8-27-13 SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE

SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE:

Too hot for our babies in Chicago, amateurism in #CPS continues

In just two days of teaching Kindergarteners in 90 degree heat, it would be unimaginable for me, at the very least, to work in the summer without air conditioning, like students and teachers this week did in Chicago.  Yes. I get it. I’m sure you trudged five miles in the snow, or ten miles in […]

1 by Chalk Face, PhD / 10min 

Obama’s Failed Hope and Change: “Forget the politicians. They are irrelevant” | the becoming radical

About three decades later, I joined the majority of voters in the U.S., electing the first bi-racial (often called simply African American) president in the country’s history. At the time, however, I voted for Barack Obama primarily because I believed his election was an important symbolic moment for the U.S.; I did not buy his […]

1 by plthomasedd / 2h 

8-26-13 Schools Matter @ The Chalk Face

SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE: Michelle Rhee: A Teacher’s Best FriendWhat 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 Kri

by mike simpson / 11h 

Choosing Democracy: Charter networks push 2-4 years and out for teachers- that is a career.

Choosing Democracy: Charter networks push 2-4 years and out for teachers- that is a career.:

Charter networks push 2-4 years and out for teachers- that is a career.

 Motoko Rich.  NYTimes.

Studies have shown that on average, teacher turnover diminishes student achievement. Advocates who argue that teaching should become more like medicine or law say that while programs like Teach for America fill a need in the short term, educational leaders should be focused on improving training and working environments so that teachers will invest in long careers.

“To become a master plumber you have to work for five years,” said Ronald Thorpe, president of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, a nonprofit group that certifies accomplished teachers. “Shouldn’t we have some kind of analog to that with the people we are entrusting our children to?”

Teachers’ unions and others in the traditional education establishment argue that charter schools are driving teachers away with longer hours and school years, as well as higher workplace demands. (At YES Prep, for example, all teachers are assigned a cellphone to answer any student call for homework assistance until 9 p.m.)

These critics also say that schools and students need stability and that a system of serial short timers is not replicable across thousands of school districts nationwide.

“When you stay in a school or community, you build relationships,” said Andrea Giunta, a senior policy analyst for teacher recruitment, retention and diversity at the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers’ union....

HOUSTON — Tyler Dowdy just started his third year of teaching at YES Prep West, a charter school here. He figures now is a good time to 

Support Firefighters in California

     This is a good time to thank all of those public workers – the Firefighters ( men and women) and their support crews who are fighting the fires in the California mountains. And, we should thank the public who fund the fire fighting efforts through their tax dollars. This is how government works. Unfortunately a minority living in the mountains tend to be anti government and anti tax.  Wel

by Duane Campbell / 1h 

8-27-Wait What?

Wait What?:

Thomas Scarice: Superintendent of Schools and leading voice for public education

Thomas Scarice is the Superintendent of Schools in Madison, Connecticut.  Last January, Diane Ravitch, the nation’s leading voice for public education, added Superintendent Scarice to champion of public education honor roll for his leadership in working in bringing together the Madison school board, teachers, parents and the local community. Rather than accepting the regimented, dictatorial, […]Th

by jonpelto / 1min 

Ring bells, but ignore Sheff!!!

Governor Malloy’s shocking approach to the 50th Anniversary of MLK Jr.’s speech:  Ring Bells, but ignore Sheff.  In preparation for the 50th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, Governor Malloy’s PR operation has kicked into high gear issuing a press release in which he asks “Residents & Organizations To Ring […]The post Ring bells, but ignore Sheff!!! appeared

2 by jonpelto / 14min mark as read  //  save

Our Orwellian education policy

Tag this one Slam, Dunk, Checkmate.” Here is Connecticut public education advocate Wendy Lecker’s latest commentary piece from the Stamford Advocate and Heart Media outlets.  It is another “must read” article in the on-going battle to reveal the truth about the education reform industry. “To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget […]The post Our Orwellian education polic

6 by jonpelto / 4h 

8-26-13 Wait What?

Wait What?: Mass Insight swaps out more consultants: Further reducing experience for CT Alliance DistrictsAs Connecticut’s Alliance Districts have become painfully aware, rather than utilize the tremendous expertise and experience within the Connecticut State Department of Education, Governor Malloy and his “Education Reform” Dream Team led by Commissioner Stefan Pryor decided to replace Connectic

by mike simpson / 7h

Suspended Sacramento teacher admits to biting special ed student to stop fight | news10.net

Suspended Sacramento teacher admits to biting special ed student to stop fight | news10.net:

Suspended Sacramento teacher admits to biting special ed student to stop fight

SACRAMENTO - A Physical Science and P.E. teacher at McClatchy High School is fighting to return to his job despite being cleared of wrongdoing by an independent investigative board.

Jerry Glaviano was placed on unpaid administrative leave by the Sacramento City Unified School District in February for the steps he took trying to break up a fight between two students.

According to court records, Glaviano, a 27-year-employee at the school, punched a special education student in the mouth and bit him hard enough to leave a bloody wound.

However, Glaviano denies being the aggressor and says he was the victim. 

"I had to bite him to get away and I wasn't able to get away too far," said Glaviano.

Glaviano said he was hit several times by the student and was forced to bite the student to break a hold the student had around his throat.

"He had his arm around my throat. He lifted me off the ground and if he wanted to, he is 6'2'' and 220 pounds and I am 5'7' 120 pounds; he could have thrown me onto the ground," said Glaviano

Glaviano says he didn't call for help because there was no time and 

Plans emerge to replace decile ranking system SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources

SI&A Cabinet Report – News & Resources:

Plans emerge to replace decile ranking system
By Kimberly Beltran
Tuesday, August 27, 2013

In what might be the next step in revising California’s system for evaluating student performance, the state board of education is scheduled to consider next week two options for replacing the existing decile ranking system.

Legislation approved last year requires the California State Board of Education in conjunction with the California Department of Education and advisory groups to develop an evaluation matrix that does not rely as much as test scores by including other indicators such as college and career readiness.

As part of that work, members of the Public Schools Accountability Act Advisory Committee are offering two new methods of comparing schools statewide: a numeric model and a descriptive model.

Schools now receive two decile ranks based on their API scores: One that shows how each one measures up to all other schools in the state and one relative to 100 other schools with similar pupil demographics.

Both of the proposed new systems would be grounded in four key components: absolute performance, educational challenges, growth over time and student group achievement.

The numeric model, would be similar to how the state’s Academic Performance Index is currently presented – with school, district and county level data expressed as a number.

The descriptive model would rely on a five star system – like a restaurant rating. The approach here would be to present the data in a format that is more familiar to parents and the public. For example, five stars can be used to create 10 rating options in a category by using half star increments, according to a staff report.

The proposal comes forward as only one piece in a highly complex puzzle of public policy as the state ushers in new 

September becomes Attendance Awareness month in CA schools

With the start of another school year, state schools chief Tom Torlakson and the California Legislature are making chronic absenteeism a special focus this month.

1h 

Schooling in the Ownership Society: The great TFA/charter scam -- Drive-by Teachers

Schooling in the Ownership Society: The great TFA/charter scam -- Drive-by Teachers:

The great TFA/charter scam -- Drive-by Teachers

A TFAer in Birmingham, AL.

Today's NYT carries a piece,  "At Charter Schools, Short Careers by Choice" by Mokoto Rich. The notion that young, inexperienced short-timers, many with only 5 weeks of TFA training, should form the backbone of the nation's teaching core, has become one of the lynch pins of corporate-style school reform.

The drive-by teacher strategy is being pushed heavily by the power philanthropists in the Gates, Broad, and Walton Foundations. It actually is based on the Wal-Mart model where about 70% of its poorly-paid workforce turns over within a year. This is what the reformers mean by 21st Century jobs.

At Success Academy Charter Schools, a chain run by Eva Moskowitz, a former New York City councilwoman, the average is about four years in the classroom. KIPP, one of the country’s best known and largest charter operators, with 141 schools in 20 states, also keeps teachers in classrooms for an average of about four years. 

Short careers by choice, translates into teachers being reduced to low-wage information-age delivery clerks while most "learning" is done by students sitting in front of a computer screen. The benefits to the charter operators include the 

NYC Public School Parents: MDRC report on NYC small schools and gaming graduation rates

NYC Public School Parents: MDRC report on NYC small schools and gaming graduation rates:

MDRC report on NYC small schools and gaming graduation rates

 

The latest version of the Gates-funded reports from MDRC has been released, showing graduation rates for NYC students who were assigned to the new small schools through the supposedly random HS admissions process were 6 to 9.5 percent higher compared to those who “lost” the lottery and were assigned to large schools instead.  Overall, it has some of the same weaknesses that I noted –along with others in the previous report:  

1-The comparison groups are not necessarily equally matched – it does not separate out free and reduced lunch students, who are expected to have very different outcomes.

2 – The comparison also does not separate out special education students who are severely disabled – those that are taught in a regular classroom vs. those assigned to self-contained classes.

Indeed, though it claims comparable figures in both sets of schools, the authors admit that for both special education students and English language learners, “the sample sizes for these subgroups” at the small schools were so limited they could not compare outcomes between both sets of students.

3- Not all small schools held lotteries, as not all of them were oversubscribed – only presumably the more popular schools which may have been those with the most successful outcomes.

Assuming that there are real advantages to attending a small school, there could be many reasons for this higher rates unmentioned in the report:

•  Peer effects:  given that a student has to attend an information session and apply to a small school, this screens out many of the most at-risk kids, including recent immigrants, those with unstable home lives and “over-the

NYC Educator: How to Stop UFT from Asking You to Make Phone Calls

NYC Educator: How to Stop UFT from Asking You to Make Phone Calls:

How to Stop UFT from Asking You to Make Phone Calls

A few weeks ago, I got a series of phone calls asking me to work for Bill Thompson for mayor. Several UFT reps made these calls, and one was pretty persistent. With Bill de Blasio as a serious contender, I couldn't muster the enthusiasm to do so. I might reconsider if he's in a runoff against Quinn, because she enabled Bloomberg's third term, and because the papers have all endorsed her. This tends to make me think she's even worse than she appears.

I suppose if you're a UFT employee trying to persuade chapter leaders, you have a number of tools in your kit. One, of course, is thinly veiled threats. "This is important. You must agree." In fact, no one outside of UFT has ever used that argument with me. Several UFT reps have now tried it with me, and clearly assumed it was a conversation-killer. They are not accustomed to hearing, "No, I don't have to agree, in fact I don't agree, and what kind of argument is that anyway?" They do not have anything at all to say when you give them that response.

Another favored tool is flattery. "I'm calling you because you're very intelligent and influential. We really value your participation." When you answer that, in fact, you actually wrote something in favor of Thompson, a good UFT response is, "Yes, I read it. It was eloquent." But it wasn't really. It was simply that you found him the least offensive alternative in the very small field of choices that appeared viable. And given that, whether or not the UFT rep actually read it is another 

8-27-13 Education : NPR

Education : NPR:

 Twitter Education Feedback: Good Sentiments But...

Tell Me More Editor Ammad Omar highlights some of the Twitter education conversations going on at #NPREdChat.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

2 1h 

Youth Wish List For Changing Education

Host Michel Martin gets perspective from two recent high school grads on what's working, and what isn't in schools. She speaks with Elijah Miles, a freshman at Morgan State University in Maryland, and Kashawn Campbell, a sophomore at UC Berkley.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

1h 

Reporter's Notebook On Education Challenges

NPR Education Correspondent Claudio Sanchez opens up his notebook to share some of the education stories he's been covering this year. He talks with host Michel Martin about claims of segregation in Memphis schools, and the controversy over new education standards.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

1h 

More Than A Number? Educators On What Standardized Testing Means

Host Michel Martin hears from a group of teachers about how education policies and technology are changing today's classrooms. She's joined by fifth grade teacher Rafe Esquith, third grade teacher Tequila Pennington-Calwise and school librarian Elissa Malespina.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

2 1h 

Sec. Of Education: Graduation Rates 'Nothing We Can Be Proud Of'

Tell Me More checks in with the U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, about the biggest challenges educators, parents and students face in schools today. He talks with host Michel Martin about education as a civil rights issue.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

1 1h 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm ecstatic. Nobody killed on Day 1

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm ecstatic. Nobody killed on Day 1:

Rahm ecstatic. Nobody killed on Day 1

"This is true community policing." -- Chief Garry McCarthy

The Mayor's troops held the line on Immoral Monday.

Nobody was killed, at least between the hours of 7-8 a.m. and 3-4 p.m. when thousands of cops, fire fighters, Streets & San crews, yellow-vested $10/hr. new hires, and $85K/yr. business-suited CPS staffers manned the 92 Safe Passage routes at an estimated cost of $15.7 million.

However, a 28-year-old man was shot along one of the routes and a 14-year-old boy was shot to death near another one, the day before school started.

Actually, in all the years I've been in Chicago, sending all three of my kids to CPS schools, I can't recall any student ever being shot or killed on their way to the first day of school, even without the full-scale mobilization of troops to guard against the invisible army of "jaw-jacking"shooters supposedly poised waiting behind abandoned buildings to strike at dawn.

But that's probably because we've never had a mayor (and we've had some doozies) willing to put thousands of children in harm's way with such a disruptive, ill-thought-out, and arbitrary school closing strategy.

Rahm skipped the triathlon to prepare for Day 1.

Lost in all the high-fiving was the fact that 400,000 students were returning to a grossly underfunded, racially-segregated school system with over-crowded 

5 myths of educational innovators, part I: disruption, digital natives, and learning styles | Hechinger Report

5 myths of educational innovators, part I: disruption, digital natives, and learning styles | Hechinger Report:

5 myths of educational innovators, part I: disruption, digital natives, and learning styles

By Anya Kamenetz

It’s almost back to school–a good time to clear out the cobwebs and challenge some conventional wisdom. Hype is seductive, and an enemy of clear thought. Luckily, I’ve recently come across some very well-spoken and thoughtful criticism of long-cherished ideas–even some of my own! Consider it a blast of compressed air for your brain instead of your keyboard.

This is the first of two posts. The second will appear Thursday.

1) Disruption. The term disruptive innovation, a huge buzzword in the technology industry, was coined by Harvard business expert Clayton Christensen, whose work in the last few years hasconcentrated on the advent of online learning alongside other education reforms. Generally, disruptive innovation is a new idea that is so different it creates an entirely new market and “value network”. Often it is inferior to the established players, but is also much cheaper and more efficient. The established players ignore it, and its utility goes unsuspected until it is suddenly ubiquitous, displacing what came before. For example, the mass-produced automobile, personal computing, and later smartphones.

In a New Republic piece calling disruption “Silicon Valley’s most pernicious cliche,” Judith Shulevitz singles out Christensen’s influence on school reform. Her argument: disruption is undemocratic; when it comes to public agencies and public services, stability is preferable to sudden change. “Not all civil services need to be hyper-efficient and bargain-basement and in a state of permanent revolution, especially when the private entities tasked with disrupting government operate largely outside public view. What the institutions of a democracy should do is attend to their many disparate constituents as effectively and inclusively and openly as possible without getting creatively destroyed in the process.”

A recent blog post in Scientific American supplies an illustration in support of Shulevitz’s argument.

FCMAT » Cali Education Headlines Tuesday, August 27, 2013

FCMAT » Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team:

Adams: Exercise in, junk food out at nation’s schools, CDC study finds

Education Headlines

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Questions about new school funding formula remain

As schools start up again this week, local officials are learning more about a funding system passed by the Legislature in June. But because the Local Control Funding Formula is so different, school leaders still have questions as Sacramento hashes out the details.

Coast Unified superintendent leaving for job in Sacramento

Chris Adams, superintendent of the Coast Unified School District, has accepted a new job with the Association of California School Administrators in Sacramento. He said Monday his new title will be assistant executive director for the association, and his job will include an emphasis on professional development for administrators.

Galt high school district sets record for new teachers

The record number of new teachers at Galt Joint Union High School District this school year appear to be settling in. Of the 15 new hires, 13 were for Galt High School alone.

Winship Middle School opens; community helped make it happen

Winship Middle School was once again filled with smiling, energetic students when the school reopened Monday thanks to community support after being closed for four years.

Madera Unified teachers, administrators reach tentative deal

Madera Unified teachers and the district have reached a tentative agreement on an employment contract that’s held both sides at an impasse for months.

New Haven Unified appoints 'interim co-superintendents' while searching for permanent schools chief

The New Haven Unified School District board has appointed two high-ranking employees to serve as co-interim superintendents of schools while the ongoing search for a permanent superintendent continues.

Adams: Exercise in, junk food out at nation’s schools, CDC study finds

Increasing numbers of school districts nationwide have adopted policies to prohibit junk food sales, ban tobacco use during school events and require physical education classes in elementary grade levels, according to a major new study released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Competition rejoins race to lead county office of education

Had you asked them only weeks ago whether they soon would be running political campaigns, Gary Dei Rossi would have told you that he was happily retired and Jeff Tilton would have expressed complete contentment with his job at New Jerusalem Elementary School District in Tracy. But with the surprising announcement earlier this month by Mick Founts that he will not seek a second term as superintendent of the San Joaquin County Office of Education, the lives of Dei Rossi and Tilton have taken swift and dramatic turns. Both are in the early stages of a nine-month marathon to replace Founts.

New Inglewood Unified leader rescinds wave of campus security layoffs

The move to undo the wave of about 40 layoffs and demotions amounted to one of the first major decisions by Don Brann since he became the troubled district’s latest state-appointed administrator in June.

Adams: School bullying prevention efforts falling short, state audit says

Responding to concerns that schools should do more to stop bullying, a new state audit found that most schools do not track whether their anti-bullying programs have made campuses any safer and that schools are inconsistent in how they record and resolve bullying incidents.