Joy Resmovits
Huffington Post education reporter.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee's Backers Include Obama Bundler Billionaire, Big Romney Backer
Michelle Rhee's Backers Include Obama Bundler Billionaire, Big Romney Backer:
Frerichs kicks off his council campaign | Davis Enterprise
Frerichs kicks off his council campaign | Davis Enterprise:
Frerichs kicks off his council campaign
Lucas Frerichs, chairman of the Davis Planning Commission, invites the public to the kickoff of his City Council campaign at a “Celebrate Green” event Saturday, March 17. The fun runs from 2 to 4 p.m. at Blue Oak Energy, 1560 Drew Ave. in South Davis. The minimum donation is $25 and the maximum donation is $100 per person.
This will be a family-friendly event with food, live music and local beer, and an opportunity to talk with Frerichs about his vision for Davis.
“My decision to run for City Council is grounded in my love for this community and my desire to build upon our strengths,” he said in a news release. “I could not be more proud to start this adventure at the site of Blue Oak Energy; this is precisely the type of innovative and green business we need to celebrate.
“Blue Oak Energy is serving a worldwide cause of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, while creating high-quality jobs here in Davis.”
Blue Oak Energy is a commercial and utility-scale solar project firm recently that received a 2011 business and economic development award from the city of Davis.
This will be a family-friendly event with food, live music and local beer, and an opportunity to talk with Frerichs about his vision for Davis.
“My decision to run for City Council is grounded in my love for this community and my desire to build upon our strengths,” he said in a news release. “I could not be more proud to start this adventure at the site of Blue Oak Energy; this is precisely the type of innovative and green business we need to celebrate.
“Blue Oak Energy is serving a worldwide cause of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, while creating high-quality jobs here in Davis.”
Blue Oak Energy is a commercial and utility-scale solar project firm recently that received a 2011 business and economic development award from the city of Davis.
NYC releases teachers’ value-added scores — unfortunately - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post
NYC releases teachers’ value-added scores — unfortunately - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:
NYC releases teachers’ value-added scores — unfortunately
This takes some kind of special nerve: New York City’s Education Department publicly released the rankings of 18,000 public school teachers based entirely on student standardized-test scores — after pleas from educators not to do it because it would be unfair and disparaging. And then it told the news media not to use the results to disparage teachers.
Read full article >>
This Goes Under “Cashing In On Ed Reform” : K12 Inc. | Seattle Education
This Goes Under “Cashing In On Ed Reform” : K12 Inc. | Seattle Education:
This Goes Under “Cashing In On Ed Reform” : K12 Inc.
I am posting this article, Virtual ed. company faces critical press and a recent lawsuit, in full because you will not be able to read it otherwise unless you subscribe to Education Week. If they sue me, I’ll start asking for donations. This kind of greed and self-interest just can’t go unnoticed.
By the way, do you think that this guy’s son goes to a charter school?
And one other thing, this is the League of Education Voters next push. Don Neilson is waiting in the wings as well.
Dora
Ronald J. Packard, center, the chief executive of K12 Inc., and his son Chase celebrate the company’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2007, along with John F. Baule, the chief operating officer of K12. Don't they look happy.
In a scant few months, K12 Inc. and its fluctuating performance on Wall Street are proving that the combination
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Dishonest Discussion
Seattle Schools Community Forum: Dishonest Discussion:
Dishonest Discussion
The Seattle School Board will soon consider terminating the District's contract with Teach for America. There is disagreement about this on the School Board, so we are likely to hear a discussion of the question with Board directors advocating for each side. This is good and healthy. This is what democracy looks like. I welcome a full discussion regardless of the eventual conclusion. I will, however, be deeply disappointed if the discussion is not honest. We have already seen the start of a dishonest discussion. This dishonest discussion needs to be stopped and it is the other Board directors who need to stop it. They need to stop it by exposing the dishonesty the moment it appears.
When the Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee met and decided to advance this motion to the full board, one of the Board directors, Harium Martin-Morris, spoke against the termination of the Teach for America contract. Mr. Martin-Morris made one of the most loathsome and dishonest statements I have ever heard from a school board director. He said that the Board should make data-based decisions and that it was pre-mature to
When the Curriculum and Instruction Policy Committee met and decided to advance this motion to the full board, one of the Board directors, Harium Martin-Morris, spoke against the termination of the Teach for America contract. Mr. Martin-Morris made one of the most loathsome and dishonest statements I have ever heard from a school board director. He said that the Board should make data-based decisions and that it was pre-mature to
U study: Segregation, performance woes persist in metro charter schools | StarTribune.com
U study: Segregation, performance woes persist in metro charter schools | StarTribune.com:
U study: Segregation, performance woes persist in metro charter schools
- Article by: PAUL WALSH , Star Tribune
- Updated: February 24, 2012 - 1:12 PM
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Most charter schools in the Twin Cities still underperform academically when compared with traditional public schools and are highly segregated by race and income, according to updated research released Friday by the University of Minnesota.
The new data, collected in 2010-11 and augmenting a 2008 study by the U's Institute on Race and Poverty, shows that charter school enrollment growth has slowed but little else has changed in the three years since the original study was released.
"Despite some significant changes in the state's charter laws aimed at improving accountability ... charter schools as a group continue to fail to meet the academic and social objectives set forth by proponents," Myron Orfield, director of the Institute on Race and
HEY NEW YORK: High Test Scores Tell You Nothing About The Quality Of A Teacher
HEY NEW YORK: High Test Scores Tell You Nothing About The Quality Of A Teacher:
HEY NEW YORK: High Test Scores Tell You Nothing About The Quality Of A Teacher
It is possible to encourage excellence in an organisation, even a large one such as a public-school system, without relying on statistical performance metrics
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/hey-new-york-high-test-scores-tell-you-nothing-about-the-quality-of-the-teacher-2012-2#ixzz1nKz9iLny
HEY NEW YORK: High Test Scores Tell You Nothing About The Quality Of A Teacher
It is possible to encourage excellence in an organisation, even a large one such as a public-school system, without relying on statistical performance metrics
Diane Ravitch, the education-reform advocate famous for having long advocated chartered schools and centralised assessment of teachers only to turn against both reforms in the past few years, has a post at the New York Review of Books railing against New York's new testing standards.
The state moved last week to conduct a centralised assessment of all public-school teachers on the basis of whether they have improved student performance year to year, and to fire teachers who fail to do so.
New York had to make this move to meet criteria for the $700m it will
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/hey-new-york-high-test-scores-tell-you-nothing-about-the-quality-of-the-teacher-2012-2#ixzz1nKz9iLny
Sabrina Stevens Shupe: 'Bad' Women, Teachers, and Politics
Sabrina Stevens Shupe: 'Bad' Women, Teachers, and Politics:
'Bad' Women, Teachers, and Politics
Posted: 02/24/2012 3:25 pm
Just three months into 2012, as the Republican primary season continues, the tenor of the political conversation around contraception and other "women's" issues has grown increasingly alarming (to those of us firmly grounded in the 21st Century, anyway). Though there is a long historical tradition of projecting social anxieties onto women's (especially 'bad' women) behavior, it's still jarring for those of us who've grown up hearing about, thinking about and believing in our equality to be reminded of how tenuous our freedoms really are.
But for those of us who work in education, these gendered frustrations haven't just resurfaced because of primary season. Our field has been under bipartisan attack for a while now, as our feminized profession (76% female) has joined the ranks of all the other "bad" women throughout
Arne Duncan Loses Temper, Deviates from Backroom Strategy | Truth in American Education
Arne Duncan Loses Temper, Deviates from Backroom Strategy | Truth in American Education:
Arne Duncan Loses Temper, Deviates from Backroom Strategy
Arne Duncan has made a strategic mistake
Shane and many others have noted that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was attempting to bully South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in his most recent statement:
“The idea that the Common Core standards are nationally-imposed is a conspiracy theory in search of a conspiracy. The Common Core academic standards were both developed and adopted by the states, and they have widespread bipartisan support. GOP leaders like Jeb Bush and governors Mitch Daniels, Chris Christie, and Bill Haslam have supported the Common Core standards because they realize states must stop dummying down academic standards and lying
Quinn cutting health benefits to 65,000 retired teachers. « Fred Klonsky
Quinn cutting health benefits to 65,000 retired teachers. « Fred Klonsky:
Quinn cutting health benefits to 65,000 retired teachers.
Gov. Pat Quinn wants to slash state spending on a health insurance program for more than 65,000 retired teachers and community college retirees.
Under the governor’s plan, the state would no longer share in the cost of the system that helps pay for the Teachers’ Retirement Insurance Program and the College Insurance Program, which administers health insurance for community college retirees.
The move would save $92 million at a time when Quinn is threatening to close nearly 60 state facilities.
The governor’s office did not respond to specific questions about the proposal, which was tucked
The in box: Jose Vilson on Why the NY Times is asking me to validate myself.
Not sure if you’ve heard, but, against their own wishes -ahem-, the NYC Department of Education is releasing their infamous Teacher Data Reports, a set of papers ostensibly compiling a teacher’s student scores on English and Math scores from 3rd to 8th grade to determine their effectiveness, normalizing scores for effects like poverty and growth. For anyone that finds this as absurd as I do, you’ll know that not only is there a huge margin of error on using such a report to determine teacher effectiveness, it’s so narrow and limited that parents probably won’t get much information about the teacher they seek. If anything, it might obfuscate the debates that happen in principal offices and households when kids vouch for their teacher, but adults with no understanding of
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Posted: 02/24/12 05:16 PM ET | Updated: 02/24/12 05:16 PM ET
Politics is once again making strange bedfellows. A top Mitt Romney supporter and one of Barack Obama's wealthier contributors have a common cause: They're both backing Michelle Rhee.
Until now, identifying Rhee's usually anonymous donors has been largely a guessing game. But recent lobbying filings in Pennsylvania name New Jersey hedge funder and Romney backer David Tepper and the Texas-based Laura and John Arnold Foundation as among the largest donors to StudentsFirst, Rhee's national lobbying and advocacy group that pushes for rigorous teacher evaluations and school choice. And though the filings don't give