Friday Churn: Rhee & Spellings show | EdNewsColorado

Friday Churn: Rhee & Spellings show | EdNewsColorado:

Friday Churn: Rhee & Spellings show

by EdNews staff

What’s churning

Michelle Rhee and Margaret Spellings are due in Denver on Sept. 13 to talk about business involvement in school reform. The event is being organized by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.

Rhee, former Washington, D.C., schools chief and a familiar figure on the ed reform lecture circuit, was last in Denver in May (see story).

Spellings, now with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and education secretary under President George W. Bush, was in Denver last fall for a screening of “Waiting for Superman,” which features Rhee prominently.

The upcoming event will be Sept. 13 from 10:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. at the Westin Hotel downtown. If you’re

Lobato 9/1: One last speed bump

by Todd Engdahl

Colorado’s education commissioner and a top higher education official tried to minimize the cost of education reform during defense testimony in the Lobato school-funding trial Thursday, and time ran out before the state could put its last witness on the stand.

Robert Hammond, commissioner of education, and Matt Gianneschi, deputy director of the Department of Higher Education, were the state’s biggest-name witnesses.

Sen. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs and a lawmaker with long experience in school finance, was supposed to testify in the cleanup position. But other witnesses – and the lawyers examining them – ran long, delaying King’s appearance in the witness chair until Friday. A few rebuttal witnesses and closing arguments also are to

Lawmakers advance academic standards | Thoughts on Public Education

Lawmakers advance academic standards | Thoughts on Public Education:

Lawmakers advance academic standards

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Science classes would enter new millennium

Posted on 9/02/11 • Categorized as Common Core standards, Standardized tests, State Board of Education, Tests

By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

(Kathy and John combined efforts on this post.)

Heading into the final week of the session, the Legislature has sent bills to Gov. Brown that would revise state science standards and build a bridge to the approaching Common Core with instructional materials, curricula and professional development.

California will revise K-12 science standards for the first time since they were adopted 13 years ago, a light year in a fast-changing world.

The Assembly passed yesterday and forwarded to Gov. Brown SB 300, which will authorize

Take your SGP and VAMit, Damn it! « School Finance 101

Take your SGP and VAMit, Damn it! « School Finance 101:

Take your SGP and VAMit, Damn it!

by schoolfinance101

In the face of all of the public criticism over the imprecision of value-added estimates of teacher effectiveness, and debates over whether newspapers or school districts should publish VAM estimates of teacher effectiveness, policymakers in several states have come up with a clever shell game. Their argument?

We don’t use VAM… ‘cuz we know it has lots of problems, we use Student Growth Percentiles instead. They don’t have those problems.

WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! Put really simply, as a tool for inferring which teacher is “better” than another, or which school outperforms another, SGP is worse, not better than VAM. This is largely because SGP is simply not designed for this purpose. And those who are now suggesting that it is are simply wrong. Further, those who actually support using tools like VAM to infer differences in teacher quality or school quality should be most nervous about the newly found popularity of SGP as an evaluation tool.

To a large extent, the confusion over these issues was created by Mike Johnston, a Colorado State Senator who

President Obama gives back-to-school interview to kids - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

President Obama gives back-to-school interview to kids - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

President Obama gives back-to-school interview to kids

by Valerie Strauss

President Obama is a busy man, but not too busy to give a back-to-school interview to members of Scholastic’s Kids Press Corps.

The corps is a team of about 50 kids, ages 10-14, from across the country who report on news, entertainment, and sports from their hometowns.

Obama sat down at the White House with kid reporters Jacob Schroeder and Topanga Sena for an exclusive back-to-school interview. There are several video excerpts from the interview on the kids corps homepage, here, and below, you canplay the excerpt in which Obama tells the kids where he was on Sept. 11, 2001, and his thoughts about the 10th anniversary.

Read full article >>

5 Commandments for college freshmen

by Valerie Strauss

This was written by H. Buford Barr, who teaches marketing and communication at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business and College of Arts & Sciences. He has been teaching at the undergraduate level for 20 years and has 30 years of experience in high-tech marketing, branding, advertising, and public relations.

By H. Buford Barr

Beginning college is a milestone event in our lives. Like most events of this magnitude, how we handle and deal with the new challenges we face determines our ultimate success. The transition to college requires a a change in attitude and behavior. To help make this transition as painless and productive as possible, here are five commandments for a successful college career.

Read full article >>

Unions and school reform. « Fred Klonsky's blog

Unions and school reform. « Fred Klonsky's blog:

Unions and school reform.

by Fred Klonsky

Anthony Cody, an Oakland educator and organizer of the SOS March on Washington, has a regular column in EdWeek.

This week he hands it over to John Thompson who argues for teacher unions to be “focused as much on curriculum, instruction, assessment, and evaluation issues as on pay and hours.”

I’m a progressive teacher. And I take my progressive teaching ideas into the classroom and into the union, where I have been a local activist and leader for nearly 20 years.

I often recall having an on-going debate with Jo Anderson when he was IEA Executive Director and is now Senior Adviser to Arne Duncan.

Jo would argue that the fight for collective bargaining rights for teachers was no longer the main thing and that

Rick Scott on Unfunded Education Mandates: “Call Me” | Scathing Purple Musings

Rick Scott on Unfunded Education Mandates: “Call Me” | Scathing Purple Musings:

Rick Scott on Unfunded Education Mandates: “Call Me”

by Bob Sikes

From new website site StateImpact comes a link to a story on Florida Governor Rick Scott’s Monday breakfast with the Flagler County Chamber of Commerce. During Q&A, the topic of unfunded mandates predictably was raised from a group of business leaders. Scott probably didn’t realize that a Flagler school board member would be in the audience and ask Scott about the unfunded mandates that school districts face.

“I need to get around the state and hear from people,” Scott said of his visit to Flagler County. “You can’t solve problems you don’t hear about.”

Scott heard plenty from local officials, but many of the concerns expressed were less about the need for state dollars than for fewer so-called unfunded mandates.

“Tell me what the issue is and I’ll get the right person involved to solve it,” Scott said.

At one point during this morning’s meeting, in response to concerns from School Board Member

Open Letter to a New Principal (Heather Wolpert-Gawron) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Open Letter to a New Principal (Heather Wolpert-Gawron) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Open Letter to a New Principal (Heather Wolpert-Gawron)

by larrycuban

Heather Wolpert-Gawron is a middle school teacher in San Gabriel (CA). I read her “open letter” to an incoming principal. After writing about Joe Clark, Harry, and Edna in the previous post, I thought that a teacher’s perspective on what she expects of a new principal might underscore the multiple demands–the DNA of the job– that principals in the U.S. face. Some questions to consider: which of the roles that principals must play does Wolpert-Gawron urge the newcomer to perform? Are these expectations similar for principals in other nations?

Dear Sir:

You are the latest in a list of accomplished and energetic principals we have had over the course of this decade. As you know, we’ve had 5 principals in 9 years. The nomadic ebb and flow of our administration has taken its toll

Last Stand for Children First: Meet Tim Graye--Our Newest Transformation Academy Associate

Last Stand for Children First: Meet Tim Graye--Our Newest Transformation Academy Associate:

Meet Tim Graye--Our Newest Transformation Academy Associate

by Last Stand for Children

It was 2008 and I was vaulting through the air in the middle of my back flip at the Nationals. I realized at that very moment how fortunate I was to be part of a dynasty. At Hawaii Pacific, we didn't just win cheerleading championships, we revolutionized cheerleading at the college level.

I just joined another team that I believe will revolutionize education. That team is Last Stand for Children First and they've already been doing some great work. I know, because I spent two years as a teaching fellow where I taught high school chemistry and was head cheerleading coach in the Chicago Public Schools.

I look at my role with LS4C as still being a cheerleader. No matter what we

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Chicago teachers respond to bashing by the mayor and the media

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Chicago teachers respond to bashing by the mayor and the media:

Chicago teachers respond to bashing by the mayor and the media

Teach-In at the Thompson Center (M.Klonsky pic)

It's sad, yet understandable that some Chicago teachers feel the need to prove to the public that they work hard. If any of our local politicians tried teaching in a Chicago school for a week, they might restrain themselves from the rabid teacher bashing that dominates campaign rhetoric these days.

With that said, I have to give credit to

Daily Kos: Excellent Teaching begins with Excellent Preparation

Daily Kos: Excellent Teaching begins with Excellent Preparation:

Excellent Teaching begins with Excellent Preparation

byRandi Weingarten

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Like any good teacher, I try to spend the waning days of summer sorting through my desk, taking inventory of the past year and preparing for the next.

A few weeks ago, I was sifting through the mountain of papers, studies and newspaper clippings that had accumulated there, when I came across a booklet titled “Building a Profession: Strengthening Teacher Preparation and Induction.”

The booklet, published by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) more than a decade ago, summarizes a report from an AFT task force appointed to look at teacher preparation and how to improve it. Thumbing through it now, I was struck by how timely our task force’s observations and recommendations still are.

This is both good and bad. It’s good that many of the suggestions of our task force, which

HANDCUFFS IN FIRST GRADE ! « Teachers Fight Back

HANDCUFFS IN FIRST GRADE ! « Teachers Fight Back:

HANDCUFFS IN FIRST GRADE !

by alkleen

The Chicago Public Schools are now being sued because allegedly one of their security men handcuffed a few first graders and took them out of their classroom. The students were put in a room and isolated from the rest of the class because they were being disruptive.

I wish the media would stop writing about such stories. We are supposed to be trying to attract the best and brightest new teachers to the Chicago schools. Who in their right mind wants to teach in a system where FIRST GRADERS are out of control ?

The media also needs to understand to use the proper educational linguistics when reporting such stories. Handcuffs is a term that the media needs to avoid. In a school setting, handcuffs are probably best referred to

For The New Teacher: How To Handle Race In The Classroom | The Jose Vilson

For The New Teacher: How To Handle Race In The Classroom | The Jose Vilson:

For The New Teacher: How To Handle Race In The Classroom

by JOSE on SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

Other People's Children by Lisa Delpit

Today, I had the pleasure of addressing staff members for the Nativity New York Schools orientation at Regis High School today. Anyone who knows me knows I went Xavier, so there’s a certain tension going into “enemy” territory. Nonetheless, I found the energy of the crowd refreshing, and I also knew how much I needed to reciprocate. Blame it on having the after-lunch slot for my presentation.

In any case, I left a list of books I thought the audience should read (if they haven’t) that would help them get better as educators:

• Other People’s Children by Lisa Delpit
• The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Modern School: AJ Duffy Union Scab

Modern School: AJ Duffy Union Scab:

Crying Wolf: Another Unnecessary Lockdown In Oakland

by Michael Dunn

Oakland Unified School District has now locked down three schools within the first two days of the school year. In at least one of the cases, officials admitted that the children’s safety was never in jeopardy, which begs the question: Why were children’s personal freedom, comfort and learning undermined by being confined to their classroom for hours?

In the latest incident, children at Oakland's Horace Mann Elementary School were locked in their classrooms for most of Tuesday, while police searched for suspects in a string of early-morning home-invasion robberies, the Bay Citizen reported today. OUSD spokesman Troy Flint said that Oakland schools experience lockdowns two to four times per week on average and largely as a precaution. “That figure doesn’t really represent an imminent threat to the 

AJ Duffy Union Scab

by Michael Dunn

The Workers on the S. P. line to strike sent out a call;
But Casey Jones, the engineer, he wouldn't strike at all;
His boiler it was leaking, and its drivers on the bum,
And his engine and its bearings, they were all out of plumb.

Casey Jones kept his junk pile running;
Casey Jones was working double time;
Casey Jones got a wooden medal,
For being good and faithful on the S.P. line.

The workers said to Casey: "Won't you help us win

Opposed Rectal Administration Bill Clears Senate; SB 161 Now Heads to Governor « State of Emergency

Opposed Rectal Administration Bill Clears Senate; SB 161 Now Heads to Governor « State of Emergency:

Opposed Rectal Administration Bill Clears Senate; SB 161 Now Heads to Governor

by Leonard Feldman

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) 1 September 2011 — The state Senate has passed on a 35-4 vote a CTA-opposed measure that would lead to educators, educational support professionals, and classified employees “volunteering” to rectally insert a form of valium into students who are experiencing seizures on school grounds or buses.

SB 161 (by Sen. Bob Huff) is expected to head to Gov. Jerry Brown, whose must decide whether to veto the bill that is opposed by teachers, nurses, school nurses, and parents.

The unofficial tally of 35-4 shows a number of Senate Democrats joining the Republican minority in approving the

Should there be a Constitutional Right to Unlimited Property Taxation? « School Finance 101

Should there be a Constitutional Right to Unlimited Property Taxation? « School Finance 101:

Should there be a Constitutional Right to Unlimited Property Taxation?

by schoolfinance101

A Reply to Dunn and Derthick in Education Next

Anyone who has read my previous work knows I’m not generally a fan of tax and expenditure limits. A significant body of empirical research does show that strict tax and expenditure limits can cause significant damage to state school finance systems over the long haul. For example, Author David Figlio in a study of Oregon’s Measure 5 (National Tax Journal Vol 51 no. 1 (March 1998) pp. 55-70) finds that: Oregon student-teacher ratios have increased significantly as a result of the state’s tax limitation. David Figlio and Kim Rueben in the Journal of Public Economics (April 2001, Pages 49-71) find: Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics we find that tax limits systematically reduce the average quality of education majors, as well as new public school teachers in states that have passed these limits. In a non-peer reviewed, but high quality working paper,

NO School Staff Layoffs Protest | September 7, 2011 @ 4:00pm | 52 Chambers Street « New York City Parents Union

NO School Staff Layoffs Protest | September 7, 2011 @ 4:00pm | 52 Chambers Street « New York City Parents Union:

NO School Staff Layoffs Protest | September 7, 2011 @ 4:00pm | 52 Chambers Street

SAVE OUR SCHOOLS & COMMUNITIES PROTEST

Join parents, teachers, community activists, elected officials and union leaders to protest and oppose the egregious layoffs of school staff workers.

WHERE: NYC Department of Education, 52 Chambers Street

WHEN: Wednesday, September 7, 2011

TIME: 4:00 PM

Will Sketchy Voucher Results Bring Back the “Choice” Mantra Again in Florida? | Scathing Purple Musings

Will Sketchy Voucher Results Bring Back the “Choice” Mantra Again in Florida? | Scathing Purple Musings:

Will Sketchy Voucher Results Bring Back the “Choice” Mantra Again in Florida?

by Bob Sikes

From the Associated Press:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A new report shows little change in scores on national standardized tests for students in Florida’s low-income voucher program.

They attend private schools at taxpayer expense.

The report on the Tax Credit Scholarship Program was released Wednesday. It was prepared for the state Department of Education by Northwestern University economist David Figlio.

The national percentile ranking for program participants in 2009-10 dropped 1.2 points in reading