Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Big Education Ape: 5-9-12 PM Pineapplegate continues, with 20 more errors EDition #PINEAPPLEGATE

Big Education Ape: PARENTS CAN!:
Big Education Ape: PARENTS CAN!

Published by Coopmike48 – 6 news spotters today

Governor, legislative leaders agree on education reforms

ctmirror.org - Gov. Dannel P. Malloy declared victory Monday night in his long, contentious push for education reforms, announcing a compromise agreement at a televised press conference with legislative leaders w...
arneduncan

George W. Bush Presidential Center

bushcenter.com - Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 Bush Institute Survey Suggests Education Policy is Out of Sync with Public Views DALLAS—Most Americans believe the nation does not receive a good return on its investment in ...
DianeRavitch

Shanker Blog » The Weighting Game

shankerblog.org - A while back, I noted that states and districts should exercise caution in assigning weights (importance) to the components of their teacher evaluation systems before they know what the other compo...
DianeRavitch

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coopmike48 Did Davis High Lose Its Yearbook to Budget Cuts? - Davis, CA Patch bit.ly/JuHqso47 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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coopmike48 Remainders: City calls for more Common Core-aligned units | GothamSchools bit.ly/JuHLeC46 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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coopmike48 CSU President Pay Freeze - Year 2012 (CA Dept of Education)1.usa.gov/JuHWqu45 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite
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arneduncan Spoke w/members of the Investment Co. Institute today. Challenged the industry to diversify workforce & promote financial capability.44 minutes ago · reply · retweet · favorite

EducationSee all

Who Are the True 'Failures' in America's School System?

huffingtonpost.com - Like most teachers I've gotten some praise from my high school students over my 26 years of teaching -- a lesson "wasn't bad," or a particular class was "sorta interesting." I've even been told tha...
mikeklonsky

So This Is Reform? - Bridging Differences

blogs.edweek.org - Dear Deborah,A few weeks ago, the state legislature in Louisiana passed Gov. Bobby Jindal's education reform bill. Louisiana now goes to the head of the class as the state with the most advanced re...
mikeklonsky

SocietySee all

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Joseph Stiglitz: The 99 Percent Wakes Up

thedailybeast.com - Darrell Willis wears a "99%" button and an American flag at the corner of LaSalle and Jackson during an Occupy Chicago protest Monday, Oct. 3, 2011, in Chicago. "Occupy Chicago" protests started Mo...
mikeklonsky

Romney blasts Obama for opposing D.C. voucher program

washingtontimes.com - Mitt Romney said Wednesday that it was “inexcusable” for President Obama to try to shut down the District’s federally backed voucher pilot program that has sent thousands of the city’s students to ...
mikeklonsky

LeisureSee all

Gulen charter schools in New York

charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com - STATE # ACTIVE # PENDING # INACTIVE* TOTAL ATTEMPTS NY 3 2 6 11 * Denied, withdrawn, closed, or unknown status =========================================...
leoniehaimson

Golden Empire Volunteers Needed Friday

rosemont.patch.com - Golden Empire Elementary School's spring carnival is coming up on Friday, but the event isn't yet fully staffed. The Rosemont school was still looking for 40 more volunteers for the carnival as of ...
coopmike48

REJECTING THE COMMON CORE by Anthony Scott

perdaily.com - (Mensaje se repite en Espaรฑol)(For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post)On Perdaily, there have been many articles about the privatization of our educational sys...
coopmike48

BusinessSee all

Office of the New York City Comptroller John C. Liu

comptroller.nyc.gov - PR12-05-052 Contact: Stephanie Hoo, (212) 669-3747 May 9, 2012 COMPTROLLER LIU UNVEILS INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN TO CREATE 15,000 JOBS City Can Spur Economic Growth and Realize Long-Term Savings by Accel...
leoniehaimson

K12: Investor Relations: Investor Overview

investors.k12.com - WebcastQ3 2012 K12 Inc. Earnings Conference Call (Replay)05/08/12 at 9:00 a.m. ETClick here to see the K12 Virtual Academies Academic Performance Trends (April 9, 2012)Click here to see the K12 Inv...
leoniehaimson

CrimeSee all

Ala. lawmakers pass bill to pay for class supplies

boston.com - MONTGOMERY, Ala.—Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley says he will sign a bill the Legislature passed that will provide $300 to every public school classroom teacher in grades K-12 for classroom supplies.Th...
coopmike48

hate crime reported at the university of cincinnati

blog.angryasianman.com - Got this news passed along to me about a recent hate crime at the University of Cincinnati... Police are investigating an incident that occurred last Wednesday afternoon when an Asian woman was att...
coopmike48

#pineapplegateSee all

Mistakes On Translated State Math Exams Add Up

ny1.com -   To view our videos, you need toenable JavaScript. Learn how.install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now. Then come back here and refresh the page. NY1 has learned that more errors were discovered...
leoniehaimson

#chicagoRead this paperSee all

On Schools - Grade Mayor Emanuel's First Year In Office

chicagobusiness.com - How do you think Mayor Rahm Emanuel did in his first year as mayor? Use this interactive project to grade the mayor on five key topics. When you're finished, share your grade on Facebook or Twitter...
mikeklonsky

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Big Education Ape Special Early Evening Update #soschat #edreform


Big Education Ape Special Early Evening Update






Pineapplegate continues, with 20 more errors, and finally an apologia from Pearson

by Leonie Haimson
It has been nearly three weeks since I first blogged about the absurd Pineapple story on the NY State 8th grade exam, produced by Pearson.  Since then, even more errors have been found, and just yesterday twenty newly discovered mistakes in the  math exams in foreign languages were announced.  That brings this year's total to 29-30 errors in all,  including six Pineapple questions, a question on the fourth grade math test with two correct answers, an error on the 8th grade math exam, and an error in the scoring guide that forced the rescoring of the sixth grade English exam.

See this Daily News report and this account fromNY1.  Regents head Merryl Tisch now says that thesemistakes are "inexcusable", and that Pearson should try to win back public trust; but how?

So far, the testing company has gained little support even after a coordinated PR campaign, including th




Caring for Every Child’s Mental Health

by Klea Scharberg
National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day, May 9, 2012
What does it take for children to be mentally healthy? Being mentally healthy is not just about emotional and behavioral difficulties. It's also about being mentally strong and resilient and having the skills and supports to deal with stressful issues when they arise. Today is National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day, established and promoted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The Awareness Day national event complements activities occurring across the country, such as community events, youth rallies, social media campaigns, and activities with children that promote community conversations about the importance of caring adults to enhancing resilience in children and youth following traumatic experiences.

We know that
  • Abuse and neglect can disrupt attachment and stem the development of important relational capacities. Nearly 35 percent of children and youth who are reported for maltreatment demonstrate significant deficits in social skills.




Nation's Largest Governor Becomes New Jersey's Biggest Liar

by Jim Horn

If this kind of lying were not so commonplace among the governors owned by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, it would be astonishing.  HT to Stan Karp:

One week after releasing new graduation rates that his Department of Education hailed as “a more complete and accurate way of calculating the high school graduation rate” Governor Christie ignored that data and made up his own numbers to attack the state’s urban public schools. He called state aid to struggling districts "an obscene waste of money,’’ citing as evidence what he called the “graduation rates” for Newark, Paterson, Jersey City, Asbury Park, Camden and Trenton.  
However, instead of using NJDOE’s “more complete and accurate way “ of measuring grad rates, the Governor made up his own numbers. Christie has apparently decided that any student who 




BEX Work Session Today.

by Melissa Westbrook
Off to the BEX Work Session.  Here's the presentation.  Will Tweet if anything urgently good comes up.




CT education bill failed to meet Rhee’s corporate reform expectations

by admin
Written by Christine Stuart for CTNewsJunkie. Read the entire article here.
“Rep. Andrew Fleischmann, co-chairman of the Education Committee, said the tenure situation described by Malloy in his opening remarks back in February is not what he’s witnessed as he went on to describe the legislation on the House floor Tuesday afternoon. The bill requires teachers to be evaluated on an annual basis, and their tenure will be based on their performance evaluations.
…
Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst organization that spent as much as $790,000 on advertising in favor of the 




Rhee’s successor has a new 5 year plan that shows up what Rhee failed to accomplish in DC

by admin
Rhee’s successor has a new 5-year plan.  Inherent in this plan is an important admission of what Rhee failed to deliver.  Here it is:   “increase enrollment, improve struggling schools, raise math and reading proficiency to 70 percent, and increase the high school graduation rate to 75 percent.”
If Rhee had delivered the DC miracle achievement scores as she keeps on claiming, why is there a need to raise 




LAUSD’s Rubber Room for Victims of Abuse Hysteria

by Michael Dunn

Following the January arrest of former teacher Mark Berndt, who was charged with 23 counts of lewd conduct in the classroom, the entire staff was fired at Miramonte Elementary School, in Los Angeles. Last week, at least 40 displaced teachers and staff members rallied outside Augustus Hawkins High School in South Los Angeles, the “Rubber Room” where they have reported for the past three months while awaiting reassignment. (Hawkins High is not currently in operation). More than 150 students and parents also joined the demonstration.


Superintendent John Deasy said he was replacing the staff to restore confidence in the school. Yet only 2 staff members have been charged or even accused of misconduct. Teachers at the rally expressed anger and frustration at having “been publicly punished and humiliated for the 




The CTU on Rahm’s pension proposal and “shared sacrifice.”

by Fred Klonsky
The Chicago Teachers Union today responded to Mayor Emanuel’s pension proposal.

“The Mayor has talked repeatedly  about “shared sacrifice” but in the pension proposals offered today he only asks for educators, librarians, firefighters and other city employees—the taxpaying base of our city—who earn modest pensions to sacrifice.   Mayor Emmanuel touts the 401K option as the gold standard.  Imagine if our public school educators only had the option of a 401K 



“How Do We Help Long-Term ELL’s & How Does Having ELL’s Affect A Teacher’s Evaluation?”

by Larry Ferlazzo
How Do We Help Long-Term ELL’s & How Does Having ELL’s Affect A Teacher’s Evaluation? are the two questions of the week at my Education Week Teacher column.
I’m trying something a little different this week and having two questions instead of one…..




Using A Lesson On Cognitive Dissonance To Help Students Learn To Take Responsibility

by Larry Ferlazzo
I have an extended lesson plan in my book, Helping Students Motivate Themselves, on helping students learn to take personal responsibility and blame others less.
Today, I got an idea for an addition to those lessons.
First, NPR ran a story titled Partisan Psychology: Why Do People Choose Political Loyalties Over Facts? It discusses a study on cognitive dissonance — holding two conflicting opinions in your head at the same time. Even though the article was talking about it in the context of politics, it certainly happens in the classroom. F


Big Education Ape Nite Cap 5-9-12 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2


James Baldwin said it best: 

"For these are all our children, and we will profit by or pay for whatever they become."

A Big Education Ape Nite Cap

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Rheevealing Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee Admits There Were Testing Irregularities - USATODAY.com Video

Rhee Admits There Were Testing Irregularities - USATODAY.com Video:

Rhee Admits There Were Testing Irregularities

Former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee says she welcomes an investigation into erasures on standardized tests during her tenure.






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Please help Philadelphia: Poster child for disasters of corporate reform « Parents Across America

Please help Philadelphia: Poster child for disasters of corporate reform « Parents Across America:


Please help Philadelphia: Poster child for disasters of corporate reform

by leoniehaimson

Dear parents and PAA colleagues:
It’s taken me a while to talk about what’s happening in Philadelphia because of the destructive forces threatening public education in our city.
In case you haven’t read the news, Philadelphia’s Chief Recovery Officer – a gas industry executive paid $150K over six months – hired the Boston Consulting Group for a cool $1.4 million to create a “Blueprint for Reform”. The Blueprint sets out a five year course of action which calls for closing one-fourth of Philadelphia’s schools, 40 alone next year (64 total), placing 40% of students into charters, and dividing up the remaining schools into NYC-inspired “achievement networks” run by third party operators under a five year performance contract.
There are of course the standard union-busting threats, the exclusion of parent and community voices, and the consolidation of political interests, large charter operators, and 

Standardized testing and scoring: driving out meaningful assessment

by Leonie Haimson

A teacher notes yet another damaging effect of the overwhelming amount of standardized testing and teachers removed from the class to score these exams in our schools:
Our last day of five ELA teachers out of building is tomorrow. Thursday starts the five math teachers per day. That only lasts one week. With normal unexpected absences we have had up to nine teachers out of building on any given day since grading began two weeks ago. 
The DOE thinks that's okay. I had another testing consequence come my way today when an eighth grade parent asked about their child having multiple subject tests on the same day. I know that having tests on same day is not ideal, but I pointed out that it has been three weeks since some teachers could give 

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Mother Crusader: Cerf's Hostile Takeover Of Public Ed; Charter Regulations Edition

Mother Crusader: Cerf's Hostile Takeover Of Public Ed; Charter Regulations Edition:


Cerf's Hostile Takeover Of Public Ed; Charter Regulations Edition

by darciecima



You wouldn't think a suburban mom would take changes to charter school regulations personally.  But I am.  I really am.  


There are some big changes here, and I will continue to outline them in the coming days and weeks.  


But you know what?  The NJDOE has been operating as if many of these changes are already in effect.  I have caught them not adhering to the existing regulations on more than one occasion, and I have spent countless hours of my life not only catching them, but holding them accountable.  


So now they are going to just go ahead and officially make the changes to the regulations they haven't been following in the first place?


Fabulous.  Just fabulous.


Allow me to illustrate.  


Illustration Number One - Tikun Olam


When I was going through the third Tikun Olam application with a fine tooth comb, I figured out that the three 
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UW-Madison Study Shows Impact of Walker’s Destructive Education Policies « Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!

UW-Madison Study Shows Impact of Walker’s Destructive Education Policies « Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!:


UW-Madison Study Shows Impact of Walker’s Destructive Education Policies

by millerlf


University of Wisconsin-­Madison
ELPA Policy Brief
May 2012
Making Matters Worse: School Funding,
Achievement Gaps and Poverty under Wisconsin Act 32

By James Shaw and Carolyn Kelley
The 2011-­‐13 Wisconsin biennial budget (Act 32) reduced state aid to school districts by $792 million. This budget reduction follows a reduction of $284 million in the 2009-­‐11 biennial budget, reducing overall state aid to public schools by more than a billion dollars.
In addition to the reduction in general aid, Act 32 reduced the revenue limit in Wisconsin school districts by 5.5%, which is equivalent to an overall reduction in taxing authority of $1.6 billion in addition to the $792 million reduction in state aid. The lowered revenue cap requires that 241 of the state’s 424 school districts reduce school property taxes, exacerbating the impact of state budget cuts.i
Wisconsin boasts the highest high school graduation rates, the third highest ACT scores, the highest Advanced Placement success percentage of any Midwestern state, and high rates of highly qualified teachers.ii At the same time, the state has some of the largest achievement gaps for poor and minority students, and struggles to provide adequate funding for all school districts.
By analyzing school district budgeted expenditures in the 30 highest and 30 lowest poverty districts in the state for 2011-­‐12,iii this study examines the impact of Wisconsin Act 32 on education funding, teacher quality, student learning, and property taxpayers. Budget data collected by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction represent the best currently available estimates of the impact of Act 32 on district expenditures.
Financial Impact of Act 32
Wisconsin state school aids are designed to equalize revenues among school districts with high and low tax


Scott Walker’s Day of Reckoning: All Out for June 5th

by millerlf
We have 27 days to end Walker’s rule. Yesterday 626,538 people voted for Walker in the primary.
690,198 people voted in the Democratic primary or against Walker in the Republican primary.
We cannot simply rely on that margin, a difference of 63,660 votes, to win on June 5th.
Our job must first be to get every person who signed the recall petition to vote, to fully mobilize the base!
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Chicago Teacher Union’s Karen Lewis on pensions. « Fred Klonsky

Chicago Teacher Union’s Karen Lewis on pensions. « Fred Klonsky:


Chicago Teacher Union’s Karen Lewis on pensions.

by Fred Klonsky

CTU President Karen Lewis on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight.

What are your thoughts on pensions for teachers?

“I think a lot of people don’t realize that we don’t get social security at all. Pension is the only retirement thing we have outside of individual savings and plans. So it matters to us. I’m a younger teacher, I’m 32, but of course I think about my retirement. I feel really bad for a lot of teachers who are getting out of the system now because they are afraid about their pensions.

I have friends who work in the corporate world who get a bonus at the end of the 



What if Senator Mark Kirk had worked at Wal-Mart?

by Fred Klonsky
Phil Kadner in the Southtown:

Kirk’s facing a difficult recovery process. But he’s a lucky guy.

Millions of Americans have no health insurance. No job security.

Millions of other workers would discover that their health insurance didn’t cover the costs of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago when they needed it.

But instead of using his emotional video to talk about that, instead of saying that every one of his constituents deserves the same opportunity to resurrect their lives in a medical emergency, Kirk talks about cutting budgets and taxes.

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Unpacking the Meaning of Appreciation « InterACT

Unpacking the Meaning of Appreciation « InterACT:


Unpacking the Meaning of Appreciation

by David B. Cohen
Appreciation.  Let’s talk about the word, “appreciation.”  By the time this blog post is done, you’re going to appreciate that word in whole new way.
I love words – the sounds, the nuances, the etymology!  (Did you know that the word “school” with reference to a group of fish has no linguistic relationship to the education term with the same spelling?  The former is German and Dutch in origin, meaning “group” – while the latter is from Greek and related to learning). If a love of words can be genetic, I picked it up from both sides of my genealogy, and especially from my maternal grandfather, Jack.  If it’s nurture rather than nature, then it must be a result of growing up in a home where I saw my mother read two, three, even four books in a week.  My father was an English major at UCLA, before entering the medical profession.  He isn’t quite the voracious reader my mother is (who could be?), but he has a fondness for poetry and songs, and often used to clip word games and puzzles to share with me.
Holmes, CohenPhil Holmes, with me at our 20-year class reunion (2007)
My tenth-grade English teacher, Phil Holmes, made the love of words into more of a virtue by teaching me to pay closer attention to every word in my reading and writing.  I entered his class in 1984, and among our first assignments was to look up a word from Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” in the Oxford English Dictionary.  I discovered that “stout” could mean much more than I thought, and I gained some insights into the evolution of 
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