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Saturday, May 21, 2011

Big Education Ape: 5-21-11 AM UN-Reform Edition

Big Education Ape: Ed News Now

Big Education Ape: Ed News Now

Published by Coopmike48 – 4 contributors today

What happened to my TFA?

garyrubinstein.teachforus.org - Some readers of my blog, particularly the TFAers that are about to begin their training, are probably a bit confused about who I am and why I’m so cranky. Originally, I was just a guy who had a ver...

DianeRavitch

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coopmike48 College of San Mateo parking lot draws protests - http://goo.gl/C4NEp4 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

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coopmike48 Surveys show Pa. schools expect to make 'severe' cuts - Philly.com -http://goo.gl/EezI52 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

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coopmike48 Mayor Bloomberg facing pressure to apologize for insulting public school parents http://bit.ly/iH9cec #Edu8 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

EducationSee all

LIFO is good | Gary Rubinstein's TFA Blog

garyrubinstein.teachforus.org - The TFA alumni organization has been recently calling to get the opinion from different alums about the recent debate in New York City, and elsewhere, about ending LIFO (Last In First Out). At a fi...

coopmike48

A Union of Professionals. www.nysut.org

nysut.org - 2011 was a tough year as cuts, layoffs and closings had voters on edge. In Albany, public school teachers made significant sacrifices when they settled a new five-year contract in early May, preven...

coopmike48

Well...it explains a lot on the classroom...

physics4thecool.com - As with everything I see on the news, there are some parts I agree with and some I have to disagree, or give (from my opinion and experience only) clarification to... - I agree, Gen Y and/or "mille...

DianeRavitch

PoliticsSee all

AFL-CIO’s Trumka blasts Walker and Ryan in DC speech

defendwisconsin.org - Speaking today at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka offered biting criticism of Gov. Scott Walker. “Politicians like (Ohio Gov.) John Kasich and Scott Wal...

coopmike48

No Child Left Behind Revamp Stalls As Obama's Deadline Looms

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - No Child Left Behind Revamp Stalls As Obama's Deadline LoomsEducation Reauthorization: A Law Left Behind?by Huffington Post News TeamWhile Democrats and Republicans mostly agree that a sweeping fed...

coopmike48

Art & EntertainmentSee all

Students host powwow at UCSD

signonsandiego.com - By Pat FlynnFriday, May 20, 2011 at 10:08 a.m. The Native American Student Alliance at the University of California San Diego is hosting a powwow on campus Saturday from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m.The ev...

coopmike48

The prickly topic of “English only” — Joanne Jacobs

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - The prickly topic of “English only” — Joanne JacobsEl tema espinoso de "Inglés solamente"20 DE MAYO 2011 POR SÉNÉCHAL DIANA DEJA TU COMENTARIOPara empezar, se trata estrictamente de "Inglés solamen...

coopmike48

LivingSee all

Planned Parenthood Aided; Hotel Staffs at Risk

womensenews.org - (WOMENSENEWS)-- CheersDonors to Planned Parenthood of Indiana will cover the cost of treating Medicaid patients through the next week, after a state law cutting off Medicaid funds to the health-car...

coopmike48

StoriesSee all

Last Chance To Score Jeebus Points Before The Rapture

tbogg.firedoglake.com - As many of you might recall, and most probably have no idea, I will have been at this blogging thing for nine years this September which, in internet years, is …. nine years. When I started my daug...

coopmike48

Calling all Math bloggers who tweet » Fun Math Blog

wildaboutmath.com - May 20th, 2011 | by Sol | I notice that my new Playing With Mathematica blog gets a fair amount of traffic from twitter. I’d like more of that traffic so I’ve come up with an idea and a plan that w...

coopmike48

Wild About Math blogs 5/13/11 » Fun Math Blog

wildaboutmath.com - May 20th, 2011 | by Sol | Welcome to the post-Mother’s Day edition of Wild About Math Blogs! Carnival of Mathematics #77 has been posted at Jost a Mon. Scientific American just republished a wonder...

coopmike48

TechnologySee all

“Turn-O-Phrase” Is A Fun Word Game For ELL’s

larryferlazzo.edublogs.org - May 20 2011 Larry Ferlazzo “Turn-O-Phrase” is a fun new game where you are shown images that give hints to common English phrases, and you need to identify that words that would go along with them....

coopmike48

#eduRead this paperSee all

Jersey Jazzman: Testing Nation

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Jersey Jazzman: Testing NationWhat's The Rush? Apparently, it is critically important for New Jersey to put a teacher evaluation system that all research shows will not work into place right away. ...

coopmike48

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    Mayor Bloomberg facing pressure to apologize for insulting public school parents

    Mayor Bloomberg facing pressure to apologize for insulting public school parents

    Mayor Bloomberg facing pressure to apologize for insulting public school parents

    BY JONATHAN LEMIRE AND RACHEL MONAHAN
    DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

    Saturday, May 21st 2011, 4:00 AM

    Public Advocate Bill De Blasio said Mayor Bloomberg, above, should stop treating parents like 'problems.'
    Lombard for News
    Public Advocate Bill De Blasio said Mayor Bloomberg, above, should stop treating parents like 'problems.'

    Mayor Bloomberg is under pressure to apologize for insulting public school parents who oppose his education reforms.

    In his weekly WOR radio appearance, Bloomberg responded to a question about why parents fight the city's efforts to close struggling schools that are often in poor, immigrant and minority neighborhoods.

    "There are some parents who ... never had a formal education, and they don't understand the value of education," Hizzoner said.

    "The old Norman Rockwell family is gone. Some of these kids don't have parents. There's nobody to stand up for them."

    This week, the NAACP and the teachers union sued to block the closing of 22 struggling schools with support from some parents.

    It's the third year in a row the union has sued to block closings.

    The last two lawsuits have been successful.

    "How dare he and how disrespectful of him to think we don't have the brain power - whether we have a Ph.D. or an eighth grade education - to know what we want for our



    Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/05/21/2011-05-21_ps_parents_flunk_bloomy_vent_outrage_over_his_comments_about_students_kin_as_de_.html#ixzz1MzpmlxSi
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    “Where Are The Jobs?” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

    “Where Are The Jobs?” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...
    “Where Are The Jobs?” Where Are The Jobs? is a very good interactive infographic from The Washington Post showing which economic sectors are increasing jobs and which are not doing so well. I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About The Recession.
    New Middle East Resources Here are the newest additions to The “Best” Resources For Learning About The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Obama, Netanyahu discuss Mideast peace process is an interactive from The Associated Press. Palestinian-Israeli Conflict in :90 is from ABC ...
    The Best Sites For Learning About The Mississippi River Flooding I know I’m a little late on this “The Best…” list, but I’m finally getting around to starting a “The Best…” list on the terrible flooding going on near the Mississippi River. Here are my choices for The Best Sites For Learning About The Mississippi ...
    “What The Trend” I periodically post “most popular” lists of websites (and books) that I think educators might find useful. Of course, there are a number of ways to gauge “popularity.” I just view these lists as opportunities to check-out some new sites, and find it ...
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    Sacramento Press / Big names draw a large crowd at education forum

    Sacramento Press / Big names draw a large crowd at education forum

    Big names draw a large crowd at education forum

    by Isaac Gonzalez

    The Guild Theater in Oak Park was host to a forum attended by some of the biggest and most controversial names in education reform Friday evening.

    The event was organized by Stand Up Sacramento, a non-profit group chaired by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, and featured speakers such as Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of public schools in Washington D.C., her boss in that position, former Washington DC mayor Adrian Fenty, and Richard Whitmire, former editorial writer at USA Today and author of “The Bee Eater”, a book which chronicles Rhee’s time as chancellor.

    The speakers focused on the need to change teacher retention polices nationwide, and in particular the abolishment of the “LIFO”, or last-in-first-out practice of layoffs that most public school districts currently follow.

    One after another, the speakers emphasized to the standing room only crowd that this policy does not encourage teacher retention based on student achievement, but rather it protects ineffective teachers with

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    Music for the rapture






    Or perhaps you're a Blondie fan:
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    Weekly Address: Congress Should Reform No Child Left Behind This Year | The White House

    Weekly Address: Congress Should Reform No Child Left Behind This Year | The White House

    Weekly Address: Congress Should Reform No Child Left Behind This Year

    by The White House
    Release Time:
    For Immediate Release

    WASHINGTON – In his weekly address, President Obama praised the progress that schools like Booker T. Washington High School in Memphis have made, and he called on Congress to fix No Child Left Behind this year. To strengthen education in this country, we need to encourage reforms not driven by Washington, but by principals and parents so schools can determine what is best for their kids. And that is why it is so important that Congress replace No Child Left Behind this year, so that schools have that flexibility. Reform just cannot wait.

    The audio of the address is and video of the address will be available online at www.whitehouse.gov at 6:00 a.m. ET, Saturday, May 21, 2011.

    Remarks of President Barack Obama
    As Prepared for Delivery
    Saturday, May 21, 2011
    Washington, DC

    This week, I went to Memphis, Tennessee, where I spoke to the graduating class of Booker T. Washington High

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    Queens Teacher: The 6% Club - Parents Can Opt Kids Out of Testing

    Queens Teacher: The 6% Club - Parents Can Opt Kids Out of Testing

    The 6% Club - Parents Can Opt Kids Out of Testing

    by Queens Teacher


    Schools need 95% of students to take tests in order for it to count. If 6% of students don't take the tests, schools cannot be measured by them.

    Parents will be able to turn this around and get these vultures out of our classrooms. As Diane Ravitch says,
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    State of Emergency: Looking Forward | Reflections on Teaching

    State of Emergency: Looking Forward | Reflections on Teaching

    State of Emergency: Looking Forward

    by alicemercer

    IMG_4115

    View looking west from the Capitol building IMG_4115 by V31S70, on Flickr

    The Mid-range

    We had some successes last week at the State of Emergency, but what is the long game? First up, will be getting an extension of revenues due to expire at the end of June. In today’s budget revise, where the Governor continues to press for tax extensions, there has been an increase in revenues ($6B) but the current shortfall stands at $15B. Easy math shows you we’ll need either more cuts, or more revenue. With $12B already cut from the rest of the budget by Governor Brown and the Democratic majority in the legislatures, there is no fat, and in some cases, little is left but bone (which was why the GOP proposal had legally dodgy shifts of money from the QEIA legal settlement, and from dedicated taxes for early childhood and mental health services). Here are a few scenarios that I’ll offer:

    1. The legislative majority grabs a couple GOP members making up a super-majority of 2/3rds to put the extension to the voters. Under Brown’s revise scenario, the taxes will be extended, and the vote will take place after the fact.
    2. The legislative majority opts to put the tax extensions to the voter on a majority vote (50%+1). The Legislative counsel earlier advised that as the taxes were an “extension” and not new, this could be done
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    Regent Cofield Conundrum « Failing Schools

    Regent Cofield Conundrum « Failing Schools

    Regent Cofield Conundrum

    MAY 20, 2011
    by markfriedman1

    In Rochester, NY on Wednesday the 18th, the Parent and Community Coalition for Educational Change, which the Community Education Task Force is a part of, organized a forum atSchool Without Walls featuring New York State Board of Regents Vice Chancellor Milton Cofield. Coalition for Justice in Education, a partnering organization in the Parent and Community Coalition for Educational Change, was central in organizing for this event.

    Regent Milton Cofield

    We collaboratively publicized and attracted community attention to the event. By Wednesday night, there was close to sixty people present at School Without Walls, including parents, teachers, students, education scholars, retired administrators and concerned community members. Many in the audience intended to raise crucial issues and questions about the New York State Board of Regents’ policy agenda. The Regents recently appointed a new Education Commissioner, John King with no parental input and approved an unsound new teacher evaluation system intended to pressure 40% of teachers evaluations being based on

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    Daily Kos: Teaching the Taboo: Courage and Imagination in the Classroom

    Daily Kos: Teaching the Taboo: Courage and Imagination in the Classroom

    Teaching the Taboo: Courage and Imagination in the Classroom

    by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

    This review was originally published at Education Review (PDF)

    Ayers, Rick; & Ayers, William (2011). Teaching the Taboo: Courage and Imagination in the Classroom. New York: Teachers College Press.

    Taboos lurk in every area of life, and schools are no exception: Lift the cover in any classroom, in any educational venue, and there they are, waiting. But precisely because taboos are so profoundly human, we each maintain the power of reinvention: We can question, re-inscribe, and repurpose many of the taboos we’ve inherited. Let in a single, dazzling beam of light, a bracing breath of fresh air, and see what happens - you may find yourself advancing from the margins, sailing against the tide, speaking for the opposition. You may be - without even realizing it at first - teaching the taboo. p. xii

    Those are the final words of the two-page Prelude, after the Foreword (by Haki R. Madhubuti) and before the Introduction that begins this new book by the brothers Ayers, both distinguished as classroom teachers and activists for an approach to schools and their reform very different that what is now unfortunately the conventional wisdom offered by major figures from both political parties.

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    Schools Matter: Anti-Authoritarians Unite: Beginning the American Spring

    Schools Matter: Anti-Authoritarians Unite: Beginning the American Spring

    Anti-Authoritarians Unite: Beginning the American Spring

    by Jim Horn
    With teams of lawyers, economists, and think tank bottom feeders paid to pursue the dystopic vision of a handful of obscenely-wealthy psychopaths, it is easy for those who do not subscribe to their pre-determined future to become discouraged. Here are some good tips to keep in mind and in heart by Bruce Levine, posted at AlterNet.

    Point # 5 is particularly pertinent for educators. By the way, if you are not a subscriber to AlterNet, you should:
    10 Steps to Defeat the Corptocracy
    By Bruce E. Levine, AlterNet
    Posted on May 20, 2011, Printed on May 21, 2011
    http://www.alternet.org/story/151018/10_steps_to_defeat_the_corptocracy

    Many Americans know that the United States is not a democracy but a "corporatocracy," in which we are ruled by a partnership of giant corporations, the extremely wealthy elite and corporate-collaborator government officials. However, the truth of such tyranny is not enough to set most of
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    Evidence, Beliefs, and a Science of Education | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

    Evidence, Beliefs, and a Science of Education | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

    Evidence, Beliefs, and a Science of Education

    by larrycuban

    For those of us who like to consider ourselves rational beings, we read nutrition labels on yogurt, buy Consumer Reports for car ratings, search the Internet for explanations of that ache in the upper arm, listen to experts, and then make reasoned judgments about purchases, work, education, health, and safety. We believe in the importance of scientific research to advance knowledge and subsequent technological applications; we believe in collecting and sifting evidence before we decide what to do; we prize being logical, making rational decisions based upon scientific evidence.

    Sure we do.

    Yet each of us knows that so much of what we do in life is not only a matter of rationality, logic, and evidence but also actions anchored in beliefs, feelings, habits, and instincts. Choosing friends. Picking a college. Deciding on a job. Voting for a president. Getting married. Having a child.

    Neither wholly rational nor emotional, our decisions and actions are a combination of both. We prize new knowledge derived from hard and soft sciences and their applications to life insofar as what they can do for us individually and collectively. We listen to experts. Yet every day in so many ways we pursue our beliefs, apply

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    School Tech Connect: Too Clever By Half

    School Tech Connect: Too Clever By Half

    Too Clever By Half

    by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)
    Inane snark from Kevin Carey from over at Education Sector, which is funded by Broad and Gates and has the Scantron guy himself on its board. Yes, it's true that Arne Duncan is not Kathleen Sibelius. Point taken--and well played, sir. Well played.

    Funny Animated GIFs - Bravo Good Sir
    see more Gifs

    Howevs...

    It is also true that Secretary Sibelius is not going around blaming public health workers, social workers, and police for all of the maladies that afflict communities of poverty, whereas Duncan is doing this exact thing to teachers in the same communities. Imagine if Sibelius were just as vapid-- we'd be looking at charter police
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    Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Late Friday FU goes out to Mayor Bloomberg

    Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Late Friday FU goes out to Mayor Bloomberg

    Late Friday FU goes out to Mayor Bloomberg

    by Mike Klonsky
    
    The Problem's We All Share -- Norman Rockwell

     A middle finger salute goes out to N.Y. Mayor Bloomberg for his recent ignorant, racist and arrogant assault on parents, civil rights groups and unions. Who does he think he is, Donald Trump?

    In response to the massive pushback being organized against his plan to close 22 more neighborhood schools, including lawsuits filed by the NAACP and the
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    State education departments say “no” to end-of-year testing | theteachingwhore

    State education departments say “no” to end-of-year testing | theteachingwhore

    State education departments say “no” to end-of-year testing

    by theteachingwhore

    Across the National (TWP)

    In response to widespread teacher protests and rallies in support of teachers who have recently been scapegoated, semi-lynched, raked over the black souls of the education department’s policy wankers, and, in general, blamed for bad kids, stupid kids, the economic downfall, the Olson twins, potted meat, and alopecia, teachers have finally gotten school administrators and test-addicted bureaucrats to see the light.

    Instead of the annual three to four week onslaught of end-of-instruction tests, schools are now going to get the opportunity to test their students year-round! In an identical statement issued from the education departments of several states at once, the superintendents declared the following:

    “Our goal is for smaller, less-intrusive tests throughout the year that measure cognitive skills and provide meaningful information for classroom strategies. Paired with that is a goal for a robust and accessible

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    Friday, May 20, 2011

    Speaking of Salaries

    Speaking of Salaries

    Speaking of Salaries

    What It Will Take to Get Qualified, Effective Teachers in All Communities

    SOURCE: AP Photo
    Teacher Calvin Hobbs works with students at Timbuktu Academy of Science and Technology in Detroit.

    By Frank Adamson, Linda Darling-Hammond | May 20, 2011

    Download this report (pdf)

    Download the executive summary (pdf)

    Read the report in your web browser

    The fact that well-qualified teachers are inequitably distributed to students in the United States has received growing public attention. By every measure of qualifications—certification, subject matter background, pedagogical training, selectivity of college attended, test scores, or experience—less-qualified teachers tend to be found in schools serving greater numbers of low-income and minority students. Studies in state after state have found that students of color in low- income schools are 3 to 10 times more likely to have unqualified teachers than students in predominantly white schools.

    Indeed, because of public attention to these disparities, Congress included a provision in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 that states should ensure all students have access to

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