No Child Left Behind Vote In House Passes Substitute, Shifting Away From Bush's Education Vision

No Child Left Behind Vote In House Passes Substitute, Shifting Away From Bush's Education Vision:

No Child Left Behind Vote In House Passes Substitute, Shifting Away From Bush's Education Vision

The House of Representatives voted Friday to pass a replacement of the long-expired No Child Left Behind Act, the first time the nation's sweeping federal education policy law has been updated on the floor of Congress since its passage 12 years ago. Only Republicans voted for the bill, yielding 221-207 in favor of the bill, called the Student Success Act. In 2001, President George W. Bush signed

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No Child Left Behind Rewrite Debated In The House, But Bill Has No Future

Possibly seeking to combat the perception that they're unproductive and obstructionist, House Republicans convened about six hours of debate Thursday on an education bill that has almost no chance of being signed into law. The House discussed the Student Success Act, a Republican-written update to the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. NCLB is a bipartisan bill that was supported by President George

56min 

7-19-13 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online:

NYC Teacher Bloggers on the Loose: Slam Gotham Schools Coverage And TFA

Another blogger slams Gotham Schools, more and more a wholly owned subsidiary of the charter school movement. I spend much more time reading other bloggers than writing my own -- that should be painfully obvious in terms of the deteriorating quality over here. Blame the heat. Or lower mental capacity. Or too many social things going on. I'm going to blog tonight listing details of my busy social l

by ed notes online / 51min 

7-18-13 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online: You Get What You Pay For - from a NYC ParentA debate on the NYCEd listserve resulted in a teacher of all people joining the ed deform chant of "throwing money at things is not the solution" and that Bloomberg's failures in ed deform despite the expendutures is proof that money doesn't work. His solution is strengthening School based Support Teams. I won't go there now other than t

by mike simpson / 4h 

7-19-13 SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE

SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE:

Cashing in on Kids Report Exposes ALEC

The Center for Media and Democracy has a new report out on ALEC (Good beach reading) Despite widespread public opposition to the education privatization agenda, at least 139 bills or state budget provisions reflecting American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) education bills have been introduced in 43 states and the District of Columbia in just the […]

by freetoteach / 5min 

So the Common Core created top-notch lessons?

I see today AFT president Randi Weingarten was promoting the Common Core via an interview with an Ohio NPR station back in May. Once again the Common Core cheerleaders falsely imply that these new standards have invented critical thinking and in-depth lessons. I would expect this type of propaganda from the corporate reformers not from […]

by Chris Cerrone / 56min 

Harumph! Kids These Days! On Changing Our Tone About Young People

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” - Nelson Mandela A lot has been said in the media lately about the degeneration of our youth and their seeming lack of moral character, their resulting destructive behavior, and their defiance.  I, personally, was involved […]

by Scholastic Chaos / 31min 

Open Letter to Congress on ESEA Reauthorization

To Members of the 113th Congress: I write to express my concerns regarding the various versions of the new ESEA now circulating in Washington, all of which appear to have enough in common to be combined, perhaps, under a more fitting title. Something like The Corporate Foundation and Education Industry Welfare Act of 2013.  All […]

by Jim Horn / 44min

Why NCTQ Wants to Get Rid of Schools of Education

A social studies lesson on the business of education from  Alan Singer, Hofstra Uniersity: They think they found the solution to fix American schools and it is really very simple: get rid of schools of education because they fail to adequately train teachers. The NCTQ posted a list of the advisory committee for its study on […]

by freetoteach / 24min 

7-18-13 Schools Matter @ The Chalk Face

SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE: Check out our latest episode on #TFA in MinnesotaHere’s our latest episode of At the Chalk Face with two graduate students from the University of Minnesota who are resisting their institution’s potential deal with TFA. I’m still a little annoyed by the end of this episode. I decided to use Zingaya to run the show instead of Skype, and it cut us off. […]by Chalk Fac

by mike simpson / 11min 

Poverty is what’s crippling public education in the US—not bad teachers - Quartz

Poverty is what’s crippling public education in the US—not bad teachers - Quartz:

Poverty is what’s crippling public education in the US—not bad teachers

By Anthony Cody 6 hours ago

Anthony Cody worked in the high poverty schools of Oakland, California, for 24 years, and spent 18 years teaching middle school science. He now leads workshops focused on Project Based Learning.

Earlier this month in New Zealand, the minister of education Hekia Parata shared a piece of knowledge that has become common the world over. In the Southland Times, “Experts have found that four consecutive years of quality teaching eliminated any trace of socio-economic disadvantage.”

The source of this is an American economist by the name of Eric Hanushek, a professor at Stanford University, who has been spreading this for the past several years. According to Hanushek, “Good teachers are ones who get large gains in student achievement for their classes; bad teachers are just the opposite.”

He looks at the distribution of student test scores, and imagines that if we could fire the teachers who are associated with the lowest 10% or so, then we would make huge gains. This is the theory behind a great deal of the push for 21st century K-12 education reform in the US.  In order to identify and efficiently dispatch these slackers, we need national standards, and rigorous tests aligned to them.

This has led reformers to advocate that we:

• Test students more often, so we can measure learning incrementally. Test 

CDC offers schools new tool for assessing health education instruction SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources

SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources:

CDC offers schools new tool for assessing health education instruction
By Kimberly Beltran
Friday, July 19, 2013

School districts and other educational agencies have access to a new online tool to help them review, select or develop appropriate and effective health education curricula based on national standards.

The Health Education Curriculum Analysis Tool, or HECAT, was recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and offers guidance, analysis tools, scoring rubrics and other resources for examining a district’s health care curriculum. The HECAT is customizable to meet local community needs and state or local curriculum requirements.

Aligned with the National Health Education Standards and CDC’s “Characteristics of an Effective Health Education Curriculum,” the HECAT is designed to help schools select or develop appropriate and effective health education curricula and improve the delivery of health education.

“Good health and academic success go hand in hand. Healthy children make better students, and better students become healthy, successful adults who are productive members of their communities,” state officials wrote during the 2008 adoption of the Health Education Content Standards for California Public Schools.

But students throughout California and the U.S. have continued to face serious challenges to good health: obesity and diabetes are rising at alarming rates; asthma continues to be a leading cause of student absences; and too many adolescents continue to make choices that negatively impact their lives. As a result, state legislators continually 

Jersey Jazzman: A Reformy Rumble in Montclair

Jersey Jazzman: A Reformy Rumble in Montclair:

A Reformy Rumble in Montclair

Doesn't look like a very reformy town to me...

Most folks who know Montclair, NJ wouldn't think of it as a hotbed of dissent. This integrated, bedroom community strives to be known as a hip outpost full of ex-New Yorkers turned suburbanites.

But it looks like Montcliar is becoming the latest front in the war to bring reformyness to the Jersey 'burbs: [all emphases mine]

An animated exchange between two Board of Education members and the leader of Montclair's teacher union has prompted a formal complaint from at least one of the parents who witnessed the incident Monday night. 

According to witnesses, board members Tanya Coke and David Deutsch approached Montclair Education Association President Gayl Shepard during the Board of Education's marathon public meeting in the Montclair High School auditorium and began a conversation that bystanders said soon became loud and heated. 

"It was ugly," said David Herron, who was one of several people nearby who 

FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Friday, July 19, 2013

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

House poised to leave 'No Child' behind

Education Headlines

Friday, July 19, 2013

Oxnard School District moves closer on Seabridge school

The Oxnard School District board Wednesday approved a draft agreement with the city of Oxnard on a joint-use park next to an elementary school planned for 2021.

Evaluation: School board struggles with teamwork, respect

The Desert Sands Unified school board believes it works well — just not together. As a whole, the school board members are appropriately focused on student achievement and district progress, but individual members struggle to work as a team and show each other respect. This is the most interesting of the findings from the school board’s first self evaluation, which was discussed during a board meeting earlier this week.

School district may reconsider reimbursement vote

Public outcry regarding a Sweetwater school board decision not to reimburse a member of the bond oversight committee for travel has the school board president considering a do-over.

Grant helps military kids in school

More than 6 percent of students enrolled in the San Diego Unified School District are military dependents, a population that has given educators an increasing cause for concern.

Hughson, Empire school districts close to moving to geographic elections

The Hughson Unified and Empire Union school districts are one meeting closer to electing school board members by geographic area, a move meant to guarantee representation for minority communities.

Autistic boy bullied and abused by LAUSD aide at Valley View Elementary, attorney says

A 10-year-old autistic child at a Los Angeles Unified School was bullied and physically abused by an instructional aide for six weeks, leaving him with post-traumatic stress disorder, an attorney told a jury today.

House poised to leave 'No Child' behind

Republicans lined up Thursday behind a bill that would roll back the federal government’s involvement in education, despite concerns earlier this week that the party’s more conservative members weren’t on board with the legislation.

Among Mountain Fire evacuees: students attending summer program away from family

With fire threatening this San Jacinto Mountains town, about 6,000 residents were forced to evacuate for their safety, with the potential for embers flying into the town from the nearby Mountain Fire. Among the evacuees were a large group of students and faculty from Idyllwild Arts Academy, a local visual and performing arts academy, forced to evacuate to Hemet High School on Wednesday.

Frey: Older adult and parent ed programs left out of adult education budget compromise

An effort to narrow adult education’s core mission is being met with resistance from advocates for older adult and parent education programs, which would lose funding under a budget compromise crafted by supporters of adult education and Gov. Jerry Brown.

LAUSD proposes transformation of arts education program

Five years after Los Angeles Unified's arts programs were devastated by the recession, district officials want to pump millions of dollars into arts education and integrate dance, music, theater and the visual arts into core academic classes.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Fresno Unified officials plan for extra $15 million

Fresno Unified could get millions of dollars in public funding through the state's new local control funding formula, which some local officials say should be used to enhance career technical education programs and slash class sizes.

Ex-superintendent will temporarily run San Juan Unified School District

General Davie Jr., a former superintendent of the San Juan Unified School District, has been selected for a return engagement. The district board, during a special meeting Wednesday night, appointed Davie as the district's acting superintendent, effective immediately, according to a district news release.

Upgrades coming to Anaheim schools

Modernization projects are underway at several campuses within the Anaheim City School District, including the $30 million reconstruction of Marshall Elementary School.

LAUSD's grumpy old man Richard Vladovic could squelch reform

For the first time in six years, the politicians on the L.A. Unified School District Board of Education, responsible for educating one in every 10 children in California, have chosen a new president, the inscrutable Richard Vladovic. A

Santa Cruz County middle school students begin career development camps

Santa Cruz County middle school students are learning job skills such as editing videos with FinalCutPro, creating Flash animation and installing computer hard drives at Santa Cruz County College Commitment's Cabrillo Youth Summer Institute camps this summer.

Small Calif. publisher wins public records case

A state Court of Appeal has ruled that a small-town California newspaper publisher does not have to pay legal fees to a school board he sued over his public records request —a decision hailed by First Amendment advocates as a victory for government transparency.

Fensterwald: A new K-12 funding system demands new thinking in building local budgets

As the most sweeping change in K-12 school funding in decades, the new school finance system that took effect this month will require school officials to clear their minds of old formulas and assumptions and to think anew in constructing their budgets.

Hall selected Bonita assistant superintendent

Long-time Bonita Unified administrator Nanette Hall has been selected as the district's new assistant superintendent of educational services.

Chico schools will see more math added to graduation requirements

Math offerings and graduation requirements are going to be changing in Chico high schools, but precisely how the program will be implemented won't be known for at least several months. The discussion of math classes on the high school level has been spurred by change in admissions requirements at both the University of California and the California State University systems.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

New system offers schools hope

Gloom has been replaced by optimism, and empty pockets have been supplanted by visions of overflowing coffers. But amid California's increasingly sunny financial outlook, the experts who provide direction to the business officials from the state's school districts continue to preach caution.

Monterey and other coastal school districts are looking for teachers

Wanted: special education teachers. Apply almost anywhere in California. Usually by this time of year, most school districts are fully staffed and ready to start the upcoming school cycle. But teachers in some districts had until July 1 to confirm whether they would return in the fall, and in an effort to help fill those last-minute vacancies, the Monterey County Office of Education was recruiting replacements Tuesday. 

Upland Unified School District board hears update on budget

The district submitted the budget in June with $7 million in deficit spending, which did not include concessions recently agreed upon by employee groups.The Upland Unified School District Board of Trustees was updated Tuesday on the county's rejection of their adopted 2013-14 fiscal year budget.

Florida’s change to school rating system called ‘scam’:

Florida’s change to school rating system called ‘scam’

By Valerie Strauss, Published: July 19 at 10:57 amE-mail the writer

In the if-you-don’t-like-the-rules-just-change-them category:

Last year, Florida gave a new standardized writing test to students in various grades and the scores were awful: Only 27 percent of fourth-graders had proficient scores, down from the previous year’s 81 percent. So the state’s Board of Education voted to lower the passing score on this exam.

This week, the same board voted to change the system that assigns letter grades to each school based largely on test scores. The system was pioneered under Jeb Bush, who was governor from 1999-2007 and has become a national leader of corporate-influenced school reform he implemented in Florida. A number of states, including Virginia, have adopted versions of Bush’s system to grade schools, which is based nearly exclusively on test scores. There are high stakes to the school grades: Schools can be closed if they get too many F’s, parents buy houses to get into high-scoring schools, etc.

The board became worried that as many as a third of public schools would see plummeting grades when new school grades are released in the coming weeks because new and supposedly higher standards will result in lower student test scores. So what did it do? By a 4 to 3 vote, it declared that no 

For the eyes and the minds of our academic senate at CCSF: An Alternate Approach | DailyCensored.com - Breaking Censored News, World, Independent, Liberal News

For the eyes and the minds of our academic senate at CCSF: An Alternate Approach | DailyCensored.com - Breaking Censored News, World, Independent, Liberal News:

For the eyes and the minds of our academic senate at CCSF: An Alternate Approach

By Danny Weil on July 19, 2013 4:13 pm / no comments

 

Readers no doubt know that the City College of San Francisco has been denied accreditation by the ACCJC owned and operated by the Lumina Foundation and friends.  Here, in this article, Occupied Bob one of those who struggled against the college’s eventual closure speaks out.

“Robert Agrella, Being fully aware of why you were brought in as a special trustee and equally aware that you did not succeed in your contractual agreement to this College and the residents of SF of revoking the ACCJC Show Cause status and that you have been given another chance by the Chancellor of California Community and Junior Colleges, we are willing to work with you as we always have in choosing a new chancellor for the College and following through on the failings of Chancellor Scott-Skillman to complete her contractual agreements to completely follow through on the issues that we did our part in completing but she allowed to remain unfinished, thereby jeopardizing that revocation.” __We welcome you_the CCSF Academic Senate.

Would this not have been a more forthright way of welcoming him and from a more powerful position of strength?

When we first heard over a year ago that our board of trustees voted for a special trustee to come in and put everything in order in addressing Show Cause, who 

The St Helena RSD Saga begins. . . | Crazy Crawfish's Blog

The St Helena RSD Saga begins. . . | Crazy Crawfish's Blog:

The St Helena RSD Saga begins. . .

Posted on July 19, 2013

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In this age of tweets, instant messages, headline news and 60 second world news round-ups, it easy to overlook more of the subtle details that lie behind just about any story, for those willing to do a little digging. . . but who has the time? People seem to enjoy getting their little story snippets about the latest death tolls in the latest airline crash or tornado, updates on the whereabouts of Edward Snowden and who the latest country has offered or rejected him asylum, and dreary statistics of how many times Congress voted unsuccessfully to Repeal Obamacare. At least 38 times as of this article, in case you lost count and were worried about keeping track of such important things.

Obsession with macroscopic and attention grabbing statistical details is what passes for news these days to many of us (myself included). I read this article recently about St Helena battling RSD (the Recovery School District) and I realized I had some more questions. It was just a tantalizing little bit enough to whet my appetite for the backstory. I thought I’d do my part to change some of that myopic news reporting we all see so much of, and delve a little deeper. If all of us did a little more of this type of investigating, perhaps we could crowdsource some real news? Just a thought. . .

Goodbye, Student IDs—Hello, Iris Scanners:

Goodbye, Student IDs—Hello, Iris Scanners

Is iris recognition technology in schools a good idea or an invasion of privacy?

Iris scanners are being used for multiple reasons at schools around the country. (Photo: Getty Images)

Iris scanning sounds like a procedure from a science fiction movie.

But it’s real, and it’s coming to a school near you.

From elementary schools to colleges, iris scanning is replacing student ID cards as a security and identification method. This summer, according to CNN, Winthrop University in South Carolina is testing out iris scanning technology during freshman orientation.

“Iris scanning has a very high level of accuracy, and you don’t have to touch anything,” James Hammond, head of Winthrop University’s 

An Illustrative Case of the Numbskullery of Evaluating Teacher Preparation by Student Growth Scores | School Finance 101

An Illustrative Case of the Numbskullery of Evaluating Teacher Preparation by Student Growth Scores | School Finance 101:

An Illustrative Case of the Numbskullery of Evaluating Teacher Preparation by Student Growth Scores

Posted on July 19, 2013

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Assumption:  A good teacher preparation program is one that produces teachers whose students achieve high test score gains

Relay Graduate School of Education is housed in North Star Academy in Newark, and its course modules are largely provided by relatively inexperienced “champion” teachers within its own network (and in from the school itself).  The program is designed to train its own future teachers [and others in network] – and to actually credential them (and grant them graduate degrees) in the specific methods used in their school(s).

Put simply, Relay GSE uses relatively inexperienced teachers to grant degrees to their own new colleagues, where those colleagues may be required by the school to gain those credentials in order to retain employment. No conflict of interest here? But I digress. Back to the point.

Their modules, as shown on the Relay website, are in their best light, little more than mindless professional development for classroom management, and reading inspirational books by school founders, discussed with “champion” teachers. Hardly the stuff of legitimate graduate work, in any 

Multipliers: A Math Term Applied to Leadership | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights

Multipliers: A Math Term Applied to Leadership | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights:

Multipliers: A Math Term Applied to Leadership

By Tarsi Dunlop on July 19, 2013

At some point in our education, we learn about the term and concept of multipliers (a third grade concept accordingto the Common Core State Standards). By one definition, a multiplier is “an instrument or device for multiplying or intensifying some effect.” If you have something positive, or something that is working well in your office or environment, it seems logical if you want to increase or intensify that factor. This math term is applied to the concept of school leadership in a book called The Multiplier Effect, written by Liz Wiseman, Lois Allen and Elise Foster.
In conceptual English, a “multiplier” brings out the full capacity (including intelligence, energy and capability) of an individual in any given work environment, whereas a “diminisher” (intentionally or unintentionally) inhibits the full demonstration of one’s capacity. A person who is considered to be a multiplier (displaying certain traits or disciplines) will influence countless others to contribute more than they thought they could do, while diminishers inspire the bare 

Why Blogs and Who Needs Them Anyway? | My Island View

Why Blogs and Who Needs Them Anyway? | My Island View:

Why Blogs and Who Needs Them Anyway?

July 19, 2013 by tomwhitby

Most professions have professional journals that address the current methods and innovations of that profession. They are used as way to announce to the profession what is going on in that profession, what is working, and what is not. Traditionally, these have been printed media coming out on a periodic basis. Many of the periodicals of education may be received by subscription by anyone. My experience, as a teacher, leads me to believe that most classroom teachers do not personally subscribe to any of these Journals, but a few may subscribe to a journal specific to their subject area. I would hope that administrators would make up the largest group of subscribers for these periodicals, but receiving them does not guarantee reading them.

With the advent of a computer-driven, digital revolution, the influence of these journals may have been in some ways diminished. Most of the content in these journals is written for one-way communication. Often if there is opposition to an article, the earliest appearance of that opposition would come in the next edition of the journal, if at all.

Enter the Blog Post! A Blog, which is short for Weblog, is a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer, according to Merriam-Webster. In the han