Big Education Ape

Monday, December 13, 2010

Over many years I’ve tried to make the point that what the teachers’ unions say to the public is not nearly as important as what they say to themselves. It is why I’ve endured 13 consecutive NEA conventions and it’s why I bring this particular speech to your attention. I would have preferred to see the election post-mortem presentation, but this will have to do. It was delivered by NEA Vice President Lily Eskelsen to the National Council of State Education Associations meeting in Miami last month. The NCSEA is an umbrella group of all of NEA’s state affiliate leaders.

When I come across 39 minutes of video I rarely will take the time to sit through the whole thing. But if you’re reading this blog, you must have some interest in NEA and its view of things, and this will serve the purpose

What makes an effective teacher? | EdNews Parent

Ask an Expert: What makes a teacher effective?

by R. Kim Herrell

Q. The new legislation (Senate Bill 10-191) is aimed at ensuring an effective teacher in every classroom in Colorado. What is an “effective teacher”?

A. The state will be setting up committees to define what effective instruction looks like, and who an effective teacher is. I happen to like the work of Dr. Jere Brophy, at Michigan State University. He and his colleagues have analyzed the best research out there on teacher effectiveness. Here is their list, and I quote:

Supportive classroom climate: Students learn best within cohesive and caring learning communities.
Opportunity to learn: Students learn more when most of the available time is allocated to curriculum-related activities and the classroom management system emphasizes maintaining students’ engagement

City unveils new steps designed to make path to tenure tougher | GothamSchools

City unveils new steps designed to make path to tenure tougher

by Anna Phillips

For more than 6,000 teachers, the path to tenure this year will be different and, the city hopes, tougher.

City education officials announced a new rubric today that will guide principals as they make tenure decisions this year. The “effectiveness framework” places teachers in one of four categories: highly effective, effective, developing, and ineffective, based on students’ tests scores, classroom observations, parent feedback, and other factors.

In years past, principals completed a brief online form and did not have to explain their reasoning for giving a teacher tenure. Now, school leaders will now be required to fill out a form giving their rationale.

The city is also trying to make tenure harder to earn by giving principals hiring incentives if they deny it. Principals looking to fill a position vacated by a teacher who has been denied tenure will be freed from the city’s

Fact Check: The Costs of Racing to the Top voiceofsandiego.org: Education

voiceofsandiego.org: Education

13Dec

Fact Check: The Costs of Racing to the TopComments | 7:00 am

Image: true Statement: "What we've seen in other school districts that have actually qualified for Race to the Top funds is that it's costing them money. ... It would not have in any way helped with our budget problem," San Diego Unified school board President Richard Barrera said on the KPBS program These Days on Nov. 8.

Determination: True

Analysis: Race to the Top was a competition earlier this year between states for federal funds. States had to pledge to alter their academic standards, tie teacher evaluation to student performance and make other changes in school policyin exchange for the money.

Read the rest of this article

The Answer Sheet - Willingham: What causes performance decline across grades?

Willingham: What causes performance decline across grades?

My guest today is cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia and author of “Why Don’t Students Like School?” By Daniel Willingham An “absolute wake up call.” That’s what Education Secretary Arne Duncan called the latest results of the the PISA test, which measures 10th grader’s achievement in reading, math, and science. If we’ve all been asleep up until now, we’ve really got trouble. U.S. kids did not shine, but the latest round of results of PISA, formally known as the Program for International Student Achievement, don’t look that different than what we’ve seen in the last decade.

NEA Announces Picks for Teacher-Effectiveness Panel - Teacher Beat - Education Week

NEA Announces Picks for Teacher-Effectiveness Panel

by Stephen Sawchuk

The National Education Association last week announced the names of 21 educators and academics who will sit on its Commission on Effective Teachers and Teaching, a group that will make recommendations to the union for "maximizing teacher and teaching effectiveness."

The commission was announced at this past summer's Representative Assembly, but these are the first details NEA has unveiled about what it will be doing.

According to the union, the panelists will:

• Analyze existing standards, definitions, policies and practices related to teacher effectiveness and effective teaching, and develop a teacher's definition of an effective teacher and effective teaching;
• Craft a new vision of the teaching profession;
• Write a comprehensive set of recommendations for the NEA about the union's role in advancing and promoting

Our union leaders must stand up to Boss Madigan. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Our union leaders must stand up to Boss Madigan.

by Fred Klonsky

Jim Broadway reports in his Illinois School Policy Update the next few weeks will be crucial to the future of teacher tenure and seniority rights in the state.

Illinois teachers will be under the gun in Aurora Thursday and Friday when the new House Education Reform Committee holds perhaps its only hearings before legislators are asked to consider its findings in early January.
Although the committee postings are conspicuously silent on the topics – no bills are assigned to the panel, and just a blank space follows the words “subject matter.”

The agenda:

Thursday’s 1 p.m. topics will be “Streamlining Teacher Dismissal, Reforming Teacher Tenure, Linking

New Student Strike Looms at University of Puerto Rico « Student Activism

New Student Strike Looms at University of Puerto Rico

by Angus Johnston

Students at the University of Puerto Rico are gearing up for a new strike in protest against an $800 tuition hike, as university officials announced that a police deployment on campus, begun last week, could continue indefinitely.

Hundreds of demonstrators marched [Original|Google Translation] in San Juan against the tuition increase and

Thoughts on Violence and Resistance from the UK Student Protests « Student Activism

Thoughts on Violence and Resistance from the UK Student Protests

by Angus Johnston

A sampling of responses to last weeks massive British student protests, focusing on questions of violence, resistance, tactics, and ethics…

Riots, Fire, Anger at Tuition Fees Protest — And a Defining Political Moment

For years, the young have been dismissed as apathetic. What has happened to make tens of thousands of them pour on to the streets in the bitter cold – not once, but again and again; not just in London, but in Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds? What has sparked the re-emergence of student occupations in lecture theatres across the country? What is it about the coalition government and its policies that has ignited so much anger?

Inside the Parliament Square Kettle

What I saw a month ago at Millbank was a generation of very young, very angry, very disenfranchised people realising that not doing as you’re told, contrary to everything we’ve been informed, is actually a very effective way of making your voice heard when the parliamentary process has let you down.What I saw two weeks ago in the

Schools Matter: On the Growing Use of Corporate Test Scoring Sweatshops

On the Growing Use of Corporate Test Scoring Sweatshops

by Jim Horn

In April 2006 I posted on the use of Kelly Girls in Florida to score FCAT. Since then the scoring industry has worked to perfect the cheap, production-line model for scoring the hundreds of millions of tests that are making Pearson, McGraw-Hill, Kaplan, and other bottom feeders deliriously wealthy corporate bodies. Here is a recent piece that appeared in the Monthly Review, a must read called "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Test Scorer," with apologies to Alan Sillitoe:

by Dan Dimaggio

Standardized testing has become central to education policy in the United States. After dramatically expanding in the wake of the No Child Left Behind Act, testing has been further enshrined by the Obama administration’s $3.4 billion “Race to the Top” grants. Given the ongoing debate over these policies, it might be useful to hear about the experiences of a hidden sector of the education workforce: those of us who make our living scoring these tests. Our viewpoint is

Damn Good Education Daily

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Test Scorer

truth-out.org - Standardized testing has become central to education policy in the United States. After dramatically expanding in the wake of the No Child Left Behind Act, testing has been further enshrined by the...

DianeRavitch

Why I’m Afraid The Gates Foundation Might Be Minimizing Great Tools For Helping Teachers Improve Their Craft

larryferlazzo.edublogs.org - I support developing more effective ways to evaluate teachers — using multiple measures. What I don’t support, however, is the present effort by the Gates Foundation that’s spending millions of dol...

Larryferlazzo

Bernie Sanders and The Idea That Everyone Matters (And I Mean Everyone) — The Jose Vilson

thejosevilson.com - Senator Bernie SandersOn Friday, I came back from another CoCoLoco meeting in which someone suggested I become an administrator (for the umpteenth time) because I was asked to be a table leader eve...

TheJLV

We Have A Failed School System, Not Failed Schools: Can Principals Learn to Support Teachers and Create Professional Learning Communities? Or, Will the Gorgons Devour Us?

mets2006.wordpress.com - The basketball coach looked distraught, “What’s the matter?” “Report cards just came out, one of my best players is ineligible*.” “What are you going to do?” “Guess I’m going to have to c...

DianeRavitch

pheedcontent.com - Dunbar High School Principal Stephen Jackson was fired at the end of last school year by the private management group in charge of the school, but put back in the job last week by interim D.C. Scho...

alexanderruss

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: Green Dot’s Animo Justice Charter High School: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A CHARTER SCHOOL FAILS?

Green Dot’s Animo Justice Charter High School: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A CHARTER SCHOOL FAILS?

“The school was the only one in the Green Dot network that offered classes in English as a Second Language”

BERTHA RODRÍGUEZ SANTOS, NEW AMERICA MEDIA, NEWS REPORT, TRANSLATED BY ELENA SHORE | HTTP://BIT.LY/EPMLCZ

Dec 13, 2010 - LOS ANGELES—California leads the nation in charter school growth this year, according to a report released last month by The Center for Education Reform.

With 912 charter schools in the state, up 114 from the 2009-2010 academic year, charter administrators are being praised for developing what many believe is one of the most effective models for educating low-income students.

But far less attention has been paid to the closure rate of charter schools. According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, over

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