8-26-13 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online:

I Get Bar Mitzvahed

Rescued from the storm, my Bar Mitzvah album. Each pic pulled from the plastic and dried (unfortunately, not done with the wedding album which had a shot if I had done the same -- Freudian slip? -  then ended up gone), handed over to cousin Howie Levitz (Photog supremo, Williamstown MA --TGL Photoworks - Williamstown, MA - Film Processing and Output) where he created a you tube video. I'm the guy

2 by ed notes online / 56min 

Howard Schwach: What in the world was the state thinking?

What in the world was the state thinking? NYS exams highly flawed; people in charge have little or no classroom experience & don’t know what they’re doing. It is good to see my former editor at The Wave still plugging. Howie went from a teacher doing a column which he turned over to me when he became managing editor at The Wave. Howie with me supplementing education coverage put The Wave at th

1 by ed notes online / 56min mark as read  //  save

Ed Notes Redux: UFT Election Results, 1999 - New Action Vote Drops 75% Over Years But They Gain More Ex Bd Seats

New Action Off the cliffNew Action  received 31% in ‘91. New Action received 24% in ‘99. PAC received 2%.... Ed Notes, May, 1999 election analysisNew Action with this tremendous drop in vote totals between '99 (11,500) and '13 (3600 - half from retirees) goes from 'winning" 6  Ex Bd seats in '99 to ten EB seats in '13. Ahhhh, democracy at work!  I've been going through the archives for a project g

2 by ed notes online / 3h 

Carol Burris: Common Core tests widen achievement gap in New York

The time to “reform the reform” is long overdue.....In the coming months, the fruits of the poisonous tree will be much examined, sorted and discussed.  But the fruit is rotten and parents are warning their children not to bite. The opposition to testing grows and soon the tree will finally fall.Carol Burris at The Answer SheetAnother wallop at ed deform from Carol with Valerie's assistance. Commo

2 by ed notes online / 11min 

Classy: AFT leader Randi Weingarten cuts off 9-year-old kid at March on Washington event; Updated

I watched C-span last night half asleep after a full day in the Poconos. Asean read a statement. He paused then said something like Oh one more thing. Randi pulled the like out of his hand, patted him on the shoulder and gently turned him away as she started her screaming diatribe. It just made me gasp... Pat D.Oh, what fun this is turning out to be.One tweet: Omar Moore @popcornreel Kind of iro

2 by ed notes online / 23min 

8-25-13 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online: NYC Parent Urges: Consider opting out of the tests next year as a way of resisting corporate education reform and the monetizing of our children's school experiencesDear Parents and Guardians, Your child's scores are now available on ARIS Parent Link. For what it is worth, there are a few things that I think we should all do: 1) Ignore the test results and do not tell our children

by mike simpson / 2h 

8-26-13 teacherken at Daily Kos

teacherken at Daily Kos:

My only reaction to this is yet again UGH!

and I cannot help but think that we justify our doing things for which we condemn others. From Foreign Policy:  Exclusive: CIA Files Prove America Helped Saddam as He Gassed Iran I am not going to attempt to parse this. You can read it on your own.   I will do only this much, offering these two snips: In 1988, during the waning days of Iraq's war with Iran, the United States learned through satell

2 by rss@dailykos.com ... / 3h 

8-24-13 teacherken at Daily Kos

teacherken at Daily Kos: Saturday morning - another reflection on teachingwhich may seem a little premature.  After all, I do not see students until next week.  This was teacher planning week, full of meetings, setting up the classroom, making copies, and even planning. I am back in my role as a classroom teacher. I will have 6 classes, each of which will meet alternate days for 90 minutes, a new

by mike simpson / 10h 

8-26-13 Crazy Crawfish's Blog | Zesty Louisiana Education Politics

Crazy Crawfish's Blog | Zesty Louisiana Education Politics:

Don’t forget to tune into WBOK 1230 AM today from 10 – 10:30

I will be invading the airwaves today at 10:00 am on WBOK 1230 AM, for the New Orleans Imperative radio hour. Many thanks to Dr. Raynard Sanders for allowing me a chance to reach a new audience and to continue to fight the good fight. http://www.wbok1230am.com/ You can listen live over the internets with this link: http://www.wbok1230am.com/player.html Feel free to tell me how awesome or horri

by crazycrawfish / 3min 

Introducing PegLeg Mickey, the Ed Policy Pundit/Pirate? Accountability Argh!

Believe it or not, this is not my handiwork. J (I’m working on something I hope will be even more disturbing.) While the opinions of key LDOE personnel are not necessarily mine own, I feel it would be inappropriate to censor this piece or art/outrage. As I’ve said before, there are many folks who had their voices suppressed by this administration, and continue to fear for their jobs. I did send ou

by crazycrawfish / 8h

Everything but the Squeal – A sequel

At the turn of the last Century, Upon Sinclair wrote a novel that horrified the nation with its depiction of the meat packing industry. As part of his research for this novel, The Jungle, Sinclair spent over 6 months working in the industry and documenting their practices. His intent was to reveal how immigrants were treated but what captured the attention of the nation was his matter-of-fact reco

by crazycrawfish / 6min mark as read  //  save

8-26-13 SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE

SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE:

The left right awakening!

There have been a few pieces written about the coming together of the left and the right, liberals and conservatives, teapartiers and progressives over the shared disdain for the Common Core.  In fact, assuming that I am a progressive, I had my first meeting with some tea-partier libertarians last week.  It was great.  We met. […]

3 by Timothy D. Slekar / 44min

Gates’s Cannibalistic Culture: Coming to a School Near You! | the becoming radical

Bill Gates has adopted education as a billionaire’s hobby for many years—once supporting small schools projects, but more recently focusing on teacher quality. Little attention, however, has been paid in the mainstream media to Gates’s struggles in business (Microsoft) or his complete lack of expertise, experience, or success as an educational entrepreneur. Until this expose by Vanity Fair address

by plthomasedd / 2h 

Misleading the State of Education: Zais Plays Partisan with School Praise

Superintendents of education in states across the U.S. are necessarily political positions, either political appointments or elected offices. Should, then, a superintendent of education visit public school districts to praise excellence—especially in districts and schools struggling under the weight of poverty? Of course. But in the current accountability era that persists in pursuing education po

6 by plthomasedd / 6min 

Michelle Rhee: A Teacher’s Best Friend

What makes a really good friend?  The listening? The understanding?  Always being there for you?  Well, if you are a teacher, Michelle Rhee wants to be your friend.  To prove it, she’s personally inviting you to her upcoming Teacher Town Halls, where you and Michelle (and two of her other friends) can have “an open […]

28 by Kris Nielsen / 8h 

8-25-13 Schools Matter @ The Chalk Face

SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE: Chomsky’s concept of engineering opinion illustrated by Broad’s Jean-Claude Brizard“But as long as people are marginalized and distracted and have no way to organize or articulate their sentiments…” — Professor Noam Chomsky Broadyte Jean-Claude Brizard was interviewed by the right-wing Fordham Institute a few days ago, and excerpts appeared in a Chicago publication

by mike simpson / 3h 

8-26-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

Bloomberg Semds Hooward Wolfson On NY1 To Attack Bill De Blasio

First former UFTer Randi Weingarten attacked de Blasio today, now Howie Wolfson, one of the slimiest people on the face of the planet (and also a former UFT consultant) attacked de Blasio as well:Just in case it wasn’t already clear from the barbs on his Twitter feed, Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson is not a fan of Bill de Blasio’s vision for the city. During an appearance tonight on NY1, the man who

by reality-based edu... / 42min 

Randi Weingarten Attacks Bill De Blasio Over Pre-K Plan

Fresh from stealing a microphone from a 9 year old so that she could do what she does best - get the spotlight on herself and talk - Randi Weingarten tried to grab the spotlight again today by attacking  Bill De Blasio as an impractical dreamer:Former city Controller Bill Thompson on Monday deployed national teachers' union boss Randi Weingarten to pooh-pooh Bill de Blasio’s plan to fund pre-K wit

by reality-based edu... / 7min

Where The Mayor's Race Stands With 14 Days To Go

We should have some public polls released soon. Those will give us a sense of where things stand.But here's where I see things two weeks out:It's still a three candidate race with Quinn looking like she has one runoff slot locked up, de Blasio and Thompson fighting for the other, and Quinn having an uphill battle in the runoff.Quinn hasn't been able to get above the mid-twenties in any poll since

by reality-based edu... / 16min 

The Measures Of Student Learning Mess Michael Mulgrew Gave Us

As NYC Educator posted this morning, NYC teachers will now have 20% of their evaluation based upon "local" measures of student performance.For many teachers outside of academic subjects, this means they will be evaluated based on scores of students in subjects other than their own.For example, art teachers may be evaluated on the scores of their students' ELA or math Regents exams.Same goes for vo

2 by reality-based edu... / 3h 

Research Group Financed By Bloomberg Philanthropies Hails Bloomberg Education Policy

The Daily News has a story out today about research group MDRC releasing a report that shows how Bloomberg's small schools initiative has improved graduation rates of students compared to other schools in the system.The group claims the following on their website:(New York, August 26, 2013) — MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research firm, released new findings today from

by reality-based edu... / 15min  

8-25-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School: Common Core Developers - A Private Club You Are Not InThe Atlanta Journal Constitution has a story today about who makes money off the Common Core. The main article is behind a paywall, but AJC.com does have a snippet and I found this part particularly interesting:Achieve Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group that has been heavily involved in writing the standards,

by mike simpson / 8h 

CHICAGO TRIBUNE – I THINK I KNOW WHY YOU HATE TEACHERS | Teachers Fight Back

CHICAGO TRIBUNE – I THINK I KNOW WHY YOU HATE TEACHERS | Teachers Fight Back:

CHICAGO TRIBUNE – I THINK I KNOW WHY YOU HATE TEACHERS

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The headline and follow-up story  in today’s Chicago Tribune was about teachers who had abused kids and somehow were not in jail.

The lead editorial was about the state committee that is working on teacher pensions.  Some of what the committee has been thinking about was revealed during the last few days. The committee’s work isn’t over and their proposal may be changing, but the Tribune is already screaming, “it doesn’t go far enough, it caters to the unions, it won’t solve the problem”, and on and on.

I always thought the excessive teacher bashing by the Tribune was because of its anti-union, anti-public worker, pro- corporate, anti Democratic Party, and  blatant support of big business and moneyed interests. I was wrong.

I have now concluded that all the editorial board members of the Chicago Tribune were people who had some terribly traumatic experience with teachers when they were in school. One board member was probably denied a washroom break by a teacher when they were in 2nd grade, resulting in a terribly embarrassing trauma.  One board member probably had their 7th grade science fair project awarded only a C grade even after they spent 

Back to school, but without books and basics in Mississippi | Hechinger Report

Back to school, but without books and basics in Mississippi | Hechinger Report:

Back to school, but without books and basics in Mississippi

By Jackie Mader

RICHTON, Miss. — When Superintendent Noal Cochran had an open teaching position in this quiet town, he looked for applicants at the bottom of the salary ladder—those with as little experience as possible. When he needed a new football coach, he wanted a rookie “straight out of college” who would accept a smaller stipend.

And when he needed new textbooks, he chose history over physics or chemistry—subjects less likely to need updating.

“When you’re trying to survive and make payroll, you really don’t worry about textbooks,” Cochran said of his district, which serves about 700 students and has been underfunded by a total of $5 million since 2011, according to The Parents’ Campaign, a nonprofit advocacy group that supports public schools.

Noal Cochran, superintendent of the Richton School District, says more funding would help him upgrade his schools, which were built with materials containing asbestos during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. (Photo: Jackie Mader

Cochran detailed his penny-pinching priorities for this small community east of Hattiesburg on a recent morning in front of the elementary school, where exposed pipes and electrical wires snake along ceilings. The school compound is mix of dilapidated brick buildings and aluminum trailers next to a field of rusty playground equipment.

With school underway throughout the state, superintendents like Cochran have few options for meeting their districts’ many needs, from classroom supplies to coaches. Since 1997, Mississippi has only fully funded its school