This Week In Education: Thompson: The Teacher Accountability Pipe Dream

This Week In Education: Thompson: The Teacher Accountability Pipe Dream:

Thompson: The Teacher Accountability Pipe Dream

by john thompson

Stanford's Larry Cuban continues to present a historical view that illustrates the flaws inherent in data-driven "reform." In "The Puzzle of Student Responsibility for Learning,"Cuban writes "For more than a quarter-century, federal and state policymakers, major donors, and business leaders have built a reform-driven political machine that places responsibility for student learning squarely on teachers." Cuban notes that in all other helping professions, we assume a "two-way street." For instance, doctors and therapists share responsibility with their patients and clients for their outcomes; the failure of a patient to quit smoking is not dumped entirely at the door of his health care

Ideas: Stalemated School Debate (You're *Not* Winning)

by Alexander Russo

There's no shortage of polarizing figures in education today -- Michelle Rhee, Diane Ravitch, etc. And perhaps it will always be this way (fun!). Education is a polarizing issue, after all, and neither side is willing to tolerate much independence from its champions (seelout!).
But still I'm curious about those who are at least attempting to hold the middle ground.  NYU's Pedro Noguero took on at least some of this role, at least until he resigned from the charter authorizing committee last month. The Harlem Children's Zone's Geoff Canada could have been in this middle space, given his media presence and his commitment to social services, but seemed to have been co-opted by the charter school hedge fund crowd.  Linda Darling-Hammond has maintained ties with the Obama

AM News: Duncan Blasts Ryan Budget Plan

by Will Treece

Duncan Blasts Ryan Budget Plan Politics K12: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan warned lawmakers today of potentially dire ramifications if the budget blueprint put forth earlier this week by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., were to become law.
Lawsuit targets bogus online GED tests TODAY:  The GED Testing Service has filed a lawsuit against what it says is a network of 13 websites that allegedly used the GED trademark to offer fake tests and diplomas.
Learning Disabilities and the Arts PBS: It's minutes before the curtain is set to rise for this year's production of the Black History Month play at Henderson Inclusion Elementary School on a late February morning. Students are excitedly tending to last-

Weekly Update: A teacher on unions, a tribute to a Parents Across America member and Mis-Education Nation | Seattle Education

Weekly Update: A teacher on unions, a tribute to a Parents Across America member and Mis-Education Nation | Seattle Education:

Weekly Update: A teacher on unions, a tribute to a Parents Across America member and Mis-Education Nation

by seattleducation2011

With all of the anti-union rhetoric that I have been hearing  particularly in reference to our teachers and their professional unions, I wanted to begin this weekly update with a post from a teacher in Wisconsin on the importance of unions. It’s a reminder of what conditions were like for workers and because of unions and demands made by workers, how life has changed for all of us. There is much that we take for granted in our daily lives that originated with union demands.
From One’s Teacher’s Perspective, Collective Bargaining is Vital to Public Education:

A study of history reveals that the development of teachers unions in Wisconsin gave rise to professionalism in education and, consequently, improved the quality of public schools. Before union growth, sexism was rampant in public schools, pay inequity was common for female and 

Schools Matter: Why Students Call KIPP the Kids In Prison Program

Schools Matter: Why Students Call KIPP the Kids In Prison Program:

Why Students Call KIPP the Kids In Prison Program

by Jim Horn

This morning the Vanderbilt Press Office issued a press release announcing a speech by KIPP's chief child abuser, Mike Feinberg, who recently relinquished his Superintendency of KIPP Houston to go on the road full time to promote the penal pedagogy system of KIPP, which represents the second coming of eugenics in America: segregate, contain, culturally neuter, psychologically sterilize, and behaviorally program the children of the urban defectives.

This firsthand account below was posted this morning at NYC Public School Parents.  This account mirrors some of the same themes that emerge from the interviews I am doing with former teachers of KIPP.  Note that special education students are regularly treated with the identical disrespect and test prep 

Close but no cigar

Close but no cigar:

Close but no cigar

by Sam

Once again, David Brooks has written an important column about education. And once again, he offers a vision of modern schooling that is almost perfect — but not quite.
In November 2010, I wrote a piece in response to a Brooks column in which he wrote passionately about our “emotional education” – the elusive, nonlinear and transformative nature of what all learning should look like (knowing that some days we will succeed, and some days we will not). Yet in the same space he wrote uncritically about a “normal schoolroom” in which it is taken as a given that scholastic learning must always be direct, described, and discrete.
This is an important disconnect, and in a column this morning, he makes a similar mistake — this time whiledescribing a remarkable elementary school in Brooklyn that is, as he describes it, “less like a factory for learning 

Friday thoughs: A Comment on the “I pay your salary” and “I pay twice for schools” arguments « School Finance 101

Friday thoughs: A Comment on the “I pay your salary” and “I pay twice for schools” arguments « School Finance 101:

Friday thoughs: A Comment on the “I pay your salary” and “I pay twice for schools” arguments

by schoolfinance101

Taxpayer outrage arguments are in style these days (as if they ever really go out of style). Two particular taxpayer outrage arguments that have existed for some time seem to be making a bit of resurgence of late. Or, at least I think I’ve been seeing these arguments a bit more lately in the blogosphere and on twitter.  First, since now is the era of crapping on public school teachers and arguing for increased accountability specifically on teachers for improving student outcomes, there’s the “I pay your salary so you should cower to my every demand”argument (I’ve heard only a few warped individuals take this argument this far, but sadly I have!).  Second, there’s the persistent I pay for those schools and don’t even use them argument, or the variant on that argument that I pay twice for schools because I send my kids to private schools.
I (the taxpayer) pay your (the teacher) salary
This is a strange, obnoxious and easily diminished argument. Not that it’s not important to be sensitive to the 

Ed Rosenthal for IEA Retired Chair. « Fred Klonsky

Ed Rosenthal for IEA Retired Chair. « Fred Klonsky:

Ed Rosenthal for IEA Retired Chair.

by Fred Klonsky

Ed Rosenthal for IEA Retired Chair.
I have known Ed Rosenthal for about seven years.
We first met when he was running for IEA President against Ken Swanson. Swanson won and the IEA was the worse for it.
Most of Ed’s friends and colleagues have known him for far longer. I tried having a conversation with Ed while walking the lobby of the Hilton at last week’s IEA RA and it was impossible. We were constantly interrupted by folks who knew Ed, waned to say hi or engage in one issue or another.
And he’s a long-time Bull’s fan. Consider this an endorsement.

ED ROSENTHAL for IEA RETIRED CHAIR
Why should you vote for Ed Rosenthal for IEA Retired Council Chair? Your Pension!
1. Issues
a) Our pensions are under attack! Our health insurance has become a political football! We need to widen our focus in IEA Retired. As important as current IEA Retired programs are and should continue,, at this point in our history we need to change our focus to political action and to save our pensions and insurance. We need to mobilize all our 

Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee Still Pushing Divisive Education Reform | News from southeastern Connecticut

The Day - No backsliding on education reform | News from southeastern Connecticut:

No backsliding on education reform

Published 03/23/2012 12:00 AM

Updated 03/22/2012 06:04 PM

 COMMENTS (2)

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's proposed education reform package is not without its problems. The legislation calls for more aggressive intervention by the state in turning around troubled school systems, but the details of exactly how that would work remain a bit murky. And many of the proposals are underfunded, the result of a lack of political will to set priorities and sacrifice other budgetary sacred cows to invest in education.

But on balance, the administration has it right. These reform proposals go well beyond any attempt by prior administrations. They would mean a fundamental change in direction, setting the foundation for more change to come.

Conversely, if the legislature surrenders to political pressure by watering down these reforms and refusing to tie teacher performance to tenure and compensation, it will be a major setback. We don't think Michelle Rhee, director of the national student 

Charter schools aren't solving education's ills:

Charter schools aren't solving education's ills

David Sirota, © 2011 Creators.com

Friday, March 23, 2012

---

Print

E-mail

Share

Comments (0)

Font | Size:

---

0

DAVID SIROTA

• Oil and gas drilling boom exploited by layer ploy03.16.12
• Toward a more civil public discourse 03.09.12
• Americans are shopping like there's no tomorrow 01.27.12

More David Sirota »

Talk K-12 education for more than five minutes, and inevitably, the conversation turns to charter schools - those publicly funded, privately administered institutions that now educate more than 2 million American children. Parents wonder if they are better than the neighborhood public school. Politicians tout them as a silver-bullet solution to the education crisis. Education technology companies promote them for their profit potential.
But are charter schools living up to their original mission as experimental schools pioneering better education outcomes and reducing segregation? That was the vision of the late American Federation of Teachers President Albert Shanker when he proposed charters a quarter-century ago. According to new data, it looks as if those objectives are not being realized.
In recent years, major studies suggest that, on the whole, charter schools are producing

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/22/EDCB1NOSSG.DTL#ixzz1pwTavOjg

The Answer Sheet - A School Survival Guide for parents (and everyone else). - The Washington Post

The Answer Sheet - A School Survival Guide for parents (and everyone else). - The Washington Post:

Teacher: One (maddening) day working with the Common Core

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 3 hours ago

This *was written by Jeremiah Chaffee, a high school English teacher in upstate New York for the last 13 years. It’s long but worth reading*. By Jeremiah Chaffee The high school English department in which I work recently spent a day looking at what is called an “exemplar” from the new Common Core State Standards, and then working together to create our own lessons linked to that curriculum. An exemplar is a prepackaged lesson which is supposed to align with the standards of the Common Core. The one we looked at was a lesson on “The Gettysburg Address.” Read full article >> [imag...more »

The Answer Sheet - 3 hours ago

Why not Race to the Top for political reform?

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 5 hours ago

This *was written by Julie A. Gorlewski, assistant professor of secondary education at the State University of New York at New Paltz.* By Julie A. Gorlewski Why should schools have all the fun? If the policies undergirding the Race to the Top education reform are good enough for learning, shouldn’t we use them to improve other public systems? Let’s start with political reform. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

What standardized tests should assess

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 1 day ago

This *was written by Marion Brady, veteran teacher, administrator, curriculum designer and author. * By Marion Brady If you fly, thank Myron Tribus for helping make your flight safer. He played a major role in the development of the equipment that keeps airliner wings free of ice. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Student mocked by teacher for missing state standardized test

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 1 day ago

A middle school student who didn’t take the writing portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test because he was sick at home was later forced by a teacher to wear a sign that said: “I decided to come to school today, but I didn’t come to school during the FCAT.” Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Best part of ‘schools-threaten-national-security’ report: The dissents

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 2 days ago

The most interesting part of the new Condoleezza Rice-Joel Klein report, which bemoans how American national security is threatened by the poor state of public education, is not in the body of the document itself. The real story is in the dissents at the end of the report. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

A million teachers may be on the march — out of the classroom

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 2 days ago

This *was written by educator Anthony Cody, who worked for 24 years in the Oakland schools, 18 years teaching science at a high-needs school and six years as a mentor and coach of teachers. He is a National Board-certified teacher. You can follow him on Twitter at @anthonycody. A version of this post appeared on his Education Week Teacher blog, Living in Dialogue *. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Condi Rice-Joel Klein report: Not the new ‘A Nation at Risk’

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 3 days ago

*Correction: One of the five names of task force members marked with an asterick below wrote an additional comment rather than a dissent, like the other four did. An earlier version said all five wrote dissents.* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Bribing students: Another ‘magical solution’ that doesn’t work

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 3 days ago

This *was written by Larry Ferlazzo, who teaches English and Social Studies at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, California. He writes a popular blog for teachers and a weekly advice column for Education Week Teacher, as well as several books on education*. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Teacher: I dare you to measure my ‘value’

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 3 days ago

This was *written by Donna McKenna, an elementary ESL teacher who is passionate about language learners and language learning, and a new mom trying to raise her daughter in a bilingual/bicultural home. This first appeared on her blog, No Sleep ‘til Summer. * Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Teach for America’s new partnership with largest for-profit charter network

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 4 days ago

Teach for America loves to expand its reach, and so it has again, this timepartnering with the controversial Imagine schools, the nation’s largest for-profit charter school network. That’s an interesting pairing. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Fourteen reasons schools are troubled (and no, it’s not all about teachers)

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 5 days ago

This *was written by Ronald Willett, a former university professor, researcher and administrator, and former corporate executive, entrepreneur and CEO. For the last decade, as an avocation, he has tracked and researched U.S. K-12, and advocated its legitimate reform and pursuit of innovation.* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Survey: Teachers work 53 hours per week on average

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 6 days ago

This was *written by Francie Alexander, chief academic officer for Scholastic, Inc. She has has taught at all levels, was a district reading consultant for Pre-K through high school, and has authored numerous professional articles for educators and dozens of books for children.* Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

A new poverty-doesn’t-really-matter-much argument

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 6 days ago

-- *Correction: In an earlier version, one letter in Paul E. Peterson’s name was incorrect. It is correct in this version. * And so the poverty-doesn’t-really-matter-in-student-achievement drumbeat keeps getting louder, most unfortunately. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Arne Duncan: Newspapers Shouldn't Publish Teacher Ratings - Teacher Beat - Education Week

Arne Duncan: Newspapers Shouldn't Publish Teacher Ratings - Teacher Beat - Education Week:

Arne Duncan: Newspapers Shouldn't Publish Teacher Ratings

by Stephen Sawchuk

Publishing teachers' ratings in the newspaper in the way The New York Times and other outlets have done recently is not a good use of performance data, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in an interview yesterday.
"Do you need to publish every single teacher's rating in the paper? I don't think you do," he said. "There's not much of an upside there, and there's a tremendous downside for teachers. We're at a time where morale is at a record low. ... We need to be sort of strengthening teachers, and elevating and supporting them."
So how does this square with Duncan's famous endorsement, in 2010, of the Los Angeles Times' controversial project to publish a database of teacher "value added" ratings?
Duncan told me that while that project highlighted important data that at the time had been collected and unused 

NYC Educator: A Message from Condi

NYC Educator: A Message from Condi:

A Message from Condi

by NYC Educator

Hi everyone. It's me, your old pal Condoleezza Rice. You remember me. I'm the one who brought you the Iraq War. You know, I was the one who kept saying we didn't want the smoking gun to become a mushroom cloud, that Sadaam had WMDs, and all that. That's why we went to Iraq. Oh, popcorn balls, we didn't actually go, but we sent an awful lot of soldiers there and spent a whole lot of money. Well, we all know how that went.

Now I've got a new interest, which is education. It turns out the whole smoking gun mushroom cloud thing is happening in our public schools. Gee whillikers, if we don't do something about that, the terrorists could win! So Joel Klein and I have decided what we need, and need right away, are vouchers, tests, charter schools, tests, merit pay, tests, and, fer cryin' out loud,