Rush Hour Diane Ravitch's blog
A site to discuss better education for all
Amy Shuffelton: Why Did PBS Air a Three-Hour Series that Promotes Free Market Schooling?
Eva Shares the Secrets of Success Academy
Monday, June 19, 2017
Rush Hour Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:
Amy Shuffelton: Why Did PBS Air a Three-Hour Series that Promotes Free Market Schooling?
Eva Shares the Secrets of Success Academy
Amy Shuffelton: Why Did PBS Air a Three-Hour Series that Promotes Free Market Schooling?
Eva Shares the Secrets of Success Academy
Managing Crowds: ClassDojo (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
Managing Crowds: ClassDojo (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:
Managing Crowds: ClassDojo (Part 2)
Managing Crowds: ClassDojo (Part 2)
ClassDojo is a recently-developed software platform (2011) that, according to the founders of the company, is used in 90 percent of schools in the U.S (see here). In the past five years, however, ClassDojo has become much more than a free digital tool to motivate students and manage classroom behavior. It is a platform that allows teachers to communicate with parents by posting photos and letting parents comment on what they see; students can also post photos and videos about what they are doing in school. With parent and student communication integrated with the classroom behavior tool, a social media platform is emerging.
The company has expanded beyond the initial behavioral management software and moved into the business of producing videos on “mind set” and empathystarring “Mojo the friendly monster” to construct a communication network where students, parents and teachers are knitted together closely.
And the future? With its network of parents, teachers, and students, ClassDojo will grow into an enterprise marketing far more than a motivational and behavioral tool to manage classroom crowds.
As one ClassDojo board member said: “This company has a greater market share than Coke in the U.S.” The future, according to one of the founders of ClassDojo, is coming into view when he asked:
Your entertainment bundle is Netflix. Your music bundle is Spotify. What is your education bundle?
That may be the future that the company seeks in spurring a revenue flow—ClasDojo is free to teachers and the company is just beginning to earn revenue from its videos. But it is the original software program promising to help Managing Crowds: ClassDojo (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:
NYC Educator: FMPR Stands Tall in the Bronx
NYC Educator: FMPR Stands Tall in the Bronx:
FMPR Stands Tall in the Bronx
If you've been following the news about Puerto Rico, even a little bit, you know it's in an economic mess. They're 72 billion dollars in debt, and controlled by a board that pretty much doesn't give a crap about the people who live there. Pensions have been eliminated for most public workers. Though teachers have somehow avoided that particular fate, funding for them should disappear sometime next year. This is a dire issue, as Puerto Rican teachers neither pay nor receive social security.
I'm fascinated by the saga of union in Puerto Rico. FMPR was formed in 1966 as an alternative to AMPR, which they call a company union. FMPR leadership says AMPR views teachers as professionals, whereas they view us as working people. This is an interesting distinction, because UFT often calls iteself a union of professionals. Does being a "professional" somehow preclude being a working person?
Another thing that makes things a little cloudy is that AMPR represents administrators. I've always thought it odd that administration had a union at all, but being in the same union with them would be awkward indeed. As a chapter leader, I'm generally careful about how I speak with and treat UFT members. I'm a little more direct with administrators. I'm not sure how I'd do my job if I were uneasy about being directly adversarial with administration when necessary.
FMPR is upset because AMPR leadership didn't oppose school closings. Does that remind you of anyone? Under today's AMPR leadership, 45,000 teachers somehow became 32,000 teachers. This is similar to (although considerably worse than) what happened under Bloomberg in NYC as he failed to replace retirees. I can't be the only one who's noticed that 34 students in a class has become more the norm than the max these days.
In 1999, public employee strikes were prohibited by law in Puerto Rico. That's the same year FMPR became the exclusive bargaining agent for Puerto Rican teachers. In 2008, FMPR led a 10-day strike. While they won a raise for teachers, they also incurred the wrath of the government, which NYC Educator: FMPR Stands Tall in the Bronx:
FMPR Stands Tall in the Bronx
If you've been following the news about Puerto Rico, even a little bit, you know it's in an economic mess. They're 72 billion dollars in debt, and controlled by a board that pretty much doesn't give a crap about the people who live there. Pensions have been eliminated for most public workers. Though teachers have somehow avoided that particular fate, funding for them should disappear sometime next year. This is a dire issue, as Puerto Rican teachers neither pay nor receive social security.
I'm fascinated by the saga of union in Puerto Rico. FMPR was formed in 1966 as an alternative to AMPR, which they call a company union. FMPR leadership says AMPR views teachers as professionals, whereas they view us as working people. This is an interesting distinction, because UFT often calls iteself a union of professionals. Does being a "professional" somehow preclude being a working person?
Another thing that makes things a little cloudy is that AMPR represents administrators. I've always thought it odd that administration had a union at all, but being in the same union with them would be awkward indeed. As a chapter leader, I'm generally careful about how I speak with and treat UFT members. I'm a little more direct with administrators. I'm not sure how I'd do my job if I were uneasy about being directly adversarial with administration when necessary.
FMPR is upset because AMPR leadership didn't oppose school closings. Does that remind you of anyone? Under today's AMPR leadership, 45,000 teachers somehow became 32,000 teachers. This is similar to (although considerably worse than) what happened under Bloomberg in NYC as he failed to replace retirees. I can't be the only one who's noticed that 34 students in a class has become more the norm than the max these days.
In 1999, public employee strikes were prohibited by law in Puerto Rico. That's the same year FMPR became the exclusive bargaining agent for Puerto Rican teachers. In 2008, FMPR led a 10-day strike. While they won a raise for teachers, they also incurred the wrath of the government, which NYC Educator: FMPR Stands Tall in the Bronx:
A Charter School Violates Student Privacy to Shame Parents Into Volunteering
A Charter School Violates Student Privacy to Shame Parents Into Volunteering:
A Charter School Violates Student Privacy to Shame Parents Into Volunteering
The prohibitions on requiring work hours do not stop charters from doing what they can to encourage parents to volunteer. For example, Alliance Collins Family College-Ready High School tells parents and guardians in its Parent/Student Handbook that they “are encouraged to complete 40 hours of parent volunteer service…each year.” However, its full compliance with the A Charter School Violates Student Privacy to Shame Parents Into Volunteering:
A Charter School Violates Student Privacy to Shame Parents Into Volunteering
– Hilary Hammell, Public Advocates attorney
In return for their receipt of public funding, charter organizations are not allowed to charge parents and guardians any type of fees for their students to attend these schools. This includes forcing them to fulfill a minimum quota of “volunteer” hours. As stated by the California Charter School Association (CCSA): “it is not legal nor appropriate for a student to be excluded from a charter school or a school activity because a parent did not volunteer or make a financial contribution to their school.” Still, a 2014 report by Public Advocates “found that 168, or almost one-third of the 555 charter schools [they] surveyed, explicitly require unpaid parent or family ‘service hours.’” Included in the report’s examples were two charters authorized by the LAUSD.
The prohibitions on requiring work hours do not stop charters from doing what they can to encourage parents to volunteer. For example, Alliance Collins Family College-Ready High School tells parents and guardians in its Parent/Student Handbook that they “are encouraged to complete 40 hours of parent volunteer service…each year.” However, its full compliance with the A Charter School Violates Student Privacy to Shame Parents Into Volunteering:
Badass Teachers Association: The Role of a School Board Member by Gregory Sampson
Badass Teachers Association: The Role of a School Board Member by Gregory Sampson:
The Role of a School Board Member
by Gregory Sampson
The Role of a School Board Member
by Gregory Sampson
Stone Eggs: Thoughts about world events, education, and theology
Originally Posted at: http://stoneeggs.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-role-of-school-board-member.html
The Role of a School Board Member
This morning brings news from California that a school board member is surveying students via Google docs to ask them which of their teachers should be fired.
I'm not making this up: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfuEAArKudshXvC2_OocgWDfj-cVnd0OKr7DtecaJudQzk1IA/viewform?c=0&w=1
Check the survey out for yourself.
School board members are elected officials. As such, there are no requirements, no qualifications, no certifications they have to hold to enter office other than receiving a majority of the vote in the election in which they ran.
Thus, it is not surprising that too many don't understand their role.
School board members are the representatives elected to oversee the public school system that is taxpayer funded. As such, they set policy, hire and supervise a superintendent who leads and manages the schools on a daily basis, and fulfill legal responsibilities to approve contracts that legally bind the institution to debt and payments of tax dollars, that govern the employees of the school system, and that fulfill the laws of their state. They work with the superintendent on strategic plans to increase student achievement, meet the growing need for seats in rapidly developing areas, and funding the capital (building, furniture, and equipment) needs of the system.
They are a strategic and important link for constituents, that is, voters and parents, who voice their praise and concerns about their schools.
They have a responsibility to advocate for and defend the community's schools against the forces that would decimate them, often for private profit.
Lastly, school board members serve as the guiding force for the democratic institution that the public schools of America have been and should always be.
School board members are not elected to micromanage schools. They Badass Teachers Association: The Role of a School Board Member by Gregory Sampson:
I'm not making this up: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfuEAArKudshXvC2_OocgWDfj-cVnd0OKr7DtecaJudQzk1IA/viewform?c=0&w=1
Check the survey out for yourself.
School board members are elected officials. As such, there are no requirements, no qualifications, no certifications they have to hold to enter office other than receiving a majority of the vote in the election in which they ran.
Thus, it is not surprising that too many don't understand their role.
School board members are the representatives elected to oversee the public school system that is taxpayer funded. As such, they set policy, hire and supervise a superintendent who leads and manages the schools on a daily basis, and fulfill legal responsibilities to approve contracts that legally bind the institution to debt and payments of tax dollars, that govern the employees of the school system, and that fulfill the laws of their state. They work with the superintendent on strategic plans to increase student achievement, meet the growing need for seats in rapidly developing areas, and funding the capital (building, furniture, and equipment) needs of the system.
They are a strategic and important link for constituents, that is, voters and parents, who voice their praise and concerns about their schools.
They have a responsibility to advocate for and defend the community's schools against the forces that would decimate them, often for private profit.
Lastly, school board members serve as the guiding force for the democratic institution that the public schools of America have been and should always be.
School board members are not elected to micromanage schools. They Badass Teachers Association: The Role of a School Board Member by Gregory Sampson:
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