Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee: ‘Guns have no place in schools’:

Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee: ‘Guns have no place in schools’

Posted by Valerie Strauss on December 19, 2012 at 4:00 am

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Here is a memo that national education reformer Michelle Rhee wrote to the staff of her advocacy organization, StudentsFirst, in the wake of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. In the memo she refers to Senate Bill 59 in Michigan, which would have allowed concealed weapons on school grounds, but Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed it on Tuesday.

MEMO

TO:        SF Staff

FROM:  Michelle

DATE:   December 18, 2012

RE:        Gun Control Laws

As an education reform organization, we try hard to remain singularly focused on those issues that directly affect student achievement, and to abstain from broader policy debates and political discussions that are 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Schools Capacity Management Work Sesson Recs

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Schools Capacity Management Work Sesson Recs:

Seattle Schools Capacity Management Work Sesson Recs

by Melissa Westbrook

The presentation for this Board Work Session tomorrow has been posted.  It's quite interesting.  I note at last night's Capacity meeting for the NE, it was stated that FACMAC would have their recs tomorrow.

It's odd because one page is labeled "Development of Recommended Options" and lists input from FACMAC but clearly FACMAC's recommendations are not part of this presentation because they aren't even out yet.

Okay, wait a minute.  Page 8 DOES have  FACMAC recommendations.  Confusing.  I do not see any link to the complete FACMAC recommendations.

Under Community Feedback:

• mixed support for repurposing PCP spaces
• portables?  A surprising amount of support
• move grade cohorts?  largely not supported
• maintaining transportation grandfathering?  Mostly supported but I think this is a complete sell job to the 

Update on Applying/Nominating for Charter Commission

by Melissa Westbrook

As promised, here's the info for applying via Speaker Frank Chopp (one of the three people to select the Charter Commission).

It's basically the same as the Lt. Governor's office - write/e-mail them to self-nominate or to nominate someone.  If you are self-nominating, give full details about your background (both personal and professional that might be pertinent) as well as your resume.  If you are nominating someone else, maybe be sure that they want to be nominated so that they can send in their resume if asked for one.

339C Legislative Building
PO Box 40600
Olympia, WA 98504-0600

frank.chopp@leg.wa.gov

Louisiana Educator: Act 1 Ruling Helpful in Restoring Teacher and School Board Rights

Louisiana Educator: Act 1 Ruling Helpful in Restoring Teacher and School Board Rights:

Act 1 Ruling Helpful in Restoring Teacher and School Board Rights

by Michael Deshotels

Congratulations to the Louisiana Federation of Teachers for winning a partial victory against some of the anti-teacher legislation passed by the Jindal administration. The ruling by Judge Caldwell removes the provision of Act 1 that would have denied teacher seniority rights based upon a negative rating on the new Act 54 evaluation system. Another part of this court ruling also returns the right of school boards to make employment decisions. The judge also denied John White the right to tamper with local superintendent contracts.

Unfortunately the teacher tenure law remains mostly gutted, in that the new tenure procedure left in tact by the ruling no longer guarantees a fair hearing process to teachers recommended for dismissal. But by retaining the rights of school boards to make the final decision on dismissals, the ruling does give teachers some opportunity to appeal an unfair dismissal. This was the whole reason for tenure in the first place; not to protect incompetent 

Kimble's Corner: President Lightning

Kimble's Corner: President Lightning:

President Lightning

by Representative Kimble

The success of Profiles in Courageousness has made many readers ask me what my next project will be.  I am actually currently working on a screenplay for a movie that I am tentatively calling President Lighting.  It takes place during the 1936 Berlin Olympics and it's a piece of historical fiction.  Or is it?

In 1935, the Nazis worried about being embarrassed at the Berlin Olympics the next year kidnap Jesse Owens.   It looks like they will be unstoppable in track and field until a crippled President and a discredited ex-President from the other party team up to take it to Hitler.   He was born to lead, but he was made to run.   They call him President Lightning.   Here's an excerpt.

[INT - THE OVAL OFFICE]

FDR is in his power blue track suit sitting behind his desk in the Oval Office.   He is smoking a cigarette and he 

Jersey Jazzman: Bushmaster Charter School

Jersey Jazzman: Bushmaster Charter School:

Bushmaster Charter School

by Duke

Another awesome and reformy portrait in courage:

Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed a bill this afternoon that would have allowed gun owners with extra training to carry their concealed weapons in schools, day care centers, churches and stadiums.

In his veto letter sent to the Legislature shortly before 4 p.m.,Snyder said the bill had a fatal loophole that didn’t allow for those institutions to opt out of the new legislation and prohibit weapons from their buildings. 

“I believe that it is important that these public institutions have clear legal authority to ban weapons from their 

Keeping My Students Safe Isn’t Easy « Cooperative Catalyst

Keeping My Students Safe Isn’t Easy « Cooperative Catalyst:

Keeping My Students Safe Isn’t Easy

by Deven Black

I want to keep my students safe, I really do, but it really is impossible.
When it comes to student and staff safety, there are so many things wrong with the way my school is built and run that I don’t know where to begin.
Our principal reminded the staff again this week that only the front door should be used for entrance and exit, so let’s start there.
It is unlocked. Anyone can walk up the three steps, open the door, and be in the building. Anyone. Delivery people, parents, job applicants, former students. Anyone. Why not a shooter?
Up three more steps and our shooter is in the lobby facing our security desk. Most of the time we have an 

Jersey Jazzman: Why Do Teachers Hate America?

Jersey Jazzman: Why Do Teachers Hate America?:

Why Do Teachers Hate America?

by Duke

Our American Education Conversation

A Play in One Act

by Jersey Jazzman

(curtain opens)

TEACHER: "I'm tired of being blamed for so many of our society's problems! I'm tired of my union being called "thugs!" We teachers are doing a good job! Why does everyone think our unions and tenure are so bad? Those teachers who died in Newtown are heroes, and they belonged to unions, and the senior ones had tenure! They were career teachers who dedicated their lives to education; they literally gave their lives to their students!

"Most teachers are good people trying to do a hard job. Stop attacking us!"

REFORMYIST: "You're reprehensible! Why do you hate America?"

(lights down - curtain)

THE END

TEACHERS ORGANIZE TO CONFRONT LAUSD WITCH HUNT - Perdaily.com

TEACHERS ORGANIZE TO CONFRONT LAUSD WITCH HUNT - Perdaily.com:

TEACHERS ORGANIZE TO CONFRONT LAUSD WITCH HUNT

by Leonard Isenberg

(Mensaje se repite en Español)

There is an awareness that the war against teachers at the top of the salary scale, about to vest in lifetime health benefits, or who just stand up for high academic standards for all is not going to stop unless teachers and those who support them do something about it.

Since Miramonte, LAUSD has used this regrettable and avoidable event to defame teachers, while giving a pass to the administrators that turned a blind eye to this and other crimes that they allowed to take place as long as there was blind support for the LAUSD cult of power.

COME TOGETHER AND SUPPORT TEACHERS...AND YOURSELVES.

Saturday December 22 

4459 Eagle Rock Blvd

Eagle Rock Ca  90041

from 6 to midnight

Holiday Fundraiser to Support Teachers

and Raise Awareness of Unfairly Targeted Teachers

aka Teacher Jails aka Rubber Rooms

Join Us as we get together to support 

teachers and stand in solidarity to seek 

fairness and justice for  those who work 

with our children on a daily basis.

Come together to learn and share what 

never seems to make it into the 

mainstream media.

Pizza and Burgers at 

Northeast L.A.

Eagle Rock All Star Lanes

Saturday December 22 

4459 Eagle Rock Blvd

Eagle Rock Ca  90041

from 6 to midnight

(on Eagle Rock Blvd near 

the York Blvd Intersection)

$10.00 Donation 

Raffle Included

Music and Karaoke to follow

food and mix and mingle

Dont miss it. 

If you or someone you know has been targeted and are in the process of being dismissed and need legal defense, get in touch:

Lenny@perdaily.com

 En Español

School Tech Connect: Reading Between The Gun Control Lines

School Tech Connect: Reading Between The Gun Control Lines:

Reading Between The Gun Control Lines

When I was a young pup, I used to go to the NEA Representative Assemblies and wonder at why on earth the delegates would be arguing over positions related to all of these "outside" issues--- it frustrated me as a young person. I used to think that education was this thing that you could isolate, and that there was no need to vote about statements regarding poverty, women's rights, gun control, criminal justice, or whatever. Whatever the issue was, it seemed to me, sooner or later the NEA-RA would vote on it.

It all seemed so crazy lefty to me.  It all sounded like something the Rob Reiner character on The Archie Bunker Show would have come up with, and I couldn't stand that guy's mustache. It really bothered me. It still does, in fact.

Then time passed, and I grew up, and I started to see how everything plays out in the classroom and that while I might want to work in a vacuum, I don't. There's an entire speech that goes with this paragraph, but I'm sure you already can guess most of it.

So, I'm interested to see that Michele Rhee has chimed in on gun control. Go ahead, read the whole thing.

I'm pleased to say that I agree with her. I, too, am opposed to SB 59 in Michigan. However, the truth of the matter is that you really 

Bigger, Better and Beyond the Book? | Truth in American Education

Bigger, Better and Beyond the Book? | Truth in American Education:

Bigger, Better and Beyond the Book?

by Shane Vander Hart

I was introduced to Dr. Rozlyn Linder’s blog today by a friend.  She the K-12 District Literacy Specialist in Douglasville, GA and an avid advocate of the Common Core State Standards.  Today she opined that those of us who are critics of the Common Core, in particular, the ELA standards are uninformed and we need to read the standards.

She wrote:

As a proponent of the critical analysis shift demanded by Common Core I regularly speak out about the divergence from teaching the canon and centering all instruction on works of fiction. As I read blogs and posts I have finally come to realize that there is a serious misconception about what it means to teach skills rather than text. Battle lines are being drawn that demand that teachers get on fictions side or the oh, so, awful side of informational text. This fierce call to battle is misguided and ironically built on a failure to read—the actual Common Core standards.

I agree.  Read the standards.

The topic of concern for many of us is the chart 

Fight for the Soul of the Common Core Standards | The IDEA Blog

Fight for the Soul of the Common Core Standards | The IDEA Blog:

Fight for the Soul of the Common Core Standards

Posted by Dana Bennis on Dec 18, 2012 - 06:15 AM

This is a guest blog post by Susan Sandler, who works at the Sandler Foundation and leads funding related to education policy as well as other areas.  Previously, Susan spent 17 years working for racial justice in education as an organizational leader, policy advocate, researcher, professional development provider, school therapist, teacher, and activist.  Susan is a member of the boards of directors for the Center for American Progress and El Puente.

Do the common core standards discourage teachers from making connections between academics and students’ lives?  When I first read the guiding materials for the standards, that’s what I thought it was saying.  I understood it to say that the proper way to teach students to read  was to ask them to leave at the classroom door everything they experienced and lived, so it wouldn’t interfere with analyzing the text.

But then I gave the materials more of a “close reading,” and I realized that I had misunderstood.  I was deeply concerned that many people would draw the same false conclusion that I had about the common core standards.  So I co-authored an article(requires subscription to view full text) to help get the word out.

My co-author, Zaretta Hammond, and I explain that whenever we think and learn we are always accessing and building on what we already know, and the more powerfully we make those connections, the better we learn.  And that means that everyone of 

January 15, 2013 Screening Committee Notice - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education)

January 15, 2013 Screening Committee Notice - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education):

CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

1430 N Street, Suite 5111
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-319-0827
Fax: 916-319-0175

SBE Screening Committee Members

Ilene Straus, Chair
Carl Cohn, Member
Bruce Holaday, Member
Aida Molina, Member

December 17, 2012

Meeting Notice:
Screening Committee of the State Board of Education

Tuesday, January 15, 2013, commencing at 1:00 p.m.

State Board of Education Conference Room
California State Board of Education Office
1430 “N” Street, Room 5111
Sacramento, California
916-319-0826

The purpose of this meeting is to review applications and conduct interviews of candidates for appointment to the Title I Committee of Practitioners and Advisory Commission on Special Education.

Agenda

1. Call to order
    
2. Welcome and Introductions
    
3. Interviews for Title I Committee of Practitioners
    
4. Public Comment
    
5. Interviews for Advisory Commission on Special Education
    
6. Public Comment
    
7. Adjournment

---

ALL TIMES ARE APPROXIMATE AND ARE PROVIDED FOR CONVENIENCE ONLY
THE ORDER OF BUSINESS MAY BE CHANGED WITHOUT NOTICE

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION FOR ANY INDIVIDUAL WITH A DISABILITY

Pursuant to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, any individual with a disability who requires reasonable accommodation to attend or participate in a meeting or function of the California State Board of Education (SBE), may request assistance by contacting the SBE Office, 1430 N Street, Room 5111, Sacramento, CA, 95814; telephone at 916-319-0705; facsimile at 916-319-0175.

---

For more information concerning this agenda, please contact Lisa Hopkins, Office Technician, California State Board of Education, at 1430 N Street, Room 5111, Sacramento, CA, 95814; telephone at 916-319-0826; facsimile at 916-319-0175.This agenda is posted on the State Board of Education's Web site.

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Asperger's Syndrome

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Asperger's Syndrome:

Asperger's Syndrome

by Melissa Westbrook

The Newtown shooter was said to have Asperger's Syndrome which is on the spectrum of autism.  These people are considered the high-functioning end of that spectrum (even as they face very real and distinct challenges.)

One thing to make clear - Asperger's is NOT mental illness.  It is a neurobiological condition.  While some mental illness, like schziophrenia, does have a biological basis, Asperger's is not defined in that category.

After saying that, based on my own personal experience with Asperger's, I suspect the shooter DID have mental health issues in addition to his Asperger's.  It may have been depression, anxiety or bio-polar.

From news reports, it seems clear that he was did have a diagnosis of Asperger's and his high school knew about it.  His mother had to come to the school sometimes if he was having issues.  But all reports were that he kept to himself, that staff watched over him, the other kids were generally nice to him and that there was no evidence he was bullied.

(Indeed, Aspies are far more likely to be bullied or be victims of crime than be violent.  They can get easily 

Schools Matter: Education Reform, 1844

Schools Matter: Education Reform, 1844:

Education Reform, 1844

by Storm

An audio recording of this excerpt from "New England Reformers" by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1844) read by Douglas Storm.

The same insatiable criticism may be traced in the efforts for the reform of Education. The popular education has been taxed with a want of truth and nature. It was complained that an education to things was not given. We are students of words: we are shut up in schools, and colleges, and recitation-rooms, for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing. We cannot use our hands, or our legs, or our eyes, or our arms. We do not know an edible root in the woods, we cannot tell our course by the stars, nor the hour of the day by the sun. It is well if we can swim and skate. We are afraid of a horse, of a cow, of a dog, of a snake, of a spider. The Roman rule was, to teach a boy nothing that he could not learn standing. The old English rule was, 'All summer in the field, and all winter in the study.' And it seems as if a man should learn to plant, or to fish, or to hunt, that he might secure his subsistence at all events, and not be painful to his friends and fellow men. The lessons of science should be experimental also. The sight of the planet through a 

Making Schools Safer in the Wake of Sandy Hook

Making Schools Safer in the Wake of Sandy Hook:

Making Schools Safer in the Wake of Sandy Hook

by Sam

As policymakers prepare to find the best way to respond to the tragedy in Newtown, educators and parents across the country are left to wonder – what can we do to make our schools safe?

The lessons of Sandy Hook Elementary School can help us answer that question in two ways – one that is uncomfortable, and one that is essential.

The uncomfortable truth of Sandy Hook is that there is nothing we can do to guarantee that our children are safe. Short of placing an iron dome over our school buildings or turning them into police bunkers, the only thing we can do is create spaces for children that are as safe and supportive as possible.  And so while it is encouraging that national policymakers are intent on addressing the larger aspects of American culture that make acts of mass violence like this all too common, the only things individual schools and communities can do are the sorts of things 

NEA and AFT: Let's Apply the Lessons of NCLB to the Common Core - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

NEA and AFT: Let's Apply the Lessons of NCLB to the Common Core - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

NEA and AFT: Let's Apply the Lessons of NCLB to the Common Core

by Anthony Cody

We learned this morning that:

The two national teachers' unions have won $11 million to build an online warehouse of instructional tools for the Common Core State Standards. Student Achievement Partners, whose founders led the writing of the standards, is also a grantee. It will work with the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association and their teachers to build the tools and post them on Student Achievement Partners' website.

Here we go again.
When No Child Left Behind came along in 2002, our unions were, for the most part, quiet about what was about to happen to our schools. We have learned since then the damage that can be done by ill-conceived reforms. NCLB has done the following things:

1. Resulted in thousands of schools being declared failures for low test scores.
2. Coerced schools and teachers into narrowing the curriculum, teaching to the test.

Schools Matter: With Common Core, "You start to see entire ecosystems of investment opportunity lining up…It could get really, really big."

Schools Matter: With Common Core, "You start to see entire ecosystems of investment opportunity lining up…It could get really, really big."

With Common Core, "You start to see entire ecosystems of investment opportunity lining up…It could get really, really big."

by Jim Horn

How does the growth of charter schools depend upon the Rotten Common Core?  See below.

Thanks to Stan Karp:

Latest Newark ‘performance report:’ blueprint for more closures/charters?

A new report & presentation from Newark State District Supt. Cami Anderson may lay the groundwork for more school closings, charter expansion, co-locations and staff firings. Anderson has already closed twelve schools during her 18-month tenure, leased district facilities to charters over the objection of the local school advisory board, and negotiated a new teachers contract that provides for “turnarounds” in up to 10 schools in each of the next three years. According to an NJ Spotlight story, Anderson said the new school performance report, “didn’t change any of her own reform strategies for the district, but rather helped ‘sharpen our goals.’

The new report was developed by the Parthenon consulting group, a Boston-based global management firm that identifies investment opportunities in education. Last summer, Parthenon executive Rob Lytle made a presentation on "private equity investing in for-profit education companies” to an elite group of investors in NYC. He told them the coming implementation of the common core standards and assessments would create a lucrative opportunity: “Think about the upcoming rollout of new national academic standards for public schools,