"When union workers agree to pay freezes and pay cuts, they're not doing it just to keep their jobs, they're doing it so that their fellow workers, their fellow Americans can keep their jobs." --Pres. ObamaRemember, I called it a bunch of horse bleep? Well, here's what happened in
This is a conference not to be missed. All are invited.
Dora
On Saturday, October 1st, the Fourth Annual Northwest Conference on Teaching for Social Justice will take place at Chief Sealth International High School in Seattle, WA. The organizers are from four cities representing the Northwest — Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia and Portland. The conference is sponsored in part by award-winning Rethinking Schools magazine and the Washington Education Association (WEA).
The NWCTSJ has become the largest conference in the Northwest for teachers. Last year’s event attracted over 790 participants. This conference is all about inspiring teachers. It features workshops given by teachers who are chosen for their ability to interactively communicate practical tools for all learners in the classroom. Each workshop:
* Expresses a social justice perspective
* Is hands on and practical
* Gives participants a chance to talk to one another
This year’s conference keynote speaker is Karen Lewis, President of the 30,000 member Chicago Teachers Union, speaking on “Moving Toward Social Justice in These Hostile Times.” Special guest Stan Karp,Rethinking Schools editor and coordinator of the ‘Not Waiting for Supermen’ project will lead a workshop.
A large resource fair of local educationally centered non-profits will be tabling on site.
To register please visit http://www.nwtsj.org/
In several posts, I’ve complained about how, in our public discourse, we misinterpret changes in proficiency rates (or actual test scores) as “gains” or “progress,” when they actually represent cohort changes—that is, they are performance snapshots for different groups of students who are potentially quite dissimilar.
For example, the most common way testing results are presented in news coverage and press releases is to present year-to-year testing results across entire schools or districts – e.g., the overall proficiency rate across all grades in one year compared with the next. One reason why the two groups of students being compared (the first versus the second year) are different is obvious. In most districts, tests are only administered to students in grades 3-8. As a result, the eighth graders who take the test in Year 1 will not take it in Year 2, as they will have
Here it is -- an image tweeted out by Duncan himself (or so we're told). Big and blue, and hopefully comfortable but not as expensive as the President's tour bus. I'm told that they're actually traveling in the thing, though I'm guessing not sleeping in it.
Duncan to talk education and economy in swing states Politics K-12: Fresh off his attack on Texas governor Rick Perry's K-12 record, Duncan is boarding a bus and traveling to the "Great Lakes region" —home to the electorally important swing states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin.
Teachers Distressed Over Wis. Collective Bargaining NPR: Fifth grade teacher Hedy Eischeid says losing these rights negatively affects the quality of teaching, and she expects constant changes for the Fond du Lac school district where she works.
Congress returns to education funding issues Politics K-12: Congress returns from its summer recess this week with a full plate of unfinished business on the future of K-12 spending and policy—a tall order in Washington’s
by Frederick M. Hess • Sep 7, 2011 at 8:13 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
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Folks, generational warfare is here. As Congress's "super committee" begins its deliberations with an eye towards its November deadline, and as the debate for 2012 heats up, it's time for those in the education space to pick a side. You're either with the kids or with those rushing to the ramparts to defend retiree entitlements. So, which is it?
Consider the President's vague calls last week to spend billions more on school construction and preserving school staffing levels (which would've been more compelling if he had offered any inkling as to how we might pay for it). Obama finds himself unable to do more than offer marginal, dead-on-arrival programs because the feds have spent more than half the budget just mailing checks to retirees, covering health care bills, and paying interest on the accumulated debt. Everything else--schools, financial aid, the FBI, defense, transportation, the environment, NASA, foreign aid, you name it--has to make do with what's left.
As Julia Isaacs at the Brookings Institution has pointed out, the federal government now spends about $7 on seniors for every $1 it spends on children--even though the poverty rate among children is higher, with 21
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