Thursday, August 15, 2013

The Whole Child Blog — Whole Child Education

The Whole Child Blog — Whole Child Education:

ASCD Leaders on Reflection: Matthew Mingle

A defining trait of leadership is a passion for success and continuous improvement. With progress comes new vistas and new goals, as well as new challenges to overcome in our never-ending quest for knowledge and excellence. Leaders envision a future and great leaders shape that future. With that in mind, we asked ASCD leaders to share their thoughts on what reflection means to them as learners, t

by ASCD Whole Child ... / 25min

Empowering Australia’s Children Today through Positive Education

Initially based upon the principals of positive psychology, the positive education approach has much in common with a whole child approach to education and is contributing to the paradigm shift that is accentuating the non-academic variables of children's education for successful student outcomes. Positive education is an approach of improving the well-being of children in schools through implic

by Andrew Monk / 25min

ASCD Leaders on Reflection: Christina Yuknis

A defining trait of leadership is a passion for success and continuous improvement. With progress comes new vistas and new goals, as well as new challenges to overcome in our never-ending quest for knowledge and excellence. Leaders envision a future, and great leaders shape that future. With that in mind, we asked ASCD leaders to share their thoughts on what reflection means to them as learners,

by ASCD Whole Child ... / 25min mark as read // save

Empathy? An Ethos Born in the Staffroom

Post written by Vinciane Rycroft for Ashoka's Start Empathy Initiative, a whole child partner organization. Originally published in The Times Educational Supplement Pro. Ian, aged 8, throws his younger brother Robin on the ground. Tears and screaming. It's the fifth or sixth time already today. (I'm strong; I'm superman!) Both of them have just lost their mother after two years of a very painful

by Start Empathy / 25min

Helen Gym: SRC statement: Going to war on your own soldiers | Parents United for Public Education

Helen Gym: SRC statement: Going to war on your own soldiers | Parents United for Public Education:

Helen Gym: SRC statement: Going to war on your own soldiers

Posted on August 15, 2013 by HELENGYMLeave a comment

These remarks were made at the Aug. 15 SRC special meeting which stripped seniority from the teachers’ contract. This means that the District has the right to arbitrarily determine which staff to return to schools based on “need.”

Last week when you Superintendent Hite issued your ultimatum, parents across the city sprang into action on your behalf. Within 24 hours we were down at City Hall meeting with the Mayor’s office staff and City Council members. Parents wrote letters to the editor, made phone calls, contacted the media about our stories ,and turned out for press conferences for support. We stayed up late, emailing into the night, and met and planned – all on behalf of you because , foolishly, we somehow believed.

Of all the things which have run through my head in the past week, the saddest one perhaps is the sinking in that all of last week – the plea from you, Superintendent Hite, the threat not to open schools which sent parents and families across the city into a panic, the dueling press conferences – all of it was nothing but political theater to justify this.

This was never, never about educating our children.

If it were, you would have made the smallest effort to make sure the state money was on the table. But you didn’t even try to get money from the state, money which would have alleviated, if not solved, this crisis. Instead you are permitting the woeful unprepared opening of schools no superintendent or educator in their right mind would declare fit or ready for children. You allow this opening of schools in order to provide pathetic cover for a

Confessions of a Bad Teacher: Buy the Book! | Parents Across America

Confessions of a Bad Teacher: Buy the Book! | Parents Across America:

Confessions of a Bad Teacher: Buy the Book!

We were delighted when teacher/author John Owen asked for a book jacket blurb from PAA, and even more thrilled to see that he concludes “Confessions of a Bad Teacher” by recommending that people join Parents Across America as a first step in addressing the concerns raised in the book. He even includes our What Works/What Doesn’t Work statement (see page 232). The book went on sale on August 7. The

by pureparents / 32min

TAKE ACTION to start the new school year off right!

What you can do about some of the hot issues in public education Here’s a list of actions PAA co-founder Julie Woestehoff, of Chicago’s Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE), shared at last week’s Democracy Convention in Madison: Track federal ESEA reauthorization (PURE and PAA have news services to help you – see below). The federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) expired

by pureparents / 32min

Study shows Jim Crow-era segregation persists in Texas schools « NewsTaco

Study shows Jim Crow-era segregation persists in Texas schools « NewsTaco:

Study shows Jim Crow-era segregation persists in Texas schools

By Phys.org A first-of-its-kind study from researchers in the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin shows that, in addition to being isolated by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status, English language learners in Texas schools also are separated by language, suffering what has been termed “triple segregation.” Education professors Julian Vasquez Heilig and Jennifer Jellison H

10 by NewsTaco / 1h mark as read // save

Latino Preschool rate lowest in U.S.

By John Benson, Voxxi Latino children are lacking when it comes to early childhood development. The recently released Annie E. Casey Foundation’s annual 2013 Kids Count report reveals among any racial or ethnic group in the U.S., Latino children have the lowest preschool attendance rate. The study showed between 2009 and 2011, roughly 63 percent of Latino children didn’t attend preschool compared

4 by NewsTaco / 1h

Online Problem: Too many education policy voices are white

By Ray Salazar, NewsTaco 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 Petr

6 by NewsTaco / 1h

Choosing Democracy: New Data Shows School 'Reformers' Are Getting it Wrong | Perspectives, What Matters Today | BillMoyers.com

Choosing Democracy: New Data Shows School 'Reformers' Are Getting it Wrong | Perspectives, What Matters Today | BillMoyers.com:

New Data Shows School 'Reformers' Are Getting it Wrong | Perspectives, What Matters Today | BillMoyers.com

David Sirota.

Meanwhile, despite the fact that many “reformers’” policies have spectacularly failed, prompted massive scandals and/or offered no actual proof of success, an elite media that typically amplifies — rather than challenges — power and money loyally casts “reformers’” systematic pillaging of public education as laudable courage (the most recent example of this is Time magazine’s cover cheering on wildly unpopular Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel after he cited budget austerity to justify the largest mass school closing in American history — all while he is also proposing to spend $100 million of taxpayer dollars on a new private sports stadium).

In other words, elite media organizations (which, in many cases, have their own vested financial interest in education “reform”) go out of their

How to Survive Education Reform Without Losing Your Job, Your Ideals, or Your Mind | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

How to Survive Education Reform Without Losing Your Job, Your Ideals, or Your Mind | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:

About a year and a half ago, The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) contacted me to ask if I’d write something for the new teacher edition of the magazine Educational Leadership. So I wrote something called ‘The Don’ts And Don’ts Of Teaching’

about the sorts of mistakes that new teachers are prone to, and this piece seemed to be appreciated by a lot of people.

Then, about six months ago they asked if I’d write something for the back to school issue for this year. I thought about it and then wrote this piece about ‘How To Survive Ed Reform.’ At first I was reluctant to submit it to them since I was worried it might seem contrary to my ‘the sky is falling’ posts about the dangerous side effects of the corporate reform movement. But I submitted it anyway because I had come up with one of the greatest last sentences of anything I’ve ever written.

Well, of course they wanted to change my very lengthy title ‘How to Survive Education Reform Without Losing Your Job, Your Ideals, or Your Mind’ and my awesome last line. I was able to convince them to restore the title, but not the last line.

So here I’ll publish the original unedited essay, though you can see the edited one on their site

. I hope this isn’t too rosy of a picture. They wanted something to lift the spirits of the troops a little, and I hope this accomplishes this without undermining any of the work I did over the years in exposing all the negative consequences of ed reform dictated by people who don’t understand education. I do think that corporate reform is very dangerous, but I also have always maintained that it is temporary.

How to survive ed reform without losing your job, your ideals, or your mind

A modern day Paul Revere could ride through the halls of your school calling “The common core is coming, the common core is coming” causing the collective adrenaline of all teachers, but particularly veterans, to spike. Though we have all lived through various waves of ‘reform,’ we’ve shaken them all off, possibly saving a useful morsel of this one or a bite of that one but, in

Diane in the Evening 8-15-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

How Albany Hurts ELLs

State Commissioner John King, Regents’ Chancellor Merryl Tisch, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Chancellor Dennis Walcott are proud of the Common Core tests that failed 70% of the children of New York State. They say it is “”very good news” that the tests got much harder. They don’t care that the achievement gaps between the advantaged and disadvantaged grew larger. They bask in children’s defeats. E

by dianerav / 5min

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 8-15-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Teacher in New York: It’s Time to Fire John KingYesterday I called for John King’s resignation. This teacher says John King should be fired. Here are her reasons: “A New York Teachers Letter on the Failed Leadership of John King I am dismayed by the leadership provided by John King, Education Commissioner of the State of New York.

by mike simpson / 2h

Chicago Requests More Charter Schools After Massive Wave Of Public School Closings + A Society with Poor Critical Thinking Skills: The Case for ‘Argument’ in Education | toteachornototeach

A Society with Poor Critical Thinking Skills: The Case for ‘Argument’ in Education | toteachornototeach:

Chicago Requests More Charter Schools After Massive Wave Of Public School Closings

Chicago Requests More Charter Schools After Massive Wave Of Public School Closings By Rebecca Klein Chicago recently shut down 50 of its schools in the largest single wave of public school closures in history. So why is the city now trying to open more charter schools? Chicago Public Schools on Monday quietly posted a 52-page document asking charter schools to apply to operate in the city star

by aristotlethewise / 1h

A Society with Poor Critical Thinking Skills:
The Case for ‘Argument’ in Education

by Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz

Researchers have shown that most students today are weak in critical thinking skills. They do poorly on simple logical reasoning tests (Evans, 2002). Only a fraction of graduating high school seniors (6 percent of 12th graders) can make informed, critical judgments about written text (Perie, Grigg, and Donahue, 2005). This problem applies to both reading and writing. Only 15 percent of 12th graders demonstrate the proficiency to write well-organized essays that consisted of clear arguments (Perie et al., 2005).

Critical thinking and argument skills — the abilities to both generate and critique arguments — are crucial elements in decision-making (Byrnes, 1998; Klaczynski, 2004; Halpern 1998). When applied to academic settings, argumentation may promote the long-term understanding and retention of course content (Adriessen, 2006; Nussbaum, 2008a). According to the ancient Greeks, dialogue is the most advanced form of thought (Vygotsky, 1978). Critical thinking and dialogue are often made manifest in the form of argument. Dialectical arguments require an appeal to beliefs and values to make crucial decisions, what Aristotle referred to as endoxa (Walton, Reed, & Macagno, 2008). In all careers, academic classes, and relationships, argument skills can be used to enhance learning when we treat reasoning as a process of argumentation (Kuhn, 1992, 1993), as fundamentally dialogical (Bakhtin, 1981, 1986; Wertsch, 1991), and as metacognitive (Hofer & Pintrich, 1997). Significant differences in approach have emerged as to how best cultivate the skills necessary to form, present and defend an argument. Differences have emerged as to whether the best practices include the use of computers, writing exercises, metacognitive activities, debates, modeling, or frontal instruction. To many “argument” sounds combative and negative but the use of argument can be constructive and generative.

Epistemological understanding becomes most evident when an individual is confronted

SBE Schedule - Meeting Minutes & Schedule (CA Dept of Education)

SBE Schedule - Meeting Minutes & Schedule (CA Dept of Education):

SBE Schedule

Meeting calendar for the California State Board of Education (SBE).

Meetings will be held in Room 1101 at the address shown below. Meeting agendas are available online.

2013 Meeting Dates

January 16, 2013
March 13-14, 2013
May 8-9, 2013
July 10-11, 2013
~~September 4-5, 2013~~ [The preceding meeting date has been changed to September 4, 2013]
November 6-7, 2013

2014 Meeting Dates

January 15-16, 2014
March 12-13, 2014
May 7-8, 2014
July 9-10, 2014
September 3-4, 2014
November 5-6, 2014

Contact Information:

State Board of Education
1430 N Street, Room 5111
Sacramento, CA 95814
E-mail: SBE@cde.ca.gov
Phone Number: 916-319-0827
FAX number: 916-319-0175

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Not letting a good crisis go to waste, Philly Supt. goes after seniority rights

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Not letting a good crisis go to waste, Philly Supt. goes after seniority rights:

Not letting a good crisis go to waste, Philly Supt. goes after seniority rights

“You never let a serious crisis go to waste." -- Rahm Emanuel

If you doubt that the current school budget crisis is in large part, a manufactured one, just take a look a Philly where Supt. William Hite is using the crisis to suspend teacher seniority rights. He knows that lots of teachers are going to be called back to work if schools are to open in the fall. So he's asking the School Reform Commission to suspend parts of the state education code at an emergency meeting today.

The move would allow him to override the bargaining agreement with the union and replace higher-paid, experienced teachers with cheaper 5-week TFA wonders and other newbies. The state's largest district has laid off about 3,800 employees, from assistant principals to nurses and guidance counselors, in an effort to stem rising costs and close a projected $304

Statement on $50 million in (maybe) city funds: It’s still not enough | Parents United for Public Education

Statement on $50 million in (maybe) city funds: It’s still not enough | Parents United for Public Education:

Statement on $50 million in (maybe) city funds: It’s still not enough

Posted on August 15, 2013 by PARENTSUNITEDPHILALeave a comment

“It’s not enough”

Parents United for Public Education acknowledges the Mayor and City Council for their (albeit confused) efforts to ensure the opening of school, but again, as we said earlier, we want to be clear: It’s not enough. The City may be doing its part to open schools. $50 million is not enough to educate our children for this year.

The $50 million will ensure inequity of resources across the District. $50 million ensures that the majority of our schools will open with inadequate safety and teaching staff. It is unconscionable that schools have been given zero book and supply dollars, or that schools with libraries cannot open because the District fails to allocate librarians. Dr. Hite has publicly said that guidance counselors, school aides and teachers will be distributed at the discretion of central office to the “largest and neediest” schools. This too is unacceptable. All children are needy. Every child deserves access to a guidance counselor. Every child deserves to have a school aide watching out for them in the lunchroom and on the play yard.

As parents, we cannot continue to normalize impoverishment and deprivation.

We repeat the call we have issued since this crisis became clear last year. Supt. Hite declared the schools needed $180 million from both the city and state. The state must immediately release the $45 million in federal money already due to us. City and state officials must work with the District to determine what additional amount of money is necessary to restore an adequate and equitable redistribution of staff to our schools before September 9th.

The District must re-do its school by school budgets to demonstrate how these funds will adequately, equitably and safely staff our schools for the entire school year. We want assurances that there will be a guidance

Frustrated with Philly schools stalemate, parents join District workers in fast | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Frustrated with Philly schools stalemate, parents join District workers in fast | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

Frustrated with Philly schools stalemate, parents join District workers in fast

by thenotebook on Aug 15 2013 Posted in Latest news

COMMENTS (0)PRINT

Photo: Charlie Kaier/WHYY

UNITE HERE Fast for Safe Schools on the steps of the Philadelphia School District building.

by Aaron Moselle for NewsWorks

Marches, rallies, bus trips to Harrisburg.

Parents, students and staff haven't kept quiet their concerns about the Philadelphia School District's budget woes.

But with less than a month to go before the start of the school year, some are considering upping the ante with hopes of not just highlighting, but shining a spotlight on the need for adequate funding.

Earlene Bly, whose daughter is a rising sophomore at Roxborough High School, is thinking about homeschooling if the District can't rehire school safety staffers, including cafeteria employees and noon-time aides.

"I don't know if I want my child in the school system, in that school, knowing that she's not safe," Bly said.

The District laid off nearly 4,000 school employees this summer. About a thousand of them were student safety employees.

Bly joined hands with those workers, who organized a 12-hour fast — 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. — on Wednesday on the steps of School District headquarters.

"I'm waiting to see if they're going to give up the money. I'm waiting to see if they're going to open the schools. I'm waiting to see if they're going to bring back the people that they let go," she said after a brief midmorning rally.

More than 100 protesters staked out spots on North Broad Street, where tents and porta-potties were set up.

Read the rest of this story at NewsWorks

Will You Join the Supports-Based Education Movement? | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights

Will You Join the Supports-Based Education Movement? | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights:

Will You Join the Supports-Based Education Movement?

By Joseph Bishop on August 15, 2013

By Joseph Bishop, Director of the National Opportunity to Learn Campaign and Executive Director of Opportunity Action

Last week, New York education officials released scores from the first Common Core-aligned standardized state tests. Student scores showed a dramatic drop in performance from previous years. Statewide, just 31.1 percent of students tested proficient in English Language Arts, and 31 percent tested proficient in math.
We can’t be surprised by the results, as New York leaders and many state decision-makers across the country have failed to recognize that new standards alone won’t drive students to succeed. Standards must be matched with common core supports for students, parents, teachers and principals. The challenge the National Opportunity to Learn Campaign is trying to address with organizations like the Alliance for Quality Education and A+New York is about more than closing the achievement gap on state tests. We’re working to rectify the ever-present opportunity gap that underlies the achievement gap and perpetuates disparities between students who attend school in well-resourced communities and those who do not.
Following the release of A Nation at Risk 30 years ago, district, state and federal policies have focused primarily on efforts to raise standards, improve assessments, and evaluate teachers. While each of these issues warrants attention in the landscape of education policy, they are not effective drivers for significantly changing the learning conditions for students across the

Routines and Procedures to Start the Year Right — Whole Child Education

Routines and Procedures to Start the Year Right — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

Routines and Procedures to Start the Year Right

August 15, 2013 by ASCD Whole Child Bloggers

Post written by Kerry Griswold Fitch

Piano instructor Frances Clark once said, "Teach the student first, the music second, and the piano third." We must first teach our students our expectations and how to be successful in our classrooms before we jump into content. When you have procedures and routines in place, your time with students is maximized—and time is a sought-after commodity, whether you come from an affluent district or one battling budget cuts. In order to acquire more time, we must spend time on properly rehearsing expected routines and procedures with our students (Wong & Wong, 2004). When students are on task and meeting your expectations, you can then give them the careful and thorough observation and feedback they need.

WHERE TO START

Expectations tie right into your procedures and routines. In September, ask yourself, "What do I expect all students to know and be able to do?" My consistent top five expectations were as follows:

Respect yourself, others, and the environment.
Always try your best.
Know the proper way to ask to leave the room (nurse, bathroom, etc.)
Know how to acquire materials (pencil sharpening, asking for paper, etc.)
Know how to transition from one task to another

Routines and procedures for these common expectations helps all successfully participate in class. For many years, I taught 9th grade in a poverty-stricken district, and my students came from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds and academic abilities. Although I always received a diverse group, my routines and procedures helped level the playing field and create a safe place where learning could thrive. Students knew what was

Latest News and Comment from Education