The Real Hilary Rosen Scandal: Does Her Firm Sell Access To The White House To Powerful Corporations?:

The Real Hilary Rosen Scandal: Does Her Firm Sell Access To The White House To Powerful Corporations?

By Lee Fang posted Apr 13th 2012 at 1:30PM

Hilary Rosen, a Democratic lobbyist and pundit for CNN, found herself caught up in 24-hour news cycle controversy after she made some inflammatory comments about Ann Romney’s work as stay-at-home mom. Rosen has apologized for her off-the-cuff comments. But the entire story may set off a greater, more substantive inquiry about the nature of Rosen’s consulting firm, SKDKnickerbocker, an unregistered lobbying firm that has become one of the biggest names in the influence business by using its ties to President Obama and leaders in Congress.

Predictably, Republicans have noticed that Rosen is a frequent visitor to the White House. While Democrats are arguing that Rosen is not an advisor to the Democratic Party or President Obama’s reelection campaign, then what are the meetings about? Today in the Politico’s “Morning Money,” reporter Ben White flags a deeper concern:


Per a senior Dem: “Serious Dem operatives are aghast at Hilary Rosen’s misguided attack on Ann Romney’s work 

CA lawmakers reconsidering `zero-tolerance’ student discipline laws - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools

CA lawmakers reconsidering `zero-tolerance’ student discipline laws - The Education Report - Katy Murphy's blog on Oakland schools:

CA lawmakers reconsidering `zero-tolerance’ student discipline laws

Thursday, April 12th, 2012 at 1:00 pm in safety and disciplinestudents

As we reported in a story this week about the number of California school kids who received an out-of-school suspension in a single school year, the state’s public schools are required, by law, to suspend or expel kids who are caught selling drugs, brandishing a knife, possessing a firearm or explosive, or sexually assaulting someone.
Assembly Bill 2537, introduced by Assemblymember V. Manuel Perez (D-Coachella) — as introduced  – would remove that requirement, with the exception of the firearm and explosives offenses. In essence, the legislation would leave it up to school officials to decide on the appropriate disciplinary action. It would also lift a requirement that principals report illegal activities to legal authorities; the failure to do so now constitutes an 

Choosing Curriculum Without Evidence « The Core Knowledge Blog

Choosing Curriculum Without Evidence « The Core Knowledge Blog:

Choosing Curriculum Without Evidence

by Robert Pondiscio

If you wanted to improve medical care, would you focus on hospital administration and patient insurance?  Or would you look at the treatment doctors were giving patients?  Would you try to improve a sports team’s won-loss record by focusing on stadium layout and the team’s travel schedule?  Then why, ask Brookings’ Matthew Chingos and Russ Whitehurst, do education policy makers focus most of their attention on academic standards, teacher evaluation, and school accountability policies?  Shouldn’t we be looking instead at instructional materials?

“There is strong evidence that the choice of instructional materials has large effects on student learning—effects that rival in size those that are associated with differences in teacher effectiveness,” the two write in a new paper from Brookings, Choosing Blindly: Instructional Materials, Teacher Effectiveness, and the Common Core.

“Whereas improving teacher quality through changes in the preparation and professional development of teachers and the human resources policies surrounding their employment is challenging, expensive, and time-consuming, making better choices among available instructional materials should be relatively easy, inexpensive, and quick.”

There’s one big hurdle to clear in correcting this rather obvious problem: Little effort has been made by the field to differentiate effective curricular materials from ineffective ones.  In fact, in 

School Tech Connect: Kindergarten Update

School Tech Connect: Kindergarten Update:

Kindergarten Update

by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Furman)

I was going to do a series of lunchtime posts about CPS, but I never got started. Usually my lunchtimes are limited by my need to hoover down vast quantities of food, barely even chewing.

Anyway, here's something interesting. 

Despite compelling research that reducing current class sizes would benefit CPS students, Chicago class size guidelines are the same today as the maximums set in 1990: 28 in lower grades, 31 in middle grades, and 28 in high school. In fact, actual class sizes have steadily risen. In 2011, Chicago’s average kindergarten class size was 24.6. However, averages don’t tell the whole story. In kindergartens across Chicago, students spend several months in classes with as many as 40 students, while CPS figures out how to reduce the class to 28. Chicago’s kindergarten 

Critics expose 'bill factory for corporate wish lists' - CBS 5 - KPHO

Critics expose 'bill factory for corporate wish lists' - CBS 5 - KPHO:

Critics expose 'bill factory for corporate wish lists'

Posted: Apr 12, 2012 8:07 PM PDTUpdated: Apr 12, 2012 10:30 PM PDT

By Elizabeth Erwin - bio | email

 

© CBS 5

PHOENIX (CBS 5) -

It's been called a "bill factory for corporate wish lists," one a report claimed has more than 50 Arizona lawmakers in its back pocket.

It's powerful people who should be looking out for you, but are they?

"What happens inside ALEC is very secret. They don't want the public to know," said former Sen. John Loredo.

It sounds like something out of a movie, a secret society lawmakers know about but you don't - until now.

"Arizonans know what is best for Arizona. We don't need someone else's template and we don't want someone else's control," said teacher Janie Hydrick.

Hydrick was talking about a group called ALEC.

It's like a super lobbyist that attracts your Republican lawmakers and big corporations to fancy retreats where they 

Why Are Charter Schools Exempt from Bullying Law? – SchoolBook

Why Are Charter Schools Exempt from Bullying Law? – SchoolBook:

Why Are Charter Schools Exempt from Bullying Law?

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April 13, 2012, 12:35 p.m.

By UDI OFER

New York State’s heralded anti-bullying law is about to go into effect July 1. But the state Board of Regents recently took some teeth out of the law, known as the Dignity Act, when it said that charter schools don’t have to provide in-class instruction to schoolchildren about the dangers of discrimination and harassment, leaving their students without a key protection from bullying.

Alberto MoralesUdi Ofer

The Regents should overturn this decision and ensure that all children, no matter where they go to school, are aware of the problems of discrimination and harassment and are protected from bullies.

We all know bullying is a serious 

Proposed law to scuttle charter schools - NYPOST.com

Proposed law to scuttle charter schools - NYPOST.com:

Pol a charter ‘fool’

Critics blast bill to veto school locations

By YOAV GONEN and CARL CAMPANILE

Last Updated: 5:19 AM, April 13, 2012

Posted: 1:05 AM, April 13, 2012

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A powerful state lawmaker has proposed a new bill that would block the opening of new charter schools and limit educational options to parents and kids, critics charge.

The controversial legislation — advanced by Harlem Assemblyman and Manhattan Democratic Party Chairman Keith Wright — would give 32 community-education councils the power to veto plans to put charters in buildings also used by traditional public schools.

Under the bill, which is backed the influential teachers union, the 11-member parent CECs would vote to approve or reject such co-location plans.

'Mayor Bloomberg doesn’t know better than Harlem, Bedford-Stuyvesant and the South Bronx.' —Harlem Assemblyman Kevin Wright (pictured)

If they disapprove, the mayoral-run Board of Education would be prohibited from even voting on charter locations.

“Co-locations by executive fiat has not worked. It has torn communities and neighborhoods apart. I have seen police officers called in to go after parents. That doesn’t make for a good educational environment,” Wright said.

“This bill provides a better way to satisfy space concerns and educational concerns of the entire educational community. Mayor Bloomberg doesn’t know better than Harlem, Bedford-Stuyvesant and the South Bronx,” he added.

Principals, parents and staffers often complain their school has to give up space when a charter moves in.

But school-choice advocates worry that giving the local councils veto power

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/pol_charter_fool_fsrja3x4Hg7hqXnh4AF4lI#ixzz1rwKy99OE

Everyday Heroes | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights

Everyday Heroes | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights:

Everyday Heroes

by obriena

Recently we have been hearing, from some politicians, the media and certain “ed reformers” that teachers are one of the problems facing education today. While the importance of good teachers is often acknowledged, (sometimes unintentionally and sometimes intentionally) the current education workforce is portrayed as lazy, entitled, indifferent and the guardian of the status quo.
This rhetoric corresponds to the lowest teacher job satisfaction in decades, as evidenced by the MetLife Foundation’s recent Survey of the American Teacher. Last summer, I wrote about the mood at the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) annual conference. I titled the post, America’s Premiere Teachers: Demoralized, Infantilized, and Fearful?
Teachers certainly have a right to be demoralized, given not only the rhetoric surrounding them but the conditions in which they are working, which are acknowledged to be stressful and which may further deteriorate, as the effects of the economic recession continue to work their way through our education funding systems.
So it’s more important than ever that we celebrate teachers. One way in which you can help: Vote for an AFT Everyday Hero. The American Federation of Teachers has sifted through hundreds of
read more

Walmart, big-box stores linked with hate groups in study | Hot Topics | an SFGate.com blog

Walmart, big-box stores linked with hate groups in study | Hot Topics | an SFGate.com blog:

Walmart, big-box stores linked with hate groups in study

(AP file)

The number of big-box retailers in a community can have social and economic effects that lead to the formation of hate groups, a recent study found.

Researchers found a stronger correlation between the number of Walmart stores in a county and local hate group activity than other factors such as unemployment, crime and low education.

“Walmart has clearly done good things in these communities, especially in terms of lowering prices, but there may be indirect costs that are not as obvious as other effects,” said Stephan Goetz, Penn State professor and the study’s lead author.

Goetz’s team speculated that because big-box stores drive away small businesses, they also 

Christopher Emdin: America's Youth Is Uprising: 5 Signs From Our Nation's Public Schools

Christopher Emdin: America's Youth Is Uprising: 5 Signs From Our Nation's Public Schools:

America's Youth Is Uprising: 5 Signs From Our Nation's Public Schools

Last year, the whole world came to a standstill as people from across the globe connected via social media, voiced their collective frustrations with their oppressive everyday experiences, confronted old regimes and sprung into action to topple powerful and seemingly indestructible age-old political structures.

In Egypt, millions of protesters from a variety of backgrounds successfully overthrew the repressive Mubarak regime in public protest that despite peaceful intent, often spilled into violence. In Syria, public demonstrations against the Bashar al-Assad government, the rampant police brutality and the imprisonment of those who speak out against the government evolved from small protests to a national uprising. In Chile, a number of student protestors from across the country grew frustrated with the large societal inequities, increased privatization and high prices of education. In response, they organized and started one of the most visible and passionate protests the nation had ever seen, which resulted in constant clashes with police. Global protests also appeared in Tunisia, 

Schools Matter: Duncan's ED: We Need to Double Down on Irrational and Unscientific Practices

Schools Matter: Duncan's ED: We Need to Double Down on Irrational and Unscientific Practices:

Duncan's ED: We Need to Double Down on Irrational and Unscientific Practices

by Jim Horn

An email from Monty Neill alerted me to the latest development by today's Corporate Stalinists at ED to judge teacher education programs on the basis value-added test scores of students who are taught by the graduates of these teacher ed programs.  Got that?  No, it's too late for April Fool's.

To the credit of some sanity remaining in DC education circles, the "negotiations" for the new rule making by ED have broken down. 

Especially contentious were proposals to evaluate teacher education programs based in part on their graduates’ job placement rates, employers’ satisfaction with graduates they hired, and 

Labor Union Nostalgia | The Cornell Daily Sun

Labor Union Nostalgia | The Cornell Daily Sun:

Labor Union Nostalgia

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APRIL 12, 2012
BY JACOB ARLUCK

From April 12 to April 17, the Industrial and Labor Relations School hosts Union Days, a series of events held every year to celebrate and discuss organized labor. This year’s posters ask “Is This Land Made for You and Me?” and will include discussions of inequality and the Occupy Wall Street movement.

It’s no secret that globalization and the shift towards a service-economy have hollowed out the size and scope of unionization in the United States. Union membership as a share of the total work force is now less than 12% and just less than 7% in the private sector. On the other hand, public sector unions, whose dues and wages are funded by taxpayers, had, until recently, expanded a great deal, attaining a membership approaching 40% of public employees.

 What most attendees of Union Days think about these trends is predictable. They have 

Not the Drop-Off! « Chalkdust101

Not the Drop-Off! « Chalkdust101:

Not the Drop-Off!

by pjhiggins

Bob: Hey, you’re doing pretty well for a first-timer.
Marlin: Well, you can’t hold on to them forever, can you?
Bill: You know I had a tough time when my oldest went out to the drop off.
Marlin: They’ve just got to grow up som – THE DROP OFF? THEY’RE GOING TO THE DROP OFF? WHAT ARE YOU, INSANE? WHY DON’T WE FRY THEM UP NOW AND SERVE THEM WITH CHIPS?

Over the course of the last few years, I’ve talked to teachers and students about what it is about reading that they love, hate, and, in some cases, run away from kicking and screaming.  Today during my session at thePennsylvania State Librarians Association Annual Conference, we talked about this idea:

What are the reasons we begin to see students’ interest in school, especially reading, wane by the time they graduate high school?  Is it a natural disinclination towards school attributable to youth culture across time?  Are there other factors that contribute to this?  Does this happen everywhere?
The group in the session was incredible–from sharing their ideas about what the aim of summer reading (and