Missouri Education Watchdog: The Rise of the False Premise

Missouri Education Watchdog: The Rise of the False Premise:

The Rise of the False Premise

So much of the justification for common core requires us to accept the false premises offered. In most cases the premise is that we currently do not do the things that common core does. Then, using a combination of impressive sounding words, vague promises and, in some cases outright lies, the proponents of common core have been able to bamboozle a lot of people into believing that these standards are the answer to our "educational crisis."

Take the promise of common core to promote "critical thinking." The phrase has always had a positive connotation. Critical thinkers do not blindly accept anecdotes as facts and/or regurgitate unproven facts to support their conclusions. They do not jump to conclusions. The promoters of common core claim that critical thinking is an advanced skill that will be needed by all future employers.

Of course the false premise is that, to date, our public education system has not had an emphasis on, or valued, critical thinking. The implication is that we have taught blind adherence to facts presented on a page thus making our children little automatons who regurgitate back on the test exactly what they have been taught. Worse yet is the inference that critical thinking is a separate skill that can be taught and measured.

So if we haven't been teaching critical thinking and have only required our students to repeat back on a test what they have been taught, then what does the better teaching model look like? What does "critical thinking" mean in common 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 8-2-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

NC: Teachers Get No Pay Raises for Masters

North Carolina legislators, ever on the hunt for ways to demoralize teachers, decided there would be no extra pay for masters’ degrees. This is their way of showing their contempt for education. They don’t see the return on investment for a masters’ degree in history or science or special education. Teachers with existing masters are grandfathered in, and those enrolled in masters programs now m

by dianerav / 56min 

A Really Cool Reformy Event

Here they are, folks, the “classics” of the reform movement, devoted to the privatization of American public education. The lead event is when Tony Bennett, the ex-Commissioner of Education in Florida, presents an award for education reform to William J. Bennett, the Secretary of Education during the Reagan administration. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 1, 2013 Contact: James A. Boyle 571-213-3979

by dianerav / 3min 

Brian Page: How We Failed the Class of 2013

Teacher Brian Page is passionate about financial literacy. In this post, he explains how we failed to teach the Class of 2013 about the hard financial realities of life. They graduate knowing little about income inequality or wealth inequality or the financial consequences of the decisions they make. “So while they have attended school through a time when our public education system has had it’s

by dianerav / 14min 

Test Defenders Feeling the Heat from Test Critics

The Washington Post has an opinion piece today by Norman Augustine, former CEO of Lockheed Martin, defending the regime of standardized testing and high stakes that has created a vigorous opt-out movement among parents, teachers, and school board members. This is actually a victory for the critics of high-stakes testing because it shows that those in power now find it necessary to defend their ha

by dianerav / 11min 

Why Did CPS Award a $20 Million No-Bid Contract?

How many times have we heard that the a Chicago Public Schools are broke? Isn’t that why CPS laid off thousands of teachers and closed 50 elementary schools? But wait: this week, CPS gave a $20 million no-bid contract to a for-profit corporation called Supes Academy to train principals. CPS Superintendent Barbara Byrd-Bennett worked for Supes Academy until April 2012. “The size and the circumst

by dianerav / 23min 

Is the A-F Grading System Fatally Flawed?

Politico.com has a valuable new education blog in the morning, written by experienced education journalists. This morning’s report by Nirvi Shah ponders whether the departure of Tony Bennett will show that his (and Jeb Bush’s) beloved A-F grading system is damaged goods. The discovery that Bennett toyed with the system to protect a school owned (and named for) a major GOP donor is reason enough t

by dianerav / 52min 

Pasi Sahlberg: Testing and Choice Don’t Work

Pasi Sahlberg, Finland’s education ambassador to the world, recently warned the British government that high-stakes testing would not improve student achievement and that choice would undermine equity. Pasi’s excellent book “Finnish Lessons” has been translated into 15 languages. Finnish education is the reverse of everything we do, yet their students excel on international tests. When asked wh

by dianerav / 1h 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 8-1-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Tennessee Parents Create Facebook Page “Remove Kevin Huffman”A group of Tennessee moms created a brilliant Facebook page calling for the removal of Kevin Huffman, the state education commissioner. The site is vivid, graphic, and highly charged with the fury of really angry moms. One entry points out that Huffman likes to say that K

by mike simpson / 10h 

8-2-13 SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE

SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE:

Brian Jones interviewed by Reclaiming the Conversation on Education

“The students, the learners themselves have to have power.” Brian P. Jones Saw this on Tumblr this morning and wanted to disseminate it. Last spring I participated in a conference at Barnard College called Reclaiming the Conversation on Education. At one point, someone pulled me into a classroom to do an interview about the landscape […]

by Robert D. Skeels ... / 23min 

Let the Excuses Begin: Defending the Status Quo!

Smells like a lot of excuses coming from the “no excuses” crowd—and a heaping serving of status quo gravy on top: The most embarrassing posting on Education Week ever (and that’s saying a lot): Rick and Tony

by plthomasedd / 54min

James Baldwin (Aug. 2, 1924 – Dec. 1, 1987) | the becoming radical

James Baldwin (Aug. 2, 1924 – Dec. 1, 1987) | the becoming radical.

by plthomasedd / 4min 

Reflections on BOCES PD re: Second Grade Math

Yesterday, I went to a BOCES offered “training” in the Math Modules for second grade. I made the choice to attend this and the upcoming one about ELA modules simply because I wanted to see and hear what other teachers are saying AND to find out what the BOCES employees have been told in Albany. […]

by antiqueteacher60 / 7min 

  

8-1-13 Schools Matter @ The Chalk Face

SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE: John Merrow, Welcome to Our World of the IgnoredAt his Taking Note blog, John Merrow laments: “The op-ed below has been rejected by four newspapers, three of them national publications. One editor’s rejection note said that Michelle Rhee was not a national story.” On Twitter, Rachel Levy, though, noted: “That @John_Merrow story that no one will print? I did so 2.5

by mike simpson / 8h 

David Coleman’s Politeness Doesn’t Equal Honesty | Truth in American Education

David Coleman’s Politeness Doesn’t Equal Honesty | Truth in American Education:

David Coleman’s Politeness Doesn’t Equal Honesty

Filed in Privacy/SLDS by Shane Vander Hart on August 2, 2013 • 0 Comments

Following-up on the post I wrote a couple of days ago about Michael Farris of the Home School Legal Defense Associationsharing  recap of a conversation he had with David Coleman about the Common Core.

Missouri Education Watchdog makes a great point – we really can’t trust what David Coleman has to say because he’ll tell you what he thinks you want to here.

For instance regarding data collection.  Farris wrote:

When he asked me why I thought that the Common Core was worse than other standards, I indicated that one of my chief concerns was the creation of the database that would track students throughout their educational career.

His answer surprised me. He didn’t like the database all that well. It was not originally part of the Common Core, but other people have seized the opportunity to make a centralized data collection effort through the implementation of the Common Core. We talked about many other details, but these were some of the most important.

It should surprise him, but unfortunately it really isn’t true.  I posted in June about a speech Coleman gave on student data.

He seemed to like the database just fine then, an excerpt of a transcript from his speech courtesy of Missouri Education Watchdog.

That is to put this more forcefully for those of us who debate this matter, we all have to I think in our field wonder at, be scared by, the findings of my unrelated but mighty 

8-2-13 Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida, red in Washington, dark sky-blue in Israel and public school in Education

Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida, red in Washington, dark sky-blue in Israel and public school in Education:


Bush, the Florida BOE, and Leadership Post-Bennett

Today’s Florida Board of Education emergency meeting was suitably somber. While voting unanimously to appoint Pam Stewart as the interim commissioner a solid decision - this takeaway stood out. Consider this from Kathleen McGrory’s post in the Buzz: During the conference call Friday, board member Kathleen Shanahan called for the creation of a “select committee” of lawmakers, superintendents and ot

by Bob Sikes / 8min 

What the Bush Foundation’s Spin to Defend Tony Bennett Tells Us About Them

Posted on August 2, 2013

by Bob Sikes

Patricia Levesque, the woman who heads both of Jeb Bush’s foundations, set the tone for the defense of Tony Bennett when the grade fixing story broke Sunday night when she said “they fixed a problem to be accurate and fair — any accusation otherwise is false and politically motived.”

The world knows this now to be patently false. Bennett’s emails, a virtual paper trail, show that his main focus was on one school, Christel House Charter School, which happened to belong to the major donor to his campaign. Perhaps Levesque hadn’t seen the emails yet and was going on what she’d been told by Bennett’s people. I’d imagine Levesque was notified before Tony LoBianco’s investigative piece was published. Her first instinct was  to protect the brand and accuse the story of being politically motivated. Never mind that  her response was just that.

But what if she had seen the emails when she played the “political motivated” card? One might conclude she’s being delusional. She has after all,  invested a lot into the school grade accountability movement. I don’t think for a minute that a savvy, experienced operator 

NYC Educator: In Which I Am Courted by the UFT

NYC Educator: In Which I Am Courted by the UFT:

In Which I Am Courted by the UFT

For the past few days I've been getting phone calls and emails from union reps. Apparently it is essential that I get my butt over to UFT HQ and make phone calls for Bill Thompson. They'll give me Chinese food and a Bill Thompson t-shirt.

This is probably because when Tony Avella and Grace Meng ran, I not only showed up, but also dragged a bunch of people with me. I was very enthused about supporting both of them, and I was happy when both of them won. With Thompson, it was a matter of looking at all the possibilities and deeming him the only one who was remotely viable, particularly with Wiener looming, and his victory likely to enable yet another Republican mayor.

But now, with Carlos Danger hanging in the Wiener's shadows (and no, that was not a pun), Bill de Blasio is resurgent. I've always liked de Blasio better than Thompson, particularly since he didn't tell the Daily News he opposed teachers getting the pattern raise virtually all other city employees got in the 

The disturbing shift underway in early childhood classrooms:

The disturbing shift underway in early childhood classrooms

By Valerie Strauss, Published: August 2 at 4:00 amE-mail the writer

4

Comments

More

Increasingly we hear that academic work, including test prep, is reaching down into the lowest grades, even preschool. Here’s a post with teacher concerns on the issue, written by Geralyn Bywater McLaughlin, Nancy Carlsson-Paige, and Diane E. Levin. They run the nonprofit called Defending the Early Years, which seeks to rally educators to take action on policies that affect the education of young children. DEY is a non-profit project of the Survival Education Fund, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt educational organization based in Watertown, Massachusetts. You can read more stories from teachers at the DEY website, on the “Voices from the Field” page.

By Geralyn Bywater McLaughlin, Nancy Carlsson-Paige, and Diane E. Levin

“We spend the majority of the day testing one way or another.”  — A second grade public school teacher from North Carolina

A disturbing shift is underway

8-2-13 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online:

Video: State Senator Tony Avella Calls for Removal of Jennifer Jones Rogers as PS 19Q Principal

Despite the oncoming rain, a spirited crowd of parents, teachers and supporters turned out to join Tony Avella in calling for the removal of PS 29Q Principal Jennifer Jones Rogers, a Leadership Academy principal who fits the mold of feral grads from that institution.Here is the video of the press conference. I have some interviews on tape that are not included. https://vimeo.com/71555440Daily News

by ed notes online / 4h 

Network for Public Education Update: Tony Bennett Left His Heart in Tallahassee

Lots of good stuff in this update on Tony Bennett, the Chicago Teachers Union protest against ALEC on Aug. 8 (darn, we're not getting into town until the 9th), and Diane Ravitch's new book. Volume 1, Issue: #17August 1, 2013 Inside NPE News Bennett Announces Resignation in FloridaALEC Wants to Privatize Our SchoolsInBloom Threatens Students' Privacy RightsWelcome to Our New Board Member

by ed notes online / 6h mark as read  //  save

SFA, Scabs for America: How Much Heat Will Chicago Newbie TFAs Be Facing?

...when faux Democrat/ Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel fires thousands of teachers and hires TFA grads to teach kids, that's something else altogether. In fact, TFA is now enabling the unemployment of working people. They are making their likely idealistic young college grads into scab labor. Their insane defense, that the jobs were eliminated and they are taking newly created jobs, is nothing more tha

by ed notes online / 6h 

8-1-13 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online: CORPORATE ED REFORMNYC Supervisor: Barbara Morgan is getting what she deservesI said "Ms. Morgan you work for the DOE what the hell are you doing here defending [Moskwitz]?! She steals money from our public schools by opening non-unionized charter schools which profit off our kids." ... NYC PrincipalOops! Did it again. Don't open your twitter.   This just in from a school principa

by mike simpson / 10min 

8-2-13 teacherken at Daily Kos

teacherken at Daily Kos:

Krugman on "Sex, Money and Gravitas"

Today our favorite Nobel Laureate in Economics takes apart those who are by whisper and innuendo attempting to prevent Janet Yellen - whom he calls by any objective standard, she’s the best-qualified person in America to take over when Ben Bernanke steps down as chairman - from becoming the next head of the Federal Reserve. This is a vintage Krugman column.  When the Princeton Professor decides to

by rss@dailykos.com ... / 9min 

7-30-13 teacherken at Daily Kos

teacherken at Daily Kos: ... and now the return to the classroom beginsI will not have students until August 26, but today I begin my transition back to being a classroom teacher.  I will spend from 8:30-3:30 in an AP Summer Institute presented by two experienced AP US Govt and Politics teachers in Anne Arundel County.   Strictly speaking, I did not have to attend this, as I am an experienced AP t

by mike simpson / 10h