9-27-14 Missouri Education Watchdog This Week - Pediatrician’s Opinion on Common Core

Missouri Education Watchdog | “What's gotten in the way of education in the United States is a theory of social engineering that says there is ONE RIGHT WAY to proceed with growing up.” John Taylor Gatto:

Pediatrician’s Opinion on Common Core

This is a post from Stop Common Core in Mississippi on Facebook that currently has over 1,200 shares. Is this happening in your state?      

70 by Gretchen Logue / 3h 

#Commoncore Falls Apart in Alabama. But Don’t Worry: It’s All Candy Land.

Common Core State Standards Initiative has been an untested theory that is now in practice.  Promises made to parents (when CCSS was finally discovered by the public) that data tracking and standards written by private organizations (because teachers were too incompetent to know how/what to teach) were finally THE answer to higher student achievement.  How’s […]

15 by Gretchen Logue / 15min 

YESTERDAY

#Commoncore Falling Apart in Missouri

  Missouri schools are starting to experience with what early implementing Common Core states like New York and Kentucky found out about Common Core two years ago: it’s not higher or better.  Look what was was shared from a rural Missouri school:   Proponents will say it’s an implementation issue.  That explanation falls flat as […]

100+ by Gretchen Logue / 18h 

SEP 24

How Participants Not Involved in the Delphi Movement Viewed HB1490 Deliberations

If you read DESE’s press release about the last two days of work group deliberations pursuant to HB1490 directives, you would think they have been a smashing success and DESE is being helpful, rather than obstructive for a true exchange of ideas and thoughts on setting MISSOURI standards for MISSOURI kids:   (click on graphic […]

38 by Gretchen Logue / 2d 

SEP 23

Missouri Leadership Clarifies DESE’s Role in HB1490 Workgroups

The meetings yesterday in Jefferson City for the HB1490 workgroups were largely Delphi in nature by DESE and the facilitators.  In response to citizens contacting leadership yesterday expressing their displeasure and DESE not following bill language, Lt. Governor Peter Kinder issued the following letter clarifying DESE’s role in these workgroups: Thanks to leadership for the […]

26 by Gretchen Logue / 3d hide  //  save

SEP 22

Missouri 1490 Work Groups: DESE Delphied?

  We’ll be updating the work group process that started this morning in Jefferson City in accordance with HB1490 and the rewriting and development of Missouri standards, not standards written by private organizations held unaccountable to the public and legislature. Word from the citizens who are attending, it has been a total Delphi attempt by […]

100+ by Gretchen Logue / 4d 

SEP 21

Teacher’s Husband Explains What Common Core Leaves Out: Parental Responsibility.

We are all too familiar with the ever increasing stories of parents not being able to help their children with 2nd grade homework.  Chipper notes from school administrators offer sessions so parents (often with advanced degrees) can ‘learn how to help their children with math’.  Assessments are done online and parents don’t know how these […]

100+ by Gretchen Logue / 5d 

NYC Educator: Cuomo, After Court Victory, Extends Supermajority Concept

NYC Educator: Cuomo, After Court Victory, Extends Supermajority Concept:

Cuomo, After Court Victory, Extends Supermajority Concept

In another great victory, Governor Andrew Cuomo has defeated a challenge demanding that votes that say "yes" to supporting public schools be counted with equal weight to those who vote "no." The judge suggested the one-person, one vote thing was outmoded and unnecessary.

A judge struck down the NYSUT lawsuit demanding that people who vote "yes" to school budgets have their votes count

McGrath noted the Brenner case in Missouri where the U.S. Supreme Court authorized super-majorities, so long as the threshold was not set to discriminate against any specific racial, ethnic, or religious group.

Cuomo commented, "This is a great victory for not only the people of New York, but also for me, the student lobbyist. There's really no way I can help the students for whom I lobby better than by making sure that less money goes to their schools. With fewer teachers and huge class sizes, they'll learn that this world is a tough place, and that they have to fight for everything they want. Unless, of course, your dad is Governor of New York. For example, I've had everything handed to me on a silver platter, and my kids go to private schools where they won't have to put up with this crap."

Indeed, it appears the only crap with which Governor Cuomo has to contend is Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade, but who really knows whether she actually eats that stuff when she isn't on TV? I mean, with all that money they save when they refuse to pay taxes on home improvements, you'd NYC Educator: Cuomo, After Court Victory, Extends Supermajority Concept:

5 Options for Active Participation~R4Ed. - Musical Media For Education

5 Options for Active Participation~R4Ed. - Musical Media For Education:

5 Options for Active Participation~R4Ed.

posted 8 hours ago

2014-15 School Year:

1) School Validation Visits

2 hour visit(s) to public schools during the 2014-15 school year for on-site “evaluations” based on Learner-Centered R4Ed. criteria (anti-Common Core). Schools receive Red Seal of Approval/Removal, with optional half hour school assembly to maximize the teachable moment. Low time demand; tailored to your schedule. R4Ed. logistics and optional fb training provided before Visits. Accompanied by R4Ed. staff.

2) Public Endorsement of Goals

Off/On fb. Name, Photo, + single phrase identifier superimposed on jumbo “For R4Ed.”+ R4Ed. Goals beneath:
~Unplug “Education Reform”/privatization/Common Core from US public schools
~Limit Standardized Testing, Scripted & Screen-Based Teaching
~Support High Quality Public Education for ALL
~Increase Learner-Centered Instruction

3) Protest Song

"STOP! Put Your Pencils Down" and/or "Script, Screen & Standardization", along the lines of "We Are the World", with interactive digital option for students and teachers. Public ownership/Creative Commons License.

4) Donations

lf Validation Visits are more than a few or outside the NYC metropolitan area, R4Ed. staff will be required and a small budget will be necessary. Lance would be full time R4Ed. 2014-15, budget permitting, with hourly support from SUNY New Paltz college students. R4Ed. is currently seeking umbrella status under an existing, like-missioned nonprofit.

5) LLC Membership: Musical Media for Education (MME)

R4Ed. & MME play autonomous but complementary roles. Musical Media For Education is an independent Social Studies curriculum provider. MME was a sole proprietorship from 2003-2014, when it became an LLC. It is now positioned for a large-scale launch. Eventually MME products/services will split into independent profit and nonprofit entities. The opportunity to invest in MME LLC is a business consideration, whether or not to co-own an independent Social Studies curriculum provider through LLC membership. For background and investor information please scroll Larry L. Carlson if you are not already there. To reserve 1-5 membership shares, request the friendship of Larry L. Carlsson.

Larry L. Carlson 
https://www.facebook.com/larryllcarlson?fref=ts

Larry L. Carlsson
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006754606939&fref=ts

Thank You for taking a stand for kids, teachers & all of our future.

Lance Fialkoff 
Lance@mm-ed.com

5 Options for Active Participation~R4Ed. - Musical Media For Education:

Our Connected Educator Month #CPChats Are Back In October #CE14 | Connected Principals

Our Connected Educator Month #CPChats Are Back In October #CE14 | Connected Principals:

Our Connected Educator Month #CPChats Are Back In October #CE14

by Patrick Larkin • September 27, 2014 • 0 Comments

We are excited that for the second straight year Connected Principals will be working in conjunction with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) and the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) during the month of October to help promote Connected Educator Month and National Principals Month. With this in mind, we will be participating in a series of weekly Twitter Chats beginning this coming Thursday at 8 p.m. EST.

So please mark your calendar now for the following dates:

• Thursday, October 2 
• Thursday, October 9
• Thursday, October 16
• Thursday, October 23
• Thursday, October 30

The topic for this week’s chat will be - How Principals Can Best Support Technology Integration In Their Schools. Our moderators this week will be Jason Markey and Rosie Vojtek.

Jason is the Principal of Easy Leyden High School in Franklin Park, Illinois and a winner of the 2014 Digital Principal’s Award from NASSP.

Rosie is the Principal of Ivy Drive Elementary School in Bristol, CT and the President ISTE’s SIGADMIN group.

Please spread the word so that we can bring more people into the conversation and help educators grow their networks during Connected Educator Month. While Connected Principals is excited to facilitate these chats, we welcome all educational stakeholders to join in! Together we are smarter!

Stay tuned for details regarding the remainder of our October Chats! If you would like to help moderate a chat during the month please connect with me on Twitter. For more resources to support your school and colleagues in participating in Connected Educator Month be sure to check out the Connected Educators website.

Who’s Getting Caught In The “School-to-Prison” Pipeline? And Why? | PopularResistance.Org

Who’s Getting Caught In The “School-to-Prison” Pipeline? And Why? | PopularResistance.Org:

Who’s Getting Caught In The “School-to-Prison” Pipeline? And Why?

EDUCATE! EDUCATION, MASS INCARCERATION, RACISM 
By Frederick Reese, www.mintpressnews.com
September 27th, 2014

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AP Photo

The U.S. prison population is disproportionately black. The same racial disparity can be seen in the students who are punished in the nation’s schools. The connection between these two phenomena are stronger — and more insidious — than many may understand.

A crisis continues to unfold in the United States’ prisons, where the prison population is vastly disproportionate to the country’s general population demographics. Per 2013 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, blacks represented 13.2 percent of the U.S. population, yet, according to the Sentencing Project, blacks represented 38 percent of all individuals in federal or state prisons, as of 2011.

This imbalance has manifest at a time when for-profit prisons are posting record profits and announcing their expansion into other segments of the post-judicial corrections portfolio. For example, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, Corrections Corporation of America — the nation’s largest for-profit prison operator — has responded to calls coming from some states regarding the high cost of long-term housing of inmates by announcing expansions of the company’s prison rehabilitation, drug counseling and prisoner re-entry programs.

This diversification has created the impression that the CCA is not only seeking to be the primary jailer in many states, but is also seeking to offer the alternative to incarceration in these communities. In light of the CCA’s and other for-profit prison operators’ heavy political lobbying and the private prison industry’s record for having a higher racially disproportionate population than what exists in comparable public prisons, there is reason to believe that CCA and other for-profit prison operators are succeeding in “gaming the system.”

“What CCA is doing is vertically-integrating,” said Charles Gallagher, chair of the sociology and criminology department at La Salle University, to MintPress News. “The for-profit prison population has increased recently, so there is little need for the for-profit prison providers to hedge against losses. What the for-profits are doing is trying to corner the after-prison market — the halfway houses, the drug treatment centers, etc. — with the understanding that if they were to enter this market, they would likely end up controlling it.”

While there is evidence to suggest that the growth in non-violent crime apprehension and sentencing is a component of both the race disparity in prisons and the profit spike among for-profit prisons, there may be a more prominent explanation of why there are so many blacks and Latinos in the prison system today.

The school-to-prison pipeline

In the years since the Columbine High School Massacre, in which two high school students — Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold — killed 13 students and teachers and injured 21 others at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, schools have increasingly taken a “zero-tolerance” approach to in-school disruptions. While this approach may help ease parents’ concerns about a school’s safety, the realities of these policies cast a troubling image.

In 2009, for example, the Los Angeles Unified School District reported that among its students who were given out-of-school suspensions, 62 percent were Hispanic and 33 percent were black. Only 3 percent were white. Similarly, the West Valley School District in Spokane, Washington, reported that of the students who were expelled that year, 20 percent were black and 60 percent were white — this, for a school district whose student body is 86 percent white and 4 percent black.

Also in 2009, in the Normandy School District of St. Louis, 100 percent of all students who received more than one out-of-school suspension, 100 percent of all students expelled Who’s Getting Caught In The “School-to-Prison” Pipeline? And Why? | PopularResistance.Org:

Teaching U.S. History in a Failing School | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Teaching U.S. History in a Failing School | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Teaching U.S. History in a Failing School

I observed this teacher teaching three history classes a few months ago in a persistently low-performing high school on the cusp of being “restructured.” All names are fictitious.

Standing in the hallway outside of his classroom—a school policy as students move from one class to another–Mark Allison sports a gray-flecked goatee, mustache, and a ponytail of braided dreadlocks. He is wearing a lavender tie on a light, patterned purple shirt with dark-gray cargo pants. A man in his mid-50s he is friendly with students as they pass by calling many by name or “sister” and “brother.” Most of the students say “hi” back, wave, bump fists or shake hands.

Allison teaches African American history and U.S. government. A veteran teacher, he has taught in the District 36 years of which 28 have been at Greenwich High School.

As the tardy chimes sound for the 40 minute period to begin, Allison closes the door and enters a bright, large classroom. On the wall behind the teacher’s desk in one corner of the room (a laptop, the only computer device in the room, sits on Allison’s desk) is a large bulletin board filled with photos of students in his classes. On the opposite wall is a glass-enclosed case displaying famous photos of individuals and events of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. Student desks are arranged in a horseshoe with Allison sitting at a student desk in the center of the horseshoe with a slide carousel projector ready for the day’s lesson.

There are three students in the class. Within 10 minutes there are four more. Five minutes before the end of the period, another student enters.

The lesson I observed was part of the unit he teaches on the Civil Rights movement. He begins with the three students by passing out four cards to each one with questions and answers on events during the 1950s and 1960s.

In a game he invented, one student asks a question and another student has to figure out which of the answers he or she has on the four cards is the correct one. As a tardy student entered, Allison paused and said: “are you ready to learn, brother?” He then gave the latecomer the four cards and explained the game quickly. The students were immediately involved and the group expanded to six as latecomers arrived. All six used the Q & A on the cards in their hands as they traded questions and answers (according to Allison’s records, 20 students are enrolled in the course).

Allison sits close to the students listening and, from time to time, coaching those who were having difficulty in either providing an answer or matching the right one to the question asked. For example, one of the questions on the card asks about affirmative action and students were stumped. Allison then gives an Teaching U.S. History in a Failing School | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Preparing Teachers for Urban Schools

“Please to God, if you are going to send … [new teachers] into urban schools, prepare them a bit better than I was prepared.” (quoted in Bethany Rogers, pp. 353-354) If I asked you to guess when this novice teacher said the above words, a good guess might be last week, last month, or last year. Actually, it came from a new teacher who had graduated from a university-based teacher education program

9 by larrycuban / 3d hide  //  save

SEP 21

Math Teaching–Cartoons

For the monthly feature of cartoons, I have found that the cartoonist’s pen spared no ink on popular attitudes toward math and how it is taught in schools.  Enjoy!                  

24 by larrycuban / 6d 

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog 9-27-14

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog:

U.S. Launches Air Strikes Against ISIS Targets in Syria

The Guardian has the story here.Obama said in a televised address on 10 September that he would expand the US war against Isis into Syria, reversing a longstanding caution against involving the US in the bloody confusion of Syria’s civil war...The escalation of the war into Syria comes without explicit congressional authorisation. Last week, Congress agreed to provide $500m requested by Obama for

by L. Jablonski / 4d 

SEP 20

Strong Mayor Proposal for Sacramento: Debate on Monday

Students in periods 3 and 4, here is an opportunity for political participation credit by learning more about the controversial November ballot proposal backed by mayor Kevin Johnson to change city governance into what's commonly known as a "strong mayor" system. Details:The Sierra Curtis Neighborhood Association will host a community forum/debate on Measure L, also known as the "St

7 by L. Jablonski / 6d 

SEP 12

Politics and the English Language

Periods 5 and 6 read George Orwell's Politics and the English Language this week.  The essay is an appropriate starting point for our study of government and politics because it focuses on language and writing, specifically how the modern decadence of our language is both a cause and effect of our corrupted thoughts.    Political language is especially important because, as Orwell, argues,  "

8 by L. Jablonski / 14d 

SEP 07

Stop and Seize: How Aggressive Policing is Taking the Property of Those Never Charged with Crimes

Many of you in periods 5 and 6 read The New Jim Crow this summer.  Here are two must-read and watch pieces that underscore and illustrate even more acutely the use and impact of asset seizure and forfeiture as explained by author Michelle Alexander in Chapter 2, "The Lockdown."  The Washington Post, with a blockbuster multi-part investigation into police asset forfeiture practices: Stop

4 by L. Jablonski / 19d 

AUG 30

Ferguson Readings

                                 Photo: Scott Olson, GettyHere is a very incomplete list of thought-provoking articles on the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the protests as a result and the militarization of local policy forces.Mariame Kaba with a commentary in the Washington Post: For Blacks, America is Dangerous by Default  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (yes, THAT Kareem Abdul-Jabb

by L. Jablonski / 27d 

AUG 26

Ferguson, Missouri

The New Yorker's cover for the week we return to school,  Eric Drooker's "Ferguson, Missouri." “An artist friend of mine was killed by a cop in lower Manhattan, back in 1991. He happened to be black, and the police officer was never indicted.” Drooker continues, “As a resident of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, I witnessed the blurring distinctions between the police and military during the

26 by L. Jablonski / 31d 

JUN 10

New Parents Depending on Apps for Parenting Guide

New parents, starting with this generation, are depending on their smartphones to help them survive raising their child. Instead of using their own knowledge to raise their child, the parents download parenting apps online. These apps help parents in all ways physically and mentally. There are apps that relate to a baby's health and emotion; parents would determine whether their child was healthy

1 by Vincent Chan / 108d 

JUN 08

The Leading Web Browser; Google's Web Browser

Since computers were invented, the web browser, Internet Explorer (IE), was the most popular web browser to be used. As computers and software start expanding, different web browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Google Chrome, were developed but were not used as much as IE because every new monitor purchased comes with IE already installed. This lead to IE being the most used of all the ot

1 by Vincent Chan / 110d 

JUN 02

AP U.S. Government Summer Reading (Periods 5 and 6)

Summer reading assignment for all AP US Govt students (non-HISP) who will be in my classes next year is available here. 

1 by L. Jablonski / 117d 

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog 4-26-14

Ms. Jablonski's Class Blog:Russia is Still Having Fun with the UkraineSo there are now up to 40,000 Russian troops equipped with all their fighting machines on the border of the Ukraine. Russia has annexed Crimea and clearly shows intent of not stopping there. Ethnically Russian cities inside of the Ukrainian border have exploded in revolt and violence has torn the streets. There are cities in the

by mike simpson / 7d