Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top AM Posts #ows #edreform

Presidential Proclamation -- National Mentoring Month, 2012 | The White House

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 1 hour ago

Presidential Proclamation -- National Mentoring Month, 2012 | The White House:Presidential Proclamation -- National Mentoring Month, 2012by The White HouseRelease Time: For Immediate ReleaseBY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICAA PROCLAMATIONEvery day, mentors help young Americans face the challenges of growing into adulthood. By setting a positive example and sharing their time, knowledge, and experience, mentors play an essential role in preparing our Nation's youth for a bright future. During National Mentoring Month, we celebrate the contributions of ...more »

Missouri Education Watchdog: The Department of Education Just Won The Data Jackpot

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 1 hour ago

Missouri Education Watchdog: The Department of Education Just Won The Data Jackpot:The Department of Education Just Won The Data Jackpotby AnngieEmmett McGroarty, executive director of the Preserve Innocence Initiative of the American Principles Project and Jane Robbins, a senior fellow with the APP, wrote a great opinion piece that was featured in today's New York Post regarding the new access the Federal Dept of Education just granted itself to a wide range of data about your children. We are including ... more »

Schools Matter: When Bribes Don't Buy Buy-In, New York Ed Commish Tries the Extortion Route

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 1 hour ago

Schools Matter: When Bribes Don't Buy Buy-In, New York Ed Commish Tries the Extortion Route:When Bribes Don't Buy Buy-In, New York Ed Commish Tries the Extortion Routeby Jim HornFrom the NY Times, by Fernanda Santos:New York State’s education commissioner threatened on Tuesday to withhold tens of millions of dollars in federal grants to struggling schools in New York City and nine other districts statewide if they do not prove by Saturday that they will carry out new evaluation systems for ... more »

Jersey Jazzman: Great Miami Herald Series on Charters

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 1 hour ago

Jersey Jazzman: Great Miami Herald Series on Charters:Great Miami Herald Series on Chartersby DukeThe Miami Herald did a terrific series about charter schools this month; if you haven't read it, you really should.Here's a little something for those of you who think the talk of Wall Street making money off of the charter movement is worthy of a tin-foil hat:Despite the criticism, the Zuluetas have repeated this business strategy across Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Through similar arrangements, the Zuluetas control ... more »

Let’s Admit It – Education is Not the Most Important Thing in Life « Cooperative Catalyst

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 1 hour ago

Let’s Admit It – Education is Not the Most Important Thing in Life « Cooperative Catalyst:Let’s Admit It – Education is Not the Most Important Thing in Lifeby Pernille RippAah Christmas break, or winter break, as we call it in my district so as not to offend anyone with our secularism. The students eagerly awaiting when I would drop the bomb; the homework bomb. How much would I require to make them do during their break, what projects would they ... more »

Digitized Quotes – Susan Ohanian on NCLB… how about no child left in poverty

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 1 hour ago

Digitized Quotes – Susan Ohanian on NCLB… how about no child left in poverty ?? @susanoha Florida activists still going strong ! Wear Red for Ed ! Keep Public Schools Public ! « Continuing Change:Digitized Quotes – Susan Ohanian on NCLB… how about no child left in poverty ?? @susanoha Florida activists still going strong ! Wear Red for Ed ! Keep Public Schools Public !by gatorbonbcMy Favorite Quotes Digitized = Susan Ohanian I always have loved Susan Ohanian … ... more »

The Moneychangers: How Florida’s Education Reform Movement Uses Religion to Manipulate the Public | Scathing Purple Musings

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 1 hour ago

The Moneychangers: How Florida’s Education Reform Movement Uses Religion to Manipulate the Public | Scathing Purple Musings:The Moneychangers: How Florida’s Education Reform Movement Uses Religion to Manipulate the Publicby Bob SikesJacksonville writer, parent and public education advocate Julie Delegal closely follows Florida education policy. She offers this in response to legislative efforts to expand vouchers through repeal of the Blaine Amendment.In the wake of a recent circuit court decision, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has rewritten a legislatively composed ballot ... more »

Design Team Updates - Sacramento City Unified School District

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 1 hour ago

Design Team Updates - Sacramento City Unified School District:Design Team UpdatesLatest information on Design TeamsThis web page is a resource for all information regarding SCUSD schools recommended for a Design Team process. Please click on each individual school below for information about upcoming meetings, responses and comments from previous meetings, minutes from Design Team meetings and other useful information. Also to the right, you will find links to full reports issued by the 7-11 Committee and the Superintendent regarding these ... more »

Report: School principals unfamiliar with many parts of their jobs - SGVTribune.com

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 1 hour ago

Report: School principals unfamiliar with many parts of their jobs - SGVTribune.com:Report: School principals unfamiliar with many parts of their jobsBy J.D. Velasco, Staff WriterPosted: 12/25/2011 06:04:21 AM PSTAs education budgets and staffing levels have shrunk in recent years, school principals are being asked to take on an increasing number of duties - some in areas in which they don't have much experience, a new survey suggests.The recently released survey was conducted by the Center for the Future of Teaching ... more »

This Week In Education: Media: Reform Opponents Are Winning Online (For Now)

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 1 hour ago

This Week In Education: Media: Reform Opponents Are Winning Online (For Now):Media: Reform Opponents Are Winning Online (For Now)by Alexander RussoThere's a strange dynamic going on inside the online education reform debate in which the well-funded reformers play the role of wimpy David and the scrappy traditional educators are Goliath. But the mismatch could change quickly in the new year, and if it does things will get noisier but also -- I hope -- a little more interesting.As anyone who ... more »

Can everybody claim MLK’s principles? | Being Latino Online Magazine

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 20 hours ago

Can everybody claim MLK’s principles? | Being Latino Online Magazine:Can everybody claim MLK’s principles?by Daniel Cubiasby Daniel CubiasRecently, I wrote about affirmative action and its (presumably short) future.As I stated, one can object to the program without being racist. There are legitimate questions about constitutionality, legal principles, and unintended consequences.However, one argument irks many ethnic minorities. That is whenever a white conservative insists that his opposition to affirmative action is based upon his deep love for Martin Luther King and ... more »

Seattle Schools Community Forum: More Superintendent Talk from the Times

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 20 hours ago

Seattle Schools Community Forum: More Superintendent Talk from the Times:More Superintendent Talk from the Timesby Melissa WestbrookLynne Varner at the Times once again is chiming in with some very similar words on finding a superintendent. She speaks of superintendents past."Each left behind lessons that maybe we're now ready to learn." NOW?! It's only taken our district a decade or more to learn some important lessons? And when can we expect this learning to take place at the Times?She speaks of ... more »

Daily Kos: You still have a chance to make a big difference

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 20 hours ago

Daily Kos: You still have a chance to make a big difference:You still have a chance to make a big differenceby rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)for NN12 in Providence.Let me back up.While I had a few Black classmates in high school and one in my original college class, I grew up white middle class with little exposure to people all that different that myself. Well, okay, at least when it came to race and socio-economics. Our lower middle class kids were largely Italian. ... more »

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top AM Posts #ows #edreform

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 20 hours ago

Mother Crusader: Charter advocates LOVE to throw around the F wordBig Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All)-5 hours agoMother Crusader: Charter advocates LOVE to throw around the F word:Charter advocates LOVE to throw around the F wordby darciecimaJersey Jazzman's take on Cerf's interview with the Associated Press reminds me of a letter from the Cherry Hill Superintendent and School Board. They were responding to Pastor Amir Khan who wrote an editorial in which he reported that in Cherry Hill “the ... more »

NYC Educator: No Excuses, Say Troglodytes at DOE

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 20 hours ago

NYC Educator: No Excuses, Say Troglodytes at DOE:No Excuses, Say Troglodytes at DOEby NYC EducatorIt's time to shut down Grace Dodge High School in the Bronx. So says the PEP, the rubber-stamp fake Board of Education that Mike Bloomberg set up to exercise the absolute power that is mayoral control in Fun City. Never mind that 25% of the school is either pregnant or a teen parent.As usual, the DOE has sound reasons for its decision:“The 2010-11 attendance rate was ... more »

SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL: ATR's!!! Look Upon Little Evan Stone And Be Led!

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 20 hours ago

SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL: ATR's!!! Look Upon Little Evan Stone And Be Led!:ATR's!!! Look Upon Little Evan Stone And Be Led!by noreply@blogger.com (Bronx Teacher)I read Chaz's latest blog posting this afternoon with a heavy heart. It seems that jolly old St Nick is not immune from the pratfalls of the long arms of the ATR (Absent Teacher Reserve) system. We here at SBSB feel for Santa on this last night of Hanukkah 5772 and pledge our support to the man in ... more »

What Meat-Industry's Meatingplace Won't Tell You About LA School Lunches | MyFDL

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 20 hours ago

What Meat-Industry's Meatingplace Won't Tell You About LA School Lunches | MyFDL:What Meat-Industry’s Meatingplace Won’t Tell You About LA School Lunchesby Phoenix WomanSchool Lunch (image: krikketgirl/flickr)You could smell the schadenfreude — not that most of big-meat-industry organ Meatingplace’s readers or writers would know the word, much less be able to spell it — a mile away (full article viewable by free subscription only):Participation in the [LA Unified School District's] lunch program, which serves 650,000 meals daily, dropped by the thousands, ... more »

Standardized Testing & Creative Thinking | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 20 hours ago

Standardized Testing Creative Thinking | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…:Standardized Testing Creative Thinkingby Larry FerlazzoAn interesting piece in the Huffington Post titled The Education Reform Paradox and the Extinction of Higher Level Thinking Skills led me to another article in The Week, which included this section:While IQ scores are indisputably on the rise, American creativity levels are bottoming out. Analysis of the results of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking suggests that the creative abilities of American children have ... more »

Does School Audit = School Accountability? I Don’t Think So! « Diary of a Public School Teacher!

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 20 hours ago

Does School Audit = School Accountability? I Don’t Think So! « Diary of a Public School Teacher!:Does School Audit = School Accountability? I Don’t Think So!by OldschoolteachIt began in September. We received news that our school was going to be audited. They called it CSR, the Comprehensive Success Review. We were told it would be for our own good. A group of people from the state would come in, observe us for one day, and then offer their wisdom on ... more »

PREDICTIONS FOR 2012 « Teachers Fight Back

Big Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All) - 20 hours ago

PREDICTIONS FOR 2012 « Teachers Fight Back:PREDICTIONS FOR 2012by alkleen1. The hot topic for teacher workshops will be about overcoming the stereotype that girls are not as interested in, and adept at math and science as boys.2. Several states will begin to legalize internet gambling and tax it as an additional source of revenue to fund schools.3. There will be a shortage of teachers as many of the older ones take early retirement because of their disgust with the “teach ... more »

Common state standards in math and English — a step forward? - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools

Common state standards in math and English — a step forward? - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools:

Common state standards in math and English — a step forward?

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011 at 1:25 pm in Algebra/Math, initiatives, literacy, students, teachersNo Comments

By now, all but five states (Alaska, Texas, Minnesota, Nebraska and Virginia) have adopted what’s known asCommon Core State Standards for math and English, a common agreement of what students in the United States should know and be able to do in those subjects.

A Learning Matters blog post features differing views of what this major development might mean for the U.S.

Daily Kos: Did you know I'm a Goliath?

Daily Kos: Did you know I'm a Goliath?:

Did you know I'm a Goliath?

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

At least according to this post by Alexander Russo I am, along with Anthony Cody, Nancy Flanagan, Caroline Grannan, John Thompson, and Leonie Haimson. As Russo writes:

There's a strange dynamic going on inside the online education reform debate in which the well-funded reformers play the role of wimpy David and the scrappy traditional educators are Goliath.

He then goes on to write

As anyone who reads education sites or goes on Twitter knows, "reform critics" -- they're still working on a better term to describe their views -- have a slew of current teachers and veterans out there talking about their classroom experiences and opinions nearly every day. Nancy Flanagan, TeacherKen, Anthony Cody, and John Thompson to name just a few. It's not just that they're out there shouting randomly into the wind, either. At least some of them seem to be coordinated behind the scenes by SOS or PAA or Leonie's listserv, bird-dogging individual sites -- Caroline

New Univ of Arizona Ph.D. Program Offered Mexican American Studies - Hispanically Speaking News

New Univ of Arizona Ph.D. Program Offered Mexican American Studies - Hispanically Speaking News:

New Univ. of Arizona Ph.D. Program Offered in Mexican American Studies, Third of Its Kind in Nation

The University of Arizona has received approval to implement a doctoral program in Mexican American studies – the third program of its kind in the country. The University will begin accepting students into the program in fall 2013. The UA department of Mexican American studies has earned the reputation as an exceptional national model. The department takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of Mexican American life, culture and health. In adding the doctoral degree, the department will build upon the critical inquiry of established disciplines such as anthropology, history, sociology and education, and it will offer new insights of knowledge emerging from cultural, gender, ethnic, sexuality, indigenous, immigration and global studies. “We are overjoyed and excited that we will be able to offer this dynamic program,” said Antonio Estrada, head of the department of Mexican

I’m Tired of Talking About Education « Cooperative Catalyst

I’m Tired of Talking About Education « Cooperative Catalyst:

I’m Tired of Talking About Education

by Deven Black

Actually, I’m not.

I’m going to spend the rest of this essay talking about it.

I am very tired of talking about school, especially with people who think we are talking about education.

Education and school is not the same thing and I can prove it. School takes place for six, seven or ten hours a day. Education takes place 24/7/365.25.

Image by colemama via Flickr

If you don’t know why there is a .25 after the 365 you don’t need more school. Chances are the teachers don’t know either. You, and they, need more education.

Education, a.k.a. learning, comes from asking questions (Hey, Educationontheplate, why is there a .25 after the

SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL: Teachers Of Los Angeles It's Time To Party With Educators 4 Excellence!!!

SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL: Teachers Of Los Angeles It's Time To Party With Educators 4 Excellence!!!:

Teachers Of Los Angeles It's Time To Party With Educators 4 Excellence!!!

by noreply@blogger.com (Bronx Teacher)

Hello teachers of Los Angeles! Do you ever get tired from the same old boring Friday nights? Are you looking for something to do other than attend another boring Clippers or Kings game? Well, look no more. We here at SBSB have a most exciting suggestion for a Friday night in the history of mankind.

As many of you out there in the City of Angels are aware, or not aware, a new Aryan youth group, Educators4Excellence has pitched a tent within your fair city. Seems that E4E has

Are Critics of Corporate Education "Reform" Winning the Online Debate? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Are Critics of Corporate Education "Reform" Winning the Online Debate? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Are Critics of Corporate Education "Reform" Winning the Online Debate?

by Anthony Cody

Follow me on Twitter at @AnthonyCody

Alexander Russo posted a rather provocative item today, asserting that in the online world, critics of "education reform" like myself, Ken Bernstein, Nancy Flanagan, Leonie Haimson, Caroline Grannan and John Thompson, have become dominant.

First of all, we ought to qualify his assertion. The people he names are among the most visible critics of education reform, but there are many more than the short list he offers.

But the real question is one I have been puzzling over for a while. Why is there so little real debate over education reform? Why is there little or no defense offered when corporate reformers are subjected to criticism here and elsewhere? I have been writing pieces critical of Teach For America, the Gates Foundation, NBC's

Reform vs. Anti-Reform: Quoth the Raven - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

Reform vs. Anti-Reform: Quoth the Raven - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

Reform vs. Anti-Reform: Quoth the Raven

by Nancy Flanagan

Dear Alexander Russo,

So here I am, with the final hours of bleak December ticking away, casting about for the right hook to write aboutEducation Reform in 2011: The Big Picture.

Go with a top ten list? Ten signs of hope? Pushback against dark corporate forces? Bright and cheery? Downand dreary?

While I pondered, weak and weary, came a Google alert winging (flinging! singing!) to my inbox. Anthony Russo labeled me--and other progressive education thinkers-- Goliaths! Says we're dominating the on-line fight against slingshot-wielding "Davids." Two of these feisty, underfunded David exemplars sprang to mind for Russo:StudentsFirst and Stand for Children.

Right.

There are several ways to understand/respond to your recent post, Mr. Russo. I'm not sure

Digital | Could we make popular video games like Skyrim more educational?

Digital | Could we make popular video games like Skyrim more educational?:

Could we make popular video games like Skyrim more educational?

by Davin McHenry

I sometimes wonder what educators and video-game developers might come up with if they ever sat down together and decided to make mainstream commercial games more educational.
Video games are a huge business. When the latest installment of the Call of Duty series came out in November, it racked up more than $1 billion in sales in just 16 days. In 2010, U.S. video-game sales exceeded $25 billion,

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Charter Schools and Special Education/ELL - Fifth in a Series

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Charter Schools and Special Education/ELL - Fifth in a Series:

Charter Schools and Special Education/ELL - Fifth in a Series

by Melissa Westbrook

In researching Special Education/ELL as it relates to charter schools, it’s a lot of the same issues that you see in traditional public schools - money, service delivery and compliance with the law. (Note: this part of the series does focus more on Special Education than ELL because there just isn’t as much information out there on ELL and charters. If anyone has more information, please let me know.)

Charter schools must serve children with disabilities just as does the district where the charter school resides. As well, the funds provided to that district would also be provided to a charter school. Again, money follows students.

Charter schools are “responsible” for complying with federal civil rights laws. I put “responsible” in quotes