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Thursday, June 9, 2011

Big Education Ape: 6-9-11 PM OMG they have armed ED Sec Duncan Edition

Big Education Ape: Ed News Now
Big Education Ape: Ed News Now

Published by Coopmike48 – 6 contributors today



'The Acquisition of 16,905 Students'

huffingtonpost.com - Prior to my career in academia, I practiced law. I took my first job back in 1988 during a boom in so-called mergers and acquisitions. There were lots or reasons bandied about for why one corporati...
DianeRavitch

Blog posts on this issue

whitehouse.gov - The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 09, 2011 WASHINGTON, D.C. – The White House today announced the establishment of the first White House Rural Council. While...
coopmike48

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coopmike48 Democurmudgeon: Hightower must reading for conservative voters. -http://goo.gl/uBY4Q58 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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coopmike48 An Urban Teacher's Education: Dennis Walcott and "Failing Schools"http://bit.ly/iVj5Sd #Eduabout 1 hour ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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coopmike48 Agitated Education Aggregator Daily is out! http://bit.ly/iaC4l3 ▸ Top stories today via @4lakids @makeitplain5 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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Roosevelt’s turnaround pays off with higher grad rate

portlandtribune.com - By Jennifer Anderson The Portland Tribune, Jun 8, 2011, Updated 21.3 hours ago CHRISTOPHER ONSTOTT / TRIBUNE PHOTO Roosevelt High School Principal Charlene Williams led the school through its first...
arneduncan

PoliticsSee all


Hightower must reading for conservative voters.

democurmudgeon.blogspot.com - This seems to be a summation of the current Republican/tea party movement. Jim Hightower: A flock of far right-wing governors who seem to have flown out of the same dark political hellhole in the ...
coopmike48

BusinessSee all


"Reformer" Klein is a hustler supreme

schoolingintheownershipsociety.blogspot.com - He helps land Rupert Murdoch a $27 million no-bid contract from NY schools The money - part of the state's $700 million in Race to the Top winnings - will go to Wireless Generation, owned by Rupert...
mikeklonsky

Higher [Hedge)ucation

schoolingintheownershipsociety.blogspot.com - Harvard and other major American universities are working through British hedge funds and European financial speculators to buy or lease vast areas of African farmland in deals, some of which may...
mikeklonsky

Snyder Connection - China-Threat

china-threat.com - An American Company, NeoPhotonics, Morph's into a Chinese Company. It was well publicized during the election that Rick Snyder moved GatewayComputer's manufacturing to China along with thousands of...
coopmike48

LivingSee all


Sign the petition in support of the NAACP, and MSBNC video

nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com - Check out the General Counsel of the NAACP Kim Keenan on MSNBC on June 6th, explaining the inequities in NYC public schools and why the NAACP has filed a lawsuit against the unfair charter school ...
leoniehaimson

Art & EntertainmentSee all


TEDxNYEd Talk | vivirlaeducacion

vivirlaeducacion.com - Publicado el 10 Junio 2011Archivado en Josep | Desde el departamento de autopromoción desvergonzada viene mi charla TEDxNYEd que di hace unas semanas. Es un verdadero honor. Resulta increíblemente ...
coopmike48

Top Tracks From the Les Paul Google Doodle - Entertainment

theatlanticwire.com - Google honored the late Les Paul on his 96th birthday today with what our colleagues at The Atlantic are already calling "the coolest Google Doodle ever"--a playable version of Paul's classic Gibso...
coopmike48

CrimeSee all


DOE raids Stockton home in criminal probe

news10.net - STOCKTON, CA - After the Department of Education raided the home of a Stockton man Tuesday morning, officials said the search was part of an ongoing criminal investigation. Kenneth Wright, after re...
coopmike48

#eduRead this paperSee all


Summer lobby. Fall lobby. « Fred Klonsky's blog

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Summer lobby. Fall lobby. « Fred Klonsky's blogSummer lobby. Fall lobby.by Fred KlonskyAnother morning, another pension meeting with teachers. This time with a large group in the Franklin school au...
coopmike48

#coopRead this paperSee all


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    Modern School: Destroying Education Teacher By Teacher (With Help from Bill Gates)

    Modern School: Destroying Education Teacher By Teacher (With Help from Bill Gates)

    Destroying Education Teacher By Teacher (With Help from Bill Gates)


    Yesterday John Fensterwald published his take on the Gates-funded proposal for improving LAUSD. However, he called it a United Way study (which it was), but didn’t bother to mention Gate’s funding until the very end. Nevertheless, United Way is nothing more than a moralizing poverty pimp mill, so we should be suspicious of their proposals, too.

    I will list some of Fensterwald’s summaries below in italics, with my takes in bold.

    Teacher Placement:
    Sacramento: Allow performance to be used as a factor in determining which teachers will be laid off. California is one of only a dozen states mandating layoffs by seniority.
    There is no accurate and unbiased way to measure “performance,”
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    Why President Obama Must Remove Arne Duncan As Secretary of Education if He Hopes to Win Re-Election « Cooperative Catalyst

    Why President Obama Must Remove Arne Duncan As Secretary of Education if He Hopes to Win Re-Election « Cooperative Catalyst

    Why President Obama Must Remove Arne Duncan As Secretary of Education if He Hopes to Win Re-Election

    by Deven Black
    The following is a guest post by Professor Mark Naison. Mark Naison is a Professor of African-American Studies and History at Fordham University and Director of Fordham’s Urban Studies Program. He is the author of three books and over 100 articles on African-American History, urban history, and the history of sports. His most recent book White Boy: A Memoir, published in the Spring of 2002, was reviewed in the New York Times, the Nation and the Chronicle of Higher Education and was the subject of feature stories on Black Entertainment Television, New York One News and the Tavis Smiley show on National Public Radio. One of his most popular courses at Fordham, “From Rock and Roll to Hip Hop: Urban Youth Cultures in Post War America” has also received media attention, becoming the subject of stories on National Public Radio, Bronx Net, and WFUV. His most recent course, “Feeling the Funk: Research Seminar on Music of the African Diaspora” focuses on Latin and Caribbean traditions on American Popular Music.

    –

    The 2008 Election Campaign of Barack Obama inspired a spirit of sacrifice and idealism that I had not seen among close friends since the early days of the Civil Right Movement. My upstairs neighbors, both in their mid 70’s, camped out in Virginia a week before the election to help get out the vote in that state. My best friend and his wife did the same in Florida. At least ten people in my circle took regular trips to Pennsylvania and Ohio on weekends to help move those “swing states” into the Democratic camp. And my dear friend Rich Klimmer, now deceased, spent three months in a hotel room in Philadelphia, while undergoing dialysis three times a week,

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    An Urban Teacher's Education: Dennis Walcott and "Failing Schools"

    An Urban Teacher's Education: Dennis Walcott and "Failing Schools"

    Dennis Walcott and "Failing Schools"

    by James Boutin
    The New York Daily News ran an op-ed today by New York City Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott. In it, Walcott lambastes the lawsuit being brought against the city by the UFT and the NAACP. He paints it as "the NAACP vs. schoolkids," and suggests that while the UFT and NAACP are only fighting for the adults in the system, Walcott is doing the real work to raise student achievement.

    The main issue in this case is the NYC DOE's policy of closing district schools deemed to be failing and expanding charter schools, some of which are being co-located in buildings with district schools. Walcott points out that space is at a premium in New York and there is no way the department could afford enough buildings for each and every school. In doing so, however, he denies the perspective of students, parents, and teachers whose lives will be affected by these school closures and co-locations.

    In his op-ed, Walcott's primary concern seems to be the "students who day after day are sitting in schools that are failing to educate them." He writes that the NAACP is arguing in favor of "consigning students to failing
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    Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: What's happening with Rahm's year-round school plan?

    Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: What's happening with Rahm's year-round school plan?

    What's happening with Rahm's year-round school plan?

    by Mike Klonsky
    Jennifer Johnson, a teacher at Lincoln Park High School, administered final exams in a classroom where temperatures reached the mid-nineties on Wednesday, June 8, 2011. | Richard A. Chapman~Sun-Times
    Hey Mr. Mayor. What happened to all that talk about year-round schooling? Remember, during the campaign. You were saying how students in Houston were getting 3 more years of classroom seat time than kids in Chicago. Well this week in Chicago (don't know about Houston) the temperature in those old buildings with no
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    SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium - Year 2011 (CA Dept of Education)

    SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium - Year 2011 (CA Dept of Education)

    State Education Leaders Jointly Announce California's Role
    in New Multistate Consortium Formed to Develop New
    Generation of Assessments

    SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and State Board of Education President Michael Kirst today announced that California will join the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium as a governing state.

    "Today marks the beginning of a new era in student testing and accountability," Torlakson said. "By working together, we've put California where it belongs—poised to play a leadership role."

    "This is a wonderful opportunity for California to step up as a leader in assessment design and provide much more timely information to teachers, parents, and students," Kirst said.

    Currently, a total of 30 states have signed up to become members of the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium. Of those, California is one of 18 governing states, which allows decision-making participation. The remaining 12 are advisory states.

    The consortium has received a $176 million Race to the Top assessment grant from the U.S. Department of Education to design a new assessment system aligned to the Common Core State Standards. The system will include assessments in English-language arts (ELA) and mathematics in grades three through eight and grade eleven. The new assessments will be in place for the 2014-15 school year.

    Torlakson, Kirst, and Governor Jerry Brown signed a Memorandum of Understanding to give California greater involvement in the development of a new generation of student assessments that will emphasize a deep knowledge of core concepts within and across disciplines, problem solving, analysis, synthesis, and critical thinking.

    As a governing state, California will have an active role in all decision making, and provide representatives for various work groups and steering committees. The goal of the consortium is to prepare students for college and career by improving teaching and learning in our schools through the development of an innovative system of assessments of the Common Core State Standards in ELA and mathematics that is valid, reliable, and fair for all students.

    The SMARTER Balanced assessment system will be designed to meet federal- and state-level accountability requirements and provide teachers and parents with timely and accurate information to measure and track individual student growth.

    The assessment system will utilize computer adaptive technologies to design assessments that will minimize the amount of time that students are out of the classroom and away from their teachers, better measure student abilities across the full spectrum of student performance, evaluate growth in learning, and provide more information to teachers, administrators, and parents within weeks of testing.

    Teachers will play a critical role in the development of the new assessment system as they will be involved in the design, development, and scoring of assessment items and tasks.

    More information on the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium can be found at SMARTER (Outside Source). For more information on the Common Core State Standards Initiative, please visit Common Core State Standards Initiative | Home (Outside Source).


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    Grim Picture for Arts Education in NYC « EdVox

    Grim Picture for Arts Education in NYC « EdVox

    Grim Picture for Arts Education in NYC

    by edvoxny


    Carlton Curry, of CEJ talks about how 26 of the 70 schools in District 9 don't have arts teachers

    Today, the Center for Arts Education (CAE), the NYC Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ), the Alliance for Quality Education (AQE), United Federation of Teachers (UFT), elected officials, parents and other education advocates denounced proposed funding cuts in the arts in schools. CEJ and AQE called on Mayor Bloomberg to recognize the arts crisis in our schools and enact sensible solutions to fix the City’s budget — such as ending tax breaks for the wealthiest New Yorkers and the biggest banks.

    A new report released by CAE found:

    • Funds to hire arts and cultural organizations to provide arts education services directly to students declined by $1.1 million, or 8 percent, since the previous year, and by $7.8 million, or 36 percent, since
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    Aim of SWAT-Like Raid Was Student-Aid Fraud; Education Dept. Given Police Powers in 2002 - News - ABA Journal

    Aim of SWAT-Like Raid Was Student-Aid Fraud; Education Dept. Given Police Powers in 2002 - News - ABA Journal

    Aim of SWAT-Like Raid Was Student-Aid Fraud; Education Dept. Given Police Powers in 2002

    Posted Jun 9, 2011 12:12 PM CDT
    By Debra Cassens Weiss

    A California man who says agents of the U.S. Department of Education broke down his door has a lawyer and a copy of the search warrant detailing the reason for the raid—a search for financial-aid fraud.

    Kenneth Wright originally told News10/KXTV that a SWAT team broke down his door in a search for evidence of his estranged wife’s defaulted student loans. The Stockton man said he was in boxer shorts when officers broke down his door, hauled him out to his front lawn, put him in handcuffs and forced his three children to sit in a squad car for hours.

    After retaining a lawyer, Wright released a copy of the search warrant (PDF) that verifies the search but differs on the reason, according to News10 and Fox News. The agents were looking for financial aid applications, tax and wage records, and college attendance records in a probe focusing on student financial-aid fraud.

    The agents worked for the Education Department’s Office of Inspector General and were not a SWAT team.

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    Summer lobby. Fall lobby. « Fred Klonsky's blog

    Summer lobby. Fall lobby. « Fred Klonsky's blog

    Summer lobby. Fall lobby.

    by Fred Klonsky

    Another morning, another pension meeting with teachers. This time with a large group in the Franklin school auditorium.

    Colleagues had lots of good ideas on how to make our unpaid hours of work more visible. This is a common concern everywhere I go.

    There were other concerns.

    People don’t realize how many hours we put in off the clock. People don’t realize we don’t get social security. People don’t realize we pay 9.5% into our pension. People don’t realize that we are public employees, so of

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    NYC Public School Parents: Sign the petition in support of the NAACP, and MSBNC video

    NYC Public School Parents: Sign the petition in support of the NAACP, and MSBNC video

    Sign the petition in support of the NAACP, and MSBNC video

    by Leonie Haimson
    Check out the General Counsel of the NAACP Kim Keenan on MSNBC on June 6th, explaining the inequities in NYC public schools and why the NAACP has filed a lawsuit against the unfair charter school co-locations.

    Then sign the petition supporting the NAACP and their insistence that all children be provided with an equitable chance to learn. The way the co-locations have been handled in NYC is shocking; with charter kids receiving preferential treatment at every turn.

    In general, the co-locations have been a disaster, given our chronic overcrowding, with class sizes rising and children losing access to art rooms, libraries and gyms. Our special needs students have been treated the worst, often pushed into hallways and closets. Go sign the petition now!
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    Education Reformers Aren’t Simply ‘Demonizing Teachers’ - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

    Education Reformers Aren’t Simply ‘Demonizing Teachers’ - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

    Education Reformers Aren’t Simply ‘Demonizing Teachers’

    by E.D. Kain

    Conor Williams makes another good point:

    Let me close with a few things that are often lost in the shuffle: almost every leader/pillar/etc of the education reform movement is an advocate for dramatic pay raises for teachers. Cf. Michelle Rhee, The Equity Project, the New Teacher Project, etc. This is common knowledge (it’s an empirical fact!), but it’s almost NEVER brought up when these same people and organizations are getting trashed for blaming and hating teachers.

    Again, this is what has been bothering me more and more about critics of reform and their near-constant attempt to paint all reformers with the same brush (and yes, I am using “reform” and “reform critics” here to describe the current debate, I am aware said critics have their own reform ideas, too).

    Michelle Rhee’s two-track plan for D.C. teachers was a really smart idea that might have attracted really great

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    Reformers, please listen to what parents want for schools « Larry Miller's Blog

    Reformers, please listen to what parents want for schools « Larry Miller's Blog

    Reformers, please listen to what parents want for schools

    Filed under: School Reform,Testing Issues — millerlf @ 1:04 pm

    By Helen Gym, Special to CNN June 8, 2011

    Editor’s note: Helen Gym is a Philadelphia public school parent and writer and founder of Parents United for Public Education, which seeks classroom-centered investments in education budgets. She is a board member of the Philadelphia Public School Notebook, where she contributes online commentary. She helped found the Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School in Philadelphia Chinatown and was named the Philadelphia Inquirer Citizen of the Year for 2007 for education activism.

    Philadelphia (CNN) — Many of those who are driving education policy today are fixed on a certain set of numbers and measurements that we’re told are the way to gauge a quality school. But as a parent, that’s not really what matters to me about my daughter’s education.

    I can’t tell you the number of her standardized test score from last year. I can’t tell you the name of the curriculum program her school uses for math and reading. I don’t know the pay scale of each of her teachers and whether that contributes to their malaise or enthusiasm in the classroom.


    Madison: Walker Has Special Surveillance Squad to Use Against Protesters

    by millerlf

    Post by dane101 on 6/9/2011

    Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you. Dane101 has learned through a direct, anonymous source that a state emergency response team has been operating out of the GEF-2 (101 S. Webster St.) building downtown specifically to monitor protest related activity on social media sites and elsewhere.

    The team is allegedly coordinating with law enforcement to identify and shut down any major direct actions planned by protesters at the capitol, by watching things like the #wiunion hashtag on Twitter and related Facebook groups, etc.

    The team is apparently preparing for more major actions next week, which they believe will be big as the state budget goes to the floors of the Senate and Assembly for final votes.

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    On the NAACP/Teachers' Union Lawsuit in NYC: There are Parents and Kids on Both Sides of the Debate - Dana Goldstein

    On the NAACP/Teachers' Union Lawsuit in NYC: There are Parents and Kids on Both Sides of the Debate - Dana Goldstein

    On the NAACP/Teachers' Union Lawsuit in NYC: There are Parents and Kids on Both Sides of the Debate

    by Dana Goldstein

    There's been a lot of discussion in the media about the NAACP/United Federation of Teachers lawsuit against the New York City Department of Education, seeking to block it from closing 22 low-performing schools and co-locating charter schools within another 20 public school buildings.

    "It's the NAACP vs. School Kids" declared the Daily News headline on an op-ed this morning by schools Chacellor Dennis Walcott. In the Washington Post, Kevin Chavous demanded that the NAACP "put the education of children first and...stop supporting the status quo." GOOD magazine's Cord Jefferson wrote that the lawsuit leaves the NAACP "with egg on its face." And at Time, Andy Rotherham noted that the suit "sparked a remarkable counter-protest by families in Harlem and the NAACP was roundly criticized for its bizarre stance,

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    Iowa Republican State Senator Tells Students to ‘Go Home’ At Budget Hearing - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

    Iowa Republican State Senator Tells Students to ‘Go Home’ At Budget Hearing - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

    Iowa Republican State Senator Tells Students to ‘Go Home’ At Budget Hearing

    by E.D. Kain

    This doesn’t strike me as a very good way to maintain a healthy political discourse:

    A group of students from all three regents universities visited the state Capitol on Monday to speak about potential budget cuts. However, they were told by Sen. Shawn Hammerlinck (R-Dixon) to "go home."

    "It was nice that somebody asked us to come to talk about what a seven percent cut, a $41 million cut, how that would affect the students of those universities," said Jared Knight, vice president of the Government of the Student Body. "We were happy that somebody asked us to talk about that."

    After the student representatives were finished, Hammerlinck gave a response. Hammerlinck told

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    Is Diane Ravitch Insulting Teachers? Who Speaks for Us? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

    Is Diane Ravitch Insulting Teachers? Who Speaks for Us? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

    Is Diane Ravitch Insulting Teachers? Who Speaks for Us?

    by Anthony Cody

    Last week, in the pages of the New York Times, Diane Ravitch went after the most sacred of cows of the education "reform" movement -- the supposed "miracle schools" that prove the reforms actually work.

    Columinist Jonathan Alter offered a rebuttal that was carried in a media outlet owned by leading education "reformer," New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. But his approach was to attack Diane Ravitch, and had little substance. It was immediately rebutted by dozens of commenters (including me -- see here.)

    Duncan himself was compelled to respond -- the only thing more significant would have been if Obama himself had responded. And in his response, Duncan presumed to speak for teachers, saying, "Diane Ravitch is in denial and she is insulting all of the hardworking teachers, principals and students all across the country who are proving her wrong every day."

    Jonathan Alter has been on the defensive since, and his performance in a debate with Diane Ravitch on David

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    Blogging Irresponsibly About Education - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

    Blogging Irresponsibly About Education - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

    Blogging Irresponsibly About Education

    by E.D. Kain

    Conor Williams has a very smart response up to this post from Freddie deBoer. He touches on a couple things I left out of my own response, but that deserve more discussion. He settles on several concerns, including the absolutist rhetoric that both sides of the education debate take:

    Ravitch’s team argues that any upticks in accountability are attacks on teachers and their profession. They defend the status quo without compunction. In response, education reformers double and triple down on the horrifying experience of the “relatively small subset of our public school populations” that happens to consist overwhelmingly of students of color. Throwaway lines like “Of course, everyone knows that teachers in underserved communities are overworked” or “We all agree that all students deserve great teachers” simply don’t count. Real thoughtfulness on education takes more than one sentence.

    This is becoming more and more of a concern of mine. I have grown increasingly troubled by the language of

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