How Common Core could affect every state — even those that reject it:

How Common Core could affect every state — even those that reject it

By Valerie Strauss, Published: July 23 at 7:00 amE-mail the writer

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Not all states approved the Common Core State Standards, and some of those that did are now reconsidering whether to implement them. But it turns out that  the standards could wind up affecting students in every state — even if their legislatures reject the initiative.

How?

Students in every state take the high-stakes college admissions exams, the SAT and the ACT, as well as the newly designed GED, the high school equivalency test used as an alternative way to get a high school diploma. And all of those exams are going to be aligned to the Common Core standards, at least that is what their respective owners say.

David Coleman, one of the co-authors of the Common Core English Language Arts Standards and now the head of the College Board, which owns the SAT, has said that theexam will be Core-aligned, though when is not known. ACT, the organization that owns the ACT test, is an “active partner” with the Core initiative and says that the exam is  

What keeps good teachers teaching?

What kind of teacher training program keeps good teachers teaching? Here’s a post that answers that question, written by Karen Hammerness, associate professor and director of program research for Bard College’s Master of Arts in Teaching Program. By Karen Hammerness … Continue reading →    

by Valerie Strauss / 2h 

Local math, science teachers up for Presidential Awards - LA Daily News

Local math, science teachers up for Presidential Awards - LA Daily News:

Local math, science teachers up for Presidential Awards

By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer

Posted:   07/22/2013 08:20:47 PM PDT

Updated:   07/22/2013 08:24:18 PM PDT

Michelle Katz

Two local educators are among five chosen statewide as California's finalists for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, officials said Monday.
Michelle Katz, who teaches Advanced Placement calculus at Northridge Academy High School, was chosen as a math finalist, and Scott Holloway, a physics instructor at Westlake High School in the Conejo Valley, is a finalist in the science category.
"These remarkable teachers and their colleagues around the state play a central role in preparing students for college or career," said state schools Superintendent Tom Torlakson. "Science and math education is crucial not only to our students' futures but to California's future as a leader in 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: With Tim Tyson on Moral Monday in N.C.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: With Tim Tyson on Moral Monday in N.C.:

With Tim Tyson on Moral Monday in N.C.

Tim Tyson

Susan and I stopped in and paid a visit with old friend Tim Tyson in Durham, N.C. yesterday. A professor at Duke University, Tim was on his way over to the Moral Monday protest in Raliegh. 

Susan Klonsky reports from Durham:

Tim is a historian with a long view of the current wave of retrograde legislation and its connection to the history of race in North Carolina. He is one of the organizers of Moral Monday and has been arrested numerous times in the sit-ins. His 83-year-old father, Rev. Vernon Tyson, was recently arrested, as have been pretty much all the members of the Tyson family.

At yesterday's protest

Yesterday at the North Carolina Statehouse in Raleigh more than a thousand protestors convened the12th weekly "Moral Monday" wheremore than 70 people were 

Health Education: Building Knowledge and Skills for a Healthy Life | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights

Health Education: Building Knowledge and Skills for a Healthy Life | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights:

Health Education: Building Knowledge and Skills for a Healthy Life

By NEA Health Information Network on July 23, 2013

By Nora Howley, Manager of Programs, NEA-Health Information Network
It is hard not to turn on the television, flip through the paper, or open the news app on your smart phone without coming across concerns about the health of children around everything from obesity (one third of children are overweight or obese) to prescription drug misuse (almost 21% of high school students report they have taken a prescription drug without a doctor’s script).
Schools can do a number of things to address these concerns. They can provide healthier food, offer more opportunities for physical activity, and create community events to help parents better understand the risks associated with prescription drug misuse and abuse.  But regardless of the health problem, one of the most important things that schools can undertake is to have a strong, standards-basedhealth education program.
Health education is a curricular area with voluntary national standards (to which most states align their standards) and a robust system of curricular alignment and assessment tools.  The health education standards address both knowledge and skills.  Many of the skills taught in 

A Dilemma for the Historian Who Gets Personal: Reconstructing Classroom Lessons (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

A Dilemma for the Historian Who Gets Personal: Reconstructing Classroom Lessons (Part 2) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

A Dilemma for the Historian Who Gets Personal: Reconstructing Classroom Lessons (Part 2)

I was nervous that journalist Martin Mayer was coming to watch me teach (SeePart 1, “A Journalist Describes a History Lesson”). I had read his book The Schools when it came out in 1961.  I had just returned from a year at Yale University on a John Hay Whitney Fellowship, an opportunity then given only to high school teachers. The director of the Fellowship had given Mayer my name. I was 26, in my fourth year of teaching at Glenville and I had never been observed by a journalist.

How can I remember this one lesson out of thousands that I have taught in high school history classes? One reason is that he had his version published and simply reading it in print nearly fifty years later jogged my memory so that I could even recall some  students’ names.  A second reason that this summary lesson on the causes of the Civil War stayed in mind for years was the way that I had brought together conflicting historical interpretations and recall how they had resonated strongly with students.

Mayer’s crisp description of the community and students was accurate. When he caught some students correcting my mispronunciation of the “The Mar-see-yay

7-23-13 teacherken at Daily Kos

teacherken at Daily Kos:

The effects of Windsor decision spread to Ohio

a state which not only bans same sex marriage but also recognition of same sex marriages legally performed in other states. As you can read in this BuzzFeed story, A federal judge in Ohio ordered state officials Monday to recognize the marriage of two men that was performed in Maryland on the death certificate of an Ohio resident in hospice care who the judge says “is certain to die soon.” Judge T

by rss@dailykos.com ... / 28min mark as read  //  save

You might want to read Eugene Robinson this morning

How often does a noted pundit admit being wrong?  Here's his first paragraph:   Sometimes it’s good to be proved wrong. Last week, I wrote a column doubting that President Obama could speak powerfully and effectively about the racial issues raised by the Trayvon Martin case. Well, the president did just that. There is more in Obama's race challenge - and ours, which is why I think you should read

by rss@dailykos.com ... / 28min 

TUE JUL 23, 2013 AT 04:05 AM PDT

Asking you to listen for 3:40 or so

byteacherken

• To this:

Some words of explanation from Jasiri X, whose work this is:

I chose to remix Kanye’s song “Blood on the Leaves” because I felt like the sample he used from Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” is even more relevant today. Whether it’s the over 500 murders last year in Chicago or the 313 Black people killed last year by the police, security guards, and people like Zimmerman. Our blood is on the leaves, and it seems like it’s in best interest of America and these corporations.

Posted here with the blessing of Jasiri X

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MON JUL 22, 2013 AT 06:53 AM PDT

Dionne: After Trayvon, leading with love

byteacherken

 
 
• 5 Comments / 5 New

“In the jewelry store, they lock the case when I walk in,” the young African American man wrote. “In the shoe store, they help the white man who walks in after me. In the shopping mall they follow me. . . . Black male: Guilty until proven innocent.”

“I have lost control of my emotions,” he declared. “Rage, Frustration, Anguish, Despondency, Fatigue, Bitterness, Animosity, Exasperation, Sadness. Emotions once suppressed, emotions once channeled, now are let loose. Why?”

That is how E. J. Dionne begins this Washington Post column this morning    The words were offered by Cory Booker, on May 6, 1992, in the Stanford University paper, in response to the acquittal of the police officers in the Rodney King beating  in which despite the videotape showing the brutal beating, jurors from Ventura County refused to find the officers gulity.  Booker pointed Dionne at those words when the two at down last week.

This is an interesting column to read.  Booker, as the mayor of a decaying city, is more than familiar with crime, including black on black violence.  He also understands that there are times when police must resort to using their weapons.  He has held a dying young man in his arms, 

7-22-13 teacherken at Daily Kos

teacherken at Daily Kos: Dionne: After Trayvon, leading with love“In the jewelry store, they lock the case when I walk in,” the young African American man wrote. “In the shoe store, they help the white man who walks in after me. In the shopping mall they follow me. . . . Black male: Guilty until proven innocent.” “I have lost control of my emotions,” he declared. “Rage, Frustration, Anguish, Despo

by mike simpson / 6h 

7-23-13 SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE

SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE:

NC Republican Taliban Gone Wild: Kills Voter Awareness HS Program to Pre-Register Students

The Koch Brothers’ chief henchman in North Carolina is Art Pope, who led the effort in Wake County to kill socioeconomic school integration.  Wake County awoke from its slumber and ousted the racist school board members, and now things are starting to get back to normal. Now Pope is in charge of the State’s efforts […]

by Jim Horn / 1h 

What is malicious re-assignment? by Michelle Gunderson. proud member of the Chicago Teachers’Union

It is a conversation educators dread. An administrator calls you for a “chat”. “By the way,” they say, “Instead of teaching 8th grade next year, it best suits our needs for you to teach kindergarten.” Every educator knows what this means. While the teacher in the scenario still has a job and is teaching a […]

by Timothy D. Slekar / 11min 

The #commoncore is the #royalbaby of #edreform…

That is, born of tremendous hype to parents of outrageous privilege whose credentials as human beings are that they were themselves born of privilege and so on for completely arbitrary and manufactured reasons, generally without merit, yet painfully, painfully average in almost every way. We plebes, we add meaning to it all, behave as if […]

by Chalk Face, PhD / 19min mark as read  //  save

Your survey once again used incorrectly, we told you so. @rweingarten @AFTunion #teach13

In discussions on the Common Core, regardless of the available critiques, I always seem to get this idea that there is overwhelming and strong support for the CCSS from ALL teachers. You read that, ALL TEACHERS! To wit: @thechalkface AFT: 75% of teachers support CCSS but say haven’t had enough time 2 understand & put […]

by Chalk Face, PhD / 25min 

Get Your Common Corporate Test for Just $29.95, or Wait for the Fire Sale

One of the two ginormous Common Corp consortia, PARCC, finally priced their product line yesterday.  The $29.95 per student does not include costs for professional development, diagnostic tests, formative tests, interim tests, speaking and listening tests (required), or any of the necessary technology infrastructure costs for installation, training, security, and repairs resulting from unplanned b

by Jim Horn / 36min 

#PARCC releases cost assessments. Even $1.00 is too much on this nonsense

The counters of beans can rejoice: PARCC will “only” cost states on average of $29.95 per student for both ELA and math. Good thing they kept it under $30, or like the special at Wal-Mart on the Hal Leonard Play Guitar Today! kit, I wouldn’t have bought it. Does this $29.95 include a volume discount? I’m not […]

by Chalk Face, PhD / 5min 

Dear North Carolina Colleagues

You know what I miss about North Carolina?  Go on, guess.  It’s what every former transplant says. I miss the ability to order sweet tea in any restaurant I go to and I miss BBQ pulled pork that actually has a smoky taste.  Syracuse just hasn’t found the charm in those two things yet. I […]

by Kris Nielsen / 5h  

7-22-13 Schools Matter @ The Chalk Face

SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE: The impact of #commoncore in KindergartenA good friend and parent posted a video, which is embedded below, about her son’s experience in Kindergarten. It’s important to remember that accountability in public education is for now one single definition. Not all accountability is created equal. We can be held accountable in numerous ways and to very different things.

by mike simpson / 20h 

The Educated Reporter: Guest Post: Measuring Early Childhood Classroom Quality

The Educated Reporter: Guest Post: Measuring Early Childhood Classroom Quality:

Guest Post: Measuring Early Childhood Classroom Quality

The American Educational Research Association (AERA) held its annual meeting in San Francisco in May, and we asked some of the journalists in attendance to cover a few of the sessions for us. Given that early childhood education is back on the front burner, it seemed like a good time to share this post from Martha Dalton of Public Broadcasting Atlanta. In case you missed it, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan fielded questions from reporters last week in an exclusive EWA webinar. You can catch the replay here. And for more on early childhood and preschool, check out EWA's Story Starters online resource. 

Early childhood education programs in the United States are like a patchwork quilt: Most states have a combination of programs, ranging from state-run prekindergarten to

independently operated centers to federal initiatives such as Head Start.

And because so many of these programs are fairly new, so are the systems used to evaluate them.

As a result, research on effective evaluations for both these educators and the 

Report Card: Federal judge denies bid to block Sacramento campus closures

Report Card: Federal judge denies bid to block Sacramento campus closures:

Federal judge denies bid to block Sacramento campus closures

A federal judge on Monday denied a bid by parents seeking to prevent Sacramento City schools from closing seven elementary campuses, saying blocking the district was not warranted based on the evidence plaintiffs presented in court.

U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller, in her 39-page ruling denying a request for a preliminary injunction, said that the plaintiffs "do not have a fair chance of success on the merits" of their claims.

A dozen students and their parents filed suit last month in federal court, complaining that the Sacramento City Unified School District chose to close campuses in low-income and predominately minority neighborhoods that are "without political influence or organization" and, instead, keep other schools open in predominately white neighborhoods.

School officials have said the closures are necessary to help balance the budget and estimated the district can save millions of dollars over several years by eliminating campuses that are underutilized.

The school district issued a statement after the ruling signaling that officials there are ready to move forward.

"Closing schools is never easy, and the decision to close seven chronically under-enrolled schools was difficult for all involved," the statement said. "With Judge Mueller's ruling today, SCUSD hopes to finally put closures in the past and move forward with our challenging work of providing the best education we can to the students we serve throughout the district."

The plaintiffs, represented by attorney Mark Merin and the community group, Hmong Innovating

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/report-card/2013/07/federal-judge-denies-sacramento-parents-request-to-block-campus-closures.html#more#storylink=cpy