Why some of the best universities are giving away their courses | Pacific NW | The Seattle Times

Why some of the best universities are giving away their courses | Pacific NW | The Seattle Times:

Why some of the best universities are giving away their courses

Each has answers, but, basically, it comes down to ...

By Katherine Long

PREV  1 of 7  NEXT

KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES

The Linden family is really into free online education. Clockwise from top left: Greg Linden; his wife, Corina; son, Jacob, 10; and daughter Tatiana, 9. Jacob is using a calculator to enter data to advance through an introductory physics class offered by Udacity, a collection of free online courses started by a Stanford University professor.

RELATED

• Pacific NW Magazine is on Facebook

MOST POPULAR COMMENTS

HIDE / SHOW COMMENTS

"Why would any university give away the store?" is the wrong question. We... (September 21, 2012, by RandallKrieg) MORE

Read all 1 comments

Post a comment

SEATTLE TECH entrepreneur Greg Linden describes himself as "mostly retired" these days, but at age 39 he still has an insatiable appetite for knowledge. So he decided to go to college — without leaving home.

Through Stanford University, he took a class on robotic-car programming from professor Sebastian Thrun, who led the team that designed Google's self-driving car.

He also scarfed down a class on computer-program design from Google Research director Peter Norvig, who used to oversee computational sciences at NASA. And he gobbled up a class on machine learning from another Stanford professor who directs the university's Artificial Intelligen

Join Lily (virtually speaking) @ NBC Student Town Hall - Lily's Blackboard | Lily's Blackboard

Join Lily (virtually speaking) @ NBC Student Town Hall - Lily's Blackboard | Lily's Blackboard:

Join Lily (virtually speaking) @ NBC Student Town Hall

Sep 21st, 2012 

by Lily.

Join Lily at the Education Nation 2012 Student Town Hall where Melissa Harris-Perry hosts students for the first Education Nation at The New York Public Library. You can follow live here on Lily’s Blackboard on Sunday, Sept 23rd at 10:00am (ET)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Comments? Ideas? Join the conversation here.

Banned in Park Ridge. « Fred Klonsky

Banned in Park Ridge. « Fred Klonsky:

Banned in Park Ridge.

by Fred Klonsky

Was it something I said?
Earlier today I did a post that mentioned the contract settlement in Park Ridge. That is the district I just retired from and was, for a ten-year period of time, the union president.
I noted that it was a contract that was bargained well by the Park Ridge Education Association negotiating team. I pointed out that it contained a modest cost of living adjustment and some gains for teacher voice in curriculum creation.
But I also mentioned the District’s huge 40% budget surplus. What do local taxpayers think when their homes 

Violence, Technology, and Education: Putting Accountability in the Right Perspective — Whole Child Education

Violence, Technology, and Education: Putting Accountability in the Right Perspective — Whole Child Education:

Violence, Technology, and Education: Putting Accountability in the Right Perspective

September 21, 2012 by ASCD Whole Child Bloggers

Post submitted by Tess Pajaron of Open Colleges, an online course provider based in Australia. She regularly writes about study and work abroad experiences and advocates for education.

Would you believe me if I told you that when the telephone was invented, people didn't believe it would eventually become part of their daily lives?

In fact, the telephone was vilified. Some called it "the instrument of the devil." TheNew York Times, in 1876, reported that the telephone will "empty the concert-halls and the churches" as it enables people to listen to lectures, sermons, and concerts from the comfort of their own homes. You can see where the argument was going.

Sounds familiar? It should.

Because the same criticism applied to pretty much all major inventions of the last century, the phonograph was forecasted to be the cause of the demise of books and reading—and that boys of the future will "never have to learn his letters or to wrestle with the spelling book." And the television, as you probably know, is 

Radical Scholarship: Peter Lang titles win 8 Critics' Choice Book Awards from the American Educational Studies Association

Radical Scholarship: Peter Lang titles win 8 Critics' Choice Book Awards from the American Educational Studies Association:

Peter Lang titles win 8 Critics' Choice Book Awards from the American Educational Studies Association

Gorlewski, Julie A. / Porfilio, Brad J. / Gorlewski, David A. (eds.)
Using Standards and High-Stakes Testing for Students
Exploiting Power with Critical Pedagogy

Series: Counterpoints - Volume 425

Year of Publication: 2012

New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, Oxford, Wien, 2012. XIV, 271 pp., num. fig. 
ISBN 978-1-4331-1555-4 pb. (Softcover) 
ISBN 978-1-4331-1556-1 hb. (Hardcover)

Weight: 0.420 kg, 0.926 lbs

RheeFirst! » Something funny about Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s TNTP bio

RheeFirst! » Something funny about Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s TNTP bio:

Something funny about Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s TNTP bio

by admin

Before she started StudentsFirst, Rhee ran an education consultancy called The New Teacher Project (TNTP).  Her bio on the old TNTP website is very interesting. Rhee’s short biography stays pretty much the same from2001 through 2003.  And then, this line appears:
“Her teaching career started at Harlem Park Community School in Baltimore, MD, where her outstanding success in the classroom earned her acclaim on Good Morning America and The Home Show, as well as in the Wall Street Journal and the Hartford Courant.”
It sounds fantastic, doesn’t it?  In her three short years as a teacher in Baltimore, Rhee somehow managed to earn accolades from Good Morning America and The Wall Street Journal?  What’s Rhee’s secret?  Good ole’ fashioned resume inflation, as it turns out.  Only the Hartford Courant covered Rhee’s school.  Rhee was mentioned in the piece, but not lauded for her “outstanding success.” 
Just like

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Live From the Heartland tomorrow morning

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Live From the Heartland tomorrow morning:

Live From the Heartland tomorrow morning

by Mike Klonsky

JOIN KATY HOGAN AND MICHAEL JAMES FOR THE  

LIVE FROM THE HEARTLAND SHOW.  Sat. 9 am 

Live at the Heartland Cafe • on air 88.7 • on line www.wluw.org• www.youtube.com/heartlandmedia

 

  Saturday, 9/22: Mike Klonsky

Our featured guest is Mike Klonsky. Mike is one of the Live from the Heartland Show's regular commentators on education and other important matters. He joins us this Saturday to share information and analysis on the recent Chicago teachers strike. We'll look at the CTU, the CPS and the implications for education nationwide.

From Mike's blog: "Out on the picket lines I saw teachers in small groups, reading the tentative contract, line-by-line and discussing it. Talk about your participatory democracy. Here it is, right on 

Videos Reveal Frustration with the Chicago Strike - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Videos Reveal Frustration with the Chicago Strike - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Videos Reveal Frustration with the Chicago Strike

by Anthony Cody

Follow me on Twitter at @AnthonyCody
This has been the year of the revealing video. This week we saw that Governor Romney and many of his millionaire donors view almost half the country as parasitic dependents. That famous 47% includes many of our students.
Last summer's video of Stand For Children leader Jonah Edelman at a conservative gathering in Aspen revealed how his group had maneuvered to pass a law that they thought would make a strike in Chicago impossible.
Our schools are being starved of funding, at a time when taxes have never been lower, and the concentration of wealth has never been higher. The four hundred richest Americans saw their wealth grow by 13% in 2011,

David Coleman: “I’m Scared of Rewarding BS” « The Core Knowledge Blog

David Coleman: “I’m Scared of Rewarding BS” « The Core Knowledge Blog:

David Coleman: “I’m Scared of Rewarding BS”

by Robert Pondiscio
September 21st, 2012

Tags: Checker Finn, Common Core State Standards, Dana Goldstein, David Coleman,Literacy, The Atlantic
Posted in Curriculum, Education News | No Comments »

Dana Goldstein’s profile of Common Core State Standards architect David Coleman is up at The Atlantic, and it’s a must-read.   For better or for worse, she writes, his ideas are transforming American education as we know it.  The money quote:  “I’m scared of rewarding bullshit,” Coleman tells Goldstein. “I don’t think it’s costless at all.”

“By bullshit, Coleman means the sort of watered-down curriculum that has become the norm in many American classrooms. For nearly two centuries, the United States resisted the idea, generally accepted abroad, that all students should share a certain body of knowledge and develop a specific set of skills. The ethos of local control is so ingrained in the American school system—and rifts over culture-war land mines such as teaching evolutionary theory are so deep—that even when the country began to slip 

The 6 P’s for Education « My Island View

The 6 P’s for Education « My Island View:

The 6 P’s for Education

by tomwhitby

Dell Computer has sponsored four education Think Tanks over the last year, or so, and I have been fortunate to participate in three of them. At each get-together educators, education related organizers, education industry executives, and most recently students, were brought together in an open discussion on the weighty topics of education and education reform. All of the discussions were video-taped, and live-streamed, and even animated on a mural to a viewing audience. The final production was archived to a special website maintained by Dell. During these discussions the participants were even tweeting out discussion ideas in real-time, which reflected out to the growing community of connected educators on Twitter. Transparency abounds at these Dell Computer think tanks.
Each of the groups is given four to six general topics of concern in education to discuss for about forty-five minutes to an hour. Since the members are all invited guests, they are usually intelligent, passionate, and well-

How our love for numbers warps school reform - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

How our love for numbers warps school reform - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:

How our love for numbers warps school reform

By Valerie Strauss

Americans have a love affair with numbers. Here Alfie Kohn, the author of 12 books about education and human behavior, explains why this has become a problem when it comes to school reform. His books include “The Schools Our Children Deserve,” “The Homework Myth,” and “Feel-Bad Education... And Other Contrarian Essays on Children & Schooling.” He lives (actually) in the Boston area and (virtually) at www.alfiekohn.org. This is a slightly expanded version of an essay that was first published in the September 19 issue of Education Week”

By Alfie Kohn

“As we tend to value the results of education for their measurableness, so we tend to undervalue and at last ignore those results which are too intrinsically valuable to be measured.”

-- Edmond G. A. Holmes, chief inspector of elementary schoolsfor Great Britain, 1911

The reason that standardized test results tend to be so uninformative and misleading is closely related to the reason that these tests are so popular in the first place. That, in turn, is connected to our attraction to
(bigstock)— and the trouble with — grades, rubrics, and various practices commended to us as “data-

Ten minute drawing. Rahm approved this million dollar ad buy. « Fred Klonsky

Ten minute drawing. Rahm approved this million dollar ad buy. « Fred Klonsky:

Ten minute drawing. Rahm approved this million dollar ad buy.

by Fred Klonsky

The in box. Thanks from Peet’s Workers Group.

by Fred Klonsky

Fred,
Thank you so much to Fred and all the CPS teachers that came out to support the Peet’s Workers Group on Tuesday. It meant so much that after 9 exhausting days on the front lines you came up to stand in support of the coffee workers!
- Rae

NYC Public School Parents: We fought the invasion of PS 15: a real-life "Won't Back Down" story

NYC Public School Parents: We fought the invasion of PS 15: a real-life "Won't Back Down" story:

We fought the invasion of PS 15: a real-life "Won't Back Down" story

by Leonie Haimson

Lydia Bellahcene and Julie Cavanagh

The following was written by Julie Cavanagh and Lydia Bellahcene, a teacher and a parent at PS 15 in Brooklyn.  This is their real-life “Won’t Back Down” story, unlike the Hollywood version featured in the film of the same name that will open nationwide on Sept. 28.  You can also check out my review of the movie.  If you are a parent or educator and have your own real-life Won't Back Down story you’d like to share, please send it to us atinfo@classsizematters.org  Thanks!

The movie “Won't Back Down” is a work of fiction but is said to be based on real life events.  It tells the story of a teacher and a parent in a 'failing' school who join forces to 'save their school'.  The tale is a powerful one and some 

E Pluribus...Separation: Deepening Double Segregation for More Students — The Civil Rights Project at UCLA

E Pluribus...Separation: Deepening Double Segregation for More Students — The Civil Rights Project at UCLA:

E Pluribus...Separation: Deepening Double Segregation for More Students

Authors: Gary Orfield, John Kucsera, Genevieve Siegel-Hawley

Date Published: September 19, 2012

This report suggests a number of specific ways to reverse the trends toward deepening resegregation and educational inequalities.

Related Documents

•  Full Report: E Pluribus...Separation
•  Executive Summary: E Pluribus...Separation

Editor's Note: This new research by the Civil Rights Project includes an extensive report on national trends, “E Pluribus… Separation: Deepening Double Segregation for More Students,” as well as two smaller regional reports, “The Western States: Profound Diversity but Severe Segregation for Latino Students,” and “Southern Slippage: Growing School Segregation in the Most Desegregated Region of the Country.”

Executive Summary

This report shows that segregation has increased seriously across the country for Latino students, who are attending more intensely segregated and impoverished schools than they have for generations.  The segregation increases have been the most dramatic in the West. The typical Latino student in the region attends a school where less than a quarter of their classmates are white; nearly two-thirds are other Latinos; and two-thirds are poor. California, New York and Texas, all states that have been profoundly altered by immigration trends over the last half-century, are among the most segregated states for Latino students along multiple dimensions.

In spite of declining residential segregation for black families and large-scale movement to the suburbs in most parts of the country, school segregation remains very high for black students.  It is also double segregation by both race and poverty.  Nationwide, the typical black student is now in a school where almost two out of every three classmates (64%) are low-income, nearly double the level in schools of the typical white or Asian student (37% and 39%, respectively).  New York, Illinois, and Michigan consistently top the list of the most segregated states for black students.  Among the states with significant black enrollments, blacks are least likely to attend intensely segregated schools in Washington, Nebraska, and Kansas.

School resegregation for black students is increasing most dramatically in the South, where, after a period of intense resistance, strong action was taken to integrate black and white students.  Black students across the country experienced gains in school desegregation from the l960s to the late l980s, a time in which racial achievement gaps also narrowed sharply.  These trends began to reverse after a 1991 Supreme Court decision made it easier for school districts and courts to dismantle desegregation plans. Most major plans have been eliminated for years now, despite increasingly powerful evidence on the importance of desegregated schools.

The Obama Administration, like the Bush Administration, has taken no significant action to increase school integration or to help stabilize diverse schools as racial change occurs in urban and suburban housing markets and schools. Small positive steps in civil rights enforcement have been undermined by the Obama Administration’s strong pressure on states to expand charter schools - the most segregated sector of schools for black students. Though segregation is powerfully 

Study: ‘Apartheid’ school segregation deepening in California, Texas and New York | The Raw Story

Study: ‘Apartheid’ school segregation deepening in California, Texas and New York | The Raw Story:

Study: ‘Apartheid’ school segregation deepening in California, Texas and New York

from Raw Story by Kay Steiger

Topics: African American students ♦ school segregation

 

A full 15 percent of African American students and 14 percent of Latino students are attending America’s “apartheid” schools, which have  student bodies that are less than 1 percent white, according to a new study by the Civil Rights Project published on Wednesday.

Additionally, the typical African American or Latino student attends school with twice the share of low-income students as their white or Asian peers. These segregation factors are most exacerbated in California, Texas and New York, “states that have been profoundly altered by immigration trends over the last half century.”

“We underscore the fact that simply sitting next to a white student does not guarantee better educational outcomes for students of color,” the report said. “Instead, the resources that are consistently linked to predominately white and/or wealthy schools help foster real and serious educational advantages over minority segregated settings.”

“Our political and educational leaders, who have passively accepted deepening school segregation, need to find some of the same courage that transformed our society in the mid-twentieth century,”

Raw Story (http://s.tt/1o0CS)

Other teacher contracts. « Fred Klonsky

Other teacher contracts. « Fred Klonsky:

Other teacher contracts.

from Fred Klonsky's blog by Fred Klonsky

This past couple of weeks national attention deservedly was focused on the Chicago Teachers Union battle with Rahm Emanuel over his corporate-backed reform plans and the strike for a fair contract.
Meanwhile, teachers in my old school district in the Chicago suburbs of Park Ridge approved a new Collective Bargaining Agreement by 96% of the vote and 98% of the members voting.
The school board is expected to approve the Agreement at their regularly scheduled meeting on September 24th.
It is a good contract. The teachers obviously agree. It contains a modest cost of living increase and adds 

This Week In Education: Media: Are You The West Coast Version Of Joy Resmovits?

This Week In Education: Media: Are You The West Coast Version Of Joy Resmovits?:

Media: Are You The West Coast Version Of Joy Resmovits?

Launched last month, LA School Report is an independent education news and commentary site focused on the Los Angeles public schools that has been taking the LA education scene  by storm.

In just the lat few weeks, we've tracked campaign funding and broken news about possible school board candidates. We've helped readers understand the issues and dynamics behind the use of student achievement in teacher evaluations. Our material has been picked up by the Huffington Post and others.

Now we're looking for a 

What ‘Won’t Back Down’ Gets Wrong About Parental Involvement in Schools | NEA Today

What ‘Won’t Back Down’ Gets Wrong About Parental Involvement in Schools | NEA Today:

What ‘Won’t Back Down’ Gets Wrong About Parental Involvement in Schools

September 20, 2012 by twalker  
Filed under Featured News, Top Stories

1 Comment

By Tim Walker

In school districts across the nation, parents are collaborating with educators, administrators, teachers unions and other community leaders to improve public education and find sustainable solutions that put children at the center of reform.

That’s the reality, but anti-public education activists are betting the American public will rather be told a fairy tale about how teachers and, especially, their unions are standing in the way of parents who are trying to do what is best for their child’s education. That’s the basic plot of the movie “Won’t Back Down,” which opens nationwide on September 28. Bankrolled by many of the same corporate heavies who were behind the pro-charter school documentary “Waiting for Superman,” “Won’t Back Down” is fiction but it’s “inspired by true events” tagline should give pause to anyone planning to see the film.

Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal in "Won't Back Down"

Which is not to say that “Won’t Back Down” doesn’t score as enjoyable entertainment. It does, says NEA President Dennis Van Roekel, who recently attended a screening. Van Roekel