11-1-13 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:

Hedge Fund Operative Gordon Hendry Joins Indiana State Board of Education

by Doug MartinWhen Mind Trust board member and Bill Bennett operative David Shane (wife of former Eli Lilly Endowment’s education consultant) recently stepped down from the Indiana State Board of Education, I was not shocked when Mike Pence quickly picked Democrat Gordon Hendry to join the state board.  Hendry is married to Jennifer Wagner, the former spokesperson for the Indiana Democratic Part

100+ by Doug Martin / 1h 

"It's a madhouse! A madhouse!"

Valerie Strauss’s The Answer Sheet has a discussion of Common Core and text complexity that you must read:Common Core: How are books judged?Strauss ends with:Appendix A of the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards has a long and complicated explanation of “text complexity,” which you can read here, that reviews research said to show that the complexity of today’s reading demands for ad

2 by P. L. Thomas / 4min 

10-31-13 Schools Matter

Schools Matter: TFA's PR Machine Lights It Up in Memphis with Front Page Stories of "Enchantment" and "Allure"CorpEd bought Memphis City Schools with a 90 million dollar Gates Foundation grant in late 2009, and early in 2010 the TN Department of Education was gobbled up by a $501 million bribe from the Gates controlled US Dept. of Education's RTTT.  Thus began the slashing and

by mike simpson / 7h

11-1-13 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

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

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: English Agenda is a site from the British Council which offers a wealth of language-teaching research and online professional development. I’m adding it to The Best Ways To Keep-Up With Current ELL/ESL/EFL News & Resear

3 by Larry Ferlazzo / 11min 

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

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

4 by Larry Ferlazzo / 0min 

Resources On Daylight Savings Time

It’s that weekend again… You might be interested in The Best Sites For Learning About Daylight Savings Time.

3 by Larry Ferlazzo / 35min 

A Quasi-Milestone: I’ve Now Written One Hundred Articles On Education For Other Publications

In the unlikely event that you’re not tired of reading what I write, this week I wrote my one hundredth article for another publication about education (not counting my weekly pieces for Education Week and The New York Times). You can see all of them here and/or you can see my choices for The Twelve Best Articles I’ve Written About Education.

10 by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h 

Smithsonian Launches Game Site

The Smithsonian Science Education has just launched an online learning game site. They only have one up-and-running, called Shutter Bugs, but they list more to come. Shutter Bugs is an excellent game for Beginning English Language Learners to learn the names of animals, along with different verbs. It could also be used for very young native English speakers. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Le

12 by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h

It Might Be Hard To Find A Better Short Video Than This One To Portray “Grit”

Perseverance (grit) is one of the key qualities researchers have found to be essential in a successful language learner, as well as other learners. Here’s a video demonstrating that quality that I’m adding to The Best Videos Illustrating Qualities Of A Successful Language Learner. Thanks to Daniel Coyle for the tip. You might also be interested in The Best Resources For Learning About The Importa

3 by Larry Ferlazzo / 2min 

Veterans Day Resources

Veterans Day takes place on November 11th in the United States. It’s recognized as Remembrance Day or Armistice Day in Great Britain and in other countries to specifically remember those who fought in World War. You might be interested in The Best Websites To Learn About Veterans Day.

8 by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h 

Using Freire & Fotobabble With English Language Learners

I’ve written several times about how I use critical pedagogy with English Language Learners, specifically using a Freirian model (see “Freire’s Learning Sequence” from this blog and a New York Times piece I wrote). In addition, I’ve often written about how I use the Fotobabble tool, which lets you post an image and provide a thirty second narration with it (see Student Writing & Metacognition

7 by Larry Ferlazzo / 3h 

10-31-13 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: MY NEXT BOOK!"Building a Community of Self-Motivated Learners: Strategies for Teaching Resilience, Respect, and Responsibility" is the tentative title of my next book. It will be the third in my student motivation "trilogy.Video: John Stewart’s Two-Part Interview With Diane RavitchDiane Ravitch was on The Dai

by mike simpson / 8h 

11-1-13 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:

The in box. Carol Marin on the Guzzardi election for Illinois House.

Carol Marin. Chicago Sun-Times. Just 125 votes. That’s all that separated defeat from victory in 2012 when an upstart nobody — Will Guzzardi — challenged an incumbent with a powerhouse last name — State Rep. Toni Berrios — in a faceoff on Chicago’s Northwest Side. The recount gave the regular Democratic Party fits. Guzzardi snuck up on all of them, including Toni Berrios’ dad, Joe Berrios, whose f

1 by Fred Klonsky / 1h 

HMS audit in Minnesota. Fifty percent error rate. Is ALEC behind it?

  Is ALEC behind the audit of state employee insurance eligibility? When in September Illinois state retirees began receiving letters of audit from HMS we were quite surprised. Illinois’ Central Management Services (CMS) had hired the Arlington, Texas-based company to find fraud among those pensioners who were claiming dependents under their coverage. HMS promised they could cut the number of dep

3 by Fred Klonsky / 2h 

10-31-13 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: Medicare Advantage roll-out is heading off the cliff.. The deadline for deciding what our retiree health care will look like – whether we go with Medicare Advantage or op out – is December 13th. Central Management Services is co-sponsoring informational seminars across the state between November 11th

by mike simpson / 7h 

11-1-13 Wait What?

Wait What?:

Controversial Bridgeport billboard donated to Mayor Finch

Raising Hale is a media project of the Yankee Institute for Public Policy. Although Wait, What? and Raising Hale are miles apart on some philosophical issues, Raising Hale’s dedication to “uncovering government waste, fraud, and abuse in Connecticut” is impressive. Fellow investigative journalist and blogger, Zachary Janowski, is doing an amazing job shinning the light […]The post Controversial Br

2 by jonpelto / 2min

It is another morning at Capital Prep…but Principal Steve Perry in nowhere to be seen

This morning, when the school bell rings to mark the beginning of another school day at Hartford’s Capital Preparatory Magnet School, the students are there, the teachers are there… but Principal Steve Perry won’t be there… Again! Steve Perry is off collecting a speaking fee at yet another out-of-state event. This time Steve Perry is […]The post It is another morning at Capital Prep…but Principal

8 by jonpelto / 2h   

10-31-13 Wait What?

Wait What?: Malloy/Democrats make mockery of Connecticut’s once prominent role in campaign finance reformThanks to the changes in Connecticut’s campaign finance system that were initiated and signed into law by Governor Malloy, corporate education reformers Jonathan Sackler and Mary Corson each wrote $10,000 checks to Connecticut’s Democratic Party this year. It is hardly the first time that Sackl

by mike simpson / 9h 

11-1-13 @ THE CHALK FACE

@ THE CHALK FACE:

Ninety-five Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) Documents

There is more to a website than the information accessed by clicking its active links. This I learned years ago in my dealings with statistics software that utilizes both windows and code. Armed with such knowledge, yesterday I spent six hours combing the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) website searching for useful information “hidden in plain sight,” so to […]

1 by deutsch29 / 6min mark as read  //  save

An open letter to #AERA. No thank you.

Dearest American Education Research Association (AERA): This week, I received yet another solicitation to renew my membership to AERA. And once again, I will ignore this email and decline membership renewal. But this is the first time I’ve chosen to respond. In this message, AERA is being touted as the following: Your membership helps make a difference […]

9 by Shaun Johnson / 2h 

Common Core and Text Complexity: “It’s a madhouse! A madhouse!”

Valerie Strauss’s The Answer Sheet has a discussion of Common Core and text complexity that you must read: Common Core: How are books judged? Strauss ends with: Appendix A of the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards has a long and complicated explanation of “text complexity,” which you can read here, that reviews research said […]

1 by plthomasedd / 1min 

Surprise! I Try Again To Propose Some Sanity in the War Against the Core.

The Author Working at Home Over on one of the “secret” Facebook groups I’m on (I’d mention the name but then of course I would have to have my cats bury you in hairballs – and believe me, they could do it), there was some mild confusion today about whether we opposed the Common Core […]

87 by Michael Paul Gold... / 9h 

10-31-13 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE: NYSED: Cherry picking data.Here is another example of education reformers cherry picking data.  New York Education Commissioner John King and the Board of Regents have been under a tremendous amount of pressure from parents and educators across the Empire State about the Common Core implementation and the significant increase in mandated testing, along with the cancellation and r

by mike simpson / 11h 

11-1-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

Why Chris Christie Will Never Be President

There's some talk around that Chris Christie could be elected president.I'm going to go on record right now and say he will not be elected president.Having watched him here in NJ, I can tell you that he cannot stand up to media scrutiny in a national election.Tonight TIME reports that the Romney campaign pretty much decided the same thing in 2012:In an excerpt from their new book Double Down: Game

by reality-based edu... / 23min

Why Common Core Will Fail

The Atlantic looks at so-called text complexity:Here’s a pop quiz: according to the measurements used in the new Common Core Standards, which of these books would be complex enough for a ninth grader? a. Huckleberry Finnb. To Kill a Mockingbirdc. Jane Eyred. Sports Illustrated for Kids' Awesome Athletes!The only correct answer is “d,” since all the others have a “Lexile” score so low that they are

by reality-based edu... / 25min mark as read  //  save

Does It Feel Like March To You?

It's November 1.I'm exhausted.I have three Regents prep classes - one is  remedial class with students who have failed the Regents exam three times.I have two senior classes.I'm helping out with college admissions twice a week.And I just started writing college recommendations.I taught this senior class when they were freshmen, so I know them for four years.I am going to be writing a lot of recomm

by reality-based edu... / 5h 

10-31-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School: NYSED: Teacher Evaluations Not ConfusingNope - they're complex!SCHOOLBOOK: Why are we hearing complaints about children in kindergarten through second grade being given extra assessments that are taking time away from class? SCHWARTZ: That would depend upon the strategy that was locally collectively bargained. There may be some districts in which they decided that they were

by mike simpson / 9h