Monday, January 24, 2011

Duncan, Obama Headed for Fight in Congress on Education Policy, Funding - Bloomberg

Duncan, Obama Headed for Fight in Congress on Education Policy, Funding

By Kate Andersen Brower - Jan 23, 2011 9:01 PM PT

President Barack Obama, who has adopted such traditionally Republican principles as charter schools and teacher merit pay, will meet resistance in a divided Congress over spending and the reach of government in the classroom.

He will showcase his argument for an education overhaul in his State of the Union address tomorrow, Education Secretary Arne Duncan says.

Obama wants to replace President George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” law, which required student testing and demanded that schools show “adequate yearly progress,” with his own plan for tracking of student progress and training teachers. While Bush benefited from a

NJ Spotlight | Opinion: Deception, Fiscal Irresponsibility, School Vouchers

Opinion: Deception, Fiscal Irresponsibility, School Vouchers
The school voucher program can't deliver on its promises, but it can help subsidize private schools across the state

print |

email |

By Gordon MacInnes, January 24 in Opinion |Post a Comment

If you watched the Senate budget committee’s hearing on the Christie voucher bill, you would never know that New Jersey is bankrupt. Or that we are in the midst of the most severe crisis to afflict the state since the Great Depression:

New Jersey cannot save the jobs of half of the police force in its most dangerous city, Camden. Nor the jobs of one-third of its firefighters.

Thousands of teachers have been laid off in a state where students consistently achieve at the highest level in the country (except for Massachusetts). School boards are told there can be no relief for rapidly rising special education costs.

The governor says we cannot afford a prosperity-building rail tunnel to New York City because the

Last Stand for Children First: LS4C1 announces exciting new test grid wallpaper

LS4C1 announces exciting new test grid wallpaper

by Last Stand for Children

We hear at LastStand are very excited to announce a partnership with Pearson Testing International to produce this fine one of a kind wallpaper based on the latest educational research into the learning styles of infants.

Satire On Grading Parents Proposal | Engaging Parents In School...

Satire On Grading Parents Proposal Lee Kolbert has written a satirical post on the grading parents proposal I’ve been writing about over the last few days. Check out My Thoughts and Predictions on Grading Parents.

More On Florida Legislator’s Plan To Grade Parents A few days ago, I posted about a Florida legislator’s proposal to grade parents (see Bill Proposed To Grade Parents — What’s In Florida’s Drinking Water?). A Florida newspaper just published an editorial against the bill, which also provides more ...

I Don’t Think Having Police Fine Elementary Students For Leaving Class Early Is Going To Enhance Parent/School Relationships I initially heard about this on Richard Byrne’s blog, but was so incredulous I had to do a little more investigating. It’s true — Texas school districts are having misdemeanor tickets with fines up to $500 being issued to students as young as…six ...

My Most Popular Posts On Parent Engagement This Quarter I use PostRank to determine the most popular posts from my blog, *Engaging Parents In School*, and post a list every quarter. This quarter, PostRank is acting a little strange, so I’m just going to use the number of “hits” on posts to determine this ...

The Answer Sheet - Teacher: The worst of "best practices"

Teacher: The worst of "best practices"

This was written by Roxanna Elden, the author of See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers. She teaches high-school English in Miami and is a National Board Certified Teacher. This piece explains how the push for teachers to use "best practices" can get out of hand, and it will make you both laugh and cry. It first appeared on Rick Hess’s blog, Straight Up, on the Education Week website. By Roxanna Elden District, county, and state education offices are fond of sharing "best practices" through professional development. The idea is to spread the word about strategies that work in some schools so other teachers can use these strategies and get the same great results. There are times when it works this way. Unfortunately, things can get complicated when the same people who pick and distribute best practices are also responsible for checking whether they are being done correctly,

Is ICT a Revolution or Fool’s Errand? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Is ICT a Revolution or Fool’s Errand?

by larrycuban

The following post on ICT (Information/Communication Technology) appeared as part of a forum with the above title hosted by Education Technology Debate. Other contributors are listed there.

If ICT means the use of computers in schools and classrooms and if learning means what academic content, skills, and behaviors students can perform in and out of school, then the massive investment over the past 30 years in wiring schools, buying computers and the latest hand-held device has fallen far short of being a “revolution” in students’ learning and teachers’ teaching (Failure of computers PDF 1995). While not a fool’s errand–the idea that ICT would revolutionize schooling was, at worst, sloppy thinking and, at best, ardent wishfulness.

Note I said “use” of ICT, not access to it. For access to ICT in the U.S has been an unvarnished success. From

Teacher training schools to be ranked for first time | California Watch

Teacher training schools to be ranked for first time

by Louis Freedberg

Louis Freedberg

Just as more teachers are facing performance rankings of their work, dozens of teacher training schools in California will be judged for the first time in a nationwide survey set for publication in U.S. News and World Report.

The planned rankings come against a backdrop of plummeting enrollment in California's teacher training programs, as well as harsh criticisms of these programs, including a now famous blast from U.S. Secretary of

“Top Level Kids” and Accountability–A Radical Response | Dailycensored.com

“Top Level Kids” and Accountability–A Radical Response

Written by Paul ThomasEducationJan 23, 2011

0digg

The 21^st century Western world, driven by American corporate and consumer ideology, is a perpetual media culture that depends on sound bites and “the next thing,” leaving the public reduced to media consumers never allowed time to reflect on the information. Volume and speed have consumed and obliterated nuance, ethics, and accuracy.

Numerous media outlets report the fact that Secretary Arne Duncan spoke, but none will pause long enough to verify whatDuncan said. . .

The education debate over the past two years has been characterized by

NYC Educator: What's Going On?

What's Going On?

by NYC Educator

Marvin Gaye asked, but no one's answered yet. How on earth have public employees become the bad guys? How have we, one of the last bastions of the middle class, become the scourge of society?

It's all about money, actually. The government hasn't got enough. Municipalities are struggling. Why? You need look no further than the President of the United States, who, in these tough times, extended tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans. Chuck Shumer said let's make the cutoff 1 million per year, so as not to inconvenience those impoverished Americans scraping by on $250,000 per annum. Even that was not good enough, and projected losses in tax revenue are astronomical. So someone has to pay.

Could it be the rich? Absolutely not. Rupert Murdoch, who

Seeing silver lining in Robles-Wong | Thoughts on Public Education

Seeing silver lining in Robles-Wong
Share

For plaintiffs, case could yet roll their way

Posted on 1/24/11 • Categorized as Jerry Brown, Robles-Wong v California

By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

A Superior Court ruling narrowing the scope of two suits challenging the state’s system of funding education is distressing to those favoring more money for California schools. But while disappointed, lawyers for the cases say they’re not despondent – or ready to give in.

Three factors are giving them hope, as they plot strategy over the next few weeks: Serrano,Proposition 8, and Judge Steven Brick’s ambiguity.

Serrano. That’s the name of the landmark court case that

Shanker Blog » Meet The Bureaucrats

Meet The Bureaucrats

by Matthew Di Carlo

You needn’t look far to see that state public employees are under intense scrutiny. Politicians and other commentators are using rhetoric that is simplistic and often misleading. But, in the debate over their relative value, these state workers have an additional problem: I get the strong feeling that most Americans have little idea what they do.

If you ask the average person to describe what a public employee does, you might hear the word “bureaucrat.” Those who wish

Monday, January 24, 2011