NYC Educator: ATR-Clear and Present Danger

NYC Educator: ATR-Clear and Present Danger:

ATR-Clear and Present Danger

by NYC Educator

by special guest blogger Suddenly ATR 

It was rainy, 5:30 in the morning, cold, and I was headed for my new weekly assignment. I don't have a car so the commute to this new school is over an hour and a half and they start soon after 7 in the morning.

Two subway and bus transfers later, I finally arrived at the school. I was immediately given my coverage assignments and then sent to talk to the AP. Her first question shocked me:

"Have you ever been brought up on disciplinary 

Jersey Jazzman: It's Time To Get Real About Charter Schools

Jersey Jazzman: It's Time To Get Real About Charter Schools:

It's Time To Get Real About Charter Schools

by Duke

Paul Thomas tweeted a funny:

If u posted a blog about the need 4 more giraffes in elementary school lunch rooms, 57 charter advocates would post comments about charters

All too true: check out the discussion here, for example. Charter cheerleaders are relentless; evangelical soldiers in the reform wars, they are absolutely convinced that charters are laboratories full of innovation and creativity.

And it matters little to them that the vast majority of the evidence piled up on charters shows little to no average effect on student achievement. The beauty of charters, you see, is that the 17% of them that do better than pubic schools hold the key to saving our "failing" students. If we can look at these "successful" charters and 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: WEEKEND QUOTABLES:

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

by Mike Klonsky

Byrd-Bennett

Barbara Byrd-Bennett (for future reference)

“I’m here for the long haul. I don’t know what to do other than sign in blood. . . . I’m here. I’m not gonna say ‘I’m outta here.’ That’s not who I am.” -- Chicago's 4th CEO in last 2 years.

Michelle Gunderson ‏

It takes a Chia Pet longer to grow than the 6 weekends a person spends at the Broad Academy training to be a superintendent. -- Tweeting @MSGunderson

Dan Quinn, Texas Freedom Network

 "That's where all these culture war battles will come to a head over what students learn about evolution, about civil rights, about church and state separation. All those battles will come in 2013 and 2014, and the textbooks will be in the 

The poster child for Education Reform’s fraudulent performance evaluation movement - Wait, What?

The poster child for Education Reform’s fraudulent performance evaluation movement - Wait, What?:

The poster child for Education Reform’s fraudulent performance evaluation movement

by jonpelto

The story of how Hartford’s Superintendent of Schools Christina Kishimoto got a poor performance evaluation, yet got her raise AND still wanted her performance bonus.

Teacher Evaluations are the key to “Education Reform, at least according to Governor Malloy, Malloy’s Commissioner of Education, Stefan Pryor and the “education reformers.”

Last February, Governor Malloy defined the issue when he said that the right to teach, the right to be an educational professional, must be “earned and re-earned.”

Turning to Connecticut’s educators he said, you must “continue to prove your 

Rich siblings spend big bucks to affect California education funding:

Rich siblings spend big bucks to affect California education funding

Posted by Valerie Strauss on October 14, 2012 at 11:08 pm

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Molly Munger    ( Rich Pedroncelli/AP)

 The Munger siblings vs. California Gov. Jerry Brown: Here is this week’s case study in our continuing look at how billionaires (and millionaires) are throwing around their money to drive education reform.

Last week I wrote about a bunch of billionaires (Bill Gates, for one) using their fabulous wealth in support of an initiative in Washington state that would allow charter schools to open there for the first time. Voters in the state have turned down the idea three times, but some people can’t take no for an answer.

Now in California, the daughter and son of billionaire Charles Munger (who is the business partner of the fabulously wealthy Warren Buffet) are spending  millions of dollars to defeat    

‘Why everyone deserves a second chance at education’ — a book excerpt

by Valerie Strauss

 Mike Rose is a highly respected professor at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and author of several books. His latest. “Back to School: Why Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Education,” looks a new at the role of higher education in the social and political life of the country and looks at ways that could give more people a chance at a college education. Here’s an excerpt:
Read full article >>

Schools Matter: Progressive Eugenics and Liberal Institutions

Schools Matter: Progressive Eugenics and Liberal Institutions:

Progressive Eugenics and Liberal Institutions

by Storm

For a time I was a fan of Jane's Addiction (everyone was doing it), but that "Been Caught Stealin'" song was really one of their least interesting off of their break-out album Ritual de lo Habitual.  I was partial though to the prior album Nothing's Shocking and particularly amazed at the song "Pigs in Zen."

Now I won't share those lyrics here, but I will tell you that I think they're very appropriate to our national (and by that I mean everyone) somnolence.  The song has a break in the lyrics where Farrel, the vocalist, talks some "wisdom." Part of this goes,

Some people should die
That's just unconscious knowledge
Because, because the bigger you get
The wider you're spread
You gotta depend on me
Now your vision is dead
The more your dream is dead

Now, interpretations of words are multiple and infinite (random) but I had always seen this as something of the 

Schools Confront Scandal; Students Who ‘Disappeared’ at Test TimeSave Our Schools

Schools Confront Scandal; Students Who ‘Disappeared’ at Test TimeSave Our Schools:

Schools Confront Scandal; Students Who ‘Disappeared’ at Test Time

by Server

El Paso Schools Scandal; Students Who ‘Disappeared’ at Test Time

By MANNY FERNANDEZ
Originally Published October 12, 2012. The New York Times
EL PASO — It sounded at first like a familiar story: school administrators, seeking to meet state and federal standards, fraudulently raised students’ scores on crucial exams.
.
But in the cheating scandal that has shaken the 64,000-student school district in this border city, administrators manipulated more than numbers. They are accused of keeping low-performing students out of classrooms altogether by improperly holding some back, accelerating others and preventing many from showing up for the tests or enrolling in school at all.
It led to a dramatic moment at the federal courthouse this month, when a former schools superintendent, Lorenzo Garcia, was sentenced to prison for his role in orchestrating the testing scandal. But for student

Support Anti-Bullying Day, Oppose Right Wing Christian Group’s Homophobia « Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!

Support Anti-Bullying Day, Oppose Right Wing Christian Group’s Homophobia « Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!:

Support Anti-Bullying Day, Oppose Right Wing Christian Group’s Homophobia

by millerlf

Christian Group Finds Gay Agenda in an Anti-Bullying Day
By KIM SEVERSON October 14,2012 NY Times
On Mix It Up at Lunch Day, schoolchildren around the country are encouraged to hang out with someone they normally might not speak to.
The program, started 11 years ago by the Southern Poverty Law Center and now in more than 2,500 schools, was intended as a way to break up cliques and prevent bullying.
But this year, the American Family Association, a conservative evangelical group, has called the project “a nationwide push to promote the homosexual lifestyle in public schools” and is urging parents to keep their

Bice Calls Out Tommy Thompson’s Son for Racist Remark at Republican Party Event

by millerlf

Tommy Thompson’s son calls for sending Obama back ‘to Kenya’
Daniel Bice Oct. 14, 2012 Milwaukee JS
Jason Thompson, the son of former Gov. Tommy Thompson, was caught on video Sunday suggesting at a Republican event that voters this fall could send President Barack Obama back “to Kenya.”
“We have the opportunity to send President Obama back to Chicago – or Kenya,” Jason Thompson, an attorneyat Michael Best and Friedrich, said during a fall brunch hosted by the Kenosha County Republican Party.

Expeditionary Learning Charter for Toki? | AMPS

Expeditionary Learning Charter for Toki? | AMPS:

Expeditionary Learning Charter for Toki?

by Thomas J. Mertz

The Replacements – “I Don’t Know” (click to listen or download).

The biggest item on the Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education committee agendas this weekis  the “Expeditionary Learning Model at Toki Middle School and Timeline” before the Planning and Development Committee (Monday, October 15, 2012, 6:30 p.m. Doyle Administration Building, Room 103, there are Public Appearances on the agenda).  The proposal is to convert Toki Middle School from a district  school to a district instrumentality charter school.
This is the start of a long process of weighing the pros and cons of the proposal, with various decision points along the way.  If the proposal gets that far, the final decision by the Board would be in early 2014 and if the vote 

Student success, Georgia economy threatened by state’s declining support | Get Schooled

Student success, Georgia economy threatened by state’s declining support | Get Schooled:

Student success, Georgia economy threatened by state’s declining support

by Maureen Downey

Taifa S. Butler is the deputy director of Georgia Budget & Policy Institute, which will release a survey today of Georgia’s 180 school districts on the impact of state funding cuts.
The 150 districts that responded too the survey educate more than 92 percent of the students in public schools. The survey found that the state’s lack of support for education diminishes learning opportunities for students by forcing school districts to shorten the school year, increase class size, reduce the number of teachers and cut teacher pay.

By Taifa S. Butler
Georgia’s future depends on its ability to attract employers, create jobs, and grow the economy, and a key ingredient to this is a highly skilled and educated workforce. Yet over the past decade, 

New CPS CEO Byrd-Bennett does well by the CEO circuit. A revolving door of payouts. « Fred Klonsky

New CPS CEO Byrd-Bennett does well by the CEO circuit. A revolving door of payouts. « Fred Klonsky:

New CPS CEO Byrd-Bennett does well by the CEO circuit. A revolving door of payouts.

by Fred Klonsky

Chicago teachers, who lost some ground on the issue of  sick and personal days in the last contract, might find an ally in the new CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett.
Byrd Bennett has done rather well on the CEO circuit – New York, Cleveland, Detroit. Among the rewards she was given when she left her Cleveland job was a payout of 140 sick days for the seven years she was there.
When she left Cleveland in 2006, the Pain Dealer reports,

Barbara Byrd-Bennett’s goodbye as Cleveland schools chief executive won’t be quiet or cheap.

Tonight she’ll be lavished with gifts from the school board and saluted by luminaries. Mayor Frank Jackson, U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and 

A rich, white guy who works for a right-wing think tank just can’t catch a break these days.

by Fred Klonsky

Fordham’s Mike Petrilli is haunted by his decision to move to the suburbs.
Michael Petrilli is the vice president of the Fordham Foundation, a think tank on the far-right edges of school reform.
And it haunts him.
What haunts him?
No. Not being the VP at Fordham. Although that’s what would haunt me.
He is haunted by his decision to move to the suburbs of Washington DC so his kids can attend an all-white suburban school with other white rich kids.
And what does anybody do who is haunted by such a decision? Petrilli wrote a book about it so that others 

How Did the Quebec Student Movement Win? | Dissident Voice

How Did the Quebec Student Movement Win? | Dissident Voice:

How Did the Quebec Student Movement Win?

by subMedia

For over 4 months, students and their allies, took over the streets of Montreal every day, to protest a tuition hike imposed by the liberal party in Quebec.
On September 21st, the newly elected Premier of Quebec scrapped the tuition hike and repealed a controversial law, that effectively banned public demonstrations.
While this is being touted as a victory by many in the student movement, one element that made this success possible is already being overshadowed. How the the movement’s militant street politics transformed the student strike from a single issue campaign to an uncompromising social insurrection.
Pop

LAUSD: WHERE SOCIAL PROMOTION REMAINS UNADDRESSED - Perdaily.com

LAUSD: WHERE SOCIAL PROMOTION REMAINS UNADDRESSED - Perdaily.com:

LAUSD: WHERE SOCIAL PROMOTION REMAINS UNADDRESSED

by Leonard Isenberg

(Mensaje se repite en Español)

(For a national view of public education reform see the end of this blog post)

Probably the greatest antidote for too much government is a well educated and self-sufficient citizenry. Clearly, the way this self-sufficiency has been achieved in the past is through excellent public education. For conservatives who now decry the intrusion of too much government, one must wonder why public education institutions like the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) are specifically designed not to function, while scrupulously avoiding the one change that would obviate virtually all of the draconian measures it employs that only adapt to LAUSD dysfunction, instead of 

Study reveals ADHD children’s views on drugs, doctors | The Raw Story

Study reveals ADHD children’s views on drugs, doctors | The Raw Story:

Study reveals ADHD children’s views on drugs, doctors

by Sarah Boseley, The Guardian

Topics: ADHD ♦ ADHD children ♦ Dr Ilina Singh

 

New research finds that children with disorder are concerned that doctors do not understand the condition

Children with hyperactivity problems do not feel that Ritalin and other drugs they are given turn them into zombies or robots, but say they feel the medication helps them control their behaviour, according to a study that has asked for their views, in what is claimed as a first.

Dosing children with stimulants to control angry, aggressive or overly-impulsive behaviour has excited controversy for many years. Critics say medication is the wrong way to go and that ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) is an extreme form of normal behaviour that needs 

Short Notes: Comments On Suicide From Bill, Heather, And … Anonymous | The Jose Vilson

Short Notes: Comments On Suicide From Bill, Heather, And … Anonymous | The Jose Vilson:

Short Notes: Comments On Suicide From Bill, Heather, And … Anonymous

by Jose

Unbeknownst to me, October 10th was World Mental Heath Day, a day after I wrote my post on students and suicide. Rather than reflecting in meta, I’ll share some of my colleagues’ comments to the post, all of which moved me in a profound way.
First, Bill Ivey:

One of my former students, then a Senior at another local school, killed herself two weeks ago. Though she only passed through my classroom for a few weeks before she and her mother agreed she would return to her previous school (where the mother worked), I remembered her well and was (and remain) deeply shaken. Her funeral was last Friday, and my colleague (who had previously 

SI&A Cabinet Report – Disproportionality in special ed poses new federal hazard to districts

SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources:

Disproportionality in special ed poses new federal hazard to districts

Print this article

Disproportionality in special ed poses new federal hazard to districts
By Tom Chorneau
Monday, October 15, 2012

More aggressive federal attention to schools potentially mislabeling minority children as disabled has created an operational headache this fall for nearly 50 California districts, with another big cohort targeted for sanctioning next year.

In fact, the push from the U.S. Department of Education’s special education unit to seek out and remedy instances of racial disproportionality in California’s K-12 special education programs is likely to become an ongoing hazard for districts to navigate, rivaling the pitfalls posed by the performance benchmarks mandated under the No Child Left Behind Act.

At issue are long-standing concerns that minority students are more frequently identified than white students as having emotional or mental disabilities.

A 2007 memo to states from the director of federal special education programs noted that more minority children 

Students Last: Who Should Be More Insulted? Let the Courts Decide

Students Last: Who Should Be More Insulted? Let the Courts Decide:

Who Should Be More Insulted? Let the Courts Decide

by Students Last

Los Angeles - Ann Coulter has filed a lawsuit against writer Jeff Bryant alleging defamation of character. The offending comment by Bryant appeared in a recently authored piece for "Campaign for America's Future" in which he referred to Founder and CEO of Students First Michelle Rhee as "a sort of - 'education Ann Coulter.'"

At a press conference Coulter's attorney, Max Dewey explained his client's lawsuit as follows, "Throughout her career, Ms. Coulter has been called some pretty foul names but to compare her to Michelle Rhee exceeds even the lowest of journalistic integrity levels."

No doubt when Mr. Bryant wrote the article entitled, "Michelle Rhee Misreads 'Shift Among Democrats' On Education" he expected to stir the education policy pot. After all, he describes Rhee as a "lobbyist" and shill for 

Daily Kos: Bus tour with teacherken - the Greed Agenda and education

Daily Kos: Bus tour with teacherken - the Greed Agenda and education:

Bus tour with teacherken - the Greed Agenda and education

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

Crossposted from Education Votes of the National Education Association for whom I was an embedded blogger aboard the Stop the Greed Agenda Bus Tour of Patriot Majority
Now that the Stop the Greed Agenda Bus Tour is complete, I want to take this occasion to try to reflect upon the Greed Agenda in the context of public education, and to explore in a bit of depth the issue of cyber charter schools, a key component of that Agenda.
The American Legislative Exchange Council has long had a strong focus on education, with an emphasis on things like vouchers and “school choice.”  Its current (17th ) Report Card on Public Education lists states by their rank on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) (often called the Nation’s Report Card and produced by the National Center for Educational Statistics), as well as by its own set of criteria, which

ranks states from A to F based on education reform policies including academic standards, school choice programs, charter schools, online learning, and that state’s ability to hire good teachers and fire bad ones

It will not surprise you that ALEC’s rankings favor states with stronger restrictions on unions and fewer on charters. Although since the rankings combine multiple factors heavily unionized California appears in the top ten while right to work Alabama is in the bottom 5.Please keep reading below the fold

Peg with Pen: Teaching President Obama the Conditions for Learning

Peg with Pen: Teaching President Obama the Conditions for Learning:

Teaching President Obama the Conditions for Learning

by Peggy

Dear President Obama,

I am done pleading with you.  I am writing due to my great respect for Diane Ravitch, who has requested that everyone write to you by October 17^th.  I am going to use this opportunity to teach you something, as it appears your administration is very uneducated regarding real teaching and real learning.  I want to share the Conditions for Learning by Brian Cambourne. Teachers know and implement CFL in their classrooms on a daily basis – that is, they attempt to implement CFL in their classrooms, yet it is increasingly difficult under the crushing Race to the Top policies your administration has implemented with the zealous support of billionaires and a sell-out mainstream media.

As I share it, I would like you to visualize a child, named Josh, who is living in poverty. He is fictitious but he is based on many children I have taught. Imagine a child unclean, wearing the same shirt many days in a row, 

Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Week Four – Six 2012

Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Week Four – Six 2012:

Week Four – Six 2012

by alicemercer

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted, and for that I apologize. My extra-curricular calendar has grown during election season. In addition I’m on a district committee of site leaders related to Common Core (more on that in another post). We’re wrapping up our first unit of language arts and other subjects this week and next.

Math Exchange

This class is my biggest challenge. I keep my most challenging students, and add a batch of talkative/attention-challenged kids from the other two classes. Mixed in are a bunch of obedient, but quiet types, some of whom need help but are shy to ask for it. This week was the piece-de-resistance though. Thursday was really awful, while I had a parent observing, then came Friday. I discovered on Thursday that the kids did not have as good