Big Education Ape

Friday, June 17, 2016

Witch Hunt Against Incoming Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Escalates | gadflyonthewallblog

Witch Hunt Against Incoming Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Escalates | gadflyonthewallblog:

Witch Hunt Against Incoming Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Escalates

To be or not to be.

That is the question for incoming Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Anthony Hamlet.

He is set to takeover the district on July 1, but a well financed public smear campaign is trying to stop him before he even begins.

Big money interests oppose him. The public supports him.

Meanwhile the media helps fuel corporate attacks on the 47-year-old African American because of criticisms leveled by a Political Action Committee (PAC) formed to disband the duly-elected school board.

It’s ironic.

Corporate school reformers criticize Hamlet for allegedly plagiarizing a single statement in his resume. Meanwhile they have plagiarizedWitch Hunt Against Incoming Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Escalates | gadflyonthewallblog:

30+ Happy Famous Fathers Day Quotes - Messages - Wishes - Happy Father's day 2016

#30+ Happy Famous Fathers Day Quotes - Messages - Wishes - Greetings ~ Happy Father's day 2016 - # Wishes Quotes Messages #:

#30+ Happy Famous Fathers Day Quotes - Messages - Wishes - Greetings

Hey there are you looking for some of the best father's day quotes for your father on this father's day ? then you are at the right place, we Father's Day 2016 have published the best collection offather's day quotes specially for you.

Hi! Do you want to give your father surprise on the fathers day with the most charming fathers day quotes? then you are at the perfect place to get all the best of best fathers day quotes that will express your highest level of gratitude for your father who has made you the person today you are. As the Fathers day is approaching, We fathers day 2016 have compiled the list of images and quotes that you send or print on a card and show your feelings of love towards your dad. InternationalFathers day is celebrated every year on te third Sunday of June, In this year, Fathers day will be celebrated on 19th of June 2016.

Famous Fathers Day Quotes - Messages - Sayings

There is an Indian saying "maata, pita, guru, prabhu", which means the first position in a man's life goes to his MOTHER- "MAATA" (in Sanskrit), as she is the one who gave birth to us and introduced us to this world and then FATHER - "PITA" (in Sanskrit), a person who has an equal share in getting us to this world and helping us to grow by supporting us at all the stages in life. Only after our parents the third place goes to "GURU" - TEACHER (in Sanskrit), who taught us the subject and other values in life and then comes the GOD - "PRABHU" (in Sanskrit), who has a last position in this phrase since all the other three are god like people who guide us and show us the path to reach GOD. they are the living god's for a man's life.

Happy Father's Day 2016 Wishes Quotes Messages Sayings Greetings And Images

1. Happy Fathers Day Quotes
2. Happy Fathers Day Wishes
3. Happy Fathers Day Messages
4. Happy Fathers Day Greetings
5. Happy Fathers Day Poems
6. Happy Fathers Day SMS
7. Happy Fathers Day Sayings
8. Happy Fathers Day Images

Here are some famous quotes to wish him and make his face glitter :#30+ Happy Famous Fathers Day Quotes - Messages - Wishes - Greetings ~ Happy Father's day 2016 - # Wishes Quotes Messages #:

New Infographic: Empowering Trans Students with Super Powers | Schott Foundation for Public Education

New Infographic: Empowering Trans Students with Super Powers | Schott Foundation for Public Education:

New Infographic: Empowering Trans Students with Super Powers

Schott and our partners have been working on this infographic for some time, and it is being released while our nation is mourning and the national narrative around trans students has been singularly focused on bathroom facilities. These current issues only highlight why we need to do more to support transgender students in a more comprehensive way.

The Schott Foundation for Public Education joins the country and the international community in mourning all of the lives lost and injured during the recent shootings in Orlando targeting members of the LGBTQ community specifically, and our humanity more broadly. The hatred exhibited in Orlando calls into question what more our country can do to limit unnecessary gun violence and to ensure the safety and well-being of LGBTQ individuals where they live, work, learn, play, worship, and govern. During this difficult time, Schott reaffirms its commitment to resource advocates and campaigns to institutionalize the policies and practices that create healthy living and learning spaces for all.

We recognize that the threat of homophobic and transphobic violence is very real for many of us, including our children.

Schott believes that every young person deserves to attend school in a safe, healthy living and learning environment that allows them to thrive and grow to their full potential. For nearly 25 years, Schott has utilized a race and gender lens through our grantmaking and research to understand and address the unique set of challenges facing students across the country that is inclusive of students who also identify as LGBTQ.

"Can we also live for what we believe in? Is that worth more than dying? When do we achieve admiration for our survival? I guess in order for that to happen, people would have to acknowledge just how heroic our survival is. Give us our roses while we're still here."
— Participant in a recent BreakOUT! transgender rights march

Schott and our partners have been focused on the myriad of challenges transgender students and transgender students of color experience every single day beyond the bathroom.

80% of trans students feel unsafe at school because of their gender expression. 49% of trans people reported physical abuse in a 2007 survey. 41% of trans people have attempted suicide. [source] Trans youth of color are especially impacted in a society doubly stacked against them for both their race and gender expression. Students should be able to learn in a safe and supportive public school environment regardless of their gender expression. It's up to all of us to make that happen.

In May 2016, U.S. Departments of Justice and Education released joint guidance to help public schools ensure the civil rights of trans students: when students or their parents notify a school that a student is transgender, the school must treat the student in a manner consistent with the student’s gender identity in every situation, from the restroom to sports. The guidance also suggests schools establish additional privacy options that all students can use for any reason.

Over the past few years, in partnership with the Arcus Foundation, Schott has supported the work of Massachusetts grantee BAGLY, the Boston Alliance of Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Youth, to elevate the voice of trans students in Boston Public Schools. BAGLY youth leaders have identified several key ways that students, educators, and schools can help make our public education system more safe and supportive of trans students — it’s time to support the super powers of trans youth!New Infographic: Empowering Trans Students with Super Powers | Schott Foundation for Public Education:

[Click for a printable PDF]

Helmet of Knowledge: Students need to first be aware of their rights as afforded to them by Massachusetts’ Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) guidelines of inclusion and diversity.
Advocacy Shield: When a student is denied treatment according to MA law and DESE guidelines, they should know what resources to contact in order to obtain the support they need to push back against unfair/unequal treatment (BAGLY can connect students to other resources like lawyers, case management, therapy, etc.).
Cape of Protection: Culturally competent mentors should be available in schools (LGBTQ-identified, trans-identified, etc.).
Power Bolt of Systemic Change: Audit school curricula to include LGBTQ-specific issues and social justice history.
Peer Support Rocket Boots: Increase awareness in the student body — hold assemblies focusing on diversity, including sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.

Resources

Connect with these organizations for support, programming, and policy advocacy:

Beyond the obvious—that they are all joined by the field of education—what links the National Reading Panel (NRP) and No Child Left Behind, the edureform documentary propagandaWaiting for “Superman,” Teach For America, and edusavior Steve Perry?

Arrogance.

While I count myself among English language arts (ELA) teachers who are skeptical of the Great Books mindset—that we have essential books all children must read—I am moved today to endorse how many of those works remind we puny humans about the folly of pride. Not the “I am proud of you daughter/son” pride, but the arrogance pride.

The “‘My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;/ Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!'”kind of pride.

What on earth possessed politicians to form the NRP to find out what we know about teaching children to read? Did anyone point out that we have had a vibrant field of literacy in the U.S. for a good century? Isn’t it sort of obvious that we have dozens upon dozens of people across the U.S. who know exactly how to teach children to read (and have known for decades)?

But it isn’t just the teaching of reading.

Naive experts, often journalists, every week roll out yet another book in which she or he researches a field in which real experts in that field have been doing authentic work for decades—the history of teaching!, how to teach poor children!, the glory of 10,000 hours of practice!

Paternalistic, self-important, blowhard politicians daily puff up in front of the pubic to be that “Superman” at the center of the great lie documentary noted above that ironically serves as a perfect representation of everything that is wrong with education reform.

But one need not go back to that complete failure of film making. Try within the last week.

Educators and activists Andre Perry and Jose Vilson (see also) have assumed the mantle of speaking truth to the cult of personality that is Steve Perry.

I consider myself a student of Andre Perry and Vilson, as I work to navigate my own white Arrogance: Service, Not Saviors – the becoming radical:

Black Aesthetic, White Supremacy: Steve Perry’s Tweet Needs Cutting More Than Black Boys’ Hair - http://go.shr.lc/1V1nDRG

Big Education Ape: How Dr. Steve Perry Sells Black Kids To The Highest Bidder — Medium - http://go.shr.lc/1XtxmXl

Malloy’s Connecticut – Ripping off Connecticut while keeping citizens in the dark - Wait What?

Malloy’s Connecticut – Ripping off Connecticut while keeping citizens in the dark - Wait What?:

Malloy’s Connecticut – Ripping off Connecticut while keeping citizens in the dark

When Dannel Malloy was running for re-election in 2014 he collected a $6 million+ taxpayer funded Clean Campaign grant from the state of Connecticut with the promise that he would not solicit, accept, coordinate or use private funds to benefit his campaign.

In the following months, not only did he benefit from more than $5 million from an account funded by the Democratic Governors Association, AFSCME and AFT, he and his political operatives directly raised another $5 million, much of it from state contractors, lobbyist and people who have benefited from Malloy’s outrageous corporate welfare program.

The law was clear, if you take money in addition to the state grant, you lose the state grant.

That is, if you take money, you must pay back the $6 million in public funds.

Earlier this week, Malloy’s Democratic Party agreed to a settlement with the Connecticut State Elections Commission in which they paid a fine of $325,000 – or 5 percent – of what the taxpayer were owed.

Fair?

When it comes to Malloy, fair and proper are two terms that simply aren’t used.

In a stunning, courageous and insightful commentary piece, followed by a CT Mirror story, the lead investigator for the State Elections Enforcement Commission – Charlie Urso – now retired – explains some of the issues that took place behind the scene.

Charlie Urso’s commentary piece – Malloy campaign law settlement was a mockery and a sham and the CT Mirror’s article – Investigator says Malloy settlement keeps voters in the dark – is a MUST READ for those who really want to about Malloy and themodus operandi that permeates his operation.

While some of the details won’t be new for Wait, What? readers, the two pieces shed Malloy’s Connecticut – Ripping off Connecticut while keeping citizens in the dark - Wait What?:

Test Scores Poor Indicator of Students’ Life Outcomes and School Quality: New Consensus? | janresseger

Test Scores Poor Indicator of Students’ Life Outcomes and School Quality: New Consensus? | janresseger:

Test Scores Poor Indicator of Students’ Life Outcomes and School Quality: New Consensus?

According to Education Next, “Jay P. Greene is endowed chair and head of the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.” This Arkansas “Department of Education Reform” epitomizes the far-right think tank posing as a university department. For years, Greene has been at the center of education “reform” orthodoxy, and yet today he is questioning one of its primary tenets—the use of short term test score gains as the primary measure of school improvement. While federal policy in education as prescribed in the new Every Student Succeeds Act continues to prescribe annual testing and the requirement that states develop plans to turn around schools that can’t quickly raise scores, there seems to be growing consensus in the academic world about problems with accountability that is purely test-based.

Here is what Professor Greene posted on his blog on Tuesday: “I’ve written several times recently about how short term gains in test scores are not associated with improved later life outcomes for students. Schools and programs that increase test scores quite often do not yield higher high school graduation or college attendance rates. Conversely, schools and programs that fail to produce greater gains in test scores sometimes produce impressive improvements in high school graduation and college attendance rates, college completion rates, and even higher employment and earnings. I’ve described at least 8 studies that show a disconnect between raising test scores and stronger later life outcomes.” Greene devotes the rest of his post to describing a new study that replicates these findings.

Greene concludes: “It’s time that people start paying a lot more attention to this pattern of a disconnect between short term test score gains and long term life outcomes. We can’t just dismiss this pattern as a fluke… If we think we can know which schools of choice are good and ought to be expanded and which are bad and ought to be closed based primarily on annual test scores gains, we are sadly mistaken. Various portfolio management and ‘accountability’ regimes depend almost entirely on this false belief that test scores reveal which are the good and bad schools. The evidence is growing quite strong that these strategies cannot properly distinguish good from bad schools and may be inflicting great harm on students.”

Paul Tough’s new book, Helping Children Succeed, describes educational research that confirms Greene’s concerns about test-based accountability. Tough explains the research of Kirabo Jackson: “What he found was that some teachers were reliably able to raise their students’ standardized-test scores year after year… But Jackson also found that there was another distinct cohort of teachers who were reliably able to raise their students’ Test Scores Poor Indicator of Students’ Life Outcomes and School Quality: New Consensus? | janresseger:

Sinking TFA?: Demise in San Francisco – Cloaking Inequity

Sinking TFA?: Demise in San Francisco – Cloaking Inequity:

Sinking TFA?: Demise in San Francisco

In the post BREAKING: TFA out in San Francisco I first discussed the SFUSD decision to break their relationship with Teach For America. Episode 10 of the Truth For America podcast features an EXCLUSIVE conversation with Lita Blanc, President of United Educators of San Francisco about the demise of TFA in San Francisco.

The podcast includes discussions about the recent decision by the School Board of the San Francisco Unified School District to stop their association with Teach For America. We discuss teacher shortages, alternative to Teach For America in San Francisco, the role of Teach For America in education reform and much more.

Truth For America is a podcast about Teach For America (TFA) that provides voice to educators, parents, students, and other key stakeholders. Truth For America is co-hosted by Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig and Dr. T. Jameson Brewer.

Truth For America is sponsored by the Network for Public Education Action.

For all of Cloaking Inequity’s posts on Teach For America click here.

Please Facebook Like, Tweet, etc below and/or reblog to share this discussion with others.

Want to know about Cloaking Inequity’s freshly pressed conversations about educational policy? Click the “Follow blog by email” button on the home page.

Twitter: @ProfessorJVH

Click here for Vitae.

Hear from TFA alums and teachers… binge listen to the entire Truth For America podcast series on YouTube below or iTunes here.

Sinking TFA?: Demise in San Francisco – Cloaking Inequity:

What It Means To Speak Truth To Power (About That Medium Post) | The Jose Vilson

What It Means To Speak Truth To Power (About That Medium Post) | The Jose Vilson:

What It Means To Speak Truth To Power (About That Medium Post)

The whole point was to speak truth to power. 20,000 views later, I don’t know what to do about the new eyeballs on my writing.

In subsequent tweets, [Perry] comes within inches of calling himself the next Messiah, stopping kids from stuttering and pulling them from gangs, stepping in for their absent fathers, and keeping them up until midnight for no other reason than his own need to set these boys straight. In subsequent tweets, he shouts down tweeters who resent his anti-Black message, chiding him for implying that dreads and braids?—?hair styles with African traditions?—?make black boys look dirty and, worse yet, unsuccessful. He continues to use this weekend experience of setting boys straight (yes, like the jail, but only with a comedian and an army veteran) to make other wild assertions about the American school system and absentee fatherhood. He admittedly spends 29 tweets extolling the virtues of depriving boys their sleep and cutting their natural hair to detractors, then makes an about face to chastise “y’all” for spending time on Twitter instead of getting to work.
How do you lead an education revolution when your ideas are so revolting?

I didn’t intend on focusing on any one person or restarting the same old education debates. As is my annual tradition, I just wanted to put the conversations so many of us put in our private messages out there for non-educators to see. For a classroom teacher who’s been doing this for 11 years, I’m fascinated by the plethora of critique that I either a) write hit pieces or that b) I have no solutions. What It Means To Speak Truth To Power (About That Medium Post) | The Jose Vilson:

Big Education Ape: How Dr. Steve Perry Sells Black Kids To The Highest Bidder — Medium - http://go.shr.lc/1XtxmXl

Pro-charter school philanthropic group says it will give to traditional schools too, but not yet | 89.3 KPCC

Pro-charter school philanthropic group says it will give to traditional schools too, but not yet | 89.3 KPCC:

Pro-charter school philanthropic group says it will give to traditional schools too, but not yet

The Los Angeles-based Great Public Schools Now announced on Thursday that its first batch of grants totaling $4.5 million would go to a charter school, an after-school program and the teacher preparation program Teach for America.

The group took over a proposal that came to light last year to double the number of charter schools in Los Angeles. L.A. philanthropist Eli Broad promoted the plan. But at the grant announcement, the group’s leaders said non-charter schools will also benefit from its private philanthropy.

“Regardless of whether they are charter schools or pilots or magnets or traditional district schools, if it’s working, we will be there to support,” said Myrna Castrejon, director of Great Public Schools Now.

The group is planning to fund education efforts in ten L.A.-area neighborhoods, including Boyle Heights, Pico Union, and the city of South Gate. Residents of these areas, the group said, are low income while schools have high drop out rates and low test scores.

Funding will go towards community outreach and engagement, training teachers and administrators, finding and building school facilities, and replicating successful schools.

The group is raising funds from individuals and groups. Donors include the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, the W.M. Keck Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation. Great Public Schools Now is not saying how much it has raised, nor will it say which individuals are donating to the effort.

The initial $4.5 million in grants will be split by the L.A. charter school Equitas, the L.A. branch of Teach for America – which places beginning teachers in charter and public schools – and the after school program Heart of L.A., which serves traditional and charter school students in L.A.’s MacArthur Park area. All three will use the funds to help grow their programs.

The group’s promotion of charter schools has been criticized by United Teachers Los Angeles and L.A. Unified’s school board president. Both said an increase in charter schools would siphon students and money that could lead to the school district’s bankruptcy.

Teachers union officials said they don't see the group’s goal to include of traditional Pro-charter school philanthropic group says it will give to traditional schools too, but not yet | 89.3 KPCC:

Call it a racism tax: NJ pays a premium to keep schools segregated |

Call it a racism tax: NJ pays a premium to keep schools segregated |:

Call it a racism tax: NJ pays a premium to keep schools segregated

The Education Law Center’s David Sciarra

What’s crazier? Maintaining a patently inefficient system of public education that has more school districts per capita than probably any other state? Or, believing that the white citizens of New Jersey will get over their fear of black and brown children long enough to end racial segregation that is so bad it has been depicted by experts as a form of “apartheid”—the formal separation of races that was the law in South Africa before the era of Nelson Mandela’s leadership.

Tough questions, tough because the answers do, in fact, suggest a relentless nuttiness in the minds of many in New Jersey—those who would be willing to keep paying for what one state legislator called “the costliest school system on the planet” just so they wouldn’t have to live in a racially mixed community or send their children to a racially mixed school.

Call it a racism tax—everyone in New Jersey pays more than they have to pay for public education so some can live in a shrinking lily-white world.

This crazy talk—six hours of it—was the main agenda item at a little-heralded conference this week on the manicured Hopewell campus of the Educational Testing Service (ETS). The meeting was co-sponsored by the ETS—best known for its production of the SAT college-admissions exam—and by the Educational Law Center (ELC), a public interest law firm in Newark that has generated challenges to school funding and other laws

Unlike most conferences on education, the speakers at this one—educators, jurists, politicians, statisticians, experts in various fields, activists—didn’t shy away from bold statements. It was state Sen. Robert Smith (D-Middlesex), for example, who called the state’s public school system “the costliest… on the planet.”

Smith, not usually known for dramatic rhetoric, also promised that the people of the state faced “radical changes” in the years ahead—some he himself would try to generate by pushing for votes o establish county-wide school systems, others that were the inevitable results of past court decisions demanding that predominantly white and wealthy suburbs increase the availability of low-income housing. Which Call it a racism tax: NJ pays a premium to keep schools segregated |:

Substance Beats Flash: District Superintendents and Minority Achievement Network

Substance Beats Flash: District Superintendents and Minority Achievement Network (S. David Brazer and Robert G. Smith) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Substance Beats Flash: District Superintendents and Minority Achievement Network (S. David Brazer and Robert G. Smith)

A former high school principal, David Brazer is Associate Professor (Teaching) and Faculty Director of Teaching Leadership Programs at Stanford University; former superintendent of the Arlington (VA) public schools, Robert Smith is Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at George Mason University. They co-authored Striving for Equity (2016).

The contemporary education reform climate seems to value flash over substance, grand ideology over hard work, and narrow quantitative impact over steady progress in nurturing environments. Lost in all this noise is the steady effort of school board members, superintendents, principals, teachers, students, and parents striving to make the most out of school-age years, from pre-school through high school graduation. The gross exaggerations of “the schools are failing” or “this will revolutionize education” are exposed by the deliberate, effective approaches to improving student achievement of 13 superintendents who tell their stories in Striving for Equity: District Leadership for Narrowing Opportunity and Achievement Gaps (Harvard Education Press, 2016). They pursued results rather than headlines.

Instead of chasing a “best practices” holy grail, these superintendents worked with their communities—both within and around their inner-ring suburban school districts—over long periods of time, following a series of steps that adhered to their commitment to equity and reflected their practical experiences as education leaders. They began by helping parents, teachers, and board members understand that inequities were embedded in their districts’ student outcomes. Most of them were ahead of their time, recognizing opportunity and achievement gaps long before these terms were widely used. Publicizing the data demonstrating achievement differences between the majority population and students with disabilities, in poverty, speaking languages other than English, or identifying as non-white helped these superintendents rally their communities to their gap-closing agendas.

Many of the tactics superintendents employed were pedestrian in nature—funding pre-school, unifying elementary curricula, and keeping their boards educated on the nature of the problem and district progress. Other actions were more complicated, such as providing professional development so that teachers were better equipped to implement curricular changes and reach changing Substance Beats Flash: District Superintendents and Minority Achievement Network (S. David Brazer and Robert G. Smith) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Secondary Education Robot Teachers from SoftBank. Danger, Will Robinson, Danger? – Missouri Education Watchdog

Secondary Education Robot Teachers from SoftBank. Danger, Will Robinson, Danger? – Missouri Education Watchdog:

Secondary Education Robot Teachers from SoftBank. Danger, Will Robinson, Danger?

Graphics accessed from robotslab.com

Question. Why do human capital (school children) need to be trained in STEM when humanoid robots can learn STEM, and in fact, teach it? Robots are currently teaching special needs children in the classroom and robots in the video (below) are in a secondary education classroom. Each student in the video has his/her own robot; think of the robot as an iPad for every student or individual teacher. Think how much ‘a robot for every child’ would cost a school district.

If indeed human teachers will become guides on the side, their salaries will reflect their diminished role, possibly allowing districts to provide every student their very own robot. Districts will be able to slash curriculum directors as common core curriculum will be downloaded directly into the robots:

Districts will tell taxpayers robots are necessary to teach students STEM, although there is a possibility that these STEM trained students won’t Secondary Education Robot Teachers from SoftBank. Danger, Will Robinson, Danger? – Missouri Education Watchdog: