Promethean Plan: A Teacher on Fulfilling the Intent of the Common Core, Part 2 « The Core Knowledge Blog

Promethean Plan: A Teacher on Fulfilling the Intent of the Common Core, Part 2 « The Core Knowledge Blog:

Promethean Plan: A Teacher on Fulfilling the Intent of the Common Core, Part 2

by Guest Blogger
August 15th, 2013

Tags: Common Core State Standards, Mark Anderson
Posted in accountability, Assessment and Testing, Education Practice, Educational Policy,Literacy | No Comments »

By Mark Anderson

Mark Anderson, who became a NYC Teaching Fellow after working in retail and hospitality management, now teaches at Jonas Bronck Academy in the Bronx. His writing on educational improvement has appeared in Gotham Schools, the Times Union, VIVA Teachers, and other venues.

In part 1 of this three-part series, Anderson discusses why skills-based teaching should no longer be predominant in ELA. In part 3, he will discuss the dangers of infantilizing teachers.

Prometheus statue, University of Minho

Mistake #2: Placing the burden of teaching literacy entirely on ELA

As I noted in my last post, I believe the Common Core standards open a window of opportunity for systematically building students’ knowledge as teachers shift from “just-right texts” to complex texts. Another potentially transformative shift of the Common Core standards is the acknowledgment that literacy extends across all content areas. This is explicitly recognized by the standards in two ways: 1) the inclusion of literacy standards for social studies, science, and technical subjects in grades 6 – 12; and 2) the demand for an increase in informational texts.

Under key design considerations in the introduction to the literacy standards, Common Core’s authors state that the inclusion of social studies, science, and technical subjects 

8-15-13 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum:

United States and Education Priorities

This says it all about the US and education - who we pay the highest dollar for a public employee in each state:

by Melissa Westbrook / 3min 

Northwest Education News

A couple of NW education stories of interest.First up, look who is leaving after one whole year as head of Oregon's public education system - Rudy Crew.  No real surprise there.  From Ed Week:So, how have things turned out? There are a few answers to that, and good variety among them. First, there's Rudy Crew. He's no longer on the job, having resigned July 1 to take over as president of Medgar Ev

by Melissa Westbrook / 12min 

What is Spectrum?

Shauna Heath, the Executive Director of Curriculum and Instructional Support and Michael Tolley, the Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning, have told the Board and the public that they will form advisory committees this fall to explore delivery models and identification criteria for advanced learning programs. In the meantime, schools are moving forward on their own with changes in de

by Charlie Mas / 6min 

Education News News Roundup

A couple of interesting contributors to Stephan Blanford's campaign - former Board member Nancy Waldman (ousted from office in the wake of the Olechefske financial scandal) and former Board member (and Seattle mover and shaker) Don Nielsen.    One oddity, though, is a contribution out of Indianapolis from the Eli Lilly company.  Why Eli Lilly is interested in a Seattle School Board campaign is a m

by Melissa Westbrook / 27min 

8-14-13 Seattle Schools Community Forum: Statement on Contract Negotiations

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Seattle Schools Statement on Contract NegotiationsFrom SPS Communications:We are working with our labor association partners to achieve what we all desire – what is best for our staff and for our students. We have discussed and explored a variety of options during negotiations with the Seattle Education Association.  We have discussed with SEA an increase to the ca

by mike simpson / 16h 

Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee wants to talk education reform with Alabama teachers | al.com

Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee  wants to talk education reform with Alabama teachers | al.com:

Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee  wants to talk education reform with Alabama teachers

It's a Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee Party
She will bring the cash, you bring the chips

MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- Controversial education reformer Michelle Rhee wants to talk with Alabama teachers.

Rhee, the founder of StudentsFirst and the former chancellor of Washington D.C. public schools, is inviting Alabama teachers to attend a town hall style meeting in Birmingham about education.

 Rhee, in a video invitation, said she is inviting all teachers to have an "open honest dialogue about what we can do to improve education for all of our children."

“We all know that a great teacher can truly change the course of a child’s life. That’s why teachers’ voices are vital to the conversation about how to improve our national education system,” Rhee wrote in the invitation to the event.

“Unfortunately, the dialogue around public education has become too often polarized, with extreme rhetoric and personal attacks overshadowing what's important: getting all of our country's kids into great schools with great teachers.” Rhee wrote. 

Charlotte Meadows, outreach coordinator for StudentsFirst Alabama, said Rhee wants to have a discussion with teachers, explaining her ideas and getting their ideas about what "needs to happen in education in Alabama."

The event is scheduled for Sept 12. A place has yet to be announced. Town halls are also planned in Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

The events could also put Rhee face-to-face with some of her toughest critics.

Rhee's stances on tenure and school choice have often put her at odds with teacher 

Top Twitter Feeds in Education Policy: Full of Klout | The White Rhino: A Chicago Latino English Teacher

Top Twitter Feeds in Education Policy: Full of Klout | The White Rhino: A Chicago Latino English Teacher:

Top Twitter Feeds in Education Policy: Full of Klout

By Ray Salazar, Wednesday at 9:06 pm

Inspired by a blog post about BAM! Radio Network's push to take on taboo education topics, I'm writing about the inequality that must be leveled--too many voices in the local and national education policy conversation are white, thereby perpetuating the social structures that prevent low-income black and brown youth from achievement.

There--I said it.

On Monday, Michael Petrilli, the vice president of the Fordham Institute, a self-labeled "Education Gadfly" restless in its quest to improve America's schools, published a list of "The Top Twitter Feeds in Education Policy" to much acclaim and criticism.

Virtually no African American or Latino voices made Monday’s list.  His selection rationale is based on, what else, but data, data, data: Klout scores, a measurement of one's online influence.  And, it seems, the number of tweets and followers may have also played an implicit role.  After asking, "Who did I forget?" Petrilli got some push back.

The list was modified Wednesday so that 11% of the voices in the top Twitter feeds list belong to African Americans and Latinos.  That's an average representation of 5.6% for each group.  The dominant voices in the education policy are white while, nationally, most students and families affected by this conversation are not.  In Chicago, about 90% of our students are African American or Latino.  About 9% of them are white.  Whose voices should dominate the ed policy conversation?

Furthermore, Petrilli’s list automatically alienates the people who arguably--no--who do know the most about education: teachers.  Teachers and effective instructional leaders do not have the time or resources to recruit followers and manage social media accounts.  People like Arne Duncan

8-15-13 Jersey Jazzman: Criteria, Norms, NASCAR, and Driving Tests in NY

Jersey Jazzman: Criteria, Norms, NASCAR, and Driving Tests in NY:

Criteria, Norms, NASCAR, and Driving Tests in NY

Here's a bit of completely made up news: the New York State Education Department is taking over driving exams for the state's Motor Vehicles Department. As we all know, the unacceptable rate of accidents on New York's roads is due to a lack of "rigor" in driving instruction. John King, NYSED commissioner, is going to change all that with a new driving test that is more "realistic"; it will emphasi

by Duke / 7min 

8-13-13 Jersey Jazzman

Jersey Jazzman: NY State Tests: Misguided Mixing of Norms and CriteriaBefore I go any further, I think I need to regroup. Most of you probably have a good familiarity with what I'm going to discuss; however, I think it may be helpful to step back for a moment and think about some of the basics before we proceed. I know it will be helpful to me. When we last left our discussion of the crashing of N

by mike simpson / 22h 

The Network For Public Education | We are many. There is power in our numbers. Together, we will save our schools.

The Network For Public Education | We are many. There is power in our numbers. Together, we will save our schools.:

Join Us in Welcoming New Board Members

We are pleased to welcome four new members to the NPE Board of Directors! These new members have dedicated their lives to public education. They share the values and vision of NPE, and will bring great experience to our ever-growing Network. Diane announced the additions to the Board earlier this week, saying that the new members “will be a great resource for the important work of the Network for

by admin / 4min 

InBloom Threatens Students’ Privacy Rights

Are corporately-backed organizations stealing kids’ privacy? Over the past few months, tensions have been building concerning InBloom, an organization that collects information about students around the country in order to create methods of personalized education. InBloom claims on its website that “[s]tudent data privacy is a top priority” of theirs. However, parents strongly disagree. After prot

by admin / 4min mark as read  //  save

ALEC Wants to Privatize Our Schools

On August 8th, the Chicago Teachers Union will be leading a protest against the American Legislative Exchange Council. The CTU estimates that ALEC has helped create hundreds of policies that aim to protect corporations and ultimately harm middle class families. In 2013 alone, ALEC supported 139 bills for privatizing public education and 104 bills that diminish public sector unions and collective b

by admin / 4min 

Bennett Announces Resignation in Florida

This morning, Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett announced his resignation. The announcement comes just four days after the Associated Press published e-mails found from Bennett’s time as Indiana School Superintendent which revealed that Bennett had secretly altered the way in which schools were graded in order to reward his political supporters. Bennett’s changes specifically affected th

by admin / 4min 

Oregon declared at 'high risk' of breaking agreement with U.S. Department of Education to rate teachers partly by test scores | OregonLive.com

Oregon declared at 'high risk' of breaking agreement with U.S. Department of Education to rate teachers partly by test scores | OregonLive.com:

Oregon declared at 'high risk' of breaking agreement with U.S. Department of Education to rate teachers partly by test scores

The U.S. Department of Education today declared Oregon at "high risk" of failing to rate teachers in part based on their students' test score gains.

That would break a key promise made last year to secure more freedom for Oregon schools.

If Oregon can't pass federal muster by May 1, the state will have to resume following the No Child Left Behind law. That would put virtually every school that receives federal funding on the federal needs-improvement list and require all of them to offer students a priority transfer and free transportation to a school not on the improvement list.

Oregon education leaders, including the governor and state schools chief, had promised the Obama administration in 2012 that by spring 2013, Oregon would come up with a plan to evaluate teachers and principals using their students' gains on state reading and math test as a significant factor in the educator's overall rating.

But Oregon couldn't get that done in one school year and needs another to keep testing the approach and land on a solid plan, said Assistant Superintendent Jim Carlile.

Because Oregon didn't meet the deadline, it will be required to submit monthly progress reports to the U.S. Department of Education and will be subject to greater scrutiny than  states that have have complied with agreements they reached in order to be freed from portions of the No Child Left Behind law. Washington and Kansas also were declared "high risk" states today and will be subject to the same level of oversight as Oregon.

The decision to subject the three states to high risk monitoring was signed by Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education Deborah Delisle. The rationale and consequences were explained in detail by a deputy at the U.S. Department of Education who demanded 

New Education Standards Face Growing Opposition - NYTimes.com

New Education Standards Face Growing Opposition - NYTimes.com:

New Education Standards Face Growing Opposition

By MOTOKO RICH

Published: August 15, 2013 18 Comments

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The Common Core, a set of standards for kindergarten through high school that has been ardently supported by the Obama administration and many business leaders and state legislatures, is facing growing opposition from both the right and the left even before it has been properly introduced into classrooms.

Related in Opinion

ROOM FOR DEBATE

The American Way of Learning

Should education standards and funding be uniform across the U.S., or should they vary by state?

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Tea Party conservatives, who reject the standards as an unwelcome edict from above, have called for them to be severely rolled back.

Indiana has already put a brake on them. The Michigan House of Representatives is holding hearings on whether to suspend them. And citing the cost of new tests requiring more writing and a significant online component, Georgia and Oklahoma have withdrawn from a consortium developing exams based on the standards.

At the same time, a group of parents and teachers argue that the standards — and particularly the tests aligned with them — are simply too difficult.

Those concerns were underscored last week when New York State, an early adopter of the new standards, released results from reading and math exams showing that less than a third of students passed.

“I am worried that the Common Core is in jeopardy because of this,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “The shock value that has happened has been so traumatic in New York that you have a lot of people all throughout the state saying, ‘Why are you experimenting on my kids?' ”

Supporters worry that opposition could start to snowball as states face new exams in 

Teach For America’s ‘dirty little secret’:

Teach For America’s ‘dirty little secret’

By Valerie Strauss, Published: August 15 at 11:15 amE-mail the writer

Teach For America founder Wendy Kopp (The Washington Post)

Teach For America is famous for many things these days, including its five-week summer training institute in which newly selected corps members are “prepared” to take over classrooms with high-needs students. Here is a perhaps surprising look at the five-week institute, how it has changed over the years and what that means to teacher training. It was written by Jack Schneider (@Edu_Historian), an assistant professor of education at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., and the author of Excellence For All: How a New Breed of Reformers Is Transforming America’s Public Schools.  This essay is adapted from his article “Rhetoric and Practice in Pre-Service Teacher Education: The Case of Teach For America” in the Journal of Education Policy.

By Jack Schneider

Education reformers love Teach For America.  They love it for a number of a reasons, but perhaps chiefly because it seems to prove that traditional teacher training—frivolous and without content, in their eyes—is unnecessary.  Seeing the organization as a radical alternative to college- and university-based programs, reformers frequently point to TFA as proof-of-concept that conventional teacher education is totally superfluous.

But here’s the dirty little secret those reformers either don’t know or don’t want to 

FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Thursday, August 15, 2013

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

The Parent Trigger warriors of Watts: How a Special Forces Hero and a Group of Moms Took Back Weigand Elementary

Education Headlines

Thursday, August 15, 2013

The Parent Trigger warriors of Watts: How a Special Forces Hero and a Group of Moms Took Back Weigand Elementary

To understand how far Weigand fell, on average 54 percent of the students across all grades were proficient or advanced in math under Pasilla; under Cobian, 33 percent are. Under Pasilla, Weigand was a 5 in the Similar Schools Rankings, in which 100 socioeconomically identical schools are compared on a 1 to 10 scale statewide. But as impoverished schools continually improved statewide in recent years, Weigand fell back, plummeting to a 2 in the Similar Schools Ranking — which LAUSD Superintendent of Schools John Deasy calls "disastrous."

The mostly young and Latino mothers wanted to remove Cobian by gathering signatures under Parent Trigger.

With cash infusion, Ventura schools consider spending uses

The Ventura Unified School District will get $6.5 million more than it was expecting this year from the state, and district officials are deciding how to spend the cash.

Moorpark school board gives raises to top administrators

The Moorpark Unified School District board held its first meeting of the school year on Tuesday, and one of its first actions was to approve employment contracts and raises for five top administrators.

Veteran educators to vie for schools superintendent

Two longtime San Joaquin County educators have announced their intent to run for the county's superintendent of schools position.

Charter school enrollment climbs in Sacramento as private schools lose students

Statewide, private school officials point to a birthrate decline and migration out of California. But they also cite fierce competition from public charter schools as the economy sputtered and families sought cheaper education options.

Lodi school distirct modifies its policy on students using social networks

The Lodi Unified School District has announced it is suspending a portion of its social networking guidelines that drew protests from high school students, who said it is a breach of their freedom of speech.

Judge OKs $30 million Los Angeles school molest settlements

A judge has approved settlements of lawsuits that claimed dozens of students were molested at Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles and the district has made the first of what may become $30 million in payouts.

Redlands middle schoolers now eligible for drug tests

Redlands Unified School District implemented the voluntary urine screens last year in the high schools and expanded the program to lower grade levels after overwhelming success, according to district officials.

California law protecting K-12 transgender students gets mixed response

California's law to give transgender K-12 students rights such as access to the restrooms and locker rooms that they choose has received mixed response from school officials.

Palm Springs school calendar proposal stirs child care concerns

The hybrid calendar, proposed to take effect at all Palm Springs Unified School District schools in 2014-2105, would create weeklong vacations in October, November and possibly February.

Chino Valley Unified board expected to bring back employees

hino Valley Unified board members will be asked to restore more than a dozen positions and almost 50 work days to the current school year at a Thursday’s meeting. The restorations - recommended by the superintendent - add up to about $1.4 million.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Angry parents storm Panama-Buena Vista meeting over transgender law, vendor contract

More than 100 people crowded into the normally quiet bimonthly meeting of the Panama-Buena Vista Union School District's board meeting Tuesday -- the first since Gov. Jerry Brown signed a new law mandating that public schools allow transgendered students to use restrooms and play on sex-segregated sports teams with the gender they identify with -- and they made their voices heard.

Kern High School District settles whistleblower lawsuit

The Kern High School District has settled with two former employees who had alleged they were wrongfully terminated after calling attention to contracts they said were shady.

San Bernardino City USD opens five new campuses this school year

In addition to easing crowding at existing campuses, the new schools also allow students to attend class closer to home – often close enough that the district no longer has to bus them.