Saturday, September 24, 2011

Education and Big Education Ape on PostRank

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND – WHAT TOOK SO LONG ? « Teachers Fight Back

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 12 minutes ago

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND – WHAT TOOK SO LONG ? « Teachers Fight Back:NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND – WHAT TOOK SO LONG ?from Teachers Fight Back by alkleenPresident Obama has proposed monumental changes to the way schools are judged and sanctioned under NCLB. Even if Congress doesn’t change the law, the U.S Dept. of Education is going to allow states to change their system of testing and judging the performance of students.Only in education could it take nine years to ... more »

Jersey Jazzman: St. Michelle's Tarnished Halo

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 12 minutes ago

Jersey Jazzman: St. Michelle's Tarnished Halo:St. Michelle's Tarnished Haloby DukeOh, dear:The District’s labor-management relations board has upheld an arbitrator’s decision ordering the D.C. Public Schools to rehire 75 new teachers fired in 2008 by then-Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee.The Public Employee Relations Board, which rules on disputes between city agencies and labor unions, said in a Sept. 15 decision that arbitrator Charles Feigenbaum acted appropriately in February when he ordered the teachers reinstated with back pay, which could total as ... more »

Vancouver school district conflict with union escalates | OregonLive.com

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 12 minutes ago

Vancouver school district conflict with union escalates | OregonLive.com:Vancouver school district conflict with union escalatesPublished: Friday, September 23, 2011, 12:00 PM Updated: Friday, September 23, 2011, 1:56 PM By Kristine Guerra, The Oregonian Follow2ShareEmailPrintView full sizeKristine Guerra/The OregonianMembers of the Vancouver Association of Educational Support Professionals, a nonteaching employees union, made a vote of no confidence in Vancouver Public Schools Superintendent Steve Webb.The yearlong cold war between Vancouver Association of Educational Support Profe... more »

Jersey Jazzman: Arne Duncan: Maniac

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 12 minutes ago

Jersey Jazzman: Arne Duncan: Maniac:Arne Duncan: Maniacby Duke"Wow, Jazzman - pretty harsh." Yeah, OK, but what else do you call a guy who says stuff like this:A major change your administration has promoted is changing teacher evaluations. Do you have a prescription on how teachers should be rated?I don't. And frankly no one does.Teacher evaluations are largely broken in this country. We've had a system that doesn't reward excellence, doesn't support those teachers in the middle that are trying to ... more »

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Action for Week of September 24th: Facebook Flash Mob | United Opt Out National

Action for Week of September 24th: Facebook Flash Mob | United Opt Out National:

Action for Week of September 24th: Facebook Flash Mob

Posted on September 24, 2011

Good Morning everyone!!!! Ready for our action for the week of September 25th?? I was looking at the calendar today and noticed how time has flown…this group is now one month and 8 days old! Look at all we have accomplished. We have created opt out resources and supported opt-outers. We have been publicized in newspapers, TV, blogs and more. We have created our own THINK TANK yes???

THANK YOU to everyone here who is fighting the good fight – the true fight – to save public education for our children. Let’s continue this week with a FACEBOOK FLASH MOB. Find every FB group, page, person who could support the Opt Out movement and tell them about us. Thank them for all they are doing to support public education and ask them to join and spread the word. Be sure to share our Facebook group site and our website. Make our presence known. We are here for the long haul.

We will be Facebook flash mobbing at three specific times: September 25th 9:00 -10:00 p.m. EST, September 28th 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. EST, September 30th 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. EST. Join us for all three or pick one.

Begin now by book marking Facebook sites you want to flash mob at that time. Also – and this is important – if you see that someone else from our group has already been there and shared our information move on to another group – no need for overkill.

Thank you everyone and let’s act now!!! End high stakes testing therefore end corporate education reform and preserve and improve our public schools.

The Fallacy of Good Grades | Psychology Today #parents

The Fallacy of Good Grades | Psychology Today:

The Fallacy of Good Grades

Why tests don't measure your child's most important strengths

Published on August 15, 2011 by Marilyn Price-Mitchell, Ph.D. in The Moment of Youth

At the beginning of each school year, my daughter always anticipated a new opportunity to achieve "A" grades. But as the semester progressed, her expectations usually faded as test scores diminished her chances of believing in her abilities. Like many students, my daughter has learning differences - ways of thinking and showing what she knows - that are vastly different from the norm.

Even for children who perform well on academic tests, an "A" grade is only one measurement of success. A few things that school testing cannot measure include:

Effort
Critical thinking
Creativity
Collaboration
Curiosity
Respect
Kindness
Capacity to love
Social and emotional intelligence
Honesty
Open-mindedness
Initiative

Internal strengths, like those listed above, are far more important to a life of success and well-being than whether a child earns an "A" on an Algebra exam. In fact, most tests only measure a student's ability to regurgitate a correct answer. For today's learners, correct answers are not enough. By the

Education Nation 2011: 2011 Teacher Town Hall

Education Nation 2011: 2011 Teacher Town Hall:

2011 TEACHER TOWN HALL

NBC News will convene the largest gathering of teachers from across the country for the second-annual nationally televised Teacher Town Hall.

This special event will be held on Sunday, September 25^th, and broadcast live on MSNBC at Noon/ET. Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor of "NBC Nightly News," will moderate the discussion with help from MSNBC's Tamron Hall, who will facilitate questions from the audience. NBC News' Chief Education Correspondent Rehema Ellis will be moderating and reporting an online conversation with teachers across the country during the two-hour live event.

The program will focus on the most important challenges and opportunities facing America's teachers, and feature examples of great teaching from various schools and classrooms across the country.

As hundreds of teachers get together in-person at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, NBC News is also inviting teachers from across the country to join the conversation online. We'll be hosting a live chat during the Teacher Town Hall in our NEW "Teachers' Lounge", EducationNation.com's teachers-only online forum.

Teachers: if you aren't already registered on EducationNation.com, you can do so by clicking the purple bar at the bottom of the page.

When you sign-up, be sure to identify yourself as an "educator" so that you can gain access to the Teachers' Lounge and participate in the live chat during the Teacher Town Hall.

Watch last year's Teacher Town Hall here:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Watch this video for highlights from last year's Education Nation event and a preview of the 2011 Summit in September!

Follow Education Nation:

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Check out the full time-lapse of the 2011 #EducationNation Summit construction.http://t.co/Urup3aVM
8:19 AM

Follow @EducationNation On Twitter

Jersey Jazzman: Conflict of Interest, Jersey Style

Jersey Jazzman: Conflict of Interest, Jersey Style:

Conflict of Interest, Jersey Style

by Duke

Andy Smarick, the Deputy Commissioner of the NJ Department of Education, serves on the Board of Directors of 50CAN.

This group is advocating specific policy proposals that are hotly debated:

Smarick is, of course, entitled to his opinion on these things, as wrong as that opinion may be. He does,

Schools Matter: NCTE claims that toxic sludge is good for you

Schools Matter: NCTE claims that toxic sludge is good for you:

NCTE claims that toxic sludge is good for you

by skrashen

Council Chronicles, Sept 2011, part 1: Toxic sludge is good for you

Stephen Krashen and Susan Ohanian

We are probably among the 1 percent of NCTE members who have read every word of the current issue of the Council Chronicles. We think it is unprofessional and a violation of the position that NCTE itself has taken on the Common Core. NCTE has spent our money, from our dues, to pay professional writers to write PR pieces in support of policies that many NCTE members object to.

The lead article in the journal was written by a professional writer, not an NCTE member, not an educator, and is a defense of Common Core that, at best, can be described as a public relations article, in the style of "Toxic Sludge is Good for You." This article could have been written by the US Department of Education staff. The NCTE does not officially support the Common Core, and a sense of the house motion was passed at the last

A parent’s guide to K-12 school success #parents

A parent’s guide to K-12 school success:

A parentâ€™s guide to K-12 school success

Scott Walker vs. education: An open letter to NBC News anchor Brian Williams - Isthmus | The Daily Page

Scott Walker vs. education: An open letter to NBC News anchor Brian Williams - Isthmus | The Daily Page:

Scott Walker vs. education: An open letter to NBC News anchor Brian Williams
Heather DuBois Bourenane on Saturday 09/24/2011 8:00 am

There has not been a single instance of bipartisan collaboration related to Walker's education agenda since he took office.
Credit:NBC News

Article Tools:

Schools Matter: Duncan, Hastings, and Gates: The Digital Promise-Keepers and a DreamBox for Every Urban Kid

Schools Matter: Duncan, Hastings, and Gates: The Digital Promise-Keepers and a DreamBox for Every Urban Kid:

Duncan, Hastings, and Gates: The Digital Promise-Keepers and a DreamBox for Every Urban Kid

by Jim Horn

In anticipation of the new NCLB initiative rolled out yesterday (my response in the making), Arne Duncan announced recently a new corporate ed reform money maker called "Digital Promise," which promises to fill the pockets of some of Duncan's favorite techie sidekicks who are already lining up at Duncan's "innovation-inspiring" federal ATM machine at the U. S. Department of Ed. Take Reed Hastings, for instance (please), whose rattle-trap outfit, NetFlix, is beginning to flicker toward extinction just as Hastings moves into the edu-biz in a big way.

As the Godfather of the corporate welfare charter movement in California and initial backer of the corrupt Green Dot, Inc., Hastings, who sits on Microsoft's Board of Directors, became quick friends with Arne Duncan when Duncan became Secretary of ED. In 2009, Hastings was picked by Duncan to head up turnaround planning for the thousands of urban schools that poverty and NCLB testing have blown up in recent years. Most of the planned replacement schools for the bottom 5% per year (four to five thousand schools nationwide) of low test score schools are planned as corporate welfare charters, and edupreneurs are looking for ways to further cut

School Tech Connect: What Does This Mean?

School Tech Connect: What Does This Mean?:

What Does This Mean?

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim)

`If a teacher has received at least one`
9		`performance evaluation rating conducted by the school district`
10		`or joint agreement determining the sequence of dismissal and a`
11		`subsequent performance evaluation is not conducted in any`
12		`school year in which such evaluation is required to be`
13		`conducted under Section 24A-5 of this Code, the teacher's`
14		`performance evaluation rating for that school year for`

Network~Net Work | Connected Principals

Network~Net Work | Connected Principals:

Network~Net Work

by bharrison

Click here to view the embedded video.

“We are often better served by connecting ideas than we are by protecting them.” ~ Steven Johnson

It turns out that almost all really good ideas are the product of collaboration (this may, or may not, be a blatantly obvious statement). In education this great insight is known in theory, but not always in application, as evidenced by the practices that are often put into place in both in classrooms and schools.

A long time ago I stumbled upon an Alfie Kohn article on cooperative learning that sparked me to think carefully about how I structured the learning environment for my students. It became more and more important for me to establish processes and create the conditions for my students to work together: by talking to one another,

Jersey Jazzman: Layoffs, Smayoffs

Jersey Jazzman: Layoffs, Smayoffs:

Layoffs, Smayoffs

by Duke

Failed teacher and failed superintendent Michelle Rhee just hates - HATES! - teacher seniority:

Kristen Briggs was one of about a thousand educators who lost their jobs teaching in Philadelphia schools this year. But to her students, she was much more than a statistic.
Briggs, who taught special education at Lincoln High School, is the kind of teacher any principal would hasten to hire - and never willingly let go. But Briggs' principal didn't have a choice in the matter.
She was laid off under an antiquated and harmful policy known as "last in, first out," or "LIFO" for short. It requires that when layoffs occur, the last teachers hired are the first

Comparing Czarist and Bolshevik Takeover of the Vodka Industry to Today’s School Reformers | Scathing Purple Musings

Comparing Czarist and Bolshevik Takeover of the Vodka Industry to Today’s School Reformers | Scathing Purple Musings:

Comparing Czarist and Bolshevik Takeover of the Vodka Industry to Today’s School Reformers

by Bob Sikes

From the conservative Weekly Standard come this little blurb about the Czar’s – and eventually the Bolshevik’s - efforts to control the Vodka industry. I couldn’t help but see the parallels to today’s school reform movement. The bold print parentheticals are mine.

Fearing a monopoly within the vodka industry(John Stossel’s tiresome assertion about the public school monopoly) Russia’s czarist regime tried to control it (Federal Department of Ed-NCLB-RttT-High-Stakes Testing), with disastrous results. A black market soon emerged with cheaper, “unregulated” vodka that often had the same healthful benefits as turpentine (Endless

The Best Things in Life are FREE! « Diary of a Public School Teacher!

The Best Things in Life are FREE! « Diary of a Public School Teacher!:

The Best Things in Life are FREE!

Teachers don’t make much money, correct? It’s common knowledge that we are one of the hardest working professions, make very little money, and yet , we have a high level of “out-of-pocket” expenses. That’s why I (and probably every teacher I know), love it when someone comes out with a Fun Resource that Entertains and Engages,(FREE) ! Get it?

However, what irks, and disappoints, me are the companies who provide you with a free tool when they first enter the market. They reel you in and you use their products for an entire school year, loving every minute of it. Finally, you get to the “How could I teach without this?