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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Big Education Ape: 7-19-11 AM Sick of Begging EDition

Big Education Ape: Ed News Now
Big Education Ape: Ed News Now
Published by Coopmike48 – 6 contributors today

Major execs invested in Hall

ajc.com - By Alan JuddThe Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionIn February 2010, some of Atlanta’s top business leaders realized they had a problem.For a decade, they had aligned themselves with Beverly Hall, the sup...

DianeRavitch

School Tech Connect: Sick of Begging

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - School Tech Connect: Sick of BeggingSick of Beggingby effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)Go read this.I'll be in Washington for S.O.S. because I'm sick of begging members of the Senate, even those amon...

coopmike48

Gates Foundation launching new CMS PR blitz

obsyourschools.blogspot.com - To those of you concerned about big-money foundations and their influence on local schools, hold onto your hats: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation today is announcing a new public relations cam...

leoniehaimson

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coopmike48 Judge calls education waiver law unconstitutional - WXVT-TV Delta News - More Local News and Weather WXVT.com | - http://goo.gl/v6btN3 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

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coopmike48 'Never a Good Time' - Inside Higher Ed - http://goo.gl/COKyGabout 1 minute ago · reply · retweet · favorite

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coopmike48 President Obama and Colin Powell Meet to Talk Education - FoxNews.com - http://goo.gl/AnBN232 seconds ago · reply · retweet · favorite

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coopmike48 Texas Study Raises Questions About Impact of School Discipline - NYTimes.com - http://goo.gl/xR8JM10 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

EducationSee all

New York City Abandons Teacher Bonus Program

nytimes.com - A New York City program that distributed $56 million in performance bonuses to teachers and other school staff members over the last three years will be permanently discontinued, the city Departmen...

DianeRavitch

Schools Matter: USA Today gets it wrong

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Schools Matter: USA Today gets it wrongUSA Today gets it wrongby skrashenHeavy testing: NOT the solution to improving achievementSent to USA Today, July 18 Re: Today's Debate, July 18USA Today thin...

coopmike48

PoliticsSee all

Obama, CEOs to Discuss Education

online.wsj.com - BY STEPHANIE BANCHERO President Barack Obama will meet with some of the nation's top CEOs Monday to prod them to invest more heavily in education initiatives, especially those he champions, such as...

DianeRavitch

Stand for Children Leader Catches Heat - State EdWatch

blogs.edweek.org - Jonah Edelman, the leader of an emergent education advocacy organization, has apologized for recent remarks in which he brought the behind-the-scenes political activity leading up to the passage of...

fklonsky

LivingSee all

Herman Cain: Communities Should Be Able to Ban Mosques

colorlines.com - Presidential candidate Herman Cain continues to scapegoat Muslims in his bid to become the nation’s second black president. The Tea Party-backed conservative appeared on Fox News Sunday and said th...

mikeklonsky

Cure for Summer Chaos? « MomsRising Blog

momsrising.org - Now that my youngest child is mobile, I’m learning that the best way to prevent conflict is to keep everyone busy. Bored kids = chaos! Washington should take heed. As members of Congress await a de...

coopmike48

StoriesSee all

Last Stand for Children First: Why I Won't Be Marching

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Last Stand for Children First: Why I Won't Be MarchingWhy I Won't Be Marchingby Last Stand for ChildrenBy: Monica CaldwellIn May, I was appointed as Last Stand for Children First's East Coast Direc...

coopmike48

BusinessSee all

15 Tax Escape Artists - The Daily Beast

thedailybeast.com - CEO: Jeffrey Immelt 2010 Pre-tax Profit: $14.2 billion Taxation strategy: GE's "innovative" accounting methods—which allowed it to accrue a $3.2 billion tax benefit in 2010, $833 million in 2009 an...

leoniehaimson

Clorox says no to Icahn's $10.2B buyout bid

northjersey.com - By The Associated Press NEW YORK - Clorox Co. is turning down billionaire investor Carl Icahn's offer to buy the company, saying the price of $76.50 per share is too low. The Oakland, Calif., compa...

coopmike48

TechnologySee all

All Edublogs Are Now Ad-Free (& The Blogs Are Free, Too!)

larryferlazzo.edublogs.org - Jul 18 2011 Larry Ferlazzo Edublogs has announced that all their blogs are now free of advertisements. In the past, you had a pay a few extra bucks for that feature. I think it’s still worth paying...

coopmike48

#eduRead this paperSee all

Schools Matter: USA Today gets it wrong

bigeducationape.blogspot.com - Schools Matter: USA Today gets it wrongUSA Today gets it wrongby skrashenHeavy testing: NOT the solution to improving achievementSent to USA Today, July 18 Re: Today's Debate, July 18USA Today thin...

coopmike48

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    The dying art of cursive | Being Latino Online Magazine

    The dying art of cursive | Being Latino Online Magazine

    The dying art of cursive

    by Cindy Tovar

    by Cindy Tovar

    There’s something pleasant about putting pen to paper and writing down your thoughts. Handwriting feels more personal than putting your hands on a keyboard and typing on a screen. I’ve never completely gotten used to thinking creatively and typing, simultaneously. I can do it, but it’s just not the same.

    Even now, as I type this, I’m simply transferring what I’ve written in my notebook, because that’s how I learned to express my thoughts – on paper. It’s like a hard-wired connection that runs between my brain and my right hand that refuses to be rewired.

    For the younger generation, it’s different. They’re growing up in a digital world. Instead of sending letters, they

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    State board gives parents more control over schools' administration | California Watch

    State board gives parents more control over schools' administration | California Watch

    State board gives parents more control over schools' administration

    by Corey G. Johnson

    Bright and articulate, Enrique Duarte IV, 11, rode the bus with his parents from Los Angeles to Sacramento with one cause in mind: to tell the state Board of Education that someday, he wants to return to a public school classroom.

    CEFutcher/istockphoto.com

    Enrique told the board that he left his elementary school because unqualified teachers didn't know the material. He said one day each week, he and his classmates left school early so the teachers could have study time.

    "It was good for us but not good for them, 'cause they didn't know all there was to know about teaching," said

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    Teacher retirement oversight in budget bill | Thoughts on Public Education

    Teacher retirement oversight in budget bill | Thoughts on Public Education

    Teacher retirement oversight in budget bill

    Mid-year cuts could trigger CalSTRS losses

    Posted on 7/19/11 • Categorized as Pensions, Revenue and taxes, State Budget, Teacher Development, Unions

    By Kathryn Baron

    Collective bargaining usually involves some give and take. Even in times of extreme financial pain, labor can find something to grasp, like… well, saving their jobs. Finding the good may be more challenging for teachers if California’s projected revenues aren’t met and the state imposes midyear budget cuts on schools.

    Currently, districts can’t fall below 175 days of school in an academic year or they lose some state funding.

    What AB 114, the state budget bill, means for the teacher retirement system. (click on image to enlarge)

    What AB 114, the state budget bill, means for the teacher retirement system. (click on image to enlarge)

    When lawmakers passed California’s new budget bill, AB 114, they created a one-time suspension of that limit of up to seven days if projected revenues fall $2 billion short and the state needs to make mid-year cuts to education. Of course, the teachers’ union must agree to this reduction.

    What the legislature failed to do in AB 114 is approve a concurrent fix to another section of the Education

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    Why giving standardized tests to young children is ‘really dumb’ - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

    Why giving standardized tests to young children is ‘really dumb’ - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

    Why giving standardized tests to young children is ‘really dumb’

    by Valerie Strauss

    --

    My guest is David Berliner, Regents’ professor emeritus at Arizona State University who is a prominent researcher and educational psychologist.

    Read full article >>

    The problem with how school quality is measured

    by Valerie Strauss

    --

    This was written by Mark Phillips, professor emeritus of secondary education at San Francisco State Universityand author of a monthly column on education for the Marin Independent Journal .

    Read full article >>
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    With testing, where do we go from here? | Taking Note

    With testing, where do we go from here? | Taking Note

    With testing, where do we go from here?

    by JOHN MERROW on 19. JUL, 2011 in ARNE DUNCAN, CHEATING, EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION, EDUCATION WARS,EDUCATIONAL LANGUAGE, LAST IN FIRST OUT, STANDARIZED TESTS, TESTING, CHARTER SCHOOLS, INNOVATION, MEDIA, PARENTS,READING, SCHOOL REFORM,

    As always, remember that John’s book The Influence of Teachers is for sale at Amazon.

    Forget cheating on tests for a minute and think about the concept of ‘teaching to the test.’ Just what does that mean? The usual line (which I have used myself) goes something like this: “It’s OK if it’s a good test,” and that may be correct. Unfortunately, most of the tests that I have seen are not ‘good’ tests.

    Think about teaching students to write, and then testing their skills. Clear writing is important. Employers want to hire people who can write clearly, accurately and well — but learning to write takes time and requires rewriting and more rewriting, under the guidance of a good teacher. There are no shortcuts. However, our obsession with numbers subverts both teaching and learning. Teachers are told that their students must be able to pass bubble tests and write a lot of short so-called essays (usually one

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    New York Has Finally Figured Out That Merit Pay Doesn’t Work | Seattle Education

    New York Has Finally Figured Out That Merit Pay Doesn’t Work | Seattle Education

    New York Has Finally Figured Out That Merit Pay Doesn’t Work

    by seattleducation2011

    Ha!

    What was that again?

    You mean that someone is finally getting the fact that merit pay doesn’t work!?

    If you scroll down the right-hand column of this page and go to “Merit Pay” you will find several studies that have stated this fact along with bloggers, teachers and other advocates for education for a long time.

    To follow are some of those links:

    Another Blow for Merit Pay

    Diane Ravitch: Should Teacher Evaluation Depend Upon Student Test Scores?

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    NYC Public School Parents: The DOE-invented credit recovery scam and how it infected my school

    NYC Public School Parents: The DOE-invented credit recovery scam and how it infected my school

    The DOE-invented credit recovery scam and how it infected my school

    by Leonie Haimson
    For more on how credit recovery has led to accelerated rates of credit accumulation, especially at the new small schools, see Jackie Bennett at EdWize. But the practice of passing students, regardless of whether they have actually attended class or done homework, has become widespread at many, if not most, high schools throughout NYC, as schools are pressured to raise their statistics or else be threatened with closure. Below is the account of a teacher who, for obvious reasons, would like to remain anonymous.
    At my school for the past two years my principal has been using what have become simply known as "packets"
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    Fox Business and Terry Moe Distort Education Issues to Slam Unions « InterACT

    Fox Business and Terry Moe Distort Education Issues to Slam Unions « InterACT

    Fox Business and Terry Moe Distort Education Issues to Slam Unions

    by David B. Cohen

    What a treat! As I was channel surfing among the news networks last night (around 9:30 p.m. PDT), I came upon Fox Business News (FBN) at the exact moment they took up the topic of teacher evaluations. I don’t know the name of the anchor, but there was an interview with Terry Moe of the Hoover Institute.

    hoover tower

    The top of Hoover Tower, Stanford University. (photo by the author)

    Moe has done extensive research and writing about unions in American education, and I believe he understands the situation more thoroughly than he had opportunity to share on Fox last night. As a service to him and anyone else interested, I offer this blog post as a counterpoint to the newscast, filling in the missing information,

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    Monday, July 18, 2011

    Prominent National Education Reformer Making a Home in Nashville | Missouri News Horizon

    Prominent National Education Reformer Making a Home in Nashville | Missouri News Horizon

    Prominent National Education Reformer Making a Home in Nashville

    July 17, 2011 | Filed under: Tennessee | Posted by: Tennessee Report

    Post image for Priminent National Education Reformer Making a Home in Nashville

    One of Tennesssee’s newest residents, who happens to be a rock star of education reform, told an attentive group of southern legislators in Memphis Sunday it’s time to bring back a culture of competitiveness to the nation’s education system.

    Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of Washington D.C. schools and founder of StudentsFirst, a

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    Dean E. Vogel | New CTA President - California Teachers Association

    Dean E. Vogel | New CTA President - California Teachers Association

    Dean E. Vogel | New CTA President

    Dean E. Vogel became the new president of CTA on June 26, 2011. Dean has served as CTA's Vice-President and Secretary Treasurer.

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    TFA founder vs. Diane Ravitch at Aspen Ideas Festival | DeFENSE

    TFA founder vs. Diane Ravitch at Aspen Ideas Festival | DeFENSE

    TFA founder vs. Diane Ravitch at Aspen Ideas Festival

    Posted in Reform on July 18, 2011

    This is a very interesting discussion between Diane Ravitch, author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System and education historian, and

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    Teacher cheating, student testing and the great education tradeoff - The Washington Post

    Teacher cheating, student testing and the great education tradeoff - The Washington Post

    Teacher cheating, student testing and the great education tradeoff

    Education reform is a long battle that needs to be waged in the United States.

    By , Updated: Monday, July 18, 11:01 AM

    This piece is part of a leadership roundtable on the right way to approach teacher incentives — with opinion pieces by Duke University behavioral economics professor Dan Ariely, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Harvard Graduate School of Education professor Howard Gardner, and Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein.

    Try this thought experiment. Imagine I told you there was a way to improve student performance on standardized tests by 15 percent over the course of a several years, but it came with the downside that every year a small percentage of students, teachers and principals would almost certainly try to game the system by cheating. Would you take th

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    Education Writers Association: EWA Research Brief: What Studies Say About Teacher Effectiveness

    Education Writers Association: EWA Research Brief: What Studies Say About Teacher Effectiveness

    EWA Research Brief: What Studies Say About Teacher Effectiveness

    As policymakers and school leaders seek new ways to measure and improve teacher effectiveness, it’s important for journalists and others to understand what is known about the topic so far, and what remains unsettled or unknown. This research brief does not synthesize all the studies in this highly technical field. But it does aim to improve the accuracy and clarity of reporting by exploring what the research says about timely questions surrounding the complex topic of teacher effectiveness.

    The brief is organized around several prevailing questions about teacher effectiveness in K-12 education. For each question, we’ve reviewed some of the most-important research, identifying key findings and tension points. (Citations in the text refer to a list of sources in the bibliography.) At the end of each section, we present a bottom-line summary of the research.

    Nearly all of the studies cited here rely on the use of student test scores as a proxy for learning, a research practice that remains hotly

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