Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:

More Resources On Different Cultures

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 9 hours ago

Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures (I’m also add that entire “The Best” list to The Best Geography Sites For Beginning & Intermediate English Language Learners): Chinese families’ worldly goods … Continue reading →

“Quicklinkr” Looks Like It Could Be Useful For Many Purposes

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 9 hours ago

Quicklinkr lets you very easily collect websites, images, videos, etc — without requiring registration. They are shown with screenshots, and you can put them into “folders.” It appears you have to register if you want to come back to edit … Continue reading →

More Resources On The Presidential Election

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 10 hours ago

Here are the newest additions to The Best Resources For Learning About The 2012 U.S. Presidential Election: BBC poll: Rest of world favours Obama is from The BBC. Obama-Romney foreign policy debate: Mapping the mentions – interactive comes from The … Continue reading →

Today’s Halloween Update

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 10 hours ago

Here are the newest additions to The Best Websites For Learning About Halloween: Here’s a complete collection of Halloween resources from The New York Times Learning Network. Zombie pumpkins invade New York’s Botanical Garden is a video from the BBC.

Resources About The Hajj

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 10 hours ago

Millions of Muslims make the annual pilgrimage, called the Hajj, to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Because the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar based on the motion of the moon, the time of the Hajj is different time each year … Continue reading →

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Billionaires jump into Louisiana school board race. Why?

Schooling in the Ownership Society: Billionaires jump into Louisiana school board race. Why?:

Billionaires jump into Louisiana school board race. Why?

by Mike Klonsky

An  article in the Oct. 17 Nation by  Matthew Cunningham-Cook, asks the question, "Why Do Some of America's Wealthiest Individuals Have Fingers in Louisiana's Education System?"

As Naomi Klein detailed in The Shock Doctrine, post-Katrina New Orleans has been Ground Zero for efforts to privatize schools and weaken teacher unions—hallmarks of education reform. After the hurricane, the vast majority of New Orleans public schools were taken over by the states’ Recovery School District—the district that was subsequently headed by John White. Nearly all of the city’s 7,500 public school employees were fired, although a few were later rehired. The post-Katrina shock also saw the advent of a limited voucher 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: The Stranger Explains the "Property Tax Swap"

Seattle Schools Community Forum: The Stranger Explains the "Property Tax Swap":

The Stranger Explains the "Property Tax Swap"

by Melissa Westbrook

I have been desperate to get a thread on this issue because both McKenna and Inslee have been talking about it (along with Rep Carlyle and Rep Hunter) but pulling it altogether was going to be a task.  Enter Goldy with a good article (and a chart!).  It pretty much completes what I thought - Seattle and other "wealthier" districts would get less.

My understanding of the property tax swap is that it would phase out levy equalization and yet, wealthier districts would STILL be subsidizing poorer ones.  I am all for equity but when every single district in this state is cash-strapped, it seems unfair.

Read on and tell me your thoughts. 

The Property Tax Swap (or "State & Local Property Tax Shift" as it is more technically known) is also the only 

Wherever The DREAM May Lead Us [An Education For All] | The Jose Vilson

Wherever The DREAM May Lead Us [An Education For All] | The Jose Vilson:

Wherever The DREAM May Lead Us [An Education For All]

by Jose

DREAM girl

Recently, the conversation around the use of the word “illegal immigrant” came to a precipice when the New York Times’ public editor said there was nothing wrong with using the phrase. Writers like Jose Antonio Vargas and institutions like Univision chimed in, and rightly so. “Illegal immigrant” suggests that the immigrant themselves is illegal. The very term suggests that these men, women, and children who migrate live an existence of illegality, whereas “undocumented worker,” the better alternative, suggests that the person crossing the border actually works here but has not (yet) filled out all the forms to become a full American citizen. The former puts the burden of proof on the individual, whereas the latter highlights a systemic issue.
We still have discussions about students in this situations in black and white terms. Either they all leave or they 

H.R.6556: Campus Safety for Children Act of 2012 - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress

H.R.6556: Campus Safety for Children Act of 2012 - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress:

H.R.6556 - Campus Safety for Children Act of 2012

To amend the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, and for other purposes.view all titles (2)

• Overview
• Actions & Votes
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Bill's Views

• Today:1
• Past Seven Days:9
• All-Time:45

Introduced

House Passes

Senate Passes

President Signs

09/20/12

Official Bill TextComment on about 1 Pages

Sponsor

Representative

Debbie Wasserman Schultz

D-FL

No Co-Sponsors

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• House Education and the Workforce

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• Teaching, teachers, curricula
• Sex offenses

Data via Congressional Research ServiceView all Issues (8 more)

Group promoting Idaho schools reform wants disclosure case moved to federal court | OregonLive.com

Group promoting Idaho schools reform wants disclosure case moved to federal court | OregonLive.com:

Group promoting Idaho schools reform wants disclosure case moved to federal court

by The Associated Press

BOISE -- A group seeking to avoid being forced to reveal donors whose $200,000 financed TV ads promoting public schools chief Tom Luna's education overhaul filed a request Thursday to move the case to federal court. 

The effort by Education Voters of Idaho came just hours before a state judge in Boise is scheduled Friday to consider Secretary of State Ben Ysursa's demand that the group disclose its donors. 

Education Voters of Idaho, whose founders include Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter's campaign manager, Debbie Field, and former Gov. Dirk Kempthorne's chief of staff, Phil Reberger, contributed more than $200,350 to a related political action committee, Parents for Education Reform, for broadcast advertising meant to help save the 

 Beware of AstroTurf Ed Reformers 

Just Like Michelle Rhee's Students first only BETTER

Astroturf lobbying refers to political organizations or campaigns that appear to be made up of grassroots activists but are actually organized and run by corporate interests seeking to further their own agendas. Such groups are often typified by innocent-sounding names that have been chosen specifically to disguise the group's true backers

Just Like Michelle Rhee's

 Students first Astroturf lobbying (only Better) 

Other Astroturf lobbying groups

Just Like Michelle Rhee's

 Students first Astroturf lobbying (only Better) 

five elements to help redefine public ed « Cooperative Catalyst

five elements to help redefine public ed « Cooperative Catalyst:

five elements to help redefine public ed

by monika hardy

Our latest post on dmlcentral.net, five elements we believe are key to redefining public ed in a community (the chapters of our little book). Click here to read the rest of the post.

Tension flare as officials defend their school support systems | GothamSchools

Tension flare as officials defend their school support systems | GothamSchools:

Tension flare as officials defend their school support systems

by Rachel Cromidas

Councilman Jackson waives at Shael Polakow-Suransky (far right) during a hearing on the networks.

Facing criticism that the Department of Education does not hold the organizations responsible for supporting schools accountable for their success, Chief Academic Officer Shael Polakow-Suransky told members of the City Council today that the opposite is true.
In fact, he said during a heated hearing about the department’s network support structure, he has changed the leadership of 15 of the department’s 55 networks.
“Fifteen of those [former network leaders] are people that I did not have confidence in and we wanted someone to do better,” Polakow-Suranksy told the city council members during a lengthy hearing. ”There is very clear accountability.”
That revelation was one of many data points he and other top officials shared this afternoon at a City Council 

Sign our Petition: Stop disclosing confidential student information to corporations without parental consent! | Class Size Matters Sign our Petition: Stop disclosing confidential student information to corporations without parental consent! | A clearinghouse for information on class size & the proven benefits of smaller classes

Sign our Petition: Stop disclosing confidential student information to corporations without parental consent! | Class Size Matters Sign our Petition:  the proven benefits of smaller classes:

Sign our Petition: Stop disclosing confidential student information to corporations without parental consent!

The letter Norman sent Friday to the Attorney General and the Regents on behalf of Class Size Matters and other parent groups is posted here. A background memo on these issues is here. I don’t think it is an overstatement to say this whole project represents perhaps the most serious erosion of privacy in our nation’s history.

New York State, along with Colorado, Illinois and Massachusetts, intends to provide confidential student information to a private corporation called the Shared Learning Collaborative, funded by the Gates Foundation, which in turn will make this data available to for-profit companies to develop and market their commercial learning products. 

This confidential data will include student names, addresses, test scores, grades, attendance, economic and special education status, IEPs, and disciplinary records. All this is being done without parents’ knowledge or consent, and represents a shocking violation of our children’s right to privacy.

Four more states have said they will soon follow in phase II: Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky and Louisiana, and the Gates Foundation is soliciting even more states to join in.  ( For more on this, seehere and here.)

Please sign our petition below, asking the NY State Attorney General and the Board of Regents to prevent these unprecedented disclosures from occurring, until public hearings are held and parents are given the right to withhold their children’s confidential data.

Feel free to add your comments or edit the words in the petition; and be sure to click the box below if you want updates on this critical threat to our children’s privacy.

click here

Sign Our Petition

Tell decision-makers to stop sharing confidential student data with corporations

Board of Regents reinstates illegal salaries for two top Vice Presidents - Wait, What?

Board of Regents reinstates illegal salaries for two top Vice Presidents - Wait, What?:

Board of Regents reinstates illegal salaries for two top Vice Presidents

by jonpelto

(Or, after translating that to English, read – have these people lost their collective minds?)

Everyone knows that without an educated workforce, Connecticut’s economic future is somewhere between non-functioning and non-existent.

So despite running for office on a platform of increasing funding for public high education, one of the first things Governor Malloy did was push through the deepest cuts in state history for Connecticut’s public colleges and universities, cuts that, in turn, lead to higher tuition and fees.

Then Governor Malloy pushed through an ill-conceived, counter-productive, merger of the Connecticut State University and the Connecticut Community and Technical College 

From Ken Previti, Pension Advocate. « Fred Klonsky

From Ken Previti, Pension Advocate. « Fred Klonsky:

From Ken Previti, Pension Advocate.

by Fred Klonsky

Today’s business section of the New York Times has an article that mentions all of our pensions being cut in this manner: “Time appears to be running out for a relatively painless fiscal reform, the task force said.”
I deeply resent having our reduced retirement incomes and other measures described by billionaires as “relatively painless fiscal reform.”
Our incomes – relatively painless fiscal reform.
The article has multiple presuppositions (huge fiscal problems at the state and local level are 

NYC study: 10 years of choice has not altered 'demography as destiny' | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

NYC study: 10 years of choice has not altered 'demography as destiny' | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

NYC study: 10 years of choice has not altered 'demography as destiny'

by Dale Mezzacappa on Oct 25 2012 Posted in Latest news

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Tags:

• racial equity
 
• school choice

With Philadelphia firmly committed to creating a "portfolio" of schools as a way to improve outcomes for all students, it seemed worthwhile to take note of a study just released by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University.

It found that after 10 years of school choice and expanding high school options in New York City, "college readiness rates are still largely predicted by the demographics of a student's home neighborhood." It concludes, "choice has not been sufficient to increase systemic equity of opportunity."

This study focused on high schools, whereas Philadelphia's school choice initiative extends through the K-12 spectrum. There are other ways in which New York and Philadelphia are not directly comparable.

But there are nevertheless ways in which these findings might offer guidance to Philadelphia, where policymakers and civic leaders are determined to alter the "demography is destiny" scenario - to close the so-called achievement gap - 

Democurmudgeon: Milwaukee's Voucher Program Disaster; 90.1% not proficient in Reading and 88% not proficient in Math.

Democurmudgeon: Milwaukee's Voucher Program Disaster; 90.1% not proficient in Reading and 88% not proficient in Math.:

Milwaukee's Voucher Program Disaster; 90.1% not proficient in Reading and 88% not proficient in Math.

by Democurmudgeon

In Scott Walker's latest weekly address, he listed "Transforming Education" as one of his top priorities. What does that mean? What else could he do? Would he expand vouchers where no ones wants school "choice?" Sure.

But Walker will now have a more difficult job pushing his privatization plans after the horrific results of the countries longest running voucher program:

jsonline: Based on a new and tougher yardstick for academic competency in Wisconsin, about 

A call to action on the No on Initiative 1240 campaign and a video | Seattle Education

A call to action on the No on Initiative 1240 campaign and a video | Seattle Education:

A call to action on the No on Initiative 1240 campaign and a video

by seattleducation2011

Charter School Fairy Tales
What do we want? DIRECT VOTER CONTACT! When do we want it? NOW!
Help People for Our Public Schools reach voters this week and tell them to vote NO on I-1240! To paraphrase Mr. Rogers, YOU are the only YOU there is. And we need YOU to help us now!!
1. Phone bank – THIS WEEK, Thursday Oct 25 from 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. at our office in Seattle, 1914 N. 34th Street, Suite 209.  Call (206) 545-1240 to RSVP.
Also, mark your calendars with these upcoming phone bank dates: Monday Oct 29, Tuesday Oct 30th, Thursday Nov 1, and Monday Nov 5th. We will also offer an option to pick up a phone list and call from the comfort of your own home! Contact us for more details: (206) 545-1240.
2. Doorbelling – This weekend we will meet in Greenwood in front of Georgia’s Greek Restaurant, 323 NW 85th