michaelklonsky.blogspot.com - Headed east on the Turnpike, I'm hearning plenty about the devastation to public education now taking place under the banner of "reform". Massive cuts to the education budget, firings of teachers ...
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Joel Klein’s Bad Faith Argument: The Misuse Of Al Shanker | EdwizeJoel Klein’s Bad Faith Argument: The Misuse Of Al ShankerMay. 19, 201111:26 amby Leo Casey No CommentsFiled under:Education(This is...
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Considering How One 'Sees' Things - Bridging Differences - Education WeekConsidering How One 'Sees' Thingsby Deborah MeierDear Diane,I'm writing you while you are probably also writing me, on Sunda...
washingtonpost.com - Public school teachers, parents and activists are organizing a July march and conference in Washington to send a message to federal officials that they oppose the standardized-test driven school re...
preaprez.wordpress.com - SB 512 was going to come out of committee yesterday. That’s what Boss Madigan wanted. It didn’t happen. Then it was going to come out today. It has been delayed. Maybe next week. I’m hearing that t...
michaelklonsky.blogspot.com - BennettK12 Inc. buys Inc.'s high school online program Kaplan has been the Washington Post's main profit center. But in the past year, the company has been riddled with student loan scandals and m...
nydailynews.com - Mayor Bloomberg today told reporters a lawsuit filed by the United Federation of Teachers to halt school closures will accomplish nothing but creating "the maximum havoc and disruption" and stoke f...
frederickhess.org - by Frederick M. Hess • May 19, 2011 at 8:02 amCross-posted from Education Weekhttp://www.frederickhess.org/2011/05/what-weve-got-here-isfailure-to-communicateOne of the funniest developments of t...
theuptake.org - By Marisa Wojcik & Michael McIntee Minnesotans better hope the photos on their voter IDs will be clearer than the funding picture for the bill that will require them. Minnesota Voter Identification...
democurmudgeon.blogspot.com - No wonder Republicans are so worried about voter fraud, because it’s something they would do themselves. Call it…projection.WSJ: A Republican legislative aide is under investigation for possible vo...
robertreich.org - President Obama is mulling an executive order to force big government contractors to disclose details of their political spending. Big businesses are already telling their political patrons in Cong...
schooltechconnect.com - Henry Bayer kicked ass in this recent episode of Chicago Tonight, by the way. I skipped right to the part where the Civic Federation guy finally stops talking and Henry starts telling the truth. (a...
hispanicallyspeakingnews.com - Published at 1:45 am, May 20, 2011 Photo Credits: Border Arrests US Customs and Border Protection recently released data showing the number of those arrested trying to cross the US-Mexico border is...
hispanicallyspeakingnews.com - Published at 2:23 am, May 20, 2011 Photo Credits: Immigration Reform A Missouri immigration lawyer is proposing that illegal immigrants who haven’t committed serious crimes should be able to a fee ...
hispanicallyspeakingnews.com - Segรบn un estudio, los hallazgos ayudan a explicar por quรฉ algunos niรฑos son mรกs propensos a desarrollar asma y otras enfermedadesSegรบn un estudio reciente, las mujeres que fuman durante el embarazo...
blog.angryasianman.com - Did you know? May 19 is the 7th annual National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. The commemorate the occasion, and to raise awareness about sexual health in A&PI communities, the Ba...
sacbee.com - The Sacramento City Unified School District is offering free vaccines for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis to sixth- through 11th-grade students starting today.State law will require middle and hi...
beinglatino.wordpress.com - by Nancy Sepulveda His fat sausage fingers jabbed at my face, emphasizing insults in between flecks of spittle. Fear and shame intermingled with a bubbling, rising sense of rebellion, and I had to ...
theuptake.org - Video by Aaron Klemz It wasn’t an official public hearing, but Senate DFLers got to hear from those who will be hurt by a proposed Republican budget for Minnesota. The UpTake carried the entire eve...
jimhightower.com - This will seem like a fairytale now, but not so long ago, it was actually possible for CEO pay to constitute "an embarrassment of riches." How quaint. Today, the riches are massive, but the embarra...
hispanicallyspeakingnews.com - Published at 8:57 pm, May 19, 2011 Photo Credits: Few Minority Screenwriters in Hollywood The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) has released the Executive Summary of the 2011 Hollywood Writers ...
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - What a Public Bank Could Mean for California | Dissident VoiceWhat a Public Bank Could Mean for Californiaby Ellen Hodgson BrownCalifornia is the eighth largest economy in the world, and it has a d...
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Kayla Stoner is no Ben Velderman. I hope. « Fred Klonsky's blogKayla Stoner is no Ben Velderman. I hope.by Fred KlonskyKayla Stoner is a junior journalism student at Northwestern. She’s doing a sto...
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: On that lost highway -- the Pennsylvania TurnpikeOn that lost highway -- the Pennsylvania Turnpikeby Mike KlonskyHeaded east on the Turnpike, I'm hearning plenty abou...
bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Challenge to those who think class size does not matter « A "Fuller" Look at Education IssuesChallenge to those who think class size does not matterby Dr. Ed FullerMany people are now arguing that ...
sacbee.com - In a wide-ranging discussion about the long-term picture for the University of California's finances, the governing Board of Regents talked Wednesday about planning tuition increases five years out...
Kayla Stoner is a junior journalism student at Northwestern. She’s doing a story on Senate Bill 7, the phony education reform bill that passed the Illinois General Assembly a few days ago and is now sitting on the governor’s desk waiting for his signature.
The email from Kayla asked if she could do a video interview with me. She had found my blog and wanted to talk to me about my views.
I’m not sure of how many people go to the Northwestern News web site, but I’m pretty sure that Kayla was giving the issue more coverage than the corporate media, and would be far more objective than the teacher bashing Chicago Tribune.
Of course I googled Kayla before I agreed to be interviewed. I wanted to make sure she wasn’t one of those
Many people are now arguing that class size does not matter. There is some research that shows this. One of the problems with such research is that the outcome variables of almost all of those studies are standardized tests that tend to measure fairly low-level skills and do not accurately measure the higher-order thinking skills we are trying to ensure that all students obtain.
What do the rich do in Texas and elsewhere?
Send their kids to private schools with very small class sizes.
So, here is the challenge: Use the website below to look at the most exclusive private schools in the major metro areas and look at their student-teacher ratios. VERY, VERY LOW.
Some of the student-teacher ratios are below 10. We may have some rural schools that have such a low ratio,
SACRAMENTO, Calif.—The state Assembly narrowly approved a cap Thursday on the number of charter schools in California and banned nepotism in the hiring practices of the fast-growing alternative schools.
The bill, AB401, would limit the number of charter schools in the state to 1,450 by 2017 and impose some of the same rules that block public school employees from hiring family members.
The bill by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, was approved 41-28 by the Assembly and now goes to the state Senate.
"Some accountability measures are needed to ensure that all charter schools are adequately performing," Ammiano said on the Assembly floor. "Charter schools are funded by public dollars" and should be
State Sen. Teresa Ruiz’s first deliberations on teacher tenure started more than a year ago, even before Gov. Chris Christie made it a centerpiece of his education reform agenda.
Since then, the governor has grabbed the issue as his own, and gone to war with the teachers unions who, in turn, have responded with their own proposals.
Ruiz (D-Essex), in the meantime, has made her plan for rewriting the tenure law one of the best-kept secrets in the Statehouse, while the chairwoman of the Senate education committee has continued to develop its details.
Now it finally looks ready. Ruiz said yesterday that she would file the bill next week, and it would likely include a few twists on the governor’s proposal.
"Everyone has been saying what took so long, but this has not been an easy task," Ruiz said in an interview yesterday after her committee held a hearing on teacher evaluation.
In the Details
The details of Ruiz’s plan are of no small consequence, given Ruiz’s place in the Democratic leadership that rules both the Senate and Assembly. And she
I just learned the news that ousted Washington Teacher's Union President, George Parker has joined forces with Michelle Rhee. After I got up from the floor I started fuming; connecting the pieces, yet fuming. What does this mean to us DC teachers? Parker was involved in the making of our famous 'balanced, fair and negotiated' contract 2 years back, so how fair could it have really been with our own union president having one foot on the other side?
I was talking to a friend yesterday about trust and he shared how he does not trust anyone involved in the education policy world, not even the unions. I added that perhaps the distrust came from the fact that most
Anti-Sodexo student group stages another sit-in at UW
Thirteen students were arrested at the University of Washington on Thursday night after they staged a sit-in inside the athletics director's office to protest the university's contract with food-services provider Sodexo, according to a news release from the students.
Thirteen students were arrested at the University of Washington on Thursday night after they staged a sit-in inside the athletics director's office to protest the university's contract with food-services provider Sodexo, according to a news release from the students.
About 20 students — part of the "Kick Out Sodexo Coalition" — participated in the sit-in inside the office of UW's Director of Athletics Scott Woodward in the Graves Building around 3:45 p.m., said sophomore Morgan Currier, one of the protesters. Police arrested 13 students at 7 p.m., she said. They were cited for trespassing and then released, she said.
Calls to the university's Police Department about the arrests were not returned.
The student coalition has been urging the university to cancel its contract with Sodexo, alleging the company has violated human rights. The company supplies concessions at UW athletic facilities under a five-year
Bruce Baker, esteemed school finance researcher and a good friend of mine, has access to national and state data on private school tuition. He kindly ran some Texas numbers for us and has them at:
He found, as I did with Texas data based on looking up individual school data from Texas websites, that the voucher proposed by Rep. Miller would NOT cover most of the schools’ tuition.
See my other post here for details:
http://fullerlook.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/vouchers/ While the researchers supporting the voucher plan assume the vouchers will increase the number of students attending existing private schools (based on one study from 1990 that preceded charter schools, thus is no
Principal: ‘Kids, it’s you and your teacher against the test’-- *This was written by Carol Corbett Burris, principal of South Side High School in New York. She was named the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York State. * * Read full article >>
Report: Why we need arts education (not only to improve test scores)A new report by a presidentially appointed committee on arts education makes the case that art education not only helps young people find their voice but also is an effective tool in improving student achievement in all subjects. It even ends up ...
Missing the point on poverty and reform — againWhen I saw that Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone, was going to be one of five members of a school reform Town Hall discussion, I assumed that the issue of poverty and how it affects students would be on the agenda. After all, ...
Photo: John Deasy, left, and Antonio Villaraigosa at a news conference on Jan. 11. Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles TImes
May 19, 2011 | 4:22 pm -- Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, in a speech in Sacramento on Thursday, called for doubling the amount of time it takes for teachers to earn tenure, linking students’ test scores to teachers’ evaluations and ending layoffs based strictly on seniority.
Villaraigosa has made similar remarks, but his speech at a teacher evaluation conference hosted by the Education Trust-West had new details of what he wants to include in teachers’ evaluations and how he wants to change tenure.
Evaluations, which are based almost entirely on subjective measurements, should include students’ test data, including how well they have performed on standardized
Once city teachers have achieved tenure after three years of service, it can be difficult to remove them. But Chicago Public Schools can dismiss teachers swiftly in their first few years.
Beginning educators are classified as “probationary teachers.” According to the union contract, just before the end of the school year, the principal can notify a probationary teacher that he or she will not be rehired for the following year. Teachers in their first and second years do not have to be given a reason for their release, but third-year probationary teachers do. Once teachers receive notice they will not be rehired by the school, they can look for work at another Chicago school.
In June of 2010, CPS announced that probationary teachers with an unsatisfactory rating or two non-renewals of their contract would be ineligible to be rehired by CPS. The Chicago Teachers Union said it has filed grievances over the board’s refusal to rehire probationary teachers who fall into these categories, and has asked the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board to send the matter to arbitration.
Sara Echevarria, coordinator of the union’s grievance department, said CPS’ move creates the possibility that a teacher who has an issue with just one principal can essentially be banned from the district. The district
I wanted to like ‘Race to Nowhere’ but I really didn’t. The film is a grassroots-type documentary by mother Vicki Abeles who decided to make the film after her children began having problems at school. The amount of homework, the high-stakes testing, and other stress factors was leading to anxiety and depression at home. The more she looked into this, the more widespread the problem appeared to be.
But watching the film, two thoughts kept running through my mind. First, nearly all the students and families in the film were from upper-middle-class families. Not all of them, mind you, but most. The non-upper-middle-class students seemed more like token additions to the film. More on this in a minute.
Second, kids with high-powered parents eager to have their offspring get into good colleges are going to do a lot
Deep in Gov. Jerry Brown's May revision of his January budget is a possible solution to a major conflict over funding mental health services for special education students.
Brown this week proposed that schools, not counties, be responsible for paying for mental health services, which include counseling, medication management and treatment in a residential facility. Using a complex formula Brown has come up with $390 million, including $69 million in federal special education funds, to help schools pay for those services.
"We think that the program is sufficiently funded in 2011-12 with most of the dollars going to the school district
When Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled his revised budget Monday, he sent a mixed message to First 5 commissions throughout the state: On one hand, the budget would no longer include taking $1 billion from them. On the other, the state would still pursue those funds.
Any relief commissions felt about Brown balancing the budget without First 5 funds was tempered by confusion over why he would still defend a law that takes those dollars.
First 5 commissions, which support early childhood development programs, have been slashing their budgets, cutting programs and eliminating services to meet the funding shift. They are now "in a weird limbo position," said Sherry Novick, executive director of the First 5 Association of California, a nonprofit membership group.
In March, Brown signed legislation that requires First 5 commissions to transfer $1 billion to the state for children's health services. Eight county commissions have sued over the legislation, AB 99, contending that it
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