UPDATE: Park Ridge schools don’t pay a living wage + The in box. Illinois’ spending cuts hurt the state’s economy. | Fred Klonsky

The in box. Illinois’ spending cuts hurt the state’s economy. | Fred Klonsky:

The in box. No living wage at the high schools either.

by Fred Klonsky

Fred,
Unfortunately the same is pretty much true at the high school level. I worked at a wealthy south suburban high school where paraprofessionals, cafeteria workers, and school secretaries were in a union. The highest IMRF pension earned is $26,995 for 35 years of service. The notable exception was an executive secretary at the administrative center who coincidentally was married to the superintendent and not in the union because she supposedly handled “confidential” information. After 39 years her pension is over $71,000 while her husband, the superintendent, earns over $195,000 after 37 years of service. He’s the highest pension earner in my former district. I won’t even go into what happened to the former custodians and maintenance workers who worked for 

Park Ridge schools don’t pay a living wage.

by Fred Klonsky

An article in NEA Today describes little-known national scandal. And a local one.

Had Marianne Murray taken an entry-level job at a fast food restaurant instead of with West Aurora School District 129 in Illinois, she might be earning a living wage by now.
“At McDonald’s, I might have gone into management,” says Murray, an office assistant to the principal at West Aurora High School. “By now, who knows where I’d be.”
Murray’s 33-year marriage ended last year, leaving her with only one paycheck to cover 

The in box. Illinois’ spending cuts hurt the state’s economy.

by Fred Klonsky

From the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.

ANALYSIS OF ILLINOIS FISCAL YEAR 2014 BUDGET General Fund Spending Cuts Harm Illinois Many of the fiscal problems that have plagued Illinois over the last decade remain apparent in the FY2014 General Fund budget the Illinois General Assembly passed. As detailed in the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability’s analysis of the state’s recently enacted FY2014 General Fund budget (Available here), these problems include an accumulated deficit ranging from $8.4 – $8.9 billion, a failure to invest adequately in basic core services like educating our children or caring for vulnerable members of society, and an ongoing structural imbalance between General Fund revenue

The in box. Did you take part in the ’63 Chicago Freedom Day school boycott?

by Fred Klonsky

PopoutKartemquin Films is making a film on the 1963 Chicago Freedom Day school boycott.
Did you participate?
If you did, they want to hear your story.

63 Boycott chronicles the Chicago Public School Boycott of 1963 when more than 200,000 Chicagoans, mostly students, marched to protest the segregationist policies of CPS Superintendent Benjamin Willis, who placed mobile school units on playgrounds and parking lot

Tony at the Red Line Tap.

by Fred Klonsky

“Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout.”
“I’m out,” said Marty.
“Hmmm. Russian River Pliny the Younger.”
“Didn’t get a delivery.”
“Jesus Christ. How about a Närke Konjaks Stormaktsporter?”
“Bingo!” says Marty.
“Room temperature,” I asked?
“Room temperature,” said Marty.
“Where

Ten minute drawing. The Huberman Clause.

by Fred Klonsky

Click on image to enlarge.

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 6-10-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Breaking News: Texas Governor Signs Bill to Reduce Testing

by dianerav

In a huge victory for students, parents, educators, and local school boards, Governor Rick Perry signed HB5, a bill that reduces the quantity of state-mandated tests. Up until the last minute, activists were fearful he might veto it. But Perry deferred to the huge public outcry against high-stakes testing.
Here is a statement by TAMSA, known popularly as Moms Against Drunk Testing:
Dear TAMSA members:
Today at 12:30pm, House Bill 5 became law with Governor Perry’s signature. Texas public schools can now 

Teacher: Governor Walker’s Punitive Policies

by dianerav

A high school teacher in Wisconsin looks at what Governor Scott Walker and the state legislature have in store for public schools. It bears mentioning that Wisconsin public schools have the highest graduation rate in the nation.
He writes:
I teach at a wonderful high school in La Crosse, WI. Here is what is coming for us as an early Christmas

For-Profit Operator in Ohio Wins Big Increase

by dianerav

David Brennan of White Hat Management operates a few dozen mostly low-performing charter schools for profit in Ohio. Since 1999, he has collected nearly $1 billion for his operations, which include virtual charters. Oh, yes, he is also a major contributor to Republicans, especially Governor John Kasich and legislative leaders. In budget

Jay Matthews: Why the Common Core Standards Will Fail

by dianerav

Jay Mathews writes a regular blog about education for the Washington Post. He has been writing about education for decades. His most recent book celebrates KIPP. He has been the guiding force behind the idea of ranking high schools by the number of students who take AP courses. One of the things I like best about him is that he changes his mind when the evidence changes. He gets enthusiastic about big ideas, but is willing to 

Camins: Two Roads Diverged in a Wood…..

by dianerav

“Two roads diverged in a wood,” begins one of Robert Frost’s most famous poems.
Arthur Camins wrote in 2011 about the fateful choice confronting American education. In 2011, he wrote:
“U.S. education is at a transformational moment. The choices we make will determine whether our schools become collaborative and democratic or prescriptive and authoritarian. The policies proposed by the federal government for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will create some good 

Is It Possible to Do the Wrong Thing in the Right Way?

by dianerav

Here is a puzzlement (as the king said in “The King and I”).
Is there a right way to do something that is inherently wrong?
I think that it is wrong to judge “teacher quality” by student test scores.
Doing so undermines the quality of education.
It narrows the curriculum only to what is tested.
It encourages districts and states to attempt to test subjects that cannot be

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG Diane Ravitch's blog 6-8-13 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG 

DIANE RAVITCH'S BLOG

Diane in the Evening 6-9-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 10 minutes ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Schneider: Jindal in Hot Water in Legislature by dianerav Mercedes Schneider summarizes what happened to education bills in the Louisiana legislature this session. The good news is that the legislature is no longer rolling over for Jindal. Some of the damage of last year was undone by the courts and the legislature. Most surprising was the enactment of a “reverse parent trigger,” allowing charter parents to return their school to the district *LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 6-9-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discus... more »

Too big to certify: The Paul Vallas and Stefan Pryor Story - Wait, What?

Too big to certify: The Paul Vallas and Stefan Pryor Story - Wait, What?:

Too big to certify: The Paul Vallas and Stefan Pryor Story

by jonpelto

In Connecticut, your child’s school teacher must be certified by the State Department of Education.  Their guidance counselor must be certified.  Their school nurse must be certified.  Their school principal must be certified. The coach of their school sports team must be certified.

In fact, in order to serve as a school teacher or administrator in a Connecticut public school you must hold one or more of the certifications provided by the Education Department.  That is unless you are a “public” charter school.  Thanks to a $100,000 a year lobbying contract, charter schools managed to convince our elected officials, a few years back, to pass legislation that allows them to only have 70% of their staff certified.

But for the rest of us, the law is clear – 100% of the teachers and administrators must be certified.  You can find the all the various types of certification at the end of this blog post.

Where the National Security Agency isn’t so secret: Schools:

Where the National Security Agency isn’t so secret: Schools

By Valerie Strauss, Published: June 10, 2013 at 4:00 amE-mail the writer

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(www.nsa.gov)

The National Security Agency is the super-secret organization that has beenin the news because of disclosures that it has, for years, been conducting U.S. surveillance programs. But in at least one area, the NSA hasn’t tried to be so secret:schools.

The work of the NSA is based on highly advanced math, and the agency is the largest employer of mathematicians in the country. To advance its interest in seeing that more students graduate with high-level skills to do the kind of cryptological work done at the agency, it has outreach programs for students at every grade level.

The agency’s Web site provides the details, including a kids’ section called “America’s Cryptokids: Future Codemakers and Codebreakers.”

There is an entire academia section with links to programs that include:

What’s An Education Thought Leader? | My Island View

What’s An Education Thought Leader? | My Island View:

What’s An Education Thought Leader?

by tomwhitby

The position of education thought leader is not a job that someone applies for. There is no “thought leader certification”, nor is there a license required for the position. It is also not a job that one applies for. It is a title bestowed upon someone by other educators. For many years the quickest path to become an education thought leader was to become an author on an education topic. There were also speaker bureaus that would, for a fee, supply education thought leaders as inspirational, or keynote speakers at conferences or schools. Administrators attending large conferences would often return to their districts with the names of thought leaders that they had met or listened to for the purpose of bringing them into their own district to inspire or teach their faculty.
The process was fairly simple and understood by the people who controlled the policies and purse strings that secured the thought leaders for their speaking gigs. This was the way it was done for a long time until the computer slowly replaced the publishers’ self appointed position as the “determiner” of the thought leaders. The leaders group was not a large group, and very slow to grow. Consequently, it was possible to see the same 

“Education Will Break Your Heart” (Alex Russo) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

“Education Will Break Your Heart” (Alex Russo) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

“Education Will Break Your Heart” (Alex Russo)

by larrycuban

This is the season of commencement speeches. Most are forgettable but a few go beyond the familiar homilies of this annual ritual. Alexander Russo wrote  about one that triggered many thoughts about my half-century involvement in school reform. Russo is a journalist who publishes “This Week in Education.” He also wrote about the turning around of Los Angeles’s Locke high school in “Stray Dogs, Saints, and Saviors:Fighting for the Soul of  America’s Toughest High School.”
The best and most important commencement speech of the year was given by author Jonathan Franzen, not Conan O’Brian or Stephen Colbert. Franzen’s remarks at Kenyon College in Ohio were witty and smart like those of Conan and Colbert, but they were also much more intensely personal and human — and more powerful as a result. Even more importantly, they contained a message of great importance for educators and school reformers about how to tolerate such a daunting, heartbreaking endeavor.
In his speech, which the New York Times thought good enough to publish as an op-ed, Franzen delves into a key but usually unexamined issue around us: the psychological challenges of caring deeply about an issue that may or may not seem interesting or relevant or fixable to the rest of the world, and that may (probably) break our 

Jersey Jazzman: Jonah Rockoff Testifies at NJBOE: Part II

Jersey Jazzman: Jonah Rockoff Testifies at NJBOE: Part II:

Jonah Rockoff Testifies at NJBOE: Part II

by Duke

Here's Part I of this series: Rockoff talks teachers and baseball.

Let's get back to Jonah Rockoff's testimony at the NJ State Board of Education.

Popout

Rockoff's most famous piece of research is a paper he coauthored with Raj Chetty and John Friedman that was released last year: "THE LONG-TERM IMPACTS OF TEACHERS: TEACHER VALUE-ADDED AND STUDENT OUTCOMES IN ADULTHOOD" It is admittedly a fascinating piece of work, and I certainly wouldn't argue with its conclusions: teaching quality does matter and yields small but real and (somewhat) lasting effects in a student's life.

No, the problem with Chetty, Friedman, Rockoff isn't the paper itself; it's how the paper's conclusions were abused. As both Matt DiCarlo and Bruce Baker pointed out at the time - and as the paper itself cautioned - there was no reason, based on this study, for policy makers to start firing teachers based on their value-added scores. 

NYC Educator: Mayor Mike Says, "Children First, Always," Unless They Come From Queens

NYC Educator: Mayor Mike Says, "Children First, Always," Unless They Come From Queens:

Mayor Mike Says, "Children First, Always," Unless They Come From Queens

by NYC Educator

There's a federal program called Title 1 that's supposed to give support to kids who need it. Specifically, this is governed by how many kids in a given school are entitled to free lunch due to family income. I don't recall exactly how much it is, but last time I looked it was around 20K for a family of four.

But reformy Mike Bloomberg doesn't need no stinking rules, so he changes 'em. After all, if he didn't know everything about everything, why would he have all that money? So a few years back, Mayor Mike decreed that every school in the city needed to prove it had 60% of students eligible for free lunch in order to qualify for Title 1 funds. That's a big deal because another way Mayor Mike put Children First, Always is by relentlessly slashing their budgets.

However, in Staten Island, only 40% of students need to be eligible for a school to receive funds. Why? Who knows? Could it be because the PEP rep from Staten Island is the only one who tends to vote with Bloomberg'

Amazing how many grandparents die during exam week | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com

Amazing how many grandparents die during exam week | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:

Amazing how many grandparents die during exam week 

 Rick Diguette is a writer and teaches English at a local college. He is a frequent contributor to the AJC.

He was inspired to write this piece after the news about a local college student who pretended to be kidnapped rather than confess to his parents he was failing a class.  The Johns Creek student sent his parents a text in late April  saying that he had been kidnapped and warning them not to call police or he would be killed. Eight days later, the student turned up at home unharmed. He admitted that he had not been held by kidnappers but had camped in Forsyth County.

I  taught college journalism classes and encountered a range of excuses for missed assignments, some even delivered by the parents of students. Once, a  mom called to tell me that her daughter could not comply with an assignment to cover a public meeting. The mother said her daughter suffered headaches when she had to take notes quickly under pressure. I suggested that her daughter tape the meeting and write her notes from the tape,  enabling her to pause the discussion or replay pertinent comments.  

By Rick Diguette

I am routinely besieged by students who want me to bend some rule or extend a 

Dream-catcher serves key role in 8th grade algebra study SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources

SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources:

Dream-catcher serves key role in 8th grade algebra study

In an education system crowded with academic specialists, curriculum managers and instructional theorists – Robyn Fisher’s role might be overlooked or even unappreciated in some settings and yet, it could be argued, it is as fundamental to student success as any other.

Her job is to get children to dream.

A consultant on a $5 million federal study using project-based learning as a centerpiece for teaching algebra to at-risk eighth graders, Fisher’s team is saddled with the task of illustrating for students the real-world path one would take from the middle school classroom to a career based in science and technology.

“Every child has some expectation about what they want to do and they get messages about those expectations from many different places,” Fisher said. “And if they are seeing or hearing messages about where they can and cannot go next or what they can or cannot do next, that can have an impact in the classroom.

“So what we are trying to do is connect the project-based learning they are doing in the classroom; with what’s going on in 

Three-Minute Video Explaining the Common Core State Standards on Vimeo

Three-Minute Video Explaining the Common Core State Standards on Vimeo:

Three-Minute Video Explaining the Common Core State Standards from CGCS Video Maker on Vimeo.

When the N.Y. State Education Dept. Tried to Censor This Blog - Finding Common Ground - Education Week

When the N.Y. State Education Dept. Tried to Censor This Blog - Finding Common Ground - Education Week:

When the N.Y. State Education Dept. Tried to Censor This Blog

By Peter DeWitt on June 9, 2013 7:28 AM

Mr. Dunn's phone call seemed less about correcting an error and more about flexing his NY State Education muscles.

Recently, the New York State Education Department wanted to censor this blog. My friend Phil Bildner, a best-selling young adult novelist who is also an amazing school presenter, asked to write a guest blog entitled Calling Out the Testing Bullies. Phil is a former middle school teacher from New York City, and I highly respect his writing and his opinions.

Phil wrote, 

"The proliferation of high stakes testing -- mandated standardized assessments with critical consequences for the student, teacher and school-- has led to the inevitable rise of the testing bullies. The testing bullies are the high stakes testing companies. They, along with policymakers and politicians, are harming our children to the point of abuse."

When I posted the blog, I figured I would get some reactions. After all, I know who "follows" me on Twitter and understand that John King, the New York State Commissioner of Education reads my blog. I recently did an interview with him for another publication and he ended the 

UPDATE: Perdido Street School: Using Cory Booker's Hedge Fundie/Charter School Connections Against Him

Perdido Street School: Using Cory Booker's Hedge Fundie/Charter School Connections Against Him:

Using Cory Booker's Hedge Fundie/Charter School Connections Against Him

by reality-based educator

Buzzfeed has a piece out that says opponents of Newark Mayor Cory Booker have a four-pronged strategy to take him out before the special election to replace Frank Lautenberg's Senate seat from NJ - and one part of that strategy is to hit him on charters and his adversarial relationship with teachers:

But one a strategist connected to an opposing campaign said one weak spot in Booker’s campaign would be “the fact that his record in Newark is even debatable,” the source said. “You look at Pallone and Holt and you see a proven record in Washington, not to mention a voting record.”

As mayor of a city, Booker has managerial experience that very well may appeal to voters, but Pallone and Holt have both voted on a range of economic, social, and foreign issues on the floor of the House, providing voters a clear sense of where both candidates stand on national policy.