Do We Really Care about the Education of Other People’s Children? | janresseger

Do We Really Care about the Education of Other People’s Children? | janresseger:

Do We Really Care about the Education of Other People’s Children?

Posted on November 18, 2013 by janresseger

You may have noticed the hot debate about the Common Core Standards (and tests) being rolled out across the states.  The Common Core is the latest chapter in the test-based accountability movement.  The idea is that if we set the standards much higher and make the tests harder, our children will improve and their test scores on international tests will become competitive with the scores of the children in Shanghai and Finland.

The Common Core Standards have been developed by two statewide consortia—the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.  Forty-five states have bought into this effort, which  has been heavily “incentivized” through requirements of federal programs like the Department of Education’s No Child Left Behind waivers. Qualifying for a waiver  demands that states adopt “college and career-ready” standards, with participation in the Common Core the most immediate way a state can meet this requirement. Development of the Common Core has been extensively supported by funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

What should children know? What should they be taught at each grade level?  Can we use standardized test scores as a motivator to push teachers to expect more at every level and students to work harder?  These are the questions underneath the standards and accountability movement that has washed across the country in the past quarter century.

There is nothing scientific about any of this.  It is, of course, possible to make academic 

Great Teachers Don't Always Want to Become Principals - Liz Riggs - The Atlantic

Great Teachers Don't Always Want to Become Principals - Liz Riggs - The Atlantic:

Great Teachers Don't Always Want to Become Principals

Is there a way for teachers to make more money and advance in their careers without leaving the classroom?

Sam is high-school government teacher in Washington D.C. who wanted to take on a leadership role in her school. Last year, she earned a master’s degree and an administration license in order to pursue a position as a principal or a dean. Now, though, she has doubts about leaving the classroom.

“I’m not sure that I want to be a principal,” she tells me. “I think that ideally I would still want to work with kids in some capacity…I don’t perceive leaving the classroom for a while, but I do want to have some other leadership opportunities before that.”

Sam’s dilemma—the seemingly conflicting desires of wanting to advance in her career while remaining a classroom teacher—is one that many teachers face. Many teachers want to lead inside and outside of their classrooms, but often it seems the only way to do that is to become a dean or a principal. While these positions typically provide more money and greater flexibility, they ultimately move teachers further away from the students. In 2013, MetLife surveyed teachers and found that nearly 25 percent of teachers were interested in a 

Teacher killings bring profession's risks to light : page all - NorthJersey.com

Teacher killings bring profession's risks to light : page all - NorthJersey.com:

Teacher killings bring profession's risks to light

MONDAY NOVEMBER 18, 2013, 9:59 AM

BY CAROLYN THOMPSON

ASSOCIATED PRESS

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When a 16-year-old student slammed a metal trash can onto Philip Raimondo's head, it did more than break open the history teacher's scalp, knock him out and send him bleeding to the floor.
"It changed my whole world," Raimondo said about the attack in the school where he taught for 22 years.
Experts say the phenomenon of student-on-teacher violence is too often ignored.
"There's some reluctance to think that the teaching profession can be unsafe," said Dr. Dorothy Espelage of the University of Illinois.
The educational psychology professor recently headed a national task force on classroom violence directed at teachers. The group found that little has been done to try to understand or prevent such incidents despite the potential implications on teacher retention and student performance, among other things.
But the October deaths, one day apart, of Nevada middle school math teacher Michael

- See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/national/Teacher_killings_bring_professions_risks_to_light.html?page=all#sthash.pO6sii3M.dpuf

UPDATE: Resistance to the Common Core isn’t just about suburban soccer moms and their private interests

A Sociological Eye on Education | Resistance to the Common Core isn’t just about suburban soccer moms and their private interests:

Resistance to the Common Core isn’t just about suburban soccer moms and their private interests

Somewhere, David Labaree is smiling.

Actually, I have a pretty good idea where this is: Palo Alto, Calif., where Labaree teaches the history and sociology of education at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education. Over the past two decades, Labaree has been one of the nation’s leading analysts of the failures of American school reform.

David Labaree

Central to Labaree’s analysis is the recognition that there are several important goals for American education, which he labels democratic equality, social efficiency, and social mobility. Democratic equality refers to the role that education plays in creating politically equal and engaged citizens of our democracy; social efficiency to how education rationally sorts individuals into the positions in the economy that enable the United States to grow economically and compete on the international playing field; and social mobility to the historic role that education has played as a vehicle for individuals to move up in society, and for those born into privilege to maintain their social and economic advantages.

Labaree describes democratic equality and social efficiency as publicgoods, because they contribute to the well-being of society overall. In contrast, because social mobility is about a competition among individuals to get ahead, it’s a privategood, providing advantages to some members of society at the expense of others. In his books How to

Parents return to school to help children with Common Core-inspired homework

Editor’s note: This is the second in an occasional series looking at how Belle Chasse Primary School, in suburban New Orleans, is adjusting to the Common Core standards that are reshaping teaching in classrooms throughout Louisiana. The first story in the series, done in partnership with The Advocate and New Orleans public radio, can be read here. BELLE CHASSE, La. — When Mike and Camille Chudzins

2 by Sarah Carr / 3min 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 11-18-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

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

Schneider: Arne Tries for Damage Control But It Doesn’t Work

After Arne Duncan made the grievous error of speaking frankly, his remarks set off a firestorm. So he tried today to walk back his comments, reinterpret them, spin them, remove the memory of what he had said, and make everything right. But it didn’t work. People are still buzzing about his original tasteless remarks about “white suburban moms” who discover that their child is not so brilliant and

2 by dianeravitch / 21min 

Mom to Arne: My Concerns Are Not About Race, Class, or Gender

This mom was taken aback by Arne Duncan’s put down of “white suburban moms” who are disappointed to learn that their child is not so brilliant. This mom has actually read the Common Core standards and has serious doubts about them. She can’t understand why Duncan disrespects her ability to think and reason for herself.

by dianeravitch / 0min 

Mother Crusader Comes to My Defense

On November 11, right before I fell ill, I gave two lectures in Princeton. The first was held at Princeton High School and open to the community. After dinner I lectured as part of a series at Princeton University. Two different speeches, but the message was the same. The High School speech was focused on New Jersey, the evening speech on national trends. Within a few days, I noted that someone fr

1 by dianeravitch / 18min

Commissioner King Makes Clear That He Doesn’t Care About Public Opinion

The New York Times summed up the universally hostile response that Commissioner King has received from parents and educators in New York at an ongoing series of forums about Common Core and its botched implementation. King should use these meetings to apologize for setting absurd cut scores (passing marks), aligned with “proficient” on NAEP, which is not a pass-fail mark, but represents solid achi

10 by dianeravitch / 33min 

Guest Blog: Rachel Levy Questions Why Richmond, VA, Hired TFA

Editor’s note:  While Diane is on a somewhat reduced blogging schedule, she has invited members of the Education Bloggers Network, a consortium of people who blog about education issues on the national, state or local level to contribute to her blog.  If you are a blogger who supports public education and would like to join the Education Bloggers Network, contact Jonathan Pelto Jonpelto@gmail.com.

1 by dianeravitch / 13min

A Parent’s Letter to Arne Duncan

TeacherKen, aka Kenneth Bernstein, posted this statement by a parent on his blog at the Daily Kos. Arne Duncan unleashed a firestorm when he asserted that parent opposition to Common Core testing stemmed from the disappointment felt by “white suburban mothers” when they found out that their child was really not brilliant and that their public school was not so good after all. The mother who wrot

3 by dianeravitch / 49min 

Anthony Cody: What Happens After Common Core Is Ousted?

Anthony Cody follows up his brilliant analysis of the flaws of Common Core with this thoughtful projection of what to do next. Cody believes that the standards are fatally flawed by the absence of any democratic process or review or trial. There is also the indisputable fact that the standards were adopted by 45 states without their review but because the federal government made the adoption of “

by dianeravitch / 0min 

Everything You Wanted to Know about inBloom But Didn’t Know How to Ask

This is from Leonie Haimson, who has been the national leader in the fight to derail the collection of confidential student data via inBloom, the Gates and Carnegie-funded program. Read this: http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2013/11/nyseds-new-scary-data-dic tionary-with.html They are not collecting blood type, voter status, and religious affiliation (of course.) They are collecting: Stu

36 by dianeravitch / 2h mark as read  //  save

Schneider Deconstructs Arne Duncan

The Internet is buzzing about Arne Duncan’s condescending and insulting comment about white suburban moms who oppose the Common Core because they discovered their child was not so brilliant after all and their local public school was not very good. But meanwhile Mercedes Schneider found Arne’s message to the first Moms Congress, where he defined parental engagement in ways that would make ALEC an

7 by dianeravitch / 3h 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 11-17-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: Note to Arne from an Angry White Suburban MomA comment from a reader in response to Arne Duncan’s statement that white suburban moms are angry because the Common Core tests just showed them that their child is not so brilliant and their school is not so good: “This angry, white, suburban mom IS angry–but it’s not because I was delu

by mike simpson / 10h 

11-18-13 Wait What?

Wait What?:

Connecticut Democratic Leaders stand by as the soul of Sheff v. O’Neill hangs in the balance

In an article entitled Hartford Schools To Consider New Management For SAND School, the Hartford Courant has just confirmed that the Hartford “board of education will consider three new school plans proposed as part of Sheff v. O’Neill negotiations, including a state request to have SAND Elementary School managed by a nonprofit educational organization.” The […]The post Connecticut Democratic Lead

22 by jonpelto / 59min 

Let’s give Steve Perry, the chronically absentee principal, control of 1,000 student’s education

“Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing ten percent or greater of the total number of school days for ANY REASON.  It includes both excused and unexcused absences.” – State Department of Education, Interagency Council on Ending the Achievement Gap 11/7/13 While principals in the Hartford School System can bank their vacation and sick days, Steve […]The post Let’s give Steve Perry, the chronical

3 by jonpelto / 1h 

Re-cap: Deal to give entrepreneur-principal Steve Perry his own school management company at public expense.

For quite some time, corporate education reformer and bully, Steve Perry, has been bragging about a plan to get the Hartford Board of Education to allow him to set up a private company and then hand him full control of what is now the Hartford Public School known as Hartford Preparatory Magnet School. In fact, […]The post Re-cap: Deal to give entrepreneur-principal Steve Perry his own school manag

13 by jonpelto / 49min 

11-17-13 Wait What?

Wait What?: News Flash: Our Democracy at risk as Kishimoto/Poland set up “quick vote” to give Steve Perry sweetheart dealIf the Hartford Board of Education doesn’t stop this impending disaster, Steve Perry will be allowed to set up his own company and be given Capital Prep and Sand Elementary schools to run. The move will make a mockery of the historic Sheff desegregation law suit and the tens of

by mike simpson / 9h 

National Teacher of the Year, 2009: Why I Became a Teacher. Why I'm Still Teaching. - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

National Teacher of the Year, 2009: Why I Became a Teacher. Why I'm Still Teaching. - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

National Teacher of the Year, 2009: Why I Became a Teacher. Why I'm Still Teaching.

By Nancy Flanagan on November 18, 2013 9:19 AM

I'm pleased to share a guest column by Anthony Mullen, National Teacher of the Year 2009, whom I'm honored to call a friend.

In the spring of 2009 I was invited to the White House by the president of the United States to receive my nation's highest teaching honor. President Obama would greet me in the Oval Office and later hold a
formal press conference in the Rose Garden, officially naming me the National Teacher of the Year in front of an assembly of fellow state teachers of the year, family and friends, and a busy group of national and international journalists holding pens, cameras and microphones. This professional accolade is designed to be the pinnacle of all teacher awards, and it provided me more than my fair share of fame for over one year. 

The National Teacher of the Year is an ambassadorial role in which the recipient advocates for students and the teaching profession by speaking at over 150 engagements in every state and a few foreign nations. The task can be 

11-18-13 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum:

And the Hits Keep Coming for Enrollment

The district has just unleashed (and yes, that's the word I'm using) a new document for pathways for the North/NE.I'm trying desperately to keep up so did I miss this?  Two days before the Growth Boundaries and Intermediate Capacity Plan is NOT the time to hand this out.  Who can really digest what this means?They say this on the last page about "program placement":Board Policy F21.00 de

by Melissa Westbrook / 10min 

Board Meeting Ramps Up

First, there will be a meeting - called by the Superintendent - for discussion around renovating T.T. Minor to be the new home for World School.  The meeting is tomorrow night, Monday the 18th, at JSCEE at 5:30 pm.I'm not sure what form the discussion will take.  The issue is two-fold.  One, World School has been consistently ignored by the district and the Board (or takes a backseat to almost eve

by Melissa Westbrook / 9h 

11-17-13 Seattle Schools Community Forum

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Common Core: Arne Duncan's Foot in the Mouth ProblemFrom Ed Week's Anthony Cody - Common Core Standards: Ten Colossal Errors.As for Arne Duncan, here's what he is doing in service of Common Core.  Understand that there is tremendous pushback across the country and getting louder.  Hence his over-the-top remarks.From the Network for Public Education: He also said:-

by mike simpson / 2h