Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Big Education Ape: 2-14-12 AM NCLB Waiver Request Continues Failure Trap EDition #2013BUDGET #REALREFORM

Big Education Ape: Ed News Now:
Big Education Ape: Ed News Now

Published by Coopmike48 – 8 news spotters today

Taking on New Jersey : Education Next

educationnext.org - A conversation with Chris Cerf By Peter Meyer | Print | NO PDF | Share SPRING 2012 / VOL. 12, NO. 2 I didn’t know what exit we were passing, but Christopher Cerf, the six-foot New Jersey commission...

leoniehaimson

NCLB Waiver Request Continues Failure Trap

louisianaeducator.blogspot.com - Superintendent White's request for a waiver of the US Dept. of Education mandates of the No Child Left Behind law has serious basic flaws. Even so, such flaws will probably have no affect on its ap...

DianeRavitch

Blog posts on this issue

whitehouse.gov - The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release February 13, 2012 In his State of the Union address, President Obama called for a national commitment to help create an economy b...

arneduncan

Live Twitter stream on

@coopmike48/big-edu-ape-news-11

coopmike48 profile

coopmike48 Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 02/14/2012 - goo.gl/8WuNi2 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

coopmike48 profile

coopmike48 Teofilo Ruiz, Ramon Saldivar Receive National Humanities Medal - Hispanically Speaking News - goo.gl/ITdKJ2 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

coopmike48 profile

coopmike48 Exercise a Defense Against Dementia: Study - Hispanically Speaking News - goo.gl/hq1bhabout 1 minute ago · reply · retweet · favorite

coopmike48 profile

coopmike48 Read Damn Good Education Daily ▸ today's top stories via@modschool ▸ paper.li/coopmike48/bir…#EDCHAT #SOSMARCH12 seconds ago · reply · retweet · favorite

EducationSee all

Learning from Rhee

perimeterprimate.blogspot.com - This is a guest post by Joanna A. Bujes, an Oakland public school parent and supporter of public education. She has taught at U.C. Berkeley, University of Santa Clara, and SUNY Plattsburgh, and she...

DianeRavitch

SocietySee all

Chris Cerf Hearing Thursday is Cancelled

bluejersey.com - Acting NJ Education Commissioner Chris Cerf's hearing before the NJ Senate Judiciary Committee has just been canceled, I am told by a member of the Committee. The Judiciary Committee has determined...

K12NN

PoliticsSee all

David Koch Funds Andrew Cuomo :: The Future of Capitalism

futureofcapitalism.com - http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/09/david-koch-funds-andrew-cuomoThe Democratic candidate for governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, has been receiving campaign contributions from a surprising s...

DianeRavitch

Santorum Faces Questions on Women in the Work Force

nytimes.com - WASHINGTON — Only days after having to explain a comment about women in the military and emotions in combat, Rick Santorum seemed to struggle a bit on Sunday to explain a remark in his book “It Tak...

fklonsky

Severe Conservative Syndrome

nytimes.com - Mitt Romney has a gift for words — self-destructive words. On Friday he did it again, telling the Conservative Political Action Conference that he was a “severely conservative governor.” ...

fklonsky

StoriesSee all

New York State Tests: 3rd Grade 2010

garyrubinstein.teachforus.org - I don’t know when the first time I took a bubble test was, but I don’t think I was aware of them back when I was in 3rd grade during the 1977-1978 school year. At the time, though, I was part of a...

DianeRavitch

Basset Hound Gets Texas High-School Diploma | NewsFeed

newsfeed.time.com - A Houston news team used a so-called "diploma mill" to get Molly the dog a degree.What has your dog done lately? Sleep, eat and, if you’re lucky, bring you your slippers? Well, Molly the Basset Hou...

coopmike48

BusinessSee all

Save Jobs, Occupy AT&T in Atlanta!

occupywallst.org - Posted 0 minutes ago on Feb. 13, 2012, 5:37 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt Earlier Today, Occupy Atlanta, Atlanta Jobs with Justice, Communication Workers of America, and AFSC began occupying the AT&T He...

coopmike48

Independent group inspecting Apple suppliers

northjersey.com - NEW YORK — Apple said Monday that an independent group, the Fair Labor Association, has started inspecting working conditions in the Chinese factories where its iPads and iPhones are assembled. MAR...

coopmike48

EnvironmentSee all

Say no to the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline

pol.moveon.org - Thanks for your interest in this petition. Help us reach our goal by clicking the buttons below and asking your friends, family, and colleagues to sign.We've reached 34% of our goal of 100,000 sign...

mikeklonsky

#2013budgetSee all

#realreformSee all

VideosSee all


Posted by at

OUSD board might give local schools more control - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools

OUSD board might give local schools more control - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools:

OUSD board might give local schools more control

Monday, February 13th, 2012 at 6:43 pm in communityfamilies, initiatives, OUSD central office, teachersNo Comments

Remember the Oakland school board’s Special Committee on School-Based Management and Budgeting? It’s meeting now, and teachers, parents and administrators are at the table to discuss the issues. Oakland Community Organizations — which believes schools need more control over curriculum, budget, staffing and scheduling — held a news conference before the session.

You can watch the meeting live, . And you’ll find relevant documents

Below, from a draft document, is an excerpt of the board’s statement of intent:


Shifting demographics and a shrinking school-age population

Monday, February 13th, 2012 at 12:45 pm in enrollment, families3 Comments »

photo by Laura A. Oda/staff photographer

We ran a story Sunday about shifting demographics in inner-city neighborhoods such as West Oakland — changes which have resulted in fewer school-age children in the area and declining public school enrollment.

Oakland, as a whole, lost 20 percent of its 5- to 17-year-olds between 2000 and 2010, according to the U.S.

Posted by at

91% VS 43% « Teachers Fight Back

91% VS 43% « Teachers Fight Back:

91% VS 43%

by alkleen

Ninety-one percent of the students in Chicago public schools are minority children. Forty-three percent of the people in Chicago are white. Where oh where do the white children go to school ? Most are certainly not in the public schools. Most are either in private or parochial schools, or are home schooled.

What are the biggest differences between the Chicago public schools and the private schools ? The biggest differences are in the area of structure and discipline; they always have been. We are now seeing the new public charter schools take a page from the private schools and emphasize structure and discipline. There are many reasons why most Chicago public schools are lacking in structure and discipline. Many of the reasons are very difficult to overcome, but there is one factor that I find ridiculous and inexcusable. Many so-called experts in education have encouraged teachers to accommodate certain types of student misbehavior because of the ethnic or cultural background of the students.

I can remember a workshop I attended on discipline and the instructor gave us many reasons why we should

Posted by at

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Gloves Off

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Gloves Off:

Gloves Off

by Melissa Westbrook
Things are heating up in the charter school bill race.

To bring you up-to-date, both the House and the Senate bills failed to make it out of committee. The heads of those committees, Sharon Tomiko Santos and Rosemary McAuliffe, held them back. (Tomiko Santos said on KUOW the House bill did not have the votes to make it out of committee.) This, of course, did not sit well with its sponsors (and, of course, the Times, LEV, Stand, etc.)

Now, reportedly, what has happened is some back-door dealing over the various teacher assessment bills and the charter bills. Publicola puts it all together in their report. From the Tacoma News Tribune:

After a weekend of negotiations managed by Gov. Chris Gregoire, a deal has been reached on competing
Posted by at

Are School Districts are so Incapable they Need Predictive Data Analysis from the Bill Gates Foundation to Provide Education?

Missouri Education Watchdog: Are School Districts are so Incapable they Need Predictive Data Analysis from the Bill Gates Foundation to Provide Education? Pity the "Free Thinker".:

Are School Districts are so Incapable they Need Predictive Data Analysis from the Bill Gates Foundation to Provide Education? Pity the "Free Thinker".

by stlgretchen
Refer to our last posting on who education is for...it's not for the government, corporatists or technocrats. Parents, taxpayers, teachers and school districts must adopt this belief to protect their children from being used as pawns in the global society to fulfill the goals of the international workforce via student data sets.

Ed Week has an article entitled "Data Tools Aim to Predict Student Performance" abut the mining of data to ostensibly help students from falling through the cracks. Students will be data mined based on
Posted by at

Sarah Puglisi: The Heart Shaped Box - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Sarah Puglisi: The Heart Shaped Box - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Sarah Puglisi: The Heart Shaped Box

by Anthony Cody

Guest post by Sarah Puglisi.

Often I ask people what they think or remember of school.

After 30+ years teaching public school in areas of poverty--some of the "worst," apparently, in the nation--it interests me what the answer will be. Most often it has to do with a relationship between a student, a teacher, and the student's feelings of recognition of a gift, talent, ability, possibility. This is how hope operates in a real-world context. The stories usually celebrate what assisted that person to try to "make it in a tough world."

I call these the echoes of my work.

Sometimes I ask teachers too what they remember about their work teaching. These stories highlight relationships--serious stories, ones that are hard to look at in the present 'accept no excuses' culture. It's hard to look openly at what teachers know when they are simply labeled "excuse-makers". We cannot look into the

Posted by at

Florida Virtual School’s Curious Business Plan and Even More Curious Supporters | Scathing Purple Musings

Florida Virtual School’s Curious Business Plan and Even More Curious Supporters | Scathing Purple Musings:

Florida Virtual School’s Curious Business Plan and Even More Curious Supporters

by Bob Sikes

Not many Floridians know that Florida Virtual School quietly entered into a partnership with textbook and testing behemoth Pearson last year. The partnership was created to “take over sales of its courses outside of Florida.” No comes word that it’s not going so well. FromTampa Bay Times reporter, Rebecca Catalanano:

The agreement with textbook giant Pearson Education Inc. was supposed to generate about $800,000 in net income in the first year alone, increasing every year to $44 million by 2015.

Now, Florida Virtual said its for-profit arm expects to break even for 2011 and lose $46,190 by June

Posted by at

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: No surprise -- AP pass rate mirrors family income

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: No surprise -- AP pass rate mirrors family income:

No surprise -- AP pass rate mirrors family income

by Mike Klonsky
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the gap in student achievement across the region tracks almost exactly the differences in wealth between the state's richest and poorest jurisdictions. -- Baltimore Sun
Maryland leads the rest of the nation in AP test scores. But what the test results really show is that kids from wealthy Maryland districts like are scoring high while the gap between them and their fellow students from low-income communities is growing ever wider. Fewer than 3 percent of Baltimore city students passed an AP exam, for example, and that represents an improvement.

Despite the "no excuses" mantra of the corporate school reformers, this disparity has less to do with anything
Posted by at

Action Alert: NCLB Waivers, Not A Good Idea Washington State | Seattle Education

Action Alert: NCLB Waivers, Not A Good Idea Washington State | Seattle Education:

Action Alert: NCLB Waivers, Not A Good Idea Washington State

by seattleducation2011

Word has it that the legislators in the state of Washington are considering accepting the NCLB Waiver. Parents Across America says NO and so do I. Actually, NCLB needs to be dropped, dropped kicked, thrown out, burned to ashes on a large pyre and any other description that you can come up with. Instead, Arne & Co. are just trying putting another spin on it.

Up until mid junior-high, my daughter came up through private schools where there were no standardized tests. Wow, what a concept! My daughter loved to go to school. She was great in math and science and came home every night excited about something that she had discussed with one of her teachers. That changed abruptly when we arrived on Mercer Island from California where she attended the public school which was noted for its high WASL test scores. Unfortunately my daughter and I learned first hand what that meant. It wasn’t about learning, it was about memorizing and being able to take a test.That took all of the joy of learning out of my daughter.

Posted by at

Grandparents Submit Letter to Obama - education reform in america,Arne Duncan,Local Control

Grandparents Submit Letter to Obama - education reform in america,Arne Duncan,Local Control:

Grandparents Submit Letter to Obama


Two grandparents on opposite ends of the continent each had a concern about the direction of education reform and its effect on their grandchildren. Through a chain of improbable circumstances they found each other on Facebook and conjured up a letter to President Obama expressing their concerns.

Mark Naison, from Brooklyn, NY and a Fordham professor prepared a draft of the letter. Bob Valiant, retired school administrator from Kennewick, WA, edited the letter and Bob Valiant Jr. developed a survey form and website, http://dumpduncan.org. The letter calls for the removal of Education Secretary Arne Duncan and the inclusion of parents, teachers, and school administrators in all administration policy discussions. It insists on the immediate end to penalties and incentives to compel using student test scores to evaluate teachers, require school closures, or install charter schools. Finally, the letter asks for a National Commission, to include parents and teachers, to explore ways to improve the public schools.

Naison and Valiant Sr. began to circulate the letter to friends on Facebook on February 3. The

Posted by at

Jersey Jazzman: Brilliant Summary of Corporate Education Reform

Jersey Jazzman: Brilliant Summary of Corporate Education Reform:

Brilliant Summary of Corporate Education Reform

by Duke
A commenter at the invaluable New Jersey Teachers United Against Governor Chris Christie's Pay Freeze sums up pretty much the entire corporate education reform movement:
Can not see how it would improve any student outcome! What would happen if you used a whole roll of toilet paper every time you used the toilet. Now you know why this does not work!!
We are putting all of our focus and all of our resources into the one area that has never been proved to be a serious problem: teacher quality. And we are so obsessed with this one area that we are ignoring every other issue in the lives of children.

When a big, soggy mess is gushing all over the floor, don't blame us. We warned you.

Cerf's Down

by Duke
Oh, dear (and big congrats to Blue Jersey for breaking the story):
Acting NJ Education Commissioner Chris Cerf's hearing before the NJ Senate Judiciary Committee has just been canceled, I am told by a member of the Committee.
The Judiciary Committee has determined that Cerf - widely reported to have moved out of Essex County to the more GOP-friendly location of Somerset County, still lives at the same address in Montclair, where he has lived since 1999.
That move might have removed him from the jurisdiction of Essex Senator Ronald Rice, who has blocked his nomination for months on the basis of questions about his history and financial

Great Moments in Reformy Fawning

by Duke
Apparently, Chris Cerf, the ACTING NJ DOE Commish, was born in a log cabin he helped his father build:

I didn’t know what exit we were passing, but Christopher Cerf, the six-foot New Jersey commissioner of education, curled yogi-like in the backseat of a small state-issued Chevy Impala, didn’t seem to be paying attention to the 18-wheelers roaring by as we flew along the New Jersey Turnpike. “I’ve worked for a president, and I’ve worked for a mayor, and I’ve worked for a governor, and the mayor ran a city as big as most states,” he was saying. “What draws me to this work is the same thing that draws me, I have to say, to wilderness canoeing. When you go to the head of a rapid and you’re trying to go downstream—it’s the rocks that make it fun.”
This is a guy who has an astute appreciation for the challenges of education reform, and relishes them.
Posted by at

Tuesday is Virtual Lobby Day. « Fred Klonsky

Tuesday is Virtual Lobby Day. « Fred Klonsky:

Tuesday is Virtual Lobby Day.

by Fred Klonsky

It’s Tuesday. Wear Red. Email your legislators. “Don’t mess with our TRS.”

At our Local’s Governing Board meeting last night we made plans for our back-home lobbying efforts. In past years, this would have been one part of our campaign to fill a bus with members and head down to Springfield for a mass lobbing effort. IEA leadership, in their wisdom, decided to cancel that this year.

One of our local Association leaders, Jerry Mulvihill, wrote IEA about this:

I’ve been doing this for many years. What I need are the resources to be able to contact other IEA members in my legislative district so that we can work together instead of lobbying individually. Also, the point of Lobby Days was to make a statement of organization strength, right? Would Wisconsin have stayed away from the state capitol if the building was under renovation? I think not.

In the 35th, we are about to elect a new state rep. Any IEA members who line in the 35th District

Posted by at

Accepting Failure « City School Stories

Accepting Failure « City School Stories:

Accepting Failure

by fmurphy

Teacher Stories

Submitted by Timothy Boyle on February 14, 2012

A Big Idea that came out of my EduCon 2.4 experience was creating conditions in which failure is acceptable, useful, and fast. Students failing at something should be viewed as something instructive to both learner and educator. A classroom without risk damns those who don’t “get it” the first time. I really took to this idea and thought it related well to the kind of writing instruction I do with my 2nd grade classes.

So when my first group of 2nd graders came to me this week, I had the chance to apply some of this thinking into practice. One of the four skills 2nd graders are working on in the 3rd report card period is to edit their writing. This skill is a year-long process but I haven’t felt like they really understood what I meant by “edit”.

You can’t edit if you haven’t failed in some way. I needed some language to express this to the kids however.

Posted by at

Turnaround Results Under Fire, CPS Reverts to State Tests - Chicago News Cooperative

Turnaround Results Under Fire, CPS Reverts to State Tests - Chicago News Cooperative:

Turnaround Results Under Fire, CPS Reverts to State Tests

by REBECCA VEVEA

In seeking a turnaround of Chicago Public Schools, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has said he wants to shift away from state-mandated test scores in assessing school success.

But when a University of Chicago study last week raised questions about Chicago’s turnaround effort, the Emanuel administration returned to the state test scores as evidence of progress.

The University of Chicago Consortium on School Research issued a new report last week focused on progress of individual students at so-called “turnaround schools” and found that gains in student achievement were less dramatic than the public had been led to believe.

Consortium researchers analyzed student-level data at 36 schools that experienced some form of dramatic

Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)