All Week @ The Answer Sheet 1-4-14

The Answer Sheet:

All Week @ The Answer Sheet

Student privacy concerns grow over ‘data in a cloud’

Privacy concerns have been growing over a $100 million student database – largely funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and operated by a  nonprofit organization, inBloom Inc. —  that contains detailed information about millions of students. Most of the states that had signed up to participate in a pilot program have pulled back, and […]    

300+ by Valerie Strauss / 1d 

JAN 01

The problem with thinking ‘content is king’ in education

Content is important, but it isn’t everything, as Stanford University’s Larry Cuban makes clear in the following post. Cuban was high school social studies teacher for 14 years, a district superintendent (seven years in Arlington, VA), and professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, where he has taught for more than 20 years. His latest book is […]    

85 by Valerie Strauss / 3d 

DEC 31

Words that should be banned in 2014 (selfie, twerk, etc.)

Here’s the 2014 list of words that Lake Superior State University in Michigan has deemed should be banished from overuse. The school, which has been issuing the list for 39 years, seeks nominations  yearround and then puts out a list of 13 winners. The No. 1 word: “selfie.” To submit your nomination for the 2015 list, […]    

58 by Valerie Strauss / 3d 

Nine educated education predictions for 2014!

I recently published a list of  best  and worst education news of 2013 by California veteran teacher Larry Ferlazzo, and here are his predictions for 2014 in education. He teaches English and Social Studies at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, has written five education books, writes a teacher advice blog for Education Week Teacher, and […]    

300+ by Valerie Strauss / 3d 

‘I would love to teach but…’

I recently published a post with various answers to the question: How hard is teaching? Here is one response I received by e-mail from a veteran seventh-grade language arts teacher in Frederick, Maryland, who asked not to be identified because she fears retaliation at her school. In this piece she describes students who don’t want […]    

5K by Valerie Strauss / 4d 

DEC 30 2013

Ed Dept. pours $43 million into reform program with questionable results

The U.S. Education Department is pouring $43 million more in federal funds into a program that is aimed at improving the lowest-performing schools but has had highly questionable results. The department announced last week that seven states would receive more than $43.4 million through the School Improvement Grants program: Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Rhode […]    

53 by Valerie Strauss / 5d 

‘Five things I did not expect from my Teach For America experience’

Here is part of a post that Julian Vasquez Heilig, an award-winning researcher and associate professor of educational policy and planning at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote on his Cloaking Inquality blog. The piece, entitled “Tell-All From A TFA and KIPP Teacher: Unprepared, Isolation, Shame, and Burnout,” is largely about a former student of […]    

200+ by Valerie Strauss / 5d 

DEC 29 2013

NYC schools chancellor to be named

A few weeks ago I reported that New York City Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio would likely tap Carmen Farina, a close adviser who was a former deputy schools chancellor in New York City, to be the new chancellor of the largest school system in the country. Sources now say he will name her as chancellor as […]    

12 by Valerie Strauss / 5d 

What school reformers can learn from Pope Francis

Veteran teacher Larry Ferlazzo has found what he says are school reform and classroom management lessons from Pope Francis. Ferlazzo teaches English and Social Studies at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, CA., has written five books on education, writes a teacher advice blog for Education Week Teacher, and has his own popular resource-sharing blog. […]    

27 by Valerie Strauss / 5d 

Jon Stewart’s greatest education hits ’13

From 2013, in no particular order, with a bonus at the end.   Jon Stewart ridicules preschool critics — 3/7/13 The Daily Show Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook About the stupidity of some of the criticism of the idea of government support for high-quality preschool for all kids. Highlights: …. […]    

100+ by Valerie Strauss / 5d 

DEC 28 2013

The test question that’s haunted Gov. Jerry Brown for 50 years

California Gov. Jerry Brown has been out front for some time as a strong critic of the standardized-testing obsession that has come to dominate the school reform movement. He has even refused to give in to threats by Education Secretary Arne Duncan to withhold some federal Title 1 funds — intended to help poor children […]    

400+ by Valerie Strauss / 6d 

1-4-14 Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Schooling in the Ownership Society All Week

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog:
Schooling in the Ownership Society

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk 

Schooling in the Ownership Society

Billionaire wing-nut throwing his money around Missouri 'school reform'

SinquefieldIt's hard to imagine that a wackadoo wing-nut like Rex Sinquefield could be the director of a St. Louis children's social service agency or a trustee at DePaul University (where I teach). But nevertheless, there he is -- the billionaire teacher hater, who once called public education, "an invention of the Ku Klux Klan" to hurt African American children -- still throwing his mo

by Mike Klonsky / 49min 

JAN 01

The Ward Room: Chicago charters, "a tangle of insider dealing, cronyism and political favoritism"

NBC's Ward Room report on charters offers an unequivocal assessment.As charter schools continue to take root, however, one fact is clear: No process this steeped in political cronyism and insider dealing should be allowed to continue. The report recounts the way a politically-connected Chicago charter school operator, Concept Schools, Inc. (owned by Turkish billionaire Fethullah Gulen) used it's c

by Mike Klonsky / 2d 

DEC 30 2013

Billionaire hedge-funder and charter supporter Cohen tops Forbes 2013 scandal list

Cohen tops Forbes Scandal ListNet Worth: $9.4 billionNationality: AmericanSource of Wealth: SAC Capital Advisors (hedge fund)What happened:  Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors in November pleaded guilty to insider trading violations while agreeing to pay a $1.2 billion penalty and to stop managing money for outside investors. The U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, described insider trading at SA

18 by Mike Klonsky / 4d 

DEC 29 2013

Common Core has turned into a testing fiasco

The education world is scrambling to avoid its own version of a full-scale HealthCare.gov meltdown when millions of students pilot new digital Common Core tests this spring, writes Caitlin Emma at Politico. The tests will be given on a massive scale: Roughly 4.2 million third through eighth graders will test the exams in math and English this spring, and 29 million students nationwide will use the

8 by Mike Klonsky / 6d 

DEC 28 2013

Inner-city schools, students being bypassed by college recruiters

Colleges and universities are systematically avoiding recruitment of black, Latino and poor students and telling their recruiters to bypass urban public schools. This according to a report in the L.A. Times, "College recruiters give low-income public campuses fewer visits."A Times survey of public and private high schools across Southern California found that campuses with a high proport

by Mike Klonsky / 7d 

Waiting for a Chicago de Blasio?

Interesting piece in yesterday's S-T, "Chicago lefties look for their own Bill de Blasio". Dan Mihalopoulos obviously has his ear to the ground.A nation — or at least the left-leaning activists of this one big city — is eager to turn its lonely eyes to someone who can take on the Chicago mayor whom lefties deride as “Mayor 1%” and the quintessential DINO (Democrat in Name Only).... Meanw

7 by Mike Klonsky / 1d 

JAN 02

Why Duncan had it in for Starr

Starr opposed Duncan testing madnessHere's more on Arne Duncan's direct interference in de Blasio's selection of a schools chancellor. Duncan and his assistant, Jim Shelton (the man from Gates), pressured BdB against the selection of Montgomery County Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr. WaPo education writer Valerie Strauss explains why Duncan felt so threatened by Starr.Starr, who runs Maryland’

19 by Mike Klonsky / 2d 

JAN 01

More on Fariña pick: You can't go wrong expecting the worse from Duncan.

In yesterday's post on de Blasio's appointment of Carmen Fariña as schools chancellor, I implied that pressure from Arne Duncan and his assistant, Jim Shelton (a Gates Foundation insert at the DOE), was being exerted on the new mayor to appoint a corporate reformer type. As it turns out, I was right on the money. I've learned long ago, that you're almost always on safe ground when anticipating une

13 by Mike Klonsky / 2d 

DEC 31 2013

Thoughts on de Blasio's choice of Carmen Farina as his schools chancellor

The educators and activists I know and whose opinions I trust in N.Y. all think Mayor BdB made a great choice, and that Carmen Fariña will be a breath of fresh air in a school system stinking from Michael Bloomberg's corporate pollution.So do I, especially considering the other names that were being floated around. I'm sure the DFER hedge-funders, corporate reformers and charter profiteers like Ev

22 by Mike Klonsky / 4d 

DEC 30 2013

On de Blasio's Choice

Pedro Noguera“Mayor-Elect de Blasio has made an excellent choice in picking Carmen Fariña to lead New York’s public schools. For the first time in many years the nation’s largest school system will be led by an educator with a keen understanding of curriculum and instruction, who is committed to actively supporting our public schools.” -- Gotham SchoolsDiane Ravitch It is a new day in New York Cit

10 by Mike Klonsky / 4d 

Weekend Quotables

E.L. Doctorow (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)E.L. Doctorow at National Book AwardsWe in this room especially have to appreciate metaphor. We're the descendants of writers who saw the sun as Helios' chariot riding across the sky. And yet... when was the last time, hearing the word mouse, that you thought of a small gray rodent? Or heard the word web and thought of a spider? -- "The Promise—and Threat

4 by Mike Klonsky / 5d 

DEC 27 2013

How about telling the Tale of 2 Cities in Chicago?

Lovely Warren (left) celebrates victoryThe two-cities movement is spreading beyond New York City, where it swept Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio into office. This same focus on inequality is also what led to the election last month of Lovely Warren as Mayor of Rochester.According to the New York Times:Warren won election as mayor of Rochester last month with a campaign lamenting what she called the “tw

18 by Mike Klonsky / 7d