Jeb Bush Touts Canada, School Vouchers, ISIS Plan in New Hampshire - US News

Jeb Bush Touts Canada, School Vouchers, ISIS Plan in New Hampshire - US News:

Bush Touts Canada, ISIS Plan in New Hampshire

The potential presidential candidate also blasted public schools as 'monopolies' in a pre-campaign jaunt.

HUDSON, N.H. – In his first trip to the Granite State as a potential 2016 presidential candidate, Jeb Bush defended his inclusive immigration position, blasted public schools as “monopolies” and provided a fresh outline for how he’d confront the barbaric Islamic State group as commander-in-chief.

The former two-term Republican governor of Florida toured a biosciences lab Friday and then fielded nearly 40 minutes of questions from local business and education leaders during a round-table. All the while, a jostling herd of media trailed, photographed and livestreamed his every move, reinforcing his outsize presence in the pre-primary phase of the campaign.

Immigration

Bush stood by his view that the U.S. should move toward an immigration system driven by economics that would allow millions to come out of the shadows and attain legal status.

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Jeb Bush Seeks to Keep Calm, Carry On

He pointed due north for an example.

“Canada has more economic immigrants than we do,” he said. “I wonder which country has the best economic benefit. I think Canada probably has the better deal.”

To those on the right who malign him as an advocate of amnesty, Bush formulated a response.

“It’s easy to say, ‘Anything you propose is amnesty.’ But that’s not a plan. That’s a sentiment,” he said.

School Vouchers

Bush is “all in” on moving to expand vouchers to allow more children to attend private schools. And his disdain for the current public school system was on full display, as he compared it to a company that has grown so large it’s overwhelmed the competition.

“Our funding is based on funding the monopolies. It’s about funding the public school system,” he lamented, “not necessarily the needs of the students.”

Asked later if he favored privatizing the Department of Veterans Affairs to increase the efficiency of care for veterans, he said he didn’t know if that was appropriate.

The Islamic State Group

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Bush, Cruz Curb Their Pander in Iowa

Bush also provided his most extensive answer to date on how he would “tighten the noose” on the Islamic State group.

He said he favored carving out a protected zone in northeast Syria that would provide a haven for an international army led by the Free Syrian Army, which includes defectors from the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. This would allow an allied coalition to “engage and isolate” the extremists, Bush argued.

He indicated U.S. troops would be part of an overarching plan to deal with borderless violence in the Middle East. Bush said he favored placing “some small-force level” of troops in Iraq to train and assist Iraqi forces.

“You can’t do it by going to the U.N.,” he said.

But Bush also carefully rejected the perception that he’s an Jeb Bush Touts Canada, School Vouchers, ISIS Plan in New Hampshire - US News:

California’s education quality conundrum - Lodinews.com: Joe Guzzardi

Joe Guzzardi: California’s education quality conundrum - Lodinews.com: Joe Guzzardi:

Joe Guzzardi: California’s education quality conundrum

 A report released in January reiterated a familiar theme for California’s teachers, administrators and parents. Compiled by the nonprofit Education Week, “Quality Counts” gave California’s schools a terrible “D-”grade, which put it in 42nd place nationwide as measured by key performance standards including K-12 academic achievement, early education participation and funding.

“Quality Counts” is the latest in a seemingly endless series of reports that place California at or near the bottom of U.S. school systems.

Only eight states did worse. None received an “A” grade. Massachusetts and New Jersey topped the list with “B.”

Among the report’s broader findings, many school-age children are growing up in poverty and in households where parents don’t speak fluent English. California ranked next to last in at-home language proficiency and also 49th in household heads that are employed year-round and participate in the labor force full-time. Since the California Department of Finance projects that most of the state’s population growth over the next 30 years will be Hispanic and Asian, parental language challenges may remain.

California’s Local Control and Funding Formula is the latest attempt to solve the state’s persistent education dilemmas. In addition to emphasizing academic achievement as well as college and career readiness, certainly not a new wrinkle, the LCFF empowers local districts to have greater decision making authority in how they meet the states’ academic goals for all its students.

But an analysis of the National Center for Education Statistics’ Schools and Staffing Survey found that 54 percent of principals view literacy skills as their most important objective while only 2 percent identify college or career advancement as a priority.

The survey, therefore, indicates that school administrators have set a lower bar for success than Sacramento’s Department of Education. The task is how to align teachers’ practical classroom issues with Sacramento’s loftier and possibly unachievable goals.

One ingredient in the quest for success that might help teachers and students alike is LCFF’s requirement for greater parental involvement. To date, few schools meaningfully involve parents in decision making. Only half of schools have staff specifically assigned to encourage parental participation. Most instead rely on traditional parent-teacher conferences, open houses or special language meetings to resolve individual issues.

Including parents in administrative decisions could be difficult to effectively manage. But promoting greater parental involvement in a child’s success is not hard, and is a proven ingredient in success. After the National Education Association conducted decade-long research, it learned that regardless of family income or ethnic background, parental Joe Guzzardi: California’s education quality conundrum - Lodinews.com: Joe Guzzardi:

L.A. teachers launch union drive at Alliance charter schools - LA Times

L.A. teachers launch union drive at Alliance charter schools - LA Times:

L.A. teachers launch union drive at Alliance charter schools

Teachers at the largest charter school organization in Los Angeles have launched a drive to unionize, a move that could alter the path of school reform in the city.

Charter schools, which are independently managed and publicly funded, have grown rapidly in Los Angeles, drawing students and funding from the school district. For the most part, their teachers are not unionized. That traditionally has put charters at odds with the teachers union.

Increasingly, charter organizations and the union are seen as political adversaries in charting the future of public schools.

A successful push by educators at the Alliance College-Ready Public Schools would hand an important victory to United Teachers Los Angeles as it struggles to reverse years of declining membership. The move could also pose a challenge to charters, which have been able to hire and fire staff without union rules — a key factor they believe helps provide the best instruction for students.

Nearly 70 teachers and counselors sent a letter Friday to the high-performing charter group, explaining their intention to partner with the teachers union. The letter asked for "a fair and neutral process" that would allow educators to organize without fear of retaliation.

"We believe that when teachers have a respected voice in policymaking it leads to school sustainability and teacher retention," said Elana Goldbaum, who teaches history at Gertz-Ressler High School, a member of the Alliance group. "We have a lot of talent and we want to see that stay. We want to see our teachers be a part of the decision-making and we want to advocate for our students and ourselves."

Unionizing would require majority support from the 500-plus teachers and counselors at the Alliance schools. The educators who sent the letter Friday also launched a website and asked colleagues to join them.

In a statement, leaders of the 11,000-student charter group said that they would not stop the teachers from pursuing union affiliation.L.A. teachers launch union drive at Alliance charter schools - LA Times:

Did You Know I Am “Funded by the Teachers Union”? | deutsch29

Did You Know I Am “Funded by the Teachers Union”? | deutsch29:



Did You Know I Am “Funded by the Teachers Union”?

 I did not know so myself.

Not until Julie Stroud Trivitt, assistant professor of economics at the Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas wrote as much on Facebook by way of advising another person to “follow the money” on me for my position on charters.

Trivitt draws her paycheck from a “college of business” that advertises itself as “We Are Walton”… When we say “WE ARE WALTON,” we mean it.”

The same page also alludes to its “corporate sponsors.” In 2013, the Walton Foundation paid $1.2 million to the University of Arkansas Foundation.

The Walton Foundation is big on charters and vouchers. The Waltons footed the bill for New Orleans’ OneApp process for applying for admission to New Orleans’ less than impressive, embarrassingly low ACT-scoring charter school system.

The Walton family also has an established, anti-union history.

Given a hefty, Walton-privatizing presence in Arkansas, it should come as no surprise that education privatization should move into Little Rock in the form of a bill to take over any “failing” school district and hand it over to a charter operator.

The Walton Foundation funded the bill. As the Arkansas Times notes:

[Author of the bill] Cozart chairs the Education Committee. His bill is the work of Walton Family Foundation-funded lobbyists and has the apparent backing of Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who’s promised wealthy Arkansans such as the Waltons and Democrat-Gazette Publisher Walter Hussman who back the so-called “reform” movement, to do earthshaking things, beginning in Little Rock.

The Waltons are keen on charter operators. One of their favorites is KIPP. Walton gave the KIPP Foundation $8.8 million in 2013.

Some individuals object to a privatized Little Rock school system. In registering her objection, one such person happened to post a piece I wrote in December 2014, entitled, A Walton’s Plan to Fix Public Education. Uh. Huh.

But Walton-backed economics professor Trivitt was there to set the record straight on the likes of me and my distaste for multi-billionaire-purchased “choice.” Here is what Did You Know I Am “Funded by the Teachers Union”? | deutsch29:

Common Core tests were supposed to be immune to test prep. So why are kids spending weeks prepping anyway? - The Hechinger Report

Common Core tests were supposed to be immune to test prep. So why are kids spending weeks prepping anyway? - The Hechinger Report:



Common Core tests were supposed to be immune to test prep. So why are kids spending weeks prepping anyway?

Third-graders’ reaction to timed tests: “Oh, I can’t do this. There’s no way I can do it.”

NEW ORLEANS — Five weeks before the start of March testing, with excitement bubbling over for Mardi Gras, it was practice-test week at New Orleans’ John Dibert Community School at Phillis Wheatley.

Instead of thinking about parades, beads and king cakes, fourth-graders were intent on the test papers before them and a large digital clock counting down on the whiteboard. Signs posted outside the classroom door cautioned “quiet, testing in progress.”

In Bodie Manly’s fifth-grade math class, students were reviewing material they’d likely see on the test. Some worked independently on laptops at their desks with headphones on while others gathered in a small group on the floor, manipulating colored foam shapes and puzzling over the fractional parts of a hexagon. The three-dimensional pieces enabled them to physically separate the hexagon into its many parts in order to visualize solutions. They were scheduled for the math practice test later that week.

All the preparation may not do much good. This year, Louisiana students are taking new math and English standardized tests linked to the Common Core, the five-year-old national learning standards adopted by more than 40 states — which test-makers and many education experts say will be less susceptible to the intensive test-prep techniques of the past.

Laura Slover, CEO of Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), whose exam is the model for Louisiana’s new test, has written that “there is no ‘test prep’ for these tests; these are the kinds of test items that require understanding of concepts and application that only come through a year of effective teaching, not through ‘drill and kill.’”

Nonetheless, it’s not stopping many Louisiana schools from trying — not so much to improve student performance, but to boost student confidence as children are tested for the first time on the Common Core.

Fifth-graders Kayla Venson, 11, and Amir Hansell, 10, review math Common Core tests were supposed to be immune to test prep. So why are kids spending weeks prepping anyway? - The Hechinger Report:

So-called Education Reform & the Art of Deception | Creative by Nature

So-called Education Reform & the Art of Deception | Creative by Nature:

So-called Education Reform & the Art of Deception

Posted on March 2, 2015by Christopher Chase

The following are excerpts from a promotional pdf co-written in 2012 by Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) director Joe Williams & Charles Barone. The DFER group has links to Eli Broad, TFA, the Gates Foundation, charter schools and Wall Street hedge funds. They also helped place Arne Duncan in the position of Secretary of Education. From their paper:

PRESIDENT OBAMA IS THE BEST MESSENGER ‘THE MOVEMENT’ HAS EVER HAD

“For years, education reform was strong on message and somewhat weak on messengers. Too many of those who stepped forward to assume that role had their motives questioned… This President, chided by the right for his background as a community organizer, shattered that reality and reminded us that education reform is a deal which can, and must, be closed by Democrats.

The core of DFER’s mission rests on the understanding that it is our Party, the Democrats, which needs to take responsibility for preserving this crucial public institution, the cornerstone of our democracy. As Republican politicians like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie have noted, political reality necessitates that education reforms be led by Democrats if they are to succeed.

Indeed, governors of both parties nationwide have been empowered by the “cover” that has come from a Democratic President who has been willing to embrace reforms that are not always in line with the priorities of the nation’s powerful teachers unions.

The evidence of what this shift in a political messenger can bring is clear-cut. As a result of the RTTT competition, fifteen states lifted caps on the creation of new charter schools, and one state enacted a charter school law. Charter schools flourished more under three years of Obama than under eight years of George W. Bush. Funding for state charter school grants, for example, stayed between about $68 million and $81 million during Bush’s two terms, but jumped to $138 million during Obama’s first full budget year.

This increase wasn’t accidental – it was keeping a promise that then-candidate Obama made on the campaign trail. Obama also initiated, for the first time ever, a competitive grant program to expand and replicate high-quality charter school programs such as KIPP, Success Charter Network, and Uncommon Schools. In its first year alone, this program enabled 76,000 more students to attend 127 new and 31 expanded public charter schools in a dozen charter school networks nationwide.

The results of President Obama’s leadership on education have been profound in other areas as well. States from coast to coast have changed (or are in the process of changing) So-called Education Reform & the Art of Deception | Creative by Nature:

Ignored by the Common Core agenda—Making the link between poverty, nutrition and poor performance in school | Crazy Normal - the Classroom Exposé

Ignored by the Common Core agenda—Making the link between poverty, nutrition and poor performance in school | Crazy Normal - the Classroom Exposé:



Ignored by the Common Core agenda—Making the link between poverty, nutrition and poor performance in school

At a Glance:

Twelve weeks of supplementation with vitamins and minerals was found to boost the attention scores of children, according to results published in the British Journal of Nutrition.

“It is well known that adequate levels of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients are essential for optimal neural functioning. A significant percentage of individuals, including children, suffer from deficiencies in one or more vitamins or minerals. This study investigated whether daily supplementation with a multivitamin could alter cognitive performance and mood in healthy children.

“The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study included 81 healthy children aged 8-14. The children were reportedly all healthy and free from food allergies. None of the children used other dietary supplements during the three months prior to the study. Participants were randomly assigned to daily multivitamin and mineral supplements or placebo for 12 weeks

“The children underwent laboratory assessments of their cognitive performance and mood pre-dose and at 1 and 3 h post-dose on the first and last days of the trial.  Assessments were also completed at home after 4 and 8 weeks at 3 hours post-dose. Cognitive performance was measured using a battery of laboratory assessments, which included tasks assessing mood and the speed and accuracy of attention and aspects of memory. The children in the vitamin/mineral group performed more accurately on two tests of attention. No effects were observed on measures of the children’s mood

“Although the results of this study require further investigation, it suggests that vitamin/mineral supplementation has the potential to improve brain function in healthy children.”

• Haskell CF et al. Cognitive and mood effects in healthy children during 12 weeks’ supplementation with Ignored by the Common Core agenda—Making the link between poverty, nutrition and poor performance in school | Crazy Normal - the Classroom Exposé:

Is @TeachForAmerica pimping poverty? | Cloaking Inequity

Is @TeachForAmerica pimping poverty? | Cloaking Inequity:

Is @TeachForAmerica pimping poverty?

Few would argue that educational inequity is of grave national and international concern. Much less widely understood is how educational inequity is tied to societal inequity, and then, following that, how to alter these structures, particularly in times of widening gaps between the wealthy, and well, everyone else. Teach for America has an explicitly articulated goal and theory of change (Tuck, 2009) for transforming education, in the video above and many other freely available sources. This explicitness allows the thousands affected by this fast-track teacher training program to engage with what the approach affords and what it obscures.

Through its own website and pro forma recruitment letters, Teach for America “is working to end educational inequity by recruiting outstanding college graduates, from all majors, to teach for two years in low-income communities.” TFA also frequently cites a statistic that only one in ten children growing up in poverty will graduate from college.

TFA is both right and wrong. Poverty and the growing chasm between the wealthy and the rest of the population is intricately connected to educational outcomes. In fact, statistically speaking, the best predictor of educational attainment has long been and unfortunately remains, not motivation, individual ability, or even grit, but socioeconomic status and the education level of students’ parents, not their teachers. In other words, as much as it may be abrasive to national discourses that position individual effort as pivotal to success, trends in educational Is @TeachForAmerica pimping poverty? | Cloaking Inequity:

Bob Braun's Ledger Screen Shot : Pearson, NJ, spying on social media of students taking PARCC tests

Big Education Ape: UPDATE: Pearson, NJ, spying on social media of students taking PARCC tests | Bob Braun's Ledger:



TO MY BLOG AND FACEBOOK FRIENDS: My site has been attacked and has been shut down to stop the attack. You might want to contact Pearson and let them know you don't appreciate suppression of legitimate news.

Bob Braun's Ledger and its related email is down because of a "denial of service" attack. My only access to readers at the moment is Facebook and Twitter. These guys don't screw around. You might want to see if you can get mainstream media interested in reporting about what happens when legitimate news stories offend corporations like Pearson.


From Bob Braun's Ledger on FaceBook 732 PM PST


Click Here to go to Bob Braun's Ledger on FaceBook

http://bobbraunsledger.com/category/education/

http://bobbraunsledger.com/category/education/

http://bobbraunsledger.com/category/education/

UPDATE: Pearson, NJ, spying on social media of students taking PARCC tests | Bob Braun's Ledger

Education | Bob Braun's Ledger:

TO MY BLOG AND FACEBOOK FRIENDS: My site has been attacked and has been shut down to stop the attack. You might want to contact Pearson and let them know you don't appreciate suppression of legitimate news.

Bob Braun's Ledger and its related email is down because of a "denial of service" attack. My only access to readers at the moment is Facebook and Twitter. These guys don't screw around. You might want to see if you can get mainstream media interested in reporting about what happens when legitimate news stories offend corporations like Pearson.


From Bob Braun's Ledger on FaceBook 732 PM PST

APOLOGIES--MY SITE HAS CRASHED BECAUSE OF INTEREST IN THE STORY ABOUT PEARSON/STATE SPYING ON STUDENTS TAKING THE PARCC TEST Bob Braun's Ledger on FaceBook

BREAKING: Pearson, NJ, spying on social media of students taking PARCC tests

”  Pearson, the multinational testing and publishing company, is spying on the social media posts of students–including those from New Jersey–while the children are taking their PARCC, statewide tests, this site has learned exclusively. The state education department is cooperating with this spying and has asked at least one school district to discipline students who may have said something inappropriate about the tests.
Continue reading → Check out the note from Bob below:

Bob Braun's Ledger on FaceBook

APOLOGIES--MY SITE HAS CRASHED BECAUSE OF INTEREST IN THE STORY ABOUT PEARSON/STATE SPYING ON STUDENTS TAKING THE PARCC TEST--If anyone out there saved it to PDF, please send it to me at bob@bobbraunsledger and I will post it here on Facebook. Sorry I'm such a technical dunce. It's a generational thing.

Reference Bob Braun's Leger From Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education FaceBook Page:

Thanks, SBOE! Pearson would create ISTEP for just over $38 million and IREAD-3, Indiana’s third-grade reading test, for almost $7 million.....and the spying comes at no extra charge. What a deal!

"Pearson, the multinational testing and publishing company, is spying on the social media posts of students–including those from New Jersey–while the children are taking their PARCC, statewide tests, this site has learned exclusively. The state education department is cooperating with this spying and has asked at least one school district to discipline students who may have said something inappropriate about the tests.

This website discovered the unauthorized and hidden spying thanks to educators who informed it of the practice–a practice happening throughout the state and apparently throughout the country. The spying–or “monitoring,” to use Pearson’s word–was confirmed at one school district–the Watchung Hills Regional High School district in Warren by its superintendent, Elizabeth Jewett.

Jewett sent out an e-mail–posted here– to her colleagues expressing concern about the unauthorized spying on students. She said parents are upset and added that she thought Pearson’s behavior would contribute to the growing “opt out” movement.

In her email, Jewett said the district’s testing coordinator received a late night call from the state education department saying that Pearson had “initiated a Priority 1 Alert for an item breach within our school.”

The unnamed state education department employee contended a student took a picture of a test item and tweeted it. But it turned out the student had posted–at 3:18 pm, after testing was over–a tweet about one of the items with no picture. Jewett does not say the student revealed a question. Jewett continues:

“The student deleted the tweet and we spoke with the parent–who was obviously highly concerned as to her child’s tweets being monitored by the DOE (state education department).

“The DOE informed us that Pearson is monitoring all social media during the PARCC testing.”

Jewett continued: I have to say that I find that a bit disturbing–and if our parents were concerned before about a conspiracy with all of the student data, I am sure I will be receiving more letters of refusal once this gets out.”

The school superintendent also expressed concern about “the fact that the DOE wanted us to also issue discipline to the student.”

I contacted Jewett by email. By that time she had discovered three instances in which Pearson notified the state education department of the results of its spying. In her email to me, Jewett was vague about the role of Pearson and the education department. She wrote:

“In reference to the issue of PARCC infractions and DOE/Pearson monitoring social media, we have had three incidents over the past week. All situations have been dealt with in accordance with our Watchung Hills Regional High School code of conduct and academic integrity policy. Watchung Hills Regional High School is a relatively small district and a close-knit community; therefore, I am very concerned that whatever details your sources are providing may cause unnecessary labeling and hardship to students who are learning the consequences of their behavior.”

Jewett acted professionally, I believe, but I must point out the irony of her lecturing me about protecting the identity of students when she has just dealt with an inexcusable breach of privacy involving minors. I made it clear to her I have no intention of revealing names of students–but I would be more than happy to speak with their parents.

The state education department official identified as the person cooperating with Pearson is Veronica Orsi, who is in charge of assessment for grades 9-12 in the department. She refused to answer this website’s questions about her involvement.

Neither the state education department nor Pearson’s would respond to my emails on the company’s spying on students.

New Jersey is paying $108 million to run its PARCC testing program, an enterprise that has engendered opposition throughout New Jersey–and that was before the spying was revealed.

State Education Commissioner David Hespe spent hours testifying before the Legislature’s Senate Education Committee Thursday and did not once mention the possibility that the London-based Pearson would be “monitoring” the social media accounts of students taking the test. Jewett’s email, however, indicated the department–presumably including Hespe–were well aware of the practice.

A few days before, state education department officials–including Orsi–held a background briefing for some media–Bob Braun’s Ledger was not invited–and none of the mainstream media accounts of the session revealed the Pearson spying program."

http://bobbraunsledger.com/category/education/

Parents Can Opt Out - United Opt Out National

Click Here to go to United Opt Out National: 

Click Here to go to the Website- United Opt Out Team

Click Here to go to the Website FairTest

Hey, Kids: If You Tweet About Your PARCC Testing Experience, Pearson Will Call You Out | deutsch29

Hey, Kids: If You Tweet About Your PARCC Testing Experience, Pearson Will Call You Out | deutsch29:



Hey, Kids: If You Tweet About Your PARCC Testing Experience, Pearson Will Call You Out

 The question of whether Louisiana students are taking a legitimate PARCC test might be answered by the outcome of Louisiana students discussing their PARCC testing experience on social media.

The Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) has no contract with official PARCC vendor, Pearson. Louisiana’s “PARCC” tests are supposedly the result of an undisclosed arrangement between another testing company, Data Recognition Corp (DRC) and Pearson.

The public is not allowed to know the details surrounding the shaky third-party-acquisition of Louisiana’s “PARCC” tests.

However, Pearson apparently trolls social media to protect its product.

In short, Pearson has been monitoring social media in New Jersey to see if students in PARCC testing states have been chatting about their testing experiences.

Pearson officials have even had the gall to contact the New Jersey department of education three times and push for corrective action for the students’ actions on social media.

Read about the fill story on Bob Braun’s Ledger.

NOTE: I read that Braun’s blog account had been suspended. For a full copy of his post in Word doc form, click here:

Bob Braun’s Ledger 03-13-15

 Hey, Kids: If You Tweet About Your PARCC Testing Experience, Pearson Will Call You Out | deutsch29:

Big Education Ape: Pearson Streamlines Social Media Listening and Monitoring on PARCC tests With Tracx http://bit.ly/1BCFI3o

TO MY BLOG AND FACEBOOK FRIENDS: My site has been attacked and has been shut down to stop the attack. You might want to contact Pearson and let them know you don't appreciate suppression of legitimate news.

From Bob Braun's Ledger on FaceBook 732 PM PST

Big Education Ape: UPDATE: Pearson, NJ, spying on social media of students taking PARCC tests | Bob Braun's Ledger http://bit.ly/1BCz9Ol