Tuesday, July 19, 2011

The Art And Value Of Compromise | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

The Art And Value Of Compromise

by Larry Ferlazzo

Community organizers — and I was one for nineteen years — constantly emphasize the art and value of compromise. The focus of organizing is to get to the negotiating table and come away with a deal that’s “half a loaf, not half a baby.”

This perspective has served me well in the classroom, and it has informed my judgment on education policy. I’ve previously written about this topic in three posts/articles:

The importance of being unprincipled

The Art & Importance Of Compromise

Five Quotes That All Of Us (Including Self-Righteous School Reformers) Should Keep In Mind

I think working out classroom issues with students through compromise can help them learn an extremely

SCUSD Offers Free Tdap Vaccines; Few Have Registered - Rosemont, CA Patch

SCUSD Offers Free Tdap Vaccines; Few Have Registered

Despite a new state law that could bar students from attending school this fall, parents have been slow to prove their kids have received a required vaccine.

"Approximately 79 percent of Sacramento City Unified School District students have not showed proof of receiving [the Tdap] vaccine” said Gabe Ross, a district spokesman. "The students that cannot show proof of the vaccination will not be able to attend school until proof is shown."

The new law requires the Tdap (Pertussis/Whooping Cough) vaccine for all students entering grades seven - 12 before the start of the 2011-12 school year, although lawmakers last week moved to grant a 30-day extension.

Sacramento City Unified School District is offering free clinics for this vaccine for students that have Medicaid, Medi-Cal or have no insurance.

They will be held every from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. every Thursday and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. every first Saturday, at the district's enrollment center, 5601 47th Ave.

The district is asking that you turn in your proof of proper vaccinations to the Enrolment Center prior to school starting. The center is available for questions and concerns by calling 916-643-2400 or online athttp://www.scusd.edu/tdap/Pages/default.aspx.

Who Should Be ‘The Decider’ for Our Public Schools? « Parents Across America

Who Should Be ‘The Decider’ for Our Public Schools?

by leoniehaimson

by Julia Sass Rubin of Save our Schools NJ, an affiliate of Parents Across America; cross-posted at the Big Think.

In a recent big think profile, New Jersey’s Acting Commissioner of Education Christopher Cerf observed that consensus “is not the highest value in this world” and that “putting too high a premium on consensus and collaboration” could lead to bad solutions.

This may be true when it comes to corporations. But Mr. Cerf wasn’t discussing corporate restructuring; he was talking about making fundamental changes to the public education system within our democratic society.

Mr. Cerf referred to his preferred approach as one of “damn the torpedoes, full speed

Valid Questions for DC IMPACT

by Anne Hyslop

It’s no secret that 206 teachers were fired last Friday in Washington, DC, including 65 teachers who earned a rating of “ineffective” on the District’s controversial evaluation system, IMPACT. DCPS fired an additional 141 teachers who scored “minimally effective” for a second consecutive year.

While it’s commendable that 55% of teachers rated “minimally effective” last year improved to “effective,” I wonder about other trends between this year and last. What percentage of “effective” teachers moved to the highest category? And what about the 65 teachers who were scored as the least effective? Who were they? Veterans or rookies? For those who were teaching in DCPS last year, what was their IMPACT score? Did some of these teachers change schools or grades in the last year? Did any teacher move from an “effective” rating to “ineffective?”

DCPS has provided some of this information in its IMPACT report, but more is needed. For example, 663

This Week In Education: Books: Inside The $4B Substitute Teaching Industry

Books: Inside The $4B Substitute Teaching Industry

by Alexander Russo

Want to know what education is really about? Hint: it's not innovation, or policy, or even curriculum. Most days in most places it's about getting through the day, which means class coverage, which means absent teachers and robo-called substitutes -- complete strangers-- coming into your building every day teaching everything from chemistry to PE (if you still have PE).

With that in mind, here's a relatively new education book I hadn't heard of before (and maybe you hadn't either): Sub Culture, in which Carolyn Bucior examines the life of a substitute teacher and the 500,000 person / $4B per year substitute teaching industry: "A quirky profession where many employees receive no training, are given enormous responsibilities,

Catalyst Notebook :: Students demand CPS curtail suspensions

Students demand CPS curtail suspensionsPosted By Sarah Karp On Thursday, July 14, 2011
In High Schools Seeing an opening with a new CEO and a new board of education, on Thursday a coalition of CPS students put pressure on the district administration to change tactics in how students are disciplined.

Too many students are suspended or expelled and too much money is spent on strategies like security guards and metal detectors—which serve to punish youth rather than help them change behaviors, according to about 75 teens who held a press conference in the lobby of district headquarters downtown.

“Schools are supposed to do things in the best interest of children,” said Carlil Pittman, a student at Gage Park High School who is involved with the Southwest Organizing Project.

In the News: North, Northwest Side schools enroll more students; Obama asks CEOs to donate to educationPosted By Cassandra West On Tuesday, July 19, 2011
In In the News

The tide of middle-class Chicago residents moving to the suburbs as their children reach kindergarten may be slowing, enrollment records and demographic data suggest. Schools on the North and Northwest sides enrolled more students even as enrollment slipped across the city's school system to 404,589 last year, down 1.5 percent from five years ago, state records show.(Tribune)

Chicago Public Schools officials are distributing 1,500 fans to schoolsthroughout the system as the city tackles a record-breaking heat wave this

July 19, 2011 - PrivatizationWatch.Org

July 19, 2011

by nospam@example.com (Editor)

Headlines
ALEC exposed: Milton Friedman's Little Shop of Horrors
MD: Scholar questions Frederick County’s move to privatization
CA: Costa Mesa barred from privatizing workforce -- for now
IL: Chicago to expand, outsource recycling
PA: Ending the state liquor store system will be good - for some communities

News summaries
ALEC exposed: Milton Friedman's Little Shop of Horrors
In lockstep, governors are reaching for an almost identical set of
"solutions," to their financial woes: massive tax breaks for big
corporations, constitutional amendments to prevent states from raising
revenue, the slashing of critical public services, the busting of
unions and the privatization of every possible aspect of government
including public schools -- long a Friedman agenda item...This week the
Center for Media and Democracy made available to the public over 800
ALEC "model" bills and resolutions on a new website, ALECexposed.org.

Contemplating a tenure deferral, and coming up with self-critique | GothamSchools

Contemplating a tenure deferral, and coming up with self-critique

by Philissa Cramer

Sometimes the simplest explanation might well be the most accurate.

That’s the conclusion that Ruben Brosbe, GothamSchools’ longtime Community section contributor, drew after finding out whether he would be given tenure last year.

Brosbe was at the front edge of a trend last year when he had his probationary period extended. This year, hejoined a large number of new teachers when his probation was extended again. But while some teachers who did not receive tenure said they could see no justification, Brosbe concludes that he didn’t get tenure because he

Why does saying, “I’m sorry,” get you out of being indicted? « Fred Klonsky's blog

Why does saying, “I’m sorry,” get you out of being indicted?

by Fred Klonsky

It seems that Rupert Murdoch took a page out of the Jonah Edelman playbook. He took out advertisements in various papers the other day and said, “I’m sorry.”

Will that save him. It mght.

It seems to have worked for Stand for Children’s Jonah Edelman, who sent an apology to the readers of this blog last week.

In spite of the fact that IEA union leaders claim Edelman’s video was all a lie, I’m not so sure.

Take this excerpt.

So our analysis was he’s still going to be in power, and as such the raw politics were that we should tilt toward him, and so we interviewed 36 candidates in targeted races. … I’m being quite blunt here. The individual candidates were essentially a vehicle to execute a political objective, which was to tilt toward Madigan. The press never picked up on it. We endorsed

NYC Educator: Like, Thanks, Gotham Schools!

Like, Thanks, Gotham Schools!

by NYC Educator

So, like, I didn't get tenure this year? But, like, I thought I should? So, I was all, like, hey dude, I want it, I want it all, and I want it now, dude. But like, I don't want to say that, because my peeps are always like, ya know, saying that other people shouldn't get it?

But hey, like, even though maybe I don't know enough stuff to get tenure, I have, like, no problem telling everyone else how they should get it. Like, even though I'm not good enough to get tenure, I still think that I'm the one who should decide how everyone else should get fired and that's why, like, my group supports whatever Mayor Bloomberg says we should support? So like, if someone is accused of something,

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Bonuses dead. Kids didn't win. Where's Randi?

Bonuses dead. Kids didn't win. Where's Randi?

Bloomberg called it, an "historic agreement." (NYT pic)

Union leader raved about bonuses in '07

"Everybody wins, especially the kids." -- UFT President Randi Weingarten - October 26, 2007

Back in '07, Mayor Bloomberg called it an “historic and unique agreement,"claiming, “This agreement puts New York City at the forefront nationally in finding ways to reward such high-needs schools for performance.”

Then UFT Pres. Randi Weingarten pushed her own union membership to voluntarily except Bloomberg/Klein's bonus plan. As I recall, there were a few rank-and-file pockets of resistance, warning fellow N.Y. teachers not to be taken in by

Why The Atlanta And D.C. Cheating Scandals Show We Finally Care Enough About Student Achievement | The New Republic

The Good News in the Atlanta and D.C. School Cheating Scandals

Kevin Carey
July 19, 2011 | 12:00 am
2 comments
|More
Print

An Admirable Move From the Country’s Biggest Teachers' Union (Yes, You Read That Correctly)

The Times and the Post Keep Predicting Doom for College Grads—And They’re Always Wrong

Republicans Are Attacking Teachers’ Unions While Adopting the Worst Parts of Their Agenda

With the possible exception of tot-murdering moms and professional basketball players who jilt their fans on live television, there is no more reviled figure in American life than Bernie Madoff. Portrayed on the cover of New Yorkmagazine in Heath-Ledger-as-Joker makeup, he has been variously described as a sociopath, a financial serial killer, and the devil incarnate. What nobody has said, however, is that Madoff was the victim of a profession that puts relentless pressure on money managers to publicly report their success in the market. And, while plenty of deserved scorn has been heaped on the auxiliary financial institutions and hapless federal regulators who allowed his fraud to unfold for decades, nobody has suggested that those lapses in any way mitigate Madoff’s culpability in his crimes. Society has taken away all of Madoff’s money and freedom, but it has left him

Los Angeles schools: School board begins overhaul of policy barring social promotion of students - latimes.com

Los Angeles schools to revamp their ban on social promotion

One approach to ensuring that children are academically ready for promotion would be to provide extra help for students in key grades.

“Having a child repeat the same grade the same way doesn’t produce stellar results,” said board member Tamar Galatzan, who proposed the board action. “Making sure that students have learned the material when they move from grade to grade is something this district needs to do a better job of.” (Mariah Tauger, Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Time)

By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times

July 18, 2011

The nation's second-largest school district officially launched itself once more into an ongoing national debate over social promotion, the practice of moving students to the next grade even when they're academically unprepared.

The Los Angeles Board of Education agreed last week to begin revamping a policy that bars the advancement of unqualified students to the next grade. The rules have been loosely enforced. One proposal is to focus more intensively on struggling students in grades three, five and seven, considered key transition years.

"Having a child repeat the same grade the same way doesn't produce stellar results," said board member Tamar Galatzan, who proposed the board action. "Making sure that students

NYC Public School Parents: Bet you Klein doesn't go on his Blackberry during these hearings

Bet you Klein doesn't go on his Blackberry during these hearings

by Leonie Haimson

See Joel Klein sitting behind the Murdochs today. For a live broadcast of Parliamentary hearings behind the Murdoch/NewsCorp hearings, check out www.democracynow.org; also for my appearance on this morning's show archived later today.

How the Ed. Dept. Could Intervene in Cheating Scandals - Politics K-12 - Education Week

How the Ed. Dept. Could Intervene in Cheating Scandals

by Michele McNeil

A significant part of Education Secretary Arne Duncan's education reform agenda relies on states and school districts having good, reliable data from test scores. So it's no surprise that he and his Department of Education crew are trying to figure out what they can do to stem the damage done by cheating scandals, including the at-times-shocking one that's unfolding in Atlanta.

Duncan has already said he believes the Atlanta cheating scandal is being looked at by the department's inspector general's office, which is its law enforcement arm. That office, which tries to ferret out fraud and waste involving federal funds, has had no comment on the cheating scandals. But back in 2010, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the U.S. attorney's office in Atlanta was investigating whether the district committed fraud by inflating test scores, which earned the district federal education bonus dollars through No Child Left

“Teachers Cheating And Incentives” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

“Teachers Cheating And Incentives”

by Larry Ferlazzo

“Teachers Cheating And Incentives” is a very important commentary from professor, author, and researcher Dan Ariely. It’s a must-read.

I’ve added it to The Best Posts & Articles About The Atlanta Testing Scandal.

I’ve also added The Atlanta Scandal: Teaching in “A Culture of Fear, Intimidation and Retaliation”, by Erich Martel,to the same list.

Jersey Jazzman: Halliburton High: It's Spreading

Halliburton High: It's Spreading

by Duke

Here's a fun game for the summer! Below are several stories about education; can you spot the pattern?

Major execs invested in Hall

In 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 superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools. They willingly accepted Hall’s story line of rebirth in an urban school system. They promoted and sometimes exaggerated Hall’s achievements — for her benefit and for their own.
State officials, though, were suggesting gains by Atlanta schools resulted from widespread

Tightened Professional-Development Standards Released - Teacher Beat - Education Week

Tightened Professional-Development Standards Released

By Stephen Sawchuk on July 19, 2011 8:23 AM | No comments |

Learning Forward, a.k.a. the Nonprofit Formerly Known As the National Staff Development Council, this morning unveiled an updated set of standards for guiding choices about quality teacher professional development.

The Standards for Professional Learning describe the "context, process, and content" of effective professional development across seven key areas. One aspect of note: The standards on professional-development content have been significantly streamlined. Take a look at the whole document, and let us know

Daily Kos: Why they're marching - Mary Tedrow

Why they're marching - Mary Tedrow

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

this is the second in a series of diaries about the Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action that I will be posting in the runup to the the March itself on July 30. The first was

Mary Tedrow teaches in Northern Virginia. She begins a recent blog post, called Why I'm Marching. . . like this:

I was born and raised in Washington, DC.
In the summer the humidity settles down and the sky turns a sick, pale shade of yellow. The swamp the city was built on seems to rise up and sit in the air just above the traffic lights.

Mary is a gifted writer, and an even more gifted teacher of writers, having been very involved in the National Writing Project.

She describes what her childhood in DC was like, in days before air conditioning was so omnipresent. And then she offers this:

In Washington, D.C., July is a beast, but August is worse.
So, why return to Washington, DC on July 30 to march from the ellipse to the White House at a time when experience dictates that one should really just be sitting very, very still?
I will be marching because I do not want to lose another thing I bring from my childhood: A public school education.

Please keep reading.

Study: LA charter schools see high teacher churn - San Jose Mercury News

Study: LA charter schools see high teacher churn

By CHRISTINA HOAG Associated Press

Posted: 07/19/2011 01:45:34 AM PDT

Updated: 07/19/2011 01:47:16 AM PDT

LOS ANGELES—Teachers at Los Angeles Unified charter schools are up to three times as likely to quit their jobs as their counterparts in traditional district schools, according to a University of California, Berkeley study released Tuesday.

Teachers at charter high schools in high-poverty neighborhoods are particularly likely to leave their schools—40 percent as compared to about 18 percent in regular inner-city high schools, reported the study, which was to be presented to LAUSD officials Tuesday morning.

Study co-author Xiaoxia Newton, an assistant education professor, called the inner-city charter turnover rate "alarmingly high" and noted that it likely stems from difficult teaching conditions.

Charter school teachers often have to grapple with students entering very low academic skills and an evaluation system based on standardized test scores, which may not show student improvement because the student started

Latest News and Comment from Education