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Sunday, September 8, 2013

9-8-13 SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE

SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE:

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Ask NOT What the Standards Can Do for You…
Instead, make sure you’re reflecting on just how well you, dear teachers, are promoting the Common Core State [sic] Standards in your classrooms. Common Core-aligned lesson plan templates are starting to make an appearance, right alongside the Common Core-aligned lesson modules that are infiltrating ELA and math classes across the country.  These templates don’t look […]
6 by Kris Nielsen / 9min 


From Chris Lubienski: Do Charter Schools Promote Social Justice, Privatize Public Education (or both)?
Some liberals are quite enthralled with the social justice possibilities of school choice.  While district and enrollment boundaries reflect segregated residential patterns in the US, in theory, choice allows families to select schools across these artificial barriers, eradicating an important institutional impediment to equity.  Moreover, schools then must compete to attract students, just like b
1 by Chalk Face, PhD / 21min 
John White Shoots Self in Foot with Loaded SLTs
Former-TFAer and Broad-trained Louisiana “Superintendent” John White must broadcast something data-ish to demonstrate that He Is Right and Reforms Are Working. Mind you, his reforms are not working; they are a repeatedly demonstrated con perpetrated on Louisiana’s education system. Nevertheless, White insists on issuing the following press release regarding the “usefulness” of Louisiana’s first st
by deutsch29 / 1h mark as read  //  save
John White Shoots Self in Foot with Loaded VAM
Former-TFAer and Broad-trained Louisiana “Superintendent” John White must broadcast something VAM-ish to demonstrate that He Is Right and Reforms Are Working. Mind you, his reforms are not working; they are a repeatedly demonstrated con perpetrated on Louisiana’s education system. Nevertheless, White insists on issuing the following press release regarding the “usefulness” of Louisiana’s first val
by deutsch29 / 2h 

Reflections on Amplify’s Core Knowledge Profit Potential
In this post, I would like to offer my response to this information included as part of Diane Ravitch’s post on my exchange with Core Knowledge (CK) founder E.D. Hirsch. Regarding my strong statements on Amplify’s profit motive, Hirsch writes the following: The only way Amplify can make money from CK Pre-K-through 3 is if a school […]
by deutsch29 / 19min 

Please welcome the inimitable and pollster’s worst nightmare Mercedes Schneider to @thechalkface
Check out her author bio and page here. Her great analysis joins our team. We are excited.
by Chalk Face, PhD / 38min 
A Brief Tutorial on Reading “Miracle” Graphs
On August 8, 2013, Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools (LAPCS) founder and director Caroline Roemer Shirley sent out an email announcement regarding the supposed superiority of the state-run RSD charter schools over non-charters. She even states that her child will attend a charter this year (no specifics provided). Roemer Shirley is the sister of Louisiana Board […]
by deutsch29 / 42min 
The AP and Gallup Polls: A Commentary
The theme of this past several days appears to be the national education poll and how much one should (or should not) trust the results. On August 17, the Associated Press (AP) released a twisted version of what they would like for parents to want for their children– high-stakes tests– except that the term “high stakes” does not […]
by deutsch29 / 42min 
Why Does a “Turnaround” District Need to Purchase Buildings?
When the Recovery School District (RSD) was formed, it was supposed to “turn around” schools and return the schools to the original districts: Intended as a mechanism for restructuring and reform, the RSD was never meant to be a permanent part of the public school governance landscape in New Orleans. Instead, the RSD was meant […]
by deutsch29 / 42min 
What is John White Promoting as Common Core Sample Assessment Materials?
In the four brief videos below, “Dianne X” examines the content of the Louisiana Believes website, including excerpts from the Race to the Top (RTTT) agreement that contradicts White’s “mission in Louisiana to have every child achieve a college degree or professional career” and sample Enhanced Assessment of Grade Level Expectations (EAGLE) test items offered to the […]
by deutsch29 / 43min 
A Brief Audit of Bill Gates’ Common Core Spending
This is a post about Bill Gates and his money, a brief audit of his Common Core (CCSS) purchases. Before I delve into Gates accounting, allow me to set the stage with a bit of CCSS background. A Bit of CCSS Background It is important to those promoting CCSS that the public believes the idea that CCSS is “state-led.” […]
by deutsch29 / 43min 
Gates Money and Common Core: Part II
On August 27, 2013, I wrote a post about Bill Gates’ financial involvement in advancing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Though CCSS promotes itself as “state led,” in my previous post, I showed that all four major organizations responsible for CCSS from inception for its principal development– the National Governors Association (NGA), the Council of Chief […]
by deutsch29 / 44min 
UPDATE: Core Knowledge, Amplify, and “Free” Materials
UPDATE 09-05-13: Don Hirsch, Core Knowledge founder, has provided this link for the free CK ELA K3 materials:  http://www.coreknowledge.org/ckla-files#! Note: The links in my post are still live and do not lead to free downloads. These links also contain no message or redirect to the free downloads. They do, however, make it easy to locate […]
by deutsch29 / 44min 
AACTE Endorses CAEP; Testing Companies Win.
Once again a major education organization has proclaimed its intention to grade teachers (this time, teachers in training) using student test scores. Talk about “status quo.” Allow me to begin this post by addressing this foolish notion. I realize this topic has been written about repeatedly, yet reformers (and those yielding to reformers) insist that grading teachers using student […]
by deutsch29 / 55min mark as read  //  save







Who Benefits from Ignoring Poverty and Race? | the becoming radical
Who Benefits from Ignoring Poverty and Race? | the becoming radical.
by plthomasedd / 18min 


TEACH Documentary Delivers Same, Tired Infomercial
On the evening of September 6, CBS aired Davis Guggenheim’s latest tear-jerker hack job dedicated to public education: TEACH.  While featuring four young and relatively inexperienced teachers, we were told much of the same nonsense we’ve been hearing for years, since the release of the anti-teacher and anti-public-education Waiting for Superman (another Guggenheim assault).  The messages […]
84 by Kris Nielsen / 7h 




All Week 9-7-13 @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER
@ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER: All Week 8-10-13 @ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTERA basic assumption about #commoncore that’s insufficient #edtechVery simple. I’ve heard many arguments about how stupendously awesome common core is and will be. Regarding the tests, I hear frequently that they’re better because, quite simply, they’re on the computer. So, on computer automatically means be
by mike simpson / 9h 
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9-8-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:









Bloomberg Furious He Can't Stop Attacks On His "Legacy"
Salon piece on why Bloomberg went after de Blasio this weekend.Blake Zeff recounts how Bloomberg has used his wealthy connections to Zuckerman, Sulzberger and Murdoch to quell dissent from the newspapers, how he used his wealth as a bludgeon against the unions and the no-profits, buying off some, threatening to destroy others - all in a successful attempt to keep pushback to himself and his agenda
by reality-based edu... / 6min 

De Blasio Leads In Almost Every Category You Can Think Of
The Wall Street Journal writes up the Marist/WSJ/NBC News 4 poll:In a sign of his strength, Mr. de Blasio is leading among women, blacks, whites, Latinos, Jews, Catholics and in every borough in the city, the poll found.What's the phrase I'm looking for to describe this?Right - "peaking at the right time."Polls are wrong, of course, and Thompson has historically performed better than the public po
by reality-based edu... / 4min 

Marist Poll: De Blasio 36%, Quinn 20%, Thompson 20%
Just out:Bill de Blasio, the Democratic mayoral candidate whose progressive message upended his party's primary campaign this summer, has widened his lead over his rivals just days before the election, a new poll shows.De Blasio, the city's public advocate, has the support of 36 percent of likely Democratic voters, while his closest rivals, former Comptroller Bill Thompson and City Council Speaker
by reality-based edu... / 11min 

Somebody Get Joe Lhota A New Education Deform Cliche To Use
Lhota: "education is the key civil rights issue" of the decade. #nyc2013— Azi Paybarah (@Azi) September 8, 2013This cliche was already overused when they were first hawking No Child Left Behind in 2002.It was positively hoary by the end of Dubya's second term in 2008.Arne Duncan has used it so often that he ought to wear it on a t-shirt.It's time to retire this tired old phrase and pull some other
by reality-based edu... / 19min 

How NYC Teachers Are Going To Be Rated "Ineffective" Based On Test Scores Alone
A piece from Carol Burris in the Washington Post about how one excellent teacher got dinged as "developing" after receiving 58 out of 60 points from her principal's evaluation is a must read for NYC teachers.This is a cautionary tale that needs to be sent to all your colleagues.This teacher Burris writes about works in a "small city district."She received 5 points and 10 points respectively on her
by reality-based edu... / 2min 

NY Post Publishes Devastating Article About NYC Economy - Never Once Mentions Bloomberg As The Culprit
Here's a taste of the Post article:New York City is stuck in the economic misery lane of middle-class jobs flight and an unemployed and underemployed class faced with long-term joblessness and rising hunger, according to the latest economic research. The city is emerging from the worst of the Great Recession, but this so-called recovery is nothing to write home about. The unemployment rate is 8.4
by reality-based edu... / 14min mark as read  //  save
Reshma Saujani, Wall Street's Favorite Democrat, Caught Lying About Family Finances
How do you know when DFER-approved public advocate candidate Reshma Saujani is lying?She's talking, that's how.She has claimed in debates that she is sending money home to her parents because they are struggling to make ends meet. You can see here how badly her parents are "struggling."Note the moat behind the mansion in the wealthy Chicago suburb where the Saujanis live.Note the amount of money t
by reality-based edu... / 3h 
9-7-13 Perdido Street School
Perdido Street School: UFT Tells Teachers Bill Thompson Promises Retro Pay - But He Doesn'tMore lies and misinformation from the United Federation of Teachers leadership over the Bill Thompson campaign:The United Federation of Teachers is telling its members to come out in droves to vote for mayoral candidate Bill Thompson because he will give them back pay — even though he insists he didn’t promi
by mike simpson / 8h 

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For-profit colleges soaking up tax dollars despite student loan defaults, low graduation rates -- and could be in trouble - Inside Bay Area

For-profit colleges soaking up tax dollars despite student loan defaults, low graduation rates -- and could be in trouble - Inside Bay Area:

For-profit colleges soaking up tax dollars despite student loan defaults, low graduation rates -- and could be in trouble

By Katy Murphy and Thomas Peele Staff writers
POSTED:   09/07/2013 03:58:26 PM PDT | UPDATED:   ABOUT 14 HOURS AGO


Click photo to enlarge
Ex'pression College for Digital Arts Chief Executive Officer Daniel Levinson stands in a Foley...
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They rake in millions of dollars in federal tuition aid and still charge students more than $20,000 a year, on top of scholarships and grants.
Despite their high prices and promises of good jobs, more than a dozen of the Bay Area's most expensive trade schools graduate fewer than half of their students, report alarming rates of students defaulting on their loans -- or both.
While Californians have been hearing for years about runaway tuition at the state's public universities, the state -- and now the federal government -- is demanding better results from a different sector of the higher education world: for-profit colleges.
Squeezing the for-profit sector would be "all to the good," said UC Berkeley
education Professor Emeritus Norton Grubb. "They enroll low-income students, they charge them high tuition, they get them all on student aid and then the students drop out, leaving them with no increased earnings potential and a lot of student debt."
Take the $25,700-per-year Everest College in Hayward, where one in three former students did not earn enough to repay their student loans. Or the 1,900-student University of Phoenix in San Jose, which brought in $17 million in federal student aid in 2010-11; it reported a graduation rate of just 19 percent and a student loan default rate of 26 percent.
New federal regulations proposed for vocational programs and President Barack Obama's 
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Public School Shakedown: An alternative to accountability-based education reform « Education Votes

Public School Shakedown: An alternative to accountability-based education reform « Education Votes:

Public School Shakedown 576x324
By Paul Thomas. This article originally appeared on PublicSchoolShakedown.org, the new site from The Progressive Magazine dedicated to unmasking corporate-education reformers and fighting back against the attacks on public schools.
Education reform in the U.S. now faces a potential watershed moment in which setting aside accountability and embracing a school reform agenda that acknowledges social and educational inequity offer a promise of success that accountability, standards, and high-stakes testing have failed to achieve.

TAKE ACTION ›

Check out all the great coverage on The Progressive Magazine’s brand new site, Public School Shakedown. CLICK HERE ›
First, education does not exist in a vacuum. Teaching and learning are impacted by out-of-school factors and impact the world beyond the walls of schools; thus, the primary foundation upon which education reform must be built is acknowledging that the U.S. currently has one of the highest childhood poverty rates among nations against which U.S. schools are commonly compared.
Next, another powerful example of inequity in the U.S. is that upward mobility has stagnated—notably in the top and bottom fifths—and, as Matt Bruenig has explained ”you are better off being born rich regardless of whether you go to college than being born poor and getting a college degree.”
mobility
The third and final context for understanding an alternative to accountability-based education reform is the rise in the working poor in the U.S. and the increase in part-time work that leaves many working-poor families with adults holding multiple jobs but not having access to health care or retirement benefits.
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Saturday, September 7, 2013

Is DR Alison Coviello, Principal and PhD. at PS 154 in the Bronx Anti-Semitic?.southbronxschool.com

http://www.southbronxschool.com:

Is DR Alison Coviello, Principal and PhD. at PS 154 in the Bronx Anti-Semitic?

Rosh Hashanah, is the second holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

How does DR Alison Coviello, Principal and PhD. at PS 154 in the Bronx recognize the beginning of 5774? She "suggests", i.e. calls, for the teachers of PS 154 not to blow the shofar, but rather to come into school to work on their learning environments (classrooms to the normal people).
MILLIONS WERE MURDERED TO HAVE THIS RIGHT



Now, we here at SBSB are not calling DR Alison Coviello, Principal and PhD. anti-Semitic (Though she is a Dartmouth grad and we all know Dartmouth's history ofanti-Semitism). At the very least her actions are insensitive.

DR Alison Coviello, Principal and PhD. fails to realize that not only are some of the staff at PS 154 Jewish, but some of these Jewish staff have lives, are not atheistic heathens and do wish to worship with family, friends, and God on such a day.

But what seems worse is even if there are no Jews amongst those DR Alison Coviello, Principal and PhD sent the email to, is how would she know who is and who isn't Jewish? Seemingly, not all Jews have large noses, curly hair, big ears, a nasal voice, and are rich.

But even there were no Jews at all at PS 154, could DR Alison Coviello, Principal and PhD not have 
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Diane in the Evening 9-7-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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






Bill de Blasio Is NOT Running a Racist Campaign
In an interview with New York magazine, outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg accused frontunner Bill de Blasio of running a “racist” campaign. He graciously conceded that de Blasio is not a “racist” personally, just that his campaign is racist. He accused de Blasio of appealing to the black vote by showing off his biracial family. The website Buzzfeed was quick to point out that Bloomberg knew how to
by dianerav / 0min 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 9-7-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Robert Shepherd: How Corporate Monopolies Control What Students LearnRobert Shepherd posted this explanation of how the publishing industry has changed and how a small number of corporate giants control what students learn: I think it important to distinguish between entrepreneurs attempting to bring new products to market that wil
by mike simpson / 8h 


LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG Diane Ravitch's blog 9-7-13 #thankateacher #EDCHAT #P2
Diane Ravitch's blogLISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONGDIANE RAVITCH'S BLOGTODAYRobert Rendo: Why Are We Destroying Education? For What?Now here is a first for this blog. A comment that appeared on the blog by Robert Rendo was picked up and posted by blogger Jonathan Pelto. It was indeed a brilliant statement, and somehow I failed to turn it into a post. So I am taking the post from Jonathan Pel
by mike simpson / 9h 


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The Great Stagnation of American Education - NYTimes.com

The Great Stagnation of American Education - NYTimes.com:

The Great Stagnation of American Education

By ROBERT J. GORDON
Javier Jaén
The Great Divide
The Great Divideis a series about inequality.

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For most of American history, parents could expect that their children would, on average, be much better educated than they were. But that is no longer true. This development has serious consequences for the economy.
The epochal achievements of American economic growth have gone hand in hand with rising educational attainment, as the economistsClaudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz have shown. From 1891 to 2007, real economic output per person grew at an average rate of 2 percent per year — enough to double every 35 years. The average American was twice as well off in 2007 as in 1972, four times as well off as in 1937, and eight times as well off as in 1902. It’s no coincidence that for eight decades, from 1890 to 1970, educational attainment grew swiftly. But since 1990, that improvement has slowed to a crawl.
Companies pay better-educated people higher wages because they are more productive. The premium that employers pay to a college graduate compared with that to a high school graduate has soared since 1970, because of higher demand for technical and 
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esol students could be victims of English-only testing - OrlandoSentinel.com

esol students could be victims of English-only testing - OrlandoSentinel.com:

Are Florida tests unfair to non-English-speaking students? Some say yes

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Walfrank Piñeiro
Wekiva High School junior Walfrank Piñeiro shows off some of the awards he has won, on Tuesday, August 6, 2013. Walfrank, who has been in the United States after moving from Cuba about two years ago, is an honor roll student and star pitcher for his high school. An academic mentor of his thinks he would have passed if the test (FCAT) was translated into Spanish, as about a dozen other states do. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda, Orlando Sentinel)

By Lauren Roth, Orlando Sentinel
1:19 p.m. EDT, September 7, 2013
Walfrank Piñeiro has been on the honor roll every semester since emigrating from Cuba two years ago. He's earned awards for academic excellence at the school, district and state level.
Despite the accolades, the 15-year-old has been unable to pass state exams in math, his strongest subject. He recently failed a retake of the crucial Algebra I exam by three points.
He has been tripped up repeatedly by word problems that educators concede measure reading as much as math skills.
"I think it should be just numbers," the Wekiva High junior said of the algebra test, which is a Florida graduation requirement. "We're talking about math."
In Florida, more than 250,000 students like Walfrank are considered English-language learners, third nationally behind California and Texas. But Texas and more than a dozen other states give students a chance to take state exams in their native language.

"These tests are not measuring, to the full extent, the students' knowledge of the content," said Charlene Rivera, research professor and executive director ofGeorge Washington University's Center for Equity and Excellence in Education.
As Florida and most other states head toward a shared curriculum called Common Core, parents, advocates and experts are pushing for new tests that will reflect what these students know more accurately than state exams like Florida's FCAT. The League of United Latin American Citizens, a national group, wants Spanish versions of these tests to be developed at the same time.
Federal law requires states to test nearly every English-language learner except those who have been in the 


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