Friday, July 30, 2010

Texas Education Agency rates Austin schools | kvue.com | KVUE News | Austin, TX | Breaking News

Texas Education Agency rates Austin schools

by ANDREW HORANSKY/ KVUE News

Posted on July 30, 2010 at 5:14 PM

Updated today at 5:26 PM

Friday was report card day for Texas school districts. The Austin Independent School District received higher marks compared to 2009.

Last year, the Texas Education Agency rated eight of Austin's schools as "unacceptable." This year, Austin's East Side Memorial Green Tech High School was the only school to receive that rating.

Green Tech parent Diane Allison was not surprised.

"Even when I was in high school I heard a lot about the school and how bad it was," Allison said. Her daughter graduated from the troubled school this year. She believes that students are the problem and not their teachers.

"And the parents say the teachers aren't teaching right, when they really are and your kids are just not paying attention," Allison said.

Klein's confidential email blasting the Times NYC Public School Parents #edu #education #NYC

NYC Public School Parents

Independent voices of New York City public school parents

NYC Public School Parents

Friday, July 30, 2010

Klein's confidential email blasting the Times

In an email received by accident today, and sent me by a friendly source, Joel Klein blasts the NY Times coverage of the test score scandal this way: “NYT is outrageous. “

Interesting how he says the Times article is “outrageous.” I thought today’s article was relatively mild myself. Or perhaps he meant yesterday’spiece?

In any case, Klein then adds: “There will be pushback (in addition to today’s DN edit) ahead but the oppos are trying to move their agenda with this.”

You bet we are! When the entire Bloom/Klein agenda has been revealed to be a failure, we’d be fools not to point that out.

The Daily News editorial that he is referring to is even more ridiculous than ever. These guys have lost all sense of reality. Entitled Way to Go, Kids! it still maintains the fiction, with a straight face, that the progress under Bloom/Klein has been terrific, while ignoring how their house of cards has completely fallen apart.

The email is addressed to Whitney Tilson is a charter school/ hedgefund privateer, founder of the pro-charter group Democrats for Education Reform, and writes one of the silliest blogs on the planet (amusingly lampooned by Billionaires for Educational Reform).

Here is their entire exchange:

A Viable Pensions Alternative: Cash-Balance Plans? - Teacher Beat - Education Week

A Viable Pensions Alternative: Cash-Balance Plans?

by Stephen Sawchuk

Chad Aldeman of Education Sector and Andy Rotherham of Bellwether Education Partners have put out an interesting primer on reforms to teacher-pension plans, many of which are seriously in the red right now.
EdWeek reporters have covered some of the same issues in the past. Defined-benefit pension plans, as my colleague Michele McNeil reported, can warp the teacher workforce, potentially pushing out great teachers before they're ready to retire and keeping less-effective teachers in the workforce.
And as I reported last year in a companion story, defined-benefit pensions also tend to disfavor certain teachers:

Hovering Experts, Oppressive Regimes and Corrupt Evals � Teacher Reality #education

Hovering Experts, Oppressive Regimes and Corrupt Evals � Teacher Reality

Teacher Reality

Reality Check on What's Really Going on in American Education

Hovering Experts, Oppressive Regimes and Corrupt Evals

July 30, 2010 in Uncategorized

“Got Rhee? If so, u must demonstrate 22 differ. teaching elements w/i a 30 min. lesson. Effective? Ready…go!http://bit.ly/9zXkFj @TeacherReality on Twitter, June 29, 2010

The comment above is a tweet I posted on Twitter, recently. I decided to expand on it as I wanted to share my experience of having “experts” and administrators hover over me, critiquing my every move…every utterance…every breath as I teach children in a Title I school.

I’ll start with giving you a little bit of information about me. I started teaching over 9 years ago in a Title I middle school in San Diego. I had made a mid-career change from technology sales and marketing to teaching. The move was made purely from the heart. I was tired of chasing money in the corporate world and found that I needed to give, instead of take. So, even with several loans yet to be paid on my MBA degree, I went back into college to learn to be a teacher and obtain a teaching credential. Long story short…I found a job on September 11th, 2001 (what an omen that was and I’ll cover it in a later post), in a Title I middle school teaching Language

FBI admits probing ‘radical’ historian Zinn for criticizing bureau | Raw Story

FBI admits probing ‘radical’ historian Zinn for criticizing bureau

By Daniel Tencer
Friday, July 30th, 2010 -- 3:22 pm

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howardzinn FBI admits probing radical historian Zinn for criticizing bureau

FBI files show bureau may have tried to get Zinn fired from Boston University for his political opinions

Those who knew of the dissident historian Howard Zinn would not be surprised that J. Edgar Hoover's FBI kept tabs on him for decades during the Cold War.

But in a release of documents pertaining to Zinn, the bureau admitted that one of its investigations into the left-wing academic was prompted not by suspicion of criminal activity, but by Zinn's criticism of the FBI's record on civil rights investigations.

"In 1949, the FBI opened a domestic security investigation on Zinn," the bureau states. "The Bureau noted Zinn’s activities in what were called Communist Front Groups and received informant reports that Zinn was an active member of the CPUSA; Zinn denied ever being a member when he was questioned by agents in the 1950s.

"In the 1960s, the Bureau took another look at Zinn on account of his criticism of the FBI’s civil rights investigations."

Story continues below...

Looking for the culprits behind tests’ dropping standards | GothamSchools

Looking for the culprits behind tests’ dropping standards

by Elizabeth Green

What does it mean for tests to get easier? And is that really what happened to New York’s tests?

The analysis that has spurred that idea in the last few weeks actually found something slightly different. The tests aren’t necessarily easier, in the way that a kindergarten spelling bee is easier than the SAT. Instead, between 2007 and 2009, students who hadn’t learned much came out looking like they had.

This is an important distinction because it points to a different culprit behind the dropping standards than simply the individual test items themselves. Instead, Harvard professor Daniel Koretz – the lead author of the analysis commissioned by the state education department — names two possible causes: a phenomenon

The Non-story in New York’s New Test Results � The Quick and the Ed

The Non-story in New York’s New Test Results

by Chad Aldeman

With headlines like “Test scores down sharply; biggest decline for needy students,” it’s no wonder that politicians are sometimes reluctant to raise educational standards: it can make them look bad. That’s unfortunate, because here we have a state, New York, essentially saying that it’s test score proficiency bar was too low and that kids need higher standards. Instead of being praised for being honest to students and families about the academic achievement levels necessary to be successful in college, the media is making it look like test scores went way down. That’s far from the truth.
Before going into the specific numbers, let’s take a pretty simple metaphor. The commissioner of basketball decides that it’s too easy for players to dunk on 10 foot hoops nowadays. We’ve lost our edge in international

QUICK Hits

by Forrest Hinton

Quick Hits is a short compilation of question-raising news stories, blog posts, and video clips that Education Sector team members are reading and viewing each day.

Is the federal government “meddling” too much in the for-profit higher education sector? Or are for-profit colleges feeding off the government trough, offering the public little in return? (Minding The Campus)
Teacher Pensions: A problem for today? Or tomorrow? (Eduwonk)
Do policymakers and advocates sometimes forget that America’s K-12 education system is three-tiered?(The Core Knowledge Blog)
Jay Mathews answers the oft-asked question: Are too many students going to college? (Class Struggle)
JUST IN: Who will Wa-Po endorse in the DC mayoral race on Sunday? (The Washington Post)

Schools Matter: Obama: Splitting the Difference Between "No Excuses" and "Yes You Can?"

Obama: Splitting the Difference Between "No Excuses" and "Yes You Can?"

by Jim Horn

Comments by Monty Neill:

Comments on Obama's talk to the Urban League, July 29, 2010

In this speech, Obama talks about having an "honest conversation." Too often, however, his talk is simply not honest. This was a disturbing and angering talk, even if it was rather as expected.

Here are some excerpts from the speech with my comments -- his excerpts are quoted. The

In case you missed it: Teachers, teachers, teachers | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

In case you missed it: Teachers, teachers, teachers

by Jamie Raver

Rhee dismisses 241 D.C. teachers; union vows to contest firings The Washington Post
When her newly implemented IMPACT evaluation revealed a startling number of teachers to be ineffective and unlicensed, Michelle Rhee immediately let them go - and warned 737 others ranked "minimally effective" that they will face similar fates if they do not change their scores within a year.
See also: Fire Hot In DC Eduwonk
Math Quiz The Core Knowledge Blog
The D.C. teacher firings The Washington Post Editorial
School Chief Dismisses 241 Teachers in Washington The New York Times
So my elderly aunt was talking about Michelle Rhee the other day... The Educated Reporter
read more

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Finding Hope

Finding Hope

by coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher)

Image by kharied via Flickr

"H--o---oooooo---pe! Where are you?"

I called as I looked in my desk drawer, under the manuscript sitting on my desk, between the books I'm studying to teach in a few weeks.

"Hope. Are you in there?"

As I looked in the kitchen sink, among the laundry around my recliner.

I see a lot of work. A lot of

The Educated Reporter: Shedding light on cut scores.

Shedding light on cut scores.

by Linda Perlstein

Lots of talk among ed reporters this week about cut scores—lowering them to ensure that more students pass,raising them and seeing more students fail. It is a nearly impossible topic to report really well, given that states tend to make the process, and the tests, utterly opaque. Not to mention that “making the questions harder” is sort of vague. I liked this effort, back in 2007, by Washington Post reporter Ian Shapira to show at least a tiny little bit about what setting cut scores looks like. (That part is at the end of the article.) Please, do what you can

Morning Bell: The Quiet Education Overhaul | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News. OMG

Morning Bell: The Quiet Education Overhaul | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.

Morning Bell: The Quiet Education Overhaul

Posted July 30th, 2010 at 8:33am in Education 39 Print This Post

Yesterday, President Obama delivered a major speech on education in an effort to garner support for his Race to the Top grant program and his push for national education standards and tests. The President’s remarks came on the heels of a speech delivered by Education Secretary Arne Duncanon Tuesday at the National Press Club, during which Duncan attempted to paint the Administration’s policies as part of a “quiet revolution.”

Duncan certainly got the quiet part right. Since his Administration came into office, President Obama has quietly been reworking the country’s education system, doing an end-run around normal legislative procedure. With the U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) funding doubled thanks to the so-called “stimulus,” the Administration has little need or incentive to bother negotiating its education agenda through Congress. Instead, the DOE is using that windfall of funding and power to stage a significant overhaul of local schools; dangling grant money before cash-strapped states on the condition they adopt key pieces of the Obama education

A working mom doesn't necessarily hurt child's development, study finds

By Daniel de Vise

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 30, 2010; 2:01 PM

A new study finds that babies raised by working mothers don't necessarily suffer cognitive setbacks, an encouraging finding that follows a raft of previous reports suggesting that women with infants were wiser to stay home.

Researchers at Columbia University say they are among the first to measure the full effect of maternal employment on child development -- not just the potential harm caused by a mother's absence from the home, but the prospective benefits that come with her job, including higher family income and better child care.
In a 113-page monograph, released this week, the authors conclude "that the overall effect of 1st-year

Carrollton blog: Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD fails to regain 'recognized' TEA rating 12:22 PM CT | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

Carrollton blog: Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD fails to regain 'recognized' TEA rating 12:22 PM CT

01:09 PM CDT on Friday, July 30, 2010

By AVI SELK / The Dallas Morning News
aselk@dallasnews.com

C-FB failed to get a recognized rating from the state for the 09-10 school year, the school district just announced.

That's surprising. Just last month district officials were confidently telling reporters (OK, me) that they expected to get a ratings bump.

The district slipped from "recognized" to "acceptable" last summer because of high Hispanic dropout rates. But the district worked to reduce those dropout rates throughout the last school year.

In a press release last month, superintendent Bobby Burns anticipated the district would be recognized again this year. He called it a "stellar achievement."

The party got spoiled, apparently, by Barbara Bush Middle School, which slipped to an "unacceptable" rating this year because of a high

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Friday, July 30, 2010