Where the Action Is in School Reform - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

Where the Action Is in School Reform - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

Where the Action Is in School Reform

by Nancy Flanagan

The criticism most frequently leveled at Diane Ravitch's blockbuster book on education reform, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, is that Ravitch doesn't end the book with policy implications, her personal prescriptions for improving schools in America. In addition to identifying root causes of the disease, this thinking goes, Ravitch is honor-bound to cure it.

Yeah, yeah, the critics say--Ravitch does talk about strong, comprehensive curriculum and good teaching, but where are the innovative policy levers? Where are ideas like the $125,000 teacher salary initiative or the scheme to publish test-based teacher evaluations in the newspaper to shame, then fire, the laggards? Where is Ravitch's Superman solution?

In general, "reformers" aren't very interested in curriculum and instruction (unless they can package and sell it). What happens in the classroom is too low-level and "inefficient" to capture the interest of those whose goal is economic domination of world markets--plus raising international achievement scores. Whole-school reform models that guarantee a quick uptick in scores, maybe, but the small, grubby details of classroom interaction

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: The four horsemen of our apocalypse?

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: The four horsemen of our apocalypse?:

The four horsemen of our apocalypse?

by The Perimeter Primate

Racism, Poverty, Militarism, Materialism. The apocalypse reference may sound dramatic, but the current condition (and trajectory) of our society is looking pretty bad.

Cornel West reflects on Dr. Martin Luther King in his piece for the New York Times today, “Dr. King Weeps From His Grave.” Excerpts with my emphasis:*

...[during the last years of his life] King’s dream of a more democratic America had become, in his words, “a nightmare,” owing to the persistence of “racism, poverty, militarism and materialism.” He called America a “sick society.”...

MILITARISM is an imperial catastrophe that has produced a military-industrial complex and

Nonprofit writes Florida law for its own program | jacksonville.com

Nonprofit writes Florida law for its own program | jacksonville.com:

Nonprofit writes Florida law for its own program

Scholarship bill shows influence of lobbyists writing legislation.

Posted: August 23, 2011 - 5:56pm | Updated: August 24, 2011 - 6:58am

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By Matt Dixon

A 2011 bill aimed at protecting a scholarship program funded by corporate donations was written by the only group that offers the scholarship program - not an elected official - and included a provision that would have given that group access to confidential tax information, according to emails and documents obtained by the Times-Union.

The legislation was signed into law on June 2 and upped the amount that companies can give to the program, from 75 to 100 percent of their corporate income tax liability. Donor companies are given a tax break for their contributions. The roughly $4,100 scholarships go to low-income students who want to attend private schools.

In Northeast Florida, 111 schools take part in the program, including 87 in Duval County, the second most of any county in the state. Nearly 3,600

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/florida/2011-08-23/story/nonprofit-writes-florida-law-its-own-program#.TlfkvkOah-J.twitter#ixzz1WA7FRN2G

Sac City supt. offers insight on coming school year | news10.net

Sac City supt. offers insight on coming school year | news10.net:

Sac City supt. offers insight on coming school year

1:15 PM, Aug 26, 2011 | comments

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Paul Janes

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SACRAMENTO - Sacramento City Unified Superintendent Jonathan Raymond offered parents information on new SCUSD initiatives and some great tips on getting kids ready to go back to school.

Raymond, superintendent since 2009, worked with parents and staff last year to create a new district strategic plan titled "Putting Children First" [PDF],now moves forward to offer new programs and an all-inclusive District Enrollment center.

New SCUSD programs include:

• The New Breakfast First Campaign - nearly 14,000 kids will have access to free breakfast every day in SCUSD
• Dual Language Immersion programs in Spanish, Chinese and Hmong
• 'Early Kinder' Transitional Kindergarten program

A fellow parent of SCUSD students,

Missouri judge blocks Facebook limits for teachers:

Missouri judge blocks Facebook limits for teachers

By DAVID A. LIEB 08/26/11 01:03 PM ET

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A Missouri judge has blocked a law from taking effect Sunday that would have prohibited teachers from using social networking sites such as Facebook to carry on private conversations with students.

Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem issued a preliminary injunction against the law Friday while declaring that it "would have a chilling effect" on free speech rights. The judge put the law on hold until Feb. 20, allowing time for a hearing on whether the law should be permanently blocked.

The new Missouri law would have barred teachers from using non-work-related websites that give "exclusive access" to current students or former students who are 18 or younger. That would have meant that communication through Facebook or other social networking sites would have to be done in public, rather than through private messages.

The Missouri State Teachers Association and several public school teachers challenged the law. They said websites such as Facebook and Twitter had become a common part of modern interaction between teachers and students and argued that to restrict them would violate the First Amendment

Education Research Report: Lack of Free Play Among Children is Causing Harm #parents

Education Research Report: Lack of Free Play Among Children is Causing Harm:

Lack of Free Play Among Children is Causing Harm

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

Ω

Hovering helicopter parents who restrict their kids’ unstructured play may actually harm, rather than help, children according to the latest issue of the American Journal of Play, a scholarly journal which has gathered a distinguished group of experts to probe the near-extinction of free play and its effects on children and society.

“Remarkably, over the last 50 years, opportunities for children to play freely have declined continuously and dramatically in the United States and other developed nations; and that decline continues, with serious negative

Child-care facilities can do more to promote healthy eating and physical activity among preschoolers

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

Ω

Eating and physical activity habits for a lifetime can develop at an early age. As the use of preschool child care increases and the prevalence of childhood obesity is at an all-time high, the opportunity to positively impact eating and exercise habits within this setting presents itself. A review in the September 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association describes and evaluates research addressing opportunities and strategies for the prevention of obesity among preschool children in child-care settings. It examines the current status of state regulations, practices and policies, and interventions for promoting healthy eating and physical activity.

"Early prevention is considered to be the most promising strategy for reducing obesity and the many serious

This Week In Education: Thompson: Coherence Vs. Dynamism (Or Both)

This Week In Education: Thompson: Coherence Vs. Dynamism (Or Both):

Thompson: Coherence Vs. Dynamism (Or Both)

by john thompson

Fordham's Mike Petrilli shows another way out of education's "day to day vitriol" with his "One Size Fits Most." America needs both, the "Coherence Camp," which looks to curricular coherence and professionalized instruction to improve our school systems, and the "Dynamism Devotees," who want to "unbundle" schooling. Linda Darling Hammond, Marc Tucker, and David Cohen would draw upon international examples and create national standards and a handful of national curricula. I am not convinced that our low-poverty schools are broken, but I am confident that the Coherence Camp would produce real improvements. Rick Hess, Paul Hill, and Tom Vander Ark could encourage choice schools that "make it easy to drop out of the

Celebrities: Britney Spears, American History Teacher

by Alexander Russo

In an interview with PopJustice.com, the 29-year-old mother of two opens up about the career choices she might've made if she hadn't reached international stardom at a young age. "I'd probably be a teacher," she tells the site. "I love kids, and even in what I do now one of my favorite parts of my day is getting to meet my fans before the show. Especially the little ones.

Better box lunches for a healthy, sustainable meal for school kids | OregonLive.com

Better box lunches for a healthy, sustainable meal for school kids | OregonLive.com:

Better box lunches for a healthy, sustainable meal for school kids

Published: Friday, August 26, 2011, 9:05 AM Updated: Friday, August 26, 2011, 10:15 AM

By Carrie Sturrock, Special to The Oregonian
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View full sizeThe Associated PressFairmeadow Elementary School second grade student Jonathan Cheng (center) looks at fruits and vegetables available for school lunch in Palo Alto, Calif.

What am I bracing for most in the upcoming school year?

Not the early mornings. Or the jam-packed schedules. Or the shorter, darker days.

It's this: packing my soon-to-be first grader's lunch.

To those without kids, that may sound strange. To those of us who fret about wasteful packaging, nutrition and lunches that come home uneaten, it can be a real chore.

By the end of kindergarten, I had defaulted to peanut butter and jelly nearly every day, which my picky eater stopped eating but somehow I kept making because I couldn't think of anything else during harried mornings.

The processed food giants seem a lifeline for harried parents. Just go to the refrigerated aisle at Fred Meyer. You can buy more than a dozen variations of Oscar Mayer Lunchables. The "Turkey & American Cracker Stackers" contain

The “facts” don’t matter | Seattle Education

The “facts” don’t matter | Seattle Education:

The “facts” don’t matter

by seattleducation2011

…at least not to Kelly Munn, State Field Director of the League of Education Voters (LEV), when it comes to charter schools.

During Munn’s presentation this week praising the glories of charter schools, one of the images she showed during her rather weak Power Point presentation were the words The “fact’s” don’t matter. She said that approving or disapproving of charter schools was simply a matter of “values”, either you like them or you don’t.

That’s quite a simplistic message to share with others when it comes to pushing the agenda of privatizing our schools here in the state of Washington. Don’t let the facts weigh you down when determining whether charter schools should be allowed in our state. Hmmm. It’s interesting how big the ed reformers are on data, evaluations and studies and yet here Ms. Munn is saying that the “facts don’t matter”. Which way is it Ms. Munn?