Monday, June 9, 2014

Answer Sheet 6-9-14

Blue-collar and service work takes more smarts than you may think — author

Mike Rose is a respected education scholar on the faculty of the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and author of a number of books, including “Back to School: Why Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Education,” “ Possible Lives: The Promise of Public Education in America,” and “Why School? Reclaiming Education for […]

by Valerie Strauss / 25min

How much Bill Gates’s disappointing small-schools effort really cost

For five years it has been said that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation spent more than $2 billion to fund an initiative to create small high schools in an effort to increase student achievement and graduation rates, all based on the premise that smaller schools were more conducive to learning and retention than larger […]

by Valerie Strauss / 0min

Ravitch: Time for Congress to investigate Bill Gates’ role in Common Core

The critical role that Bill Gates played in the creation and implementation of the Common Core State Standards initiative is the subject of this story by my Post colleague Lyndsey Layton. She explains how Gates was persuaded in 2008 by Gene Wilhoit, then-director of the Council for Chief State School Officers, and David Coleman, at the […]

10 by Valerie Strauss / 1h

Answer Sheet 6-8-14

Answer Sheet: Just ask the teachersOne of the central features of corporate school reform is that those driving it haven’t bothered to seriously ask teachers to offer their solutions to improving public education. Meg White, an assistant professor in the School of Education at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, looks at this omission in the following post. […]by Valerie Strauss / 30min

by mike simpson / 7h

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: DYETT HIGH SCHOOL SET TO CLOSE

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: DYETT HIGH SCHOOL SET TO CLOSE:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: DYETT HIGH SCHOOL SET TO CLOSE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: Jitu Brown, 773.317.6343

E-mail: brothajitu@gmail.com

MONDAY, JUNE 9, 2014

Walter Dyett High School Set to Close, Making Way for an Underperforming Contract School

Parents and Students Charge City Officials with Lacking Courage, and Mayor Emanuel with Lacking Compassion

CHICAGO – Walter Dyett High School has been under-resourced since it was designated for phase-out by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) in February 2012. Since then, CPS has systematically disinvested in the children who have looked to Dyett as their neighborhood school of choice. Even more troubling, a plan has been hatched to turn Dyett over to an underperforming contract school that currently only has 7 percent of its students meeting or exceeding state standards, zero percent of its students being prepared for college coursework, and less than 50 percent of its students graduating, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

Parents, students, educators and community residents are demanding that Mayor Emanuel keep Dyett High School open; provide adequate resources for the 2014-15 senior class; and fund the community’s school transformation plan for Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology High School that is evidence-based, intellectually challenging, and designed through a collaborative process. Postcards expressing these demands will be delivered to Mayor Emanuel’s office, along with a letter expressing the urgent need to meet regarding the future of Dyett.

“Dyett is the last open enrollment traditional neighborhood high school in Bronzeville,” said Dr. Pauline Lipman, professor of education policy studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “While Dyett is being closed, starved for resources and abandoned to be replaced by a poorly-performing school, Mayor Emanuel has announced a new selective enrollment high school bearing President Obama’s name that will cost taxpayers $60M. Look at the tragic irony here. A Southside school that is blocks from the President’s house has been left to die on the vine, and its resources diverted to make way for a school on the Northside. Where is the parity?”

WHO: Parents, Students, Local School Council and Parent Advisory Council members from Bronzeville schools, Concerned Citizens and representatives of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization

WHEN: Monday, June 9, 2014

10:00 am

WHERE: City Hall, 2^nd Floor

121 N. LaSalle St.

For more information, please contact Jitu Brown brothajitu@gmail.com or at 773.317.6343

# # #

Jumoke Balogun | Communications

ADVANCEMENT PROJECT

1220 L Street, NW, Suite 850

Washington, D.C. 20005

(p) 202.728.9557 ext: 303 | (f) 202.728.9558

jbalogun@advancementproject.org

6-9-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

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

The Best Music Videos Of “What A Wonderful World”

“What A Wonderful World” by Louie Armstrong is a super-popular song, and well-used by teachers of English Language Learners throughout the world. This evening, Wendi Pillars shared a spoken version by David Attenborough that I hadn’t seen before, and I thought I’d take the opportunity to share the versions I’ve used with my students. I hope readers will share ones they like, too. Here’s the versi

by Larry Ferlazzo / 21min hide // save

The Best Posts On The Study Suggesting That Bare Classroom Walls Are Best For Learning

The media has been full of stories about a new study suggesting that bare classroom walls are a better learning environment for children than decorated ones. In many ways, this research is a great example of some of the problems with much education research, much of which you can read about in The Best Resources For Understanding How To Interpret Education Research. There are two excellent posts

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h

‘Creating a Culture Where Students Want to Succeed’

‘Creating a Culture Where Students Want to Succeed’ is Part in my Ed Week series on creating a positive school culture. Today’s post includes comments from Margaret A. Seale, Maurice J. Elias, Heather Wolpert-Gawron and Dr. Howie Knoff. I also share ideas contributed by readers. Here are some excerpts:

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h

My Latest NY Times Post For English Language Learners Is On Pets

My latest NY Times post for English Language Learners features a student interactive on pets. It also shares teaching ideas for writing, drawing and creating videos about family pets. You can see all forty-two of my previous NY Times posts here.

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h

6-8-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: New Student Motivation, Engagement & SEL ResourcesOur school year will be over in four days and, after a brief rest, it will be time for me to complete the third volume in my student motivation “trilogy” that should be published early next year by Routledge. It’s tentatively titled Building a Community of Self-Motivated

by mike simpson / 7h

6-9-14 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher

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

Chicago Teachers Union. The Union will continue to vigorously fight this attempt at pension heist as part of the We Are One Chicago coalition and will support litigation to challenge the new law.

CTUNET: CHICAGO—The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is greatly disappointed at the signing today by Gov. Pat Quinn of Senate Bill 1922, a proposal by the mayor of Chicago that will cut the retirement savings of thousands of city workers and school employees, and a slap in the face to the citizens who put the governor in office. The Union maintains that this short-sighted proposal does not, in any w

by Fred Klonsky / 8min

Life in Rahm’s Chicago. The Virgin Mary can stay but the homeless must go.

The altar to the Virgin Mary at Fullerton can stay, but the homeless at Belmont must go. In 2005 somebody thought they saw the image of the Virgin Mary under the Kennedy Expressway at Fullerton, about a mile east of my home. I thought it was just a salt stain. But the believers told me she was weeping. Soon hundreds gathered. People brought offerings. Flowers. Candles. Framed pictures of Jesus an

by Fred Klonsky / 19min

Breaking. Quinn kills re-election chances with City pension theft.

Quinn signed the City pension theft bill today. Why would the Governor want to make his re-elections chances even worse by going along with Rahm’s pension theft? While early indications are that any impairment or diminishing of public employee pension benefits will have a hard time getting past the courts, that is unlikely to be decided before November. So Quinn owns pension theft. Both at the st

8 by Fred Klonsky / 54min

Ten minute drawing. Nosferatu.

1 by Fred Klonsky / 42min

Will Squeezy veto Rahm’s pension theft today?

He wants our votes next November. How badly does he want our votes? Today, Monday, is the deadline for Governor Quinn to veto Rahm’s pension theft bill. Otherwise it becomes law whether he signs it or not. And then it will be go before the courts and judges will decide whether it violates the pension protection clause of the Illinois Constitution. The bill, passed by state lawmakers, would raise

by Fred Klonsky / 4min

FBI raids Indiana charter with ties to Chicago. “How long do you think it took to find a picture of Mr. Eksili with Rahm Emanuel?”

1. Suleyman Turhanogullari, president of the Turkish American Federation of the Midwest. 2. Salim Ucan of Concept Schools 3. F*ck You, Lewis! 4. Bilal Eksili, of the FBI-raided charter in Indianapolis. Also associated with Niagara. Leader of many, many junkets for policymakers. 5. Tamer Copuroglu, president Turkish American Chamber of Commerce. - Tim Furman at RPNPS Voices It’s weird how the fed

15 by Fred Klonsky / 1h

Klonsky, Dillon, Brown and me: Conversation regarding leadership, communication and membership of the Illinois Education Association | Reclaim Reform

Klonsky, Dillon, Brown and me: Conversation regarding leadership, communication and membership of the Illinois Education Association | Reclaim Reform: Klonsky, Dillon, Brown and me: Conversation regarding leadership, communication and membership of the Illinois Education AssociationPosted on June 8, 2014by Ken PrevitiPart of continuing conversation among retired teachers, activists and bloggers Fr

by mike simpson / 4h

6-8-14 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: Previti, Dillon, Brown and myself: A conversation regarding the leadership and membership of the Illinois Education Association Part of continuing conversation between retired teachers, activists and bloggers Ken Previti, John Dillon, Glen Brown and myself. This conversation is cross posted on each o

by mike simpson / 8h

Why Would WashPost Wait Three Months to Release a Gates Interview? | deutsch29

Why Would WashPost Wait Three Months to Release a Gates Interview? | deutsch29:

Why Would WashPost Wait Three Months to Release a Gates Interview?

June 9, 2014

On Saturday, June 7, 2014, Lyndsey Layton of the Washington Post published this article based on a 28-minute interview she had with billionaire Common Core State Standards (CCSS) funder, Bill Gates. In the interview, Gates spills quite a bit of “insider information,” not the least of which is that in the summer of 2008, then-Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) President Gene Wilhoit and national-standards-writing-company-gone-nonprofit Student Achievement Partners (SAP) founder and CEO– and CCSS “architect”– David Coleman approached him about bankrolling CCSS.

The Gates purse would fund not only organizations positioned on the inside of the CCSS effort, including CCSSO, SAP, the National Governors Association (NGA), the Hunt Institute, Fordham Institute, and Education Trust, but also scores of auxiliary organizations useful in “implementing” CCSS, including both national teachers unions.

As Layton notes, support for CCSS was intentionally strategized:

With the Gates money, the Hunt Institute coordinated more than a dozen organizations — many of them also Gates grantees — including the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, National Council of La Raza, the Council of Chief State School Officers, National Governors Association, Achieve and the two national teachers unions.

The Hunt Institute held weekly conference calls between the players that were directed by Stefanie Sanford, who was in charge of policy and advocacy at the Gates Foundation. They talked about which states needed shoring up, the best person to respond to questions or criticisms and who needed to travel to which state capital to testify, according to those familiar with the conversations. [Emphasis added.]

In the interview, Gates notes that he decided to financially support CCSS because he “believes in” the standards. However, in March 2014, Gates is quite clear in an Why Would WashPost Wait Three Months to Release a Gates Interview? | deutsch29:

6-9-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE:

Living in Dialogue: The Problem Isn’t Just Common Core, but the Entire Reform Agenda

Living in Dialogue: The Problem Isn’t Just Common Core, but the Entire Reform Agenda. via Living in Dialogue: The Problem Isn’t Just Common Core, but the Entire Reform Agenda.

5 by plthomasedd / 48min

Listening to a Teacher from a “No Excuses” Charter School

Listening to a Teacher from a “No Excuses” Charter School. via Listening to a Teacher from a “No Excuses” Charter School.

by plthomasedd / 2min

Maxine Greene and the “Frozen Sea Inside of Us”

Maxine Greene and the “Frozen Sea Inside of Us”. via Maxine Greene and the “Frozen Sea Inside of Us”.