LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 9-29-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

Gordon Wilder: Why the Obsession with Test Scores?

Reader Gordon Wilder wonders why we lost sight of the purpose of education: “My view: People have forgotten what real education is about, the search for ultimate values: good, truth, beauty. To value integrity, love etc. It is searching out the best ideas of humanities greatest minds, greatest teachers. It is NOT about passing test scores. When this first came out – the “nation at risk” era, we la

10 by dianerav / 58min 

Jersey Jazzman Asks a Good Question

Jersey Jazzman wonders why I have not been invited to appear on any of the national television shows, not only because I represent a challenge to the status quo but because my new book. Published September 17, will appear as #10 on the Néw Uork Times bestseller list next week. The good news is that I received an invitation to appear on the Chris Hayes’ MSNBC show next Friday October 4. Still hop

by dianerav / 6min mark as read  //  save

Corporate Education Reform Is in Big Trouble

When the news gets out that the corporate reformers’ narrative and de line is false, their crusade to turn schooling into a marketplace loses its rationale. Here is a review of “Reign of Error” by columnist/editorial writer Robyn E. Blumner of the Tampa Bay Times. What if our schools aren’t failing? What if Jeb Bush and his minions are wrong? What if the cause of low test scores requires new thin

4 by dianerav / 1h 

Jonathan Lovell:Think of This When Critics Rage

Jonathan Lovell noticed that several critics of “Reign of Error” have attacked me, instead of engaging the issues I raise in the book. Jonathan teaches writing at San Jose State. He sent me this couplet, written by Alexander Pope: “Yes, I am proud; I must be proud to see Men, not afraid of God, afraid of me.” After I met him in Berkeley on Saturday night, he wrote as follows: “The Alexander Pope

by dianerav / 4min 

EduShyster Explains the Murkland Turnaround

At the 2012 Democratic national convention, the governor of Massachusetts raved about the success of a school called Olive Gardens, where the 80% of the staff was fired, and many inexperienced TFA were brought in. EduShyster points out that the Charlotte M. Murkland Elementary School is even more successful, yet there were no shoutouts at the Convention, no trips to the White House, no national pr

by dianerav / 6min 

Your Sunday Gift: Time to Laugh Out Loud

This is one of the funniest satires of current education thinking that I have read in a long time. It was written by Russ Walsh of Rider University. Russ describes the development of a new assessment program for toddlers, to determine if they are career-and -college ready The acronym for the new program is TIT for TAT. No experts in early childhood education were involved in developing the new as

4 by dianerav / 11min 

Dallas Board Will Decide Fate of Superintendent Miles

After an internal investigation raised questions about the actions of Dallas Superintendent Mike Miles, the school board will have a closed meeting on September 30 to decide whether to discipline him. Miles is a graduate of the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy. Stay tuned.

by dianerav / 11min 

Young Poet Brilliantly Slams Ed-Cruelty

This is a stirring, eloquent poem at a slam in Boston, by a young man whose sister teaches new immigrant children. After one year in a new country, they must take standardized tests in English. If they fail, their teachers fail. This is madness. Listen for three minutes and hear his vivid imagery of cruel Federsl policy

3 by dianerav / 14min mark as read  //  save

A Teacher’s Advice to Governors

Some governors and legislatures look on Teach for America as a way to save money, because most leave after two or three years at the bottom of the salary structure and never collect a pension. This teacher has a suggestion for them: “Governors who feel 1 and 2 year turnover of Teach for America teachers is the way to excellence should resign after 2 years to let someone else take over.”

23 by dianerav / 1h 

Jeff Bryant Reviews “Reign of Error”

Jeff Bryant locates Reign of Error within the context of a coming “education spring,” a growing grassroots rebellion against a failing corporate reform movement. Parents, students, educators, and citizens are fighting back and winning, often in unexpected places, like Texas. The mask is falling away from the faux “reform” movement, whose main effect has been to demoralize teachers and impose a reg

7 by dianerav / 2h  

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 9-28-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Do You Need a Laugh Today? Read This.Julian Vasquez Heilig is the most creative blogger I know in terms of his brilliant combination of flashy graphics, research, and informed commentary. Here he describes the century-long battle between the managerial elites—who believe that schools can be improved by data, management, mandates an

by mike simpson / 7h  

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONG Diane Ravitch's blog 9-28-13 #thankateacher #EDCHAT #P2

Diane Ravitch's blogLISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH ALL WEEK LONGDIANE RAVITCH'S BLOGPhilly Teacher: May 100% of Your Students Score Proficient by 2014!This was written by Raniel Guzman, who is a teacher in the School District of Philadelphia and an adjunct professor at Esperanza College of Eastern University: May 100 % of your students score proficient or above on standardized tests by 2014.            

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

9-29-13 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:

Protests Spread Against Huffman Among Tennessee School Administrators

In the most recent outbreak of protests against Kevin Huffman's mis-leaderership of Tennessee schools,The Marshall County Board of Education has formally endorsed a letter recently submitted to Gov. Bill Haslam and the General Assembly that expresses discontent with the current leadership in the Department of Education.The eight-member school board approved the single page resolution Tuesday at a

by Jim Horn / 1h 

Michael Goldenberg's Review of The Mismeasure of Education

By Michael P. Goldenberg "Markov Chaney"This review posted at Amazon.THE MISMEASURE OF EDUCATION pays homage in its title to Stephen Jay Gould's classic MISMEASURE OF MAN, a book that exposed much of the sordid history of intelligence testing in the United States and how it became almost from its inception tainted by racist assumptions and an obsession with rank-ordering human being

2 by Jim Horn / 25min 

Petrilli's Embarrassing Post about Poor Mothers Being "Bad"

This post is embarrassing—both for the content and the fact that Petrilli appears unaware how embarrassing it is.Single-mothers are not "bad"; they are overwhelmed.Education is not to create economically self-sufficient people (that serves the privileged who feed off the economy). Education's goals are much BIGGER than that—self-awareness and complete autonomy, within which economic self

1 by P. L. Thomas / 48min 

How Bill Gates Views the World

Money is power.Power is money.Bill Gates has too much of both.Valerie Strauss gets it—that Bill Gates is not what education needs: “Education reform should not be driven by private philanthropists with their own agendas, however well-intentioned.”Ultimately, the problem is Gates’s view of the world. And there is no better way to express that view than the chess scene in Mel Brooks’s History of the

3 by P. L. Thomas / 7h 

9-28-13 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:  Schools MatterAre Americans reading less?Sent to the New York Daily News, Sept. 27, 2013The Daily News reported that "Less than half of Americans read for fun last year, National Endowment for the Arts survey shows" (Sept. 26).This is not quite accurate.The NEA reported that 54.5% of those surveyed said they read at least one book last year, nearly identical to the resul

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

9-29-13 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:

This Week’s “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t” – September

I have a huge backlog of resources that I’ve been planning to post about in this blog but, just because of time constraints, have not gotten around to doing. Instead of letting that backlog grow bigger, I regularly grab a few and list them here with a minimal description. It forces me to look through these older links, and help me organize them for my own use. I hope others will find them helpful

3 by Larry Ferlazzo / 12min 

New Kindle Edition Of “Helping Students Motivate Themselves” Is Available

I’m happy to say that a new Kindle edition of my book, Helping Students Motivate Themselves, is now available and you can find it here. The original Kindle edition of the book was pulled a couple of of months ago after Routledge bought its original publisher, Eye On Education. They made revisions to all the EOE books, and now, as of today, it’s back! The new Kindle edition of Self-Driven Learning

3 by Larry Ferlazzo / 28min 

Using Vine/Instagram In The Classroom

I do a lot of videotaping in my classes, primarily in IB Theory of Knowledge and in my ELL ones, and have been thinking about experimenting with Vine or Instragram’s stop motion clips. Though I posted The Best Resources For Learning To Use The Video App “Vine,” I haven’t used it much other than to try it out with videos of my pets . A new post by Amy Erin Borovoy over at Edutopia, however, has f

3 by Larry Ferlazzo / 7min 

More Videos On Brazil

Here are new additions to The Best Sites For Learning About Brazil: The BBC has a collection of Brazil videos.

5 by Larry Ferlazzo / 24min mark as read  //  save

Great Graphic: “The Ed Tech Troubleshooter”

Here’s another great ed tech graphic from Bill Ferriter. I’m adding it to The Best Advice On Using Education Technology: . @MrBrettClark and I whipped up an #edtech troubleshooter for y'all. Hope you enjoy it. pic.twitter.com/eUhbrlEfGQ — Bill Ferriter (@plugusin) September 29, 2013

9 by Larry Ferlazzo / 47min 

This Week In Web 2.0

In yet another attempt to get at the enormous backlog I have of sites worth sharing, I’ve recently begin a regular feature called “The Week In Web 2.0.” It’ll be a short compilation of new decent sites that are worth noting, but maybe not necessarily worth a separate post and generally — though not always — not worthy of being on a “The Best…” list (let me know if you think I’m wrong in my assess

3 by Larry Ferlazzo / 14min 

“Developing Student Writers By Letting Them Talk…”

Developing Student Writers By Letting Them Talk… is my new post over at Education Week Teacher. It’s the first post in a three-part series focusing on teaching writing in the context of the Common Core Standards. Today’s commentaries come from educators Mary Tedrow, Ray Salazar and Tanya Baker.

by Larry Ferlazzo / 7min 

Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL

I’ve started a somewhat regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to ESL/EFL or to language in general that have caught my attention: PARCC’s Common Math Tests to Be Translated Into Spanish is from Education Week. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About The “Next Generation” Of State Testing. Getting to Know Your ELLs: Six Steps for Succes

11 by Larry Ferlazzo / 6h mark as read  //  save

Useful Resources On Copyright

Here are new additions to The Best Resources To Learn About Copyright Issues: So… You Want (Have) To Create Something? is from Langwitches. So…You Want to Declare Fair Use is also from Langwitches. by floydworx. Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

17 by Larry Ferlazzo / 6h 

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Week… 9-28-13 …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EF

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFLLARRY FERLAZZO’S WEBSITES OF THE DAYRepublican Strategy On Debt Ceiling Is Ridiculous Strategy, But Provides Perfect Classroom Lesson On “Compromise”I learned about the importance of compromise in my nineteen year community organizing career prior to becoming a teacher, and I’ve shared a fair amount about it at The Best Posts

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

Day In Day in the Life Of A Connected Classroom (Kristen Wideen) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Day In Day in the Life Of A Connected Classroom (Kristen Wideen) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Day In Day in the Life Of A Connected Classroom (Kristen Wideen)

Kristen Wideen is a grade 1/2 teacher in Windsor, Ontario Canada. She says: “I love to collaborate with others and incorporate technology into my classroom. “

EDITOR NOTE: This is an abridged version of Mrs. Wideen’s postfor May 22, 2013.

I had a group of teachers visit my classroom last week. They were there to see how we incorporate technology in meaningful ways into the primary classroom. I had a couple of teachers ask me if I had a schedule of what we do throughout the day to give to them. Alas, a blogpost is born. So, here it is, a day in my room without you actually having to visit me! (I am taking the day that my visitors came in and writing what we did that day)

8:30 Entry

Students enter school and write a short message in their agendas.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays students read  or give mini lessons to their parents on the iPads in our Learning Commons.  For those students that don’t have a parent come in they may blog, read independently or with a partner until 9:00.  On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays students choose to blog, read or write until 9:00.  Many students chose to blog about our new tadpoles in our classroom that day.

9:00 Twitter Review – Reading Mini Lesson

If there are any mentions or interesting tweets on the class Twitter account, we read the tweets and respond.  On this particular day, we had some interesting 

Corner Office Lessons in Leadership | InterACT

Corner Office Lessons in Leadership | InterACT:

Corner Office Lessons in Leadership

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

tags: business, corner office, leadership

by David B. Cohen

From time to time I like to pick up useful advice intended for people in business, and apply it to education. One of my favorite sources is the New York Times feature “The Corner Office.” Adam Bryant interviews business leaders who share their insights and advice about management, and on September 26, the interviewee was Robin D. Richards, chief of the CareerArc Group. The title caught my eye: “Dissent Isn’t Just an Option. It’s Everyone’s Obligation.” What follows are some key quotes that are applicable both to teaching and to school system leadership.

What you learn as you develop as a manager is that balance of respect, approachability, empathy and friendship, so that you can say, “We’ve got a job to do and you have to do it, and it has to be done fast and properly.” I learned to be comfortable with those boundaries.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan could use some leadership tips from The Corner Office (2011, photo by the author)

I think there’s useful advice here for the classroom and the administration – though I might want to tease out the meanings of “friendship” with students. Certainly we can be friendly, and work with each other in a spirit of friendship, but that doesn’t make us buddies or peers. Much has been written in recent years about the importance of empathy, and it seems to be in short supply among the leaders of some of the most distressed school systems in the country. Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, and 

A Core dilemma: Will the littlest learners be able to type? | Hechinger Report

A Core dilemma: Will the littlest learners be able to type? | Hechinger Report:

Teacher-training schools under pressure to prepare for Common Core

It’s not just K-12 teachers who are being asked to adjust their teaching styles and curricula to ensure students learn the Common Core standards. The people who teach the teachers are also under the gun. But as the controversial standards take root, there’s disagreement over whether teacher-training programs are doing enough to prepare aspiring educators for the dramatic changes they will encounte

by Sarah Carr / 1h mark as read  //  save

A Core dilemma: Will the littlest learners be able to type?

When Tania Nyman’s 9-year-old son decided a year ago to type a page of his homework rather than handwrite it, the experiment did not go well. “It was painful to watch him type and how long it took,” said Nyman, who lives in Baton Rouge, La. “He managed it, but it was a slow process.” Next school year, the 9-year-old’s keyboarding skills will once again be put to the test. Quite literally. In the s

by Sarah Carr / 1h 

9-29-13 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online:

Parent Calls for Support of Oct. 9 "Win Back Wednesday"

Janine Sopp issues a call to her network. There are links to the Toolkit prepared by MORE for use in your schools, plus a great video prepared by MORE Media. The day will culminate with a rally outside the UFT Delegate Assembly (52 Broadway) on Oct. 9 at 4PM with a focus on the evaluation system the UFT leadership is pushing. If only the usual suspects are there they will be ignored.The game will

1 by ed notes online / 22min   

9-28-13 Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Online: Reign of Error Review: Kozol on Ravitch, Speculating on Why There is No Middle Ground in the Ed WarsHaving Kozol review Ravitch is like getting the gold ring. Which means someone at the NY Times Book Review has some sense. The NY Post has a Michelle Rhee clone do the review. I imagine there are different forces at work within the Times and I expect we will see a different type of

by mike simpson / 12h 

9-29-13 @ THE CHALK FACE

@ THE CHALK FACE:

“Stupid” #commoncore Comments debunked: @WiStateJournal

Last week Wisconsin governor Scott Walker agreed that the common core might not be the best standards in the Milky Way Galaxy.  So he decided to allow for hearings and public comment.  This of course fired up the common core supporters that already had “common core or die” tattooed across their hind quarters. Shrieking and […]

7 by Timothy D. Slekar / 33min 

Required viewing for all #edtech enthusiasts

Seriously. Minimize screen time, especially for the youngest. It’s a sad habit.

by Shaun Johnson / 9min 

Petrilli’s Embarrassing Post about Poor Mothers Being “Bad”

This post is embarrassing—both for the content and the fact that Petrilli appears unaware how embarrassing it is. Single-mothers are not “bad”; they are overwhelmed. Education is not to create economically self-sufficient people (that serves the privileged who feed off the economy). Education’s goals are much BIGGER than that—self-awareness and complete autonomy, within which economic […]

by plthomasedd / 32min 

All Week 9-28-13 @ THE CHALK FACE

@ THE CHALK FACE knows SCHOOLS MATTER: All Week 8-10-13 @ THE CHALK FACE This is why the Tea Party can shove their anti #commoncore sentiment #tcotTea Party zealots have been rather late to the party, actually. In only the last few months or so have they sought fit to propose anything related to education other than abolishing all public schools and the Department of Education. The latter of the t

1 by mike simpson / 8h