Saturday, November 28, 2015

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/28/15



CORPORATE ED REFORM



Help NPE STOP Damaging New Provisions in ESEA Reauthorization Bill - Action Network: 
 


Concerns about the New ESEA Reauthorization
Concerns about the New ESEA Reauthorization: Concerns about the New ESEA ReauthorizationArne Duncan and others are bragging that both political parties get along when it comes to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization. It is one big happy family when it comes to education. There was bipartisan agreement over No Child Left Behind too, and look what a colossal disaster tha
by mike simpson / 4h 
Why Endless Shade for Donald, Crickets for Rahm? - LA Progressive
Why Endless Shade for Donald, Crickets for Rahm? - LA Progressive: Why Endless Shade for Donald, Crickets for Rahm?Trump and EmanuelSo Donald Trump is a narcissistic, bigoted, fascist.Not exactly a surprise.He’s also the Republican front runner for President. I’ll admit to being mildly shocked by that.Astonishing are the chauvinistic and possibly illegal actions of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel—and t
by mike simpson / 5h 
John Thompson: The Gates Foundation’s Losing War for Value-Added Assessment | Diane Ravitch's blog
John Thompson: The Gates Foundation’s Losing War for Value-Added Assessment | Diane Ravitch's blog: John Thompson: The Gates Foundation’s Losing War for Value-Added AssessmentJohn Thompson, historian and teacher, says that the Gates Foundation is fighting a losing battle to justify value-added assessment. At its root, he says, is an assault on public education, facilitated by a worship of data and
by mike simpson / 5h 
Standardized Testing is not Teaching
Standardized Testing is not TeachingThe Assessment Landscape - Chris Tienken
by mike simpson / 6h 
Two nearby NYC schools have glaring disparities - Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC
Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC: Two nearby NYC schools have glaring disparitiesMELISSA HARRIS-PERRY 11/28/15Two nearby NYC schools have glaring disparitiesTwo public schools in New York City, just nine blocks away from each other, are at the center of a debate on school zoning.Duration: 9:36
by mike simpson / 6h 
No Art Left Behind: Introducing a New Series - Living in Dialogue
No Art Left Behind: Introducing a New Series - Living in Dialogue: No Art Left Behind: Introducing a New SeriesBy Susan Dufresne and Anthony Cody.In the past 13 years of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top test-driven education policies, art has been pushed to the margins in our schools. Students have lost countless hours for creating art, music and dance that expresses themselves. But artist
by mike simpson / 6h 
How I Studied the Teaching of History Then and Now | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
How I Studied the Teaching of History Then and Now | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: How I Studied the Teaching of History Then and NowFrom time to time, a few readers ask me how I, as a historian of education, go about collecting and analyzing data about teachers at work in classrooms especially those who have taught many decades ago and those who teach now. In my next book, 
by mike simpson / 6h 
Why does this Answer Sheet post make me want to stab my eyes out? @ THE CHALKFACE
@ THE CHALKFACE: Why does this Answer Sheet post make me want to stab my eyes out?BY SPJ ON NOVEMBER 28, 2015I’ve never really enjoyed the excessively sweet, sugary portrayals of teaching. I remember watching a Harry Wong video during my Masters program and there was some final scene with lighting a candle or something, like lighting the candle of imagination in a child. Stuff like that drives me
by mike simpson / 6h 
#StopESEA Live Hashtag Rally
#StopESEA Live Hashtag Rally: Live #StopESEA Hashtag Rally Fri Nov 27th 9pm ET   Sun Nov 29th 9pm ET   Mon Nov 30th 7pm ET  Enter HereYou can help right now at the ACTION PAGE (Updated Saturday Nov 28, 2015 10:53 #StopESEAto#StopCommonCoreJoin Like-Minded Twitter Users in Live Chat50 hard hitting #StopESEA Featured Tweet buttonsInformative & Entertaining YouTube VideosTeam Tweeting - your twee
by mike simpson / 7h 
More on FairTest and Why You Should Call Your Legislators TODAY | Save Maine Schools
More on FairTest and Why You Should Call Your Legislators TODAY | Save Maine Schools: More on FairTest and Why You Should Call Your Legislators TODAYo days ago, I wrote a blog post warning that FairTest was giving bad advice regarding the ESEA rewrite.Admittedly, I wrote the post in a bit of haste.  I had a baby tugging at my leg, family members begging me to get off the computer, a fiery incredul
by mike simpson / 8h 
The Nazi Metaphor Question | Diane Ravitch's blog
The Nazi Metaphor Question | Diane Ravitch's blog: The Nazi Metaphor QuestionFrom time to time, a blogger or a commenter compares something to Nazism or to Hitler. As sure as night follows day, there will be outraged comments saying that any invocation of Nazis and Hitler is strictly forbidden, intolerable, unacceptable, verboten.I disagree. I wrote a book in 2003 called The Language Police: How P
by mike simpson / 8h 
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Claypool on SpEd cuts: The 'formula' done it.
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Claypool on SpEd cuts: The 'formula' done it.: Claypool on SpEd cuts: The 'formula' done it.The great thing about Rahm's hand-picked chosen few who run the school system is, they can do no wrong -- unless they are caught, that is. Accountability is a one-way street, a word reserved for CPS' beleaguered teachers.Case in point: In the face of mounting parent protest an
by mike simpson / 8h 
Guest Op-Ed: Teachers deserve thanks, not blame | Seattle Education
Guest Op-Ed: Teachers deserve thanks, not blame | Seattle Education: Guest Op-Ed: Teachers deserve thanks, not blameTEACHERS DESERVE THANKS, NOT BLAMEby Dr. Tom StaszewskiIt’s time to stop blaming and criticizing teachers and start thanking and acknowledging them.Our schools reflect society, and society has undergone a dramatic shift from previous generations. A typical classroom today consists of
by mike simpson / 8h 
Is Bigger Always Better? The Case For Starting Small With New Learning Ideas : NPR Ed : NPR
Is Bigger Always Better? The Case For Starting Small With New Learning Ideas : NPR Ed : NPR: Is Bigger Always Better? The Case For Starting Small With New Learning IdeasOur Ideas series is exploring how innovation happens in education.Anytime there's an innovation in education, often the first question anyone asks is, "Will it scale?"Sure, you've managed to improve learning outcomes for
by mike simpson / 9h 
Effects of Indiana's school reform to be topic for Dec. 9 panel discussion - Terre Haute Tribune Star: Local News
Effects of Indiana's school reform to be topic for Dec. 9 panel discussion - Terre Haute Tribune Star: Local News: Effects of Indiana's school reform to be topic for Dec. 9 panel discussionHoosier School Heist TV is Doug Martin's channel featuring videos of his book tour across Indiana speaking on the corporate takeover of public education. Order Hoosier School Heist at http://hoosierschoolheist.c
by mike simpson / 9h 
Massachusetts’s Common Core Path - The New York Times
Massachusetts’s Common Core Path - The New York Times: Massachusetts’s Common Core PathTo the Editor:“Rejecting Test, Massachusetts Shifts Its Model” (front page, Nov. 22) describes the challenge of comparing children’s progress, state to state, and state and country to country, as “one of the most stubborn problems in education.”I am the proud parent of a child in a Massachusetts public school, a
by mike simpson / 9h 

YESTERDAY

Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns– The Backstory, Part II | deutsch29
Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns– The Backstory, Part II | deutsch29: Alabama Teacher of the Year Resigns– The Backstory, Part II Ann Marie CorgillOn November 23, 2015, I began a series of posts about Ann Marie Corgill, the 2014-15 Alabama Teacher of the Year who resigned from Birmingham City Public Schools effective October 30, 2015. Corgill’s resignation was prompted by notification from the
by mike simpson / 20h 
Text - S.1177 - 114th Congress (2015-2016): Every Child Achieves Act of 2015 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
Text - S.1177 - 114th Congress (2015-2016): Every Child Achieves Act of 2015 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress: S.1177 - Every Child Achieves Act of 2015114th Congress (2015-2016) | Get alertsBILLHide Overview icon-hideSponsor:Sen. Alexander, Lamar [R-TN] (Introduced 04/30/2015)Committees:Senate - Health, Education, Labor, and PensionsLatest Action:11/19/2015 Conferees agreed to file conference
by mike simpson / 22h 
Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 11/27/15
CORPORATE ED REFORMMike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Black Friday Protest: '16 Shots. Stop the cover-up!'Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Black Friday Protest: '16 Shots. Stop the cover-up!': Black Friday Protest: '16 Shots. Stop the cover-up!'When Black Friday comesI'll stand down by the doorAnd catch the grey men when theyDive from the fourteenth floor -Steely DanThe first recorded use of the term “B
by mike simpson / 23h 



Posted by at

Concerns about the New ESEA Reauthorization

Concerns about the New ESEA Reauthorization:

Concerns about the New ESEA Reauthorization

Policy


Arne Duncan and others are bragging that both political parties get along when it comes to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization. It is one big happy family when it comes to education. There was bipartisan agreement over No Child Left Behind too, and look what a colossal disaster that was.
Now, with the reauthorization in full swing, there are groups that are for, groups that are against, and groups that were for, but are now against. And then there is the occasional reminder that ESEA was once meant to help disadvantaged children get a chance to catch up in school.
I find the ESEA reauthorization ambiguous and difficult to decipher. I just write here about a few concerns. If you want to debate anything, or feel inclined to tell about something I left out, feel free to do so. Much is being written about the reauthorization. But because there is so much confusion, and concern, I support stopping the passage of this bill in its current form. Twitter #StopESEA or #SlowDownESEA and call and tell Congress to vote no at 202-224-2131.
Here are my specific concerns with the reauthorization of ESEA, some of which I derived from Education Week articles, A Summary and Call to Action from the Concerns about the New ESEA Reauthorization:

Posted by at

Why Endless Shade for Donald, Crickets for Rahm? - LA Progressive

Why Endless Shade for Donald, Crickets for Rahm? - LA Progressive:

Why Endless Shade for Donald, Crickets for Rahm?

trump and emanuel


Trump and Emanuel

So Donald Trump is a narcissistic, bigoted, fascist.
Not exactly a surprise.
He’s also the Republican front runner for President. I’ll admit to being mildly shocked by that.

Astonishing are the chauvinistic and possibly illegal actions of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel—and the fact that no major Democrat of note is calling him out for any of it.

However, much more astonishing are the chauvinistic and possibly illegal actions of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel—and the fact that no major Democrat of note is calling him out for any of it.
Let’s review.
Trump made a name for himself during this election cycle callingMexican immigrants rapists and murderers. Then he insulted womenand the disabled. He proposes surveillance of mosques and registering all Muslims. He even incites supporters at his rallies tobeat Black protesters.
And every time this happens, his poll numbers rise.
Predictably Democrats have decried this state of affairs. They have pointed their fingers accusingly at a Republican base that would champion such an odious figure for leader of the free world. And rightly so!
By contrast, Emanuel isn’t currently a candidate for anything. He’s a second term Democratic Mayor of one of the most populous cities in the country.
During that time, he has closed 50 public schools – 46 of which serve mostly black students. Southside residents had to resort to a month-long hunger strike to keep their last neighborhood school open. In addition, his economic policy consists of closing public health clinics for the poor and installing red light cameras to increase fines – none of which has actually boosted the economy.
But perhaps worse than all of that is the recent revelation that Emanuel’s administration with full knowledge of the Mayor may have actually covered up the police killing of an unarmed black teen!
In October, 2014, Officer Jason Van Dyke shot 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times. Most of those bullets went into the teenager after he was already flat on the ground and the officer was at least 10 feet away.
As usual, the police story includes all the usual racist clichรฉs – a trained and experienced officer of the law fears for his life from a black teen. Van Dyke says he was attacked. The dashcam video, however, shows no such thing. McDonald did not lunge at the officer. The young man was walking away when Van Dyke shot, and after he fell, the officer unloaded a barrage of bullets at his prone and seemingly helpless body.
Then the cover-up began. Emanuel allegedly was told about the incident in February, 2015, while he was in the midst of a contentious re-election bid. His administration quickly issued a $5 million settlement to McDonald’s family on the condition they keep quiet about the incident. It wasn’t until May, after Emanuel had won re-election, that an independent journalist asked for the dashcam Why Endless Shade for Donald, Crickets for Rahm? - LA Progressive:
Posted by at

John Thompson: The Gates Foundation’s Losing War for Value-Added Assessment | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson: The Gates Foundation’s Losing War for Value-Added Assessment | Diane Ravitch's blog:

John Thompson: The Gates Foundation’s Losing War for Value-Added Assessment





John Thompson, historian and teacher, says that the Gates Foundation is fighting a losing battle to justify value-added assessment. At its root, he says, is an assault on public education, facilitated by a worship of data and a belief in the value of teacher churn.
He writes:
One of the Gates Foundation’s star value-added scholars, Dan Goldhaber, has voiced “concerns about the use of VAM estimates at the high school level for the evaluation of individual teachers.” Two years ago, he asked and answered “yes” to the question of whether reformers would have placed less emphasis the value-added evaluations of individual teachers if research had focused on high schools rather than elementary schools.
I once saw Goldhaber’s statement as “a hopeful sign that research by non-educators may become more reality-based.”
As the use of estimates of test score growth in evaluations becomes even more discredited, Goldhaber is not alone in making statements such as, “The early evidence on states and localities using value added as a portion of more comprehensive evaluation systems suggests that it may not be differentiating teachers to the degree that was envisioned (Anderson, 2013).”
So, what is now happening in the aftermath of the latest warning against value-added evaluations? This time, the American Educational Research Association AERA Council “cautions against VAM being used to have a high-stakes, dispositive weight in evaluations.”
The logic used by the nation’s largest education research professional association is very similar to what I thought Goldhaber meant when he warned against using various tests and models that produce so many different estimates of the effectiveness of high school teachers. The point seems obvious. If VAMs are imposed on all types of schools and teachers with all types of tests and students, then they must work properly in that wide range of situations. It’s not good enough to say we should fire inner city high school teachers because some researchers believe that VAMs can measure the quality of teaching with random samples of low-poverty elementary students.
Goldhaber now notes, “AERA’s statement adds to the cacophony of voices urging either restraint or outright prohibition of VAMs for evaluating educators or institutions. Doubtless, these stakeholders are genuinely concerned about potential unintended consequences of adopting these performance measures.”
However, Goldhaber and other supporters of corporate reform still twist themselves into pretzels in arguing that we should remain on their value-added path. Ignoring the effects of sorting as one of the factors that John Thompson: The Gates Foundation’s Losing War for Value-Added Assessment | Diane Ravitch's blog:
Posted by at

Standardized Testing is not Teaching


Standardized Testing is not Teaching







The Assessment Landscape - Chris Tienken





Posted by at

Two nearby NYC schools have glaring disparities - Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC

Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC:

Two nearby NYC schools have glaring disparities








MELISSA HARRIS-PERRY 11/28/15

Two nearby NYC schools have glaring disparities

Two public schools in New York City, just nine blocks away from each other, are at the center of a debate on school zoning.

Duration: 9:36
Posted by at

No Art Left Behind: Introducing a New Series - Living in Dialogue

No Art Left Behind: Introducing a New Series - Living in Dialogue:

No Art Left Behind: Introducing a New Series



By Susan Dufresne and Anthony Cody.
In the past 13 years of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top test-driven education policies, art has been pushed to the margins in our schools. Students have lost countless hours for creating art, music and dance that expresses themselves. But artistic expression is like the seedling that forces its way through cracks in the asphalt. This blog series will explore how students and teachers use art to express themselves.
The series was inspired by a Facebook post authored by artist and kindergarten teacher Susan DuFresne. She wrote:
Art is healing and meditative for children and teachers. It is inspiring and allows a different kind of space for free and creative expression. Art builds self-confidence in a way that children need. It develops listening skills and an ability to work from part-to-whole. It develops trust in one’s teacher.
Art develops executive functioning skills, impulse control, delayed gratification skills, planning and organizing skills, fine motor skills, and visual spatial skills. Art develops meta-cognition skills, problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Art increases experiences of joy in all children and during the process of a shared joyful Art experience, our immune systems get the same kind of boost as a hug provides. Shared Art experience creates a strong sense of community. Art creates a sense of peace and satisfaction. Art creates children who think outside the box and can help students stand up for themselves and others. Art develops empathy. Art helps us learn about our world sometimes in a way nothing else could replace. Art can be full-on play! Art can create wonder and Art can answer wonderings. Art can be fiction or non-fiction. Art can come from within or from a power outside of oneself. #Art can incite emotion. Art can be visual music with rhythm and a melody of pattern. Art can engage all of our senses. Art can be science. Art is math. Art is visual poetry. Art can be social studies. Art can incite social justice! Art can be 
No Art Left Behind: Introducing a New Series - Living in Dialogue:

Sarah Puglisi: Art is Happening





This is the first in a series of blog posts focused on the value of art in our lives, and the role art can play in resisting the test and punish model of education.  See the intro and links to other posts in the series here.
By Sarah Puglisi.
When I was in training, in university, my Art Education teacher Bill Thomas once said something to the effect that if we can connect the home, and world in that home of the student, to our projects in an art room-if we can glimpse who the student is-then our lesson design was doing something profound.
He was teaching how to design starting points for children’s work as an art educator. Something we needed fieldwork to experience and understand but those days were in front of us. And indeed over my many years working as teacher and artist, art teacher,  I saw the bridge, but rarely.
He understood the elusive edge. To connect to who that child is, that was his point.
One time I glimpsed it. I had set up an “Olympics” for a wild two classes- days and days of events that I ran Sarah Puglisi: Art is Happening


Michelle Gunderson: Poetry as Subversive Activity





This is the second in a series of blog posts focused on the value of art in our lives, and the role art can play in resisting the test and punish model of education.  See the intro and links to other posts in the series here.
By Michelle Gunderson.
My first grade class was sitting in front of me gathered at our reading rug, and I asked them, “Could you write a poem about something important?” One of my students said, “Heck, yeah.” And off they went, paper in hand, to their tables – each child hunched over their paper scratching away words that were coming straight from the heart.
I did not teach the most extraordinary poetry unit. It was fairly simple, in fact. We read tons of poems, made lists of what we noticed, tried different techniques, and learned the mechanics of poetry. But at the end of the unit we read Whitman, Hughes, Dickinson, and Rosetti. We decided to add to our list of poetry features that poems can be about something important.
Writing a poem when you are six, and experiencing yourself as a poet is extraordinary.
Poetry is the natural language of childhood – we hear it in nursery rhymes, playground game, and jump rope Michelle Gunderson: Poetry as Subversive Activity
Posted by at

How I Studied the Teaching of History Then and Now | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

How I Studied the Teaching of History Then and Now | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

How I Studied the Teaching of History Then and Now



From time to time, a few readers ask me how I, as a historian of education, go about collecting and analyzing data about teachers at work in classrooms especially those who have taught many decades ago and those who teach now. In my next book, Teaching History Then and Now: A Story of Stability and Change in Schools, I reconstructed how I taught history at Glenville High School in Cleveland (OH) and Cardozo High School (Washington, D.C.) in the 1950s and 1960s and then returned to those same schools in 2013-2014 to determine how history is taught there now (see here).
This post is for those viewers and curious readers who have asked me the direct question of how I dig into the past and recapture the present in answering the central question I asked in the forthcoming book: What has changed and what has remained the same in the content and pedagogy of high school history?
In carrying out this study to answer that central question, I had to deal with the following methodological issues.  
How did I reconstruct my teaching of history at Glenville and Cardozo High Schools between 1956-1967?
The design of the book is basically two case studies that answer the question: to what degree did the larger context of national and local reform-driven policies influence the teaching of history then and now? I used the common historical methodology of seeking out multiple primary and secondary sources to describe and analyze the macro- and micro-contexts, that is, national movements (e.g., civil rights, the New Social Studies), city and school district settings, and what happened during the decade I taught in Cleveland and Washington, D.C.
Primary sources included district school board minutes, local newspaper articles, How I Studied the Teaching of History Then and Now | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Posted by at

Why does this Answer Sheet post make me want to stab my eyes out? @ THE CHALKFACE

@ THE CHALKFACE:

BY  ON 
I’ve never really enjoyed the excessively sweet, sugary portrayals of teaching. I remember watching a Harry Wong video during my Masters program and there was some final scene with lighting a candle or something, like lighting the candle of imagination in a child. Stuff like that drives me insane. Maybe I lack sentimentality, or I’m too cynical.
I’m definitely not a motherly type.
The Answer Sheet, for which I’m generally supportive, just pulled a “white savior” move in a profile of a speech made by a white teacher who had an “a-ha” moment about teaching 


BY  ON 
They say critique of charter schools is “tired.” Then I say it’s exhausting to see charter proponents cast some nebulous aspersions towards the nefarious “teachers’ contract.”
This, from the NY Daily “News.” The author touts the flexibility of charters to lengthen school days and years, but then:
While there is no direct correlation between increased learning and increased learning time, research shows that longer school days provide extended academic growth for children from impoverished backgrounds.
Correlation is not causation. Precisely. One has nothing to do with the other.
Extending a school day or year is hardly an “innovation.” To that end, why not have students from impoverished backgrounds sleep at the school, residing there year round if extended learning time increases academic growth, whatever that means. Test scores?
From my experience, there’s really not much that is “innovative” about charters. Learning is confined to a  

Posted by at

#StopESEA Live Hashtag Rally

#StopESEA Live Hashtag Rally:

Live #StopESEA Hashtag Rally
 Fri Nov 27th 9pm ET   Sun Nov 29th 9pm ET   Mon Nov 30th 7pm ET  Enter Here
You can help right now at the ACTION PAGE (Updated Saturday Nov 28, 2015 10:53 


#StopESEA
to
#StopCommonCore

  • Join Like-Minded Twitter Users in Live Chat
  • 50 hard hitting #StopESEA Featured Tweet buttons
  • Informative & Entertaining YouTube Videos
  • Team Tweeting - your tweets from the rally get RT'd by other participants
  • Fun & Fellowship - make new friends

#PJNET's live hashtag rallies have a proven track record of generating 1000's of tweets with a consistent message. During the live event, we harvest 50 top #StopESEA tweets and present them in easy to use Tweet buttons with the tweet text already filled in and ready for you to tweet. All you do is click the tweet buttons to dispatch the tweet for yourself - adding your voice to the #StopESEA Twitter choir! 

But there's more! Each tweet button has an "RT" icon next to it that will list every tweet from those who have participated. All you do is go down the line and retweet others who have participated. It snowballs fast when everyone is supporting one another with retweets. #StopESEA Live Hashtag Rally:


Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)