Report: LA Schools' wifi networks may not be ready for tests | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC

Report: LA Schools' wifi networks may not be ready for tests | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC:

Report: LA Schools' wifi networks may not be ready for tests

Annie Gilbertson | January 7th, 2014, 6:00am

Maya Sugarman/KPCC

As the board of the Los Angeles Unified School District considers a request by Superintendent John Deasy to buy 67,500 more iPads so students can take new digital state tests in the spring, a committee found that even if the fleet of testing tablets is purchased, most schools wifi networks may not be ready.

Documents released by the district Monday show only 208 of the district's 800 schools have the network capacity to support every student and teacher having an iPad. By the time testing begins in April, 59 more school sites will be fully wifi ready.

The other schools will have to wait – but because students can cycle through testing, some may be able to get by on limited existing networks. Some elementary schools need only a handful of computers online on any given testing hour; other schools will 

With shortage of computer science classes, students in Bell code after school

These Bell High School students meet after school twice a week to practice basic coding and cyber security. The high school canceled it Computer Science course this year.; Credit: Annie Gilbertson/KPCC CyberPatriot is possibly the geekiest high school club in history. Sponsored by the Air Force Association, a dozen teens from the city of Bell meet after school to learn to code. Like most of the c

by Annie Gilbertson / 37min hide  //  save

Long beach elementary parents decide to pay for extra music education

Students play a drum at the Very Special Arts Festival in downtown Los Angeles, October 18, 2013.; Credit: Mary Plummer/KPCC Parents at a Long Beach school are taking their students' music instruction into their own hands and paying for two days of music instruction per week, according to the Long Beach Press Telegram. The move will double the amount of music instruction currently available.  In

by Mary Plummer / 37min 

1-7-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

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

Infographics About The World’s Different Cultures

Here are new additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures: Are you middle class? Defining the middle class around the world is from The Christian Science Monitor. by Lemon.ly. Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h 

“Listening To Parents With Our Heads And Hearts”

Listening To Parents With Our Heads And Hearts is my latest Education Week Teacher post. This is the first post in a three-part series on parent engagement. Today, Katy Ridnouer, Janice Fialka, and Joe Mazza provide their guest responses

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h 

YESTERDAY

“The Best Articles Questioning The View That Single Parents Are A Problem”

The Best Articles Questioning The View That Single Parents Are A Problem is my latest “The Best…” list over at my other blog, Engaging Parents in School. You can see all my parent engagement “Best” lists here.

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h 

Must-Read Article About A Must-Read Study: “Can Upward Mobility Cost You Your Health?”

As regular readers of this blog, and as readers of my books, know, I’m a big believer in helping my students develop Social Emotional Learning skills like self-control and perseverance. For many reasons, though, I’m concerned about it being over-sold as a panacea for many of the challenges we face in schools, and have written about it fairly extensively in The Best Articles About The Study Showin

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h 

Pretty Amazing Video: “World War II in Europe: Every Day”

I’m adding this video to The Best Online Resources For Teaching & Learning About World War II (Part Two):

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h 

Video: How Bullies Are Made….

I don’t think I’d use this with students, but, as Greg Toppo said when he shared this on Twitter, it seems like a “spot-on take on bullying.” Because of that, I’m adding it to A Very, Very Beginning List Of The Best Resources On Bullying.

by Larry Ferlazzo / 10h hide  //  save

From The Archives: “Involvement Or Engagement?”

I’ve recently re-started an effort I’ve tried to do previously by regularly highlighting previous posts and articles I’ve shared in previous years that I think might be worth a second look. Today, I’m highlighting an article I wrote for ASCD Educational Leadership on parent engagement that built on work I wrote about in one of my books. It was published in 2009, and was titled Involvement Or Engag

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h 

The Best Posts & Videos On “Hope” — Help Me Find More

Recently, there been some public attention paid to the idea of helping students develop “hope” and also being able to measure it. I don’t know if I’m entirely convinced that it makes sense to treat this idea as a separate and distinct part of Social Emotional Learning (obviously, it’s part of so many other SEL elements), but I’ve got an open mind and am just beginning to look into it. I thought I

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h 

 

1-6-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: Excellent “60 Minutes” Video: “Volcanoes: Nature’s ticking time bombs”60 Minutes did an excellent segment last night titled Volcanoes: Nature’s ticking time bombs. I’ve embedded the video below, and it has additional resources at its website, including a transcript. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Volcano

by mike simpson / 9h 

On Small School Networks & Democracy - Bridging Differences - Education Week

On Small School Networks & Democracy - Bridging Differences - Education Week:

On Small School Networks & Democracy

By Deborah Meier on January 7, 2014 9:44 AM

Dear Robert,

Happy New Year!

I've been trying to imagine a "system" that could work for the kind of liberty within the context of democracy that we both seek. What kind of compromise is possible that meets each of our minimum requirements—and promotes democracy and liberty? What would a public system that puts "citizenship first," but supports many ways to get there, look like? What's the "key" to our differences, and how does it play out?

We agreed on democracy and liberty as the primary public ends we treasure, although no doubt we hold other expectations of good schooling. Given the title of your institution (Democracy Prep), maybe we agree on this.  But what would constitute evidence of a successful education on behalf of democracy and liberty is where there is disagreement. Sometimes quite deep disagreement.

It even includes our definitions of democracy and liberty. "Government of, for, and by the people" seems pretty straightforward. But who constitutes "the people"? At the time that our Constitution was signed and sealed most of our founding fathers favored exclusions. And we still, de facto and de jure, exclude many residents' right to vote.  Some we don't even argue about—such as the rationale for some minimum age restriction for voting.  

But what "of, for, and by" might mean remains elusive, hard to define. Certainly schools don't 

1-7-13 Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement"

Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement":

“Listening To Parents With Our Heads And Hearts”

Listening To Parents With Our Heads And Hearts is my latest Education Week Teacher post. This is the first post in a three-part series on parent engagement. Today, Katy Ridnouer, Janice Fialka, and Joe Mazza provide their guest responses

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h 

The Best Articles Questioning The View That Single Parents Are A Problem

As most people know, there is a common narrative suggesting that single-parent households can be a cause of many problems affecting children — in and out of school. I’ve previously posted some articles questioning that view, and a new study has just been published. I thought it would be worthwhile to put them all in one post: Marriage Promotion Has Failed to Stem Poverty Among Single Moms has just

4 by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h 

Under Political Pressure, D.C. Schools Chancellor Invites Parent Input — Sorta’

Before creating plan to improve D.C. middle schools, chancellor wants community input is a Washington Post article discussing the D.C. Chancellors efforts at parent involvement — only after receiving substantial political heat to do so. But it doesn’t sound like her heart is really in it: Maury Elementary parent Joe Weedon, who has been active in efforts to improve Eliot-Hine Middle School, said i

2 by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h hide  //  save

Interesting: “Calif. Charter Caters to Home-Schooled Students”

Calif. Charter Caters to Home-Schooled Students is an article in Education Week that offers a “take” on family involvement with schools that you don’t often hear about: It’s a truism that a child’s most important teacher is his or her parent, but one charter school here uses that mantra literally, as a blueprint to reconnect one group of families that have become disengaged from public schools: ho

2 by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h 

“Special Education Toolkit: Resources”

Special Education Toolkit: Resources is from the National PTA and it has a lot of…resources related to special education. I’m adding it to The Best Resources To Help Engage Parents Of Children With Special Needs – Help Me Find More.

3 by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h 

 

1-3-14 Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement"

Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement": “How Teachers and Parents Work Together for Student Success”How Teachers and Parents Work Together for Student Success is a useful article from NEA Today. Here’s an excerpt: If you show a willingness to learn more about your students from their parents, then they’ll be more willing to work with you throughout the school yea

by mike simpson / 1d  

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Week… 1-4-14 …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EF

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFLLARRY FERLAZZO’S WEBSITES OF THE DAY“How Teachers and Parents Work Together for Student Success”How Teachers and Parents Work Together for Student Success is a useful article from NEA Today. Here’s an excerpt: If you show a willingness to learn more about your students from their parents, then they’ll be more willing to work

by mike simpson / 10h

1-7-13 Education Research Report Report Examines Teach For America

Education Research Report:

Effects of grade skipping on adult STEM accomplishments among mathematically precocious youth

Using data from a 40-year longitudinal study, the authors of this study examined 3 related hypotheses about the effects of grade skipping on future educational and occupational outcomes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). From a combined sample of 3,467 mathematically precocious students (top 1%), a combination of exact and propensity score matching was used to create bala

by Jonathan Kantrowi... / 54min 

Gifted Children Are Getting Lost in the Shuffle

Gifted children are likely to be the next generation's innovators and leaders -- and yet, the exceptionally smart are often invisible in the classroom, lacking the curricula, teacher input and external motivation to reach full potential.This conclusion comes as the result of the largest scientific study of the profoundly gifted to date, a 30-year study conducted by researchers at Vanderbilt Univer

by Jonathan Kantrowi... / 1h 

Report Examines Teach For America

Teach For America (TFA) is almost a quarter-century old. Since its launch, the program has experienced phenomenal growth, both in the numbers of participants and in the financial support it has received, and it has enjoyed extensive favorable publicity. Teach For America: A Return to the Evidence, a report authored by professors Julian Vasquez Heilig of the University of Texas and Su Jin Jez of Ca

by Jonathan Kantrowi... / 2min hide  //  save

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School districts throughout the United States are increasingly providing greater autonomy to local public (non-charter) school principals. In 2005–06, Chicago Public Schools initiated the Autonomous Management and Performance Schools program, granting academic, programmatic, and operational freedoms to select principals. This paper provides evidence on how school leaders used their new autonomy an

by Jonathan Kantrowi... / 9min 

KIPP Schools Boost Student Achievement

The Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) is an influential and rapidly growing nationwide network of charter schools serving primarily disadvantaged minority students. Prominent elements of KIPP's educational model include high expectations for student achievement and behavior, and a substantial increase in time in school. KIPP is being watched closely by policy makers and educators as a possible mod

by Jonathan Kantrowi... / 11min 

This Week's Education Research Report 1-4-14 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2

Education Research ReportTHIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORTStudy shows inflated praise can harm kids with low self-esteemParents and other adults heap the highest praise on children who are most likely to be hurt by the compliments, a new study finds.Researchers found that adults seem to naturally give more inflated praise to children with low self-esteem. But while children with high self-este

by mike simpson / 10h