city schools that could not find enough qualified staff to fill their teacher positions. TFA would create an American teacher version of the Peace Corps, making it cool to put in a couple of years in a classroom before heading on to your real job.In fact, TFA 2.0 came fairly

35 by Peter Greene / 5d 

No, Education Post Is Not About Conversation

Twelve million dollars buys you a big splash. Many of us have launched blogs; very few of us have had heavy press coverage of the launch.When Anthony Cody, a nationally known education writer and activist left the nest at Education Week to launch Living in Dialogue, a website that features work from many of the top writers in education policy today, the Washington Post did not dispatch Lindsey Lay

67 by Peter Greene / 6d 

SEP 06

The Other Conservative Reform Argument

If you've been scratching your head and wondering why several prominent conservative ed writers and thinky tankists have been turning on the Common Core lately, we have an reminder of where a new argument could be headed.Over at SFGate, we find Vicki E. Alger, a thinky tankist from the Independent Institute (libertarian) in Oakland, presenting this article-- "American Education Needs Competit

27 by Peter Greene / 6d hide  //  save

Out Standing In Our Field

It's something that every teacher can do for all teachers. Get out into the communityI've heard the speech from fellow teachers-- "When I walk out of here at the end of the day, I don't want to see any students again until I walk back into school tomorrow." I have known teachers who deliberately bought homes well outside the district limits so that their home life would never, ever inter

6 by Peter Greene / 6d 

Efficiency Report Is Only Mostly That Bad

The edublogonewsphere buzzed a bit this week about a report from GEMS Education Solutions regarding educational efficiency and the fact that it finds the US somewhat lacking. It is, however, a large report, and some reporters made the mistake of skipping through to just the shiny, sexy parts. I'm not sure that the report has anything useful to tell us, but I don't think it's quite as outrageous as

38 by Peter Greene / 7d 

9-13-14 This Week in LA - School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD

LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District):

Next election season opens for 2015 primary

Next election season opens for 2015 primary With more than a month left before November’s election, the Los Angeles City Clerk is already looking toward the next election season. It announced today that candidates intending to run for office in the primary, slated for March 2015, must live in their respective districts by October 3. According to the City Charter, failure to meet the residency requ

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Kamala Harris: absenteeism interferes with ‘students’ rights’

Kamala Harris: absenteeism interferes with ‘students’ rights’ Attorney General Kamala Harris (photo by KNX) California Attorney General Kamala Harris appeared at LA Unfiied’s Malabar Elementary School today to highlight a report on truancy released by her office this week that shows a high correlation between attendance problems and both income and race. But the argument she’s using to bring atten

3 by Jamie Alter Lynto... / 18h 

Morning Read: Deasy’s attorney asks for LA school board emails

Morning Read: Deasy’s attorney asks for LA school board emails Attorney for Supt. Deasy asks for L.A. school board emails An attorney representing Los Angeles schools Supt. John Deasy is seeking records that would explore possible links between school board members and technology vendors. LA Times L.A. Unified should rescind plan to delete year-old emails Editorial: The requirement that most emai

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SEP 11

A teacher finds lessons in the awfulness of 9/11

A teacher finds lessons in the awfulness of 9/11 As with most moments in my adult life, it was my students and literature that taught me the most significant lessons about the meaning of 9/11. That morning felt unremarkable, even after my co-teacher came back into the room in the middle of second period to whisper something to me about planes crashing and terrorism. It was only my second year of t

2 1d 

Children’s Defense Fund names Alex Johnson as CA chief

Children’s Defense Fund names Alex Johnson as CA chief Alex Johnson, who finished behind George McKenna in the race to fill the LA Unified District 1 board seat, has added two new lines to his resume since the August election runoff. Nominated by his former boss, Mark Ridley-Thomas, Johnson is now a member of the LA County Board of Education, which mediates a variety of school district disputes, a

100+ 1d 

Two years later, teachers fighting changes at Crenshaw High

Two years later, teachers fighting changes at Crenshaw High A labor board hearing opened yesterday with a dozen LA Unified teachers, including UTLA president Alex Caputo-Pearl, claiming the district used the reorganization of Crenshaw High School in 2012 to rid the campus of active union leaders who posed a threat to Superintendent John Deasy. The teachers union filed the unfair labor practice cha

4 by Vanessa Romo / 1d 

Morning Read: LA Unified board enforces email deletion rule

Morning Read: LA Unified board enforces email deletion rule L.A. school board approves contract to destroy emails after a year The Los Angeles Unified School District took steps this week to enforce rules under which emails are deleted after one year, raising concerns about whether important public records would be destroyed in the process. LA Times Hearing opens on Crenshaw teachers’ claims of a

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SEP 10

Reps for LAUSD, teachers union talk about computers, not salaries

Reps for LAUSD, teachers union talk about computers, not salaries Another bargaining session came and went today and still no contract agreement between LA Unified and the teachers union, UTLA. The district said in a press release, “union leaders weren’t ready to talk about raises at the table,”  leaving the sides to focus, instead, on issues with the student-tracking system known as MiSiS, for My

6 2d 

Garcetti endorses Torlakson in state superintendent race

Garcetti endorses Torlakson in state superintendent race Mayor Garcetti Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti today endorsed state Superintendent Tom Torlakson in his bid for reelection against Marshall Tuck, a former charter school executive. Citing his leadership in improving school safety and creating the largest network of after-school programs in the nation, Garcetti said in a statement, “Tom Torla

48 2d 

LAUSD outlines backup plans as MiSiS work continues

LAUSD outlines backup plans as MiSiS work continues LA Unified is still scrambling to troubleshoot technical issues as the deadline for staffing schools approaches, the school board learned at its latest meeting yesterday. “Norm” day,” as it’s called, is set for Friday but problems with the new student data management system, MiSiS, have forced the district to devise a new plan: “The process will

27 by Vanessa Romo / 2d 

Caputo-Pearl Q&A: Running LAUSD like a business?

Caputo-Pearl Q&A: Running LAUSD like a business? Via the Los Angeles Times | By Patt Morrison It’s a funny world, and a small one. Alex Caputo-Pearl, the new head of United Teachers Los Angeles, went to school in the same Maryland school district where John Deasy, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, was once superintendent. They missed each other there, but now they’re i

3 2d 

Morning Read: LAUSD eyed Pearson software early on

Morning Read: LAUSD eyed Pearson software early on Early technology plans called for training on Pearson software The Los Angeles Unified School District’s early technology expansion plan called for all teachers to be trained on textbook publisher Pearson’s iPad educational software, according to a document obtained by KPCC. KPCC MiSiS computer mess could impact college applications Concerned tha

1 2d 

SEP 09

Teachers union ups pressure on Deasy over technology, contract

Teachers union ups pressure on Deasy over technology, contract President of UTLA, Alex Caputo-Pearl With a new contract on the line, the LA Unified teachers union, UTLA, is stepping up its attack on Superintendent John Deasy, blaming him for problems large and small and the opening line the district has taken for a new contract with teachers. Union president Alex Caputo-Pearl ratcheted up the tens

64 by Vanessa Romo / 3d 

LIVESTREAM coverage of LAUSD’s school board meeting today

LIVESTREAM coverage of LAUSD’s school board meeting today Today the LA Unified Board of Education will convene briefly at 10 a.m. before adjourning to a closed session. They will then reconvene at 1 p.m. for an open session, covering a variety of items. For the 10 a.m. board agenda, click here, and for board materials, here. For the 1 p.m. board agenda, click here, board materials, here, and the u

2 3d 

Torlakson, Tuck in statistical tie, according to new Field poll

Torlakson, Tuck in statistical tie, according to new Field poll Tom Torlakson (left), Marshall Tuck (right) A new Field poll shows that the race for state Superintendent of Public Education is tightening. Some might say it’s now nip and tuck. A survey conducted over the last two weeks in August of 467 people who said they were likely to vote in November found that the incumbent, Tom Torlakson, lea

86 3d 

Morning Read: LAUSD’s iPad program still raising questions

Morning Read: LAUSD’s iPad program still raising questions Questions persist over troubled iPad deployment in LA schools With the huge purchase plan suspended, Superintendent John Deasy has alternated between assertions of his acceptance of the slowdown as a chance to regroup and denunciations of others who he said had politicized the process. Government Technology Universal preschool spending dr

2 3d 

SEP 08

Progress (or lack of it) with teachers comes to LAUSD board

Progress (or lack of it) with teachers comes to LAUSD board Unlikely Co-sponsors: Galatzan (left), Ratliff (right) The LA Unified School Board returns tomorrow with a full agenda although a lot of the juicy stuff will be discussed in closed session. In addition to the usual topics — personnel issues and ongoing litigation — the board will review labor negotiations, which at this point is down to t

7 by Vanessa Romo / 4d 

Commentary: Vergara could be a win-win for students and teachers

Commentary: Vergara could be a win-win for students and teachers Via EdWeek | by Carl Finer As a veteran urban educator and career union member, I care deeply about both my students and building the systems to ensure that all students and teachers have what they need to be successful. In the legal precedent laid out in the controversial Vergara decision relating to teacher tenure in California, I

2 4d hide  //  save

Not everyone is rejoicing over halt to LAUSD’s iPad program

Not everyone is rejoicing over halt to LAUSD’s iPad program Green cells: schools that have already received iPads | Blue cells: school that will receive iPads | Uncolored cells: schools that were next to receive iPads, but now, won’t. Principal Steven Martinez of John Burroughs Middle School in Hancock Park figured the worst that could happen is that his school’s new iPads wouldn’t connect to the

5 by Vanessa Romo / 4d 

Morning Read: LA Unified teachers paid less than state peers

Morning Read: LA Unified teachers paid less than state peers LAUSD teachers are paid less than others in California Records obtained by the Daily News show that those LA teachers averaged $2,148 — about 3 percent — less in pay than peers at a majority of California schools last year. LA Daily News Why don’t more men go into teaching? Analysis: Across the country, teaching is an overwhelmingly fem

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