7-12-14 With A Brooklyn Accent: Love Letters to the BATS

With A Brooklyn Accent:

Why Charter School Scandals Resemble the Subprime Mortgage Crisis

To understand why  we may be approaching a charter school crisis that resembles the one that developed around subprime mortgages, you need to understand how investment banks and credit rating agencies seized upon an instrument to make homeownership available to people with limited resources as a vehicle to make fortunes and advance careers, leaving the tax payers with a large bill. I think somethi

100+ by Mark Naison / 4d hide  //  save

JUL 05

NBI at the NEA-Restore Crenshaw HS Music Director Dr Iris Stevenson

Important NBI at the NEA!Restore Crenshaw High School Music Director Dr. Iris StevensonTherefore Be It Resolved That:1. The NEA calls for the return of Dr. Iris Stevenson to her post as head of the Music and Performing Arts Magnet at Crenshaw High School now.2. The NEA calls for an end to the LAUSD School Board policy of firing or driving out beloved and successful teachers who foster creative and

3 by Mark Naison / 6d 

National Pattern of Decline in Percentage of Black Teachers

National Pattern of Decline in Percentage of Black TeachersJune 29, 2014 at 1:20pm From the late 1990's to todayChicago44% to 19%Oakland30% to 18%Berkeley 12.3%  to 6.5%Los Angeles14.5% to  10%San Francisco8.3% to 4.6%Please continue to gather this informationFor New Orleans, NY, Detroit, DC, Newark, Philadelphia

4 by Mark Naison / 7d 

7-12-14 Jersey Jazzman NJ Ed News Round-up Jammin' All Week

Jersey Jazzman:

Jersey Jazzman Jammin' All Week

How White People Rationalize the Unequal Governance Of Schools

A caveat before I begin: you really shouldn't listen to anything that I or any other white, suburban, middle-class person has to say about Camden's schools until you've heard from the good people who work in those schools (like Keith Benson), send their children to those schools (like MoNeke Ragsdale), or actually attend those schools (like Nala Johnson).Once you've heard from them, you can, if yo

4 by Duke / 19min 

New Report on the Consequences of Inadequately Funded Schools

Yesterday, the Education Law Center released a report they commissioned from yours truly about the consequences of inadequately funding school districts."Shortchanging New Jersey Students: How Inadequate Funding Has Led to Reduced Staff and Growing Disparities in the State’s Public Schools" is a look at how students are affected when the state refuses to meet its obligations and give sch

89 by Duke / 1d 

JUL 09

Teacher Evaluation and the Illusion of Precision

I testified before the NJ State Board of Education today about our year-old teacher evaluation system, AchieveNJ -- aka Operation Hindenburg. Time was limited to five minutes, so I focused on something I hope to be exploring more fully this month: the illusion of precision found in teacher evaluations.For now, here's today's testimony.* * *AchieveNJ, as currently constituted, is fundamentally flaw

100+ by Duke / 2d 

JUL 08

Thomas Piketty Has Eric Hanushek's Number

I'm just starting Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century, which puts me months behind the mass of American public intellectuals who were obsessing about the tome this spring, but will give me the advantage of being able to say I actually read the thing.Last night, I came across a quote that was so perfectly relevant to the current state of education policy research that I was prepared to typ

56 by Duke / 3d 

JUL 07

Earth to @starledger: There Are No Miracle Charter Schools

What do you do with someone who, when presented with the truth time and time again, refuses to see it? What do you do when a person of influence -- for example, the Star-Ledger's Editorial Page Editor, Tom Moran -- repeatedly, stubbornly, infuriatingly continues to perpetuate myths that are demonstrably untrue?Newark, for all its woes, is a city that’s surprisingly easy to fall in love with if you

88 by Duke / 4d 

Chronicles of (the conceptually incoherent & empirically invalid world of) VergarNYa

As with the Vergara case in California, a central claim of the New York City Parents Union is that the presence of statutory tenure protections in New York State leads to a persistent and systematic deprivation of a sound basic education which falls disproportionately on the state’s low income and minority children. Let’s review again the basic structure of this argument. The argument challenges s

15 by schoolfinance101 / 3d 

NJ BOE Testimony Part III: Horror Stories from Paterson

Be sure to check out NJEA member testimony at the NJ State Board of Education Parts I and II. So, you think you have it bad. You think your administrators didn’t fully implement the new evaluation system. You think you could have gotten a higher score in this domain or that. How would you like to be an educator in a state controlled district? Paterson Education Association member, Gennaro Torto

71 by noreply@blogger.c... / 1d hide  //  save

NJ BOE Testimony Part II: Was human error or intentional omission to blame for PARCC pilot report?

In part 2 of this series of posts on NJEA's July 9th lobby day at the state Board of Ed, Spanish teacher and education activist, Heidi Maria Brown, questions Data Commissioner Bari Erlichson's obvious omission of any negative feedback on the state's PARCC trials, and why some board members have not done more to get to the truth.◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊Good afternoon. My name is Heidi Maria Brown. I’m

11 by noreply@blogger.c... / 1d 

Educators stand up, speak out, fight back: NJBOE Testimony Part l

Yesterday was an NJEA Lobby Day at the NJ State Board of Education, and as usual, our members didn't disappoint. There was a good crowd, among which were many first-time speakers. I'm proud to be part of an association that includes so many articulate and passionate educators who know the facts and are not blinded by empty rhetoric nor cowed by bullying and aggression. I'm optimistic that the numb

40 by noreply@blogger.c... / 2d 

What a “free press”–pause here for laughter–means to Newark: Cowardice

For the first time in nearly two centuries, Newark–the largest city in the eighth largest state in America–will not be home to a daily newspaper. After Sept. 8, The Star-Ledger will move its operations to Woodbridge and Edison, leaving the city newspaperless for the first time since the Daily Advertiser opened in the city in […]

200+ by Bob Braun / 2d hide  //  save

JUL 05

Newark: It’s time to decide to fight or to surrender.

Newark’s leadership and its people face an extraordinary challenge in the next few weeks. They either will collapse in the face of Chris Christie’s wily plan to save his phony reputation as an educational “reformer” in time for the presidential primaries–or they will stand strong and use whatever means are necessary to force the state to return local […]

300+ by Bob Braun / 6d

7-12-14 Curmudgucation Week

CURMUDGUCATION:

Curmudgucation Week

Teacher Time

Every profession measures time differently. Doctors and lawyers measure time in hours or vague lumps. Teachers measure time in minutes, even seconds.If a doctor (or his office) tell you that something is going to happen "at nine o'clock," that means sometime between 9:30 and Noon. Lawyers, at least in my neck of the woods, can rarely be nailed down to an actual time. Anything that's not

by Peter Greene / 29min 

Poverty and the Moral Imperative of Education

We are being bombarded regularly with arguments about poverty and education that are fallaciously constructed, used to support the wrong conclusion, and, ironically, are unnecessary.The Big Scary FactsIt usually begins with a list of assorted research factoids like these:* Students who fail school are three times more likely to be unemployed.* Students who fail school will make far less than what

2 by Peter Greene / 19min 

Details on New Teacher Equity Equality Plan

This aspect of school reform has been lurking around the edges for some time-- the notion that once we find the super-duper teachers, we could somehow shuffle everybody around and put the supery-duperest in front of the neediest students. But though reformsters have occasionally floated the idea, the feds have been reluctant to really push it.Now that the current administration has decided to brin

300+ by Peter Greene / 3d 

JUL 07

Hitting the Road

In a few hours my wife and  I will get on a plane and head off for Seattle, where I will learn about PLCs (yay) and stay with my daughter and son-in-law. From there, it's off to LA, where we will stay with my son and future daughter-in-law. Consequently, things will be quieter than usual here. Were I a blogger of Diane Ravitch's stature and stamina, I would keep up my regular output while strapped

15 by Peter Greene / 5d 

JUL 06

There Really Is No Superman

Though personally I always wanted to be part of the Doom Patrol (original flavor, not modern artsy version). But no Doom Patrol, either.There is something very seductive about the superhero ideal, the notion that as soon as X gets on the job, things will finally be okay. Here he (yes, almost always he) comes to save the day.There are subtler versions of the superhero ideal as well. Maybe we don't

42 by Peter Greene / 5d 

All Minority Schools

Last Tuesday the Atlantic became the gazillionth news outlet to report that this coming fall, the student population of the US will be less than 50% white.There's remarkably little comment on or discussion of this, even in the Atlantic's article. I can think of several reasons for this to go unremarked.1) It's not exactly news because it's been coming for quite a while. It would be like throwing a

62 by Peter Greene / 6d 

JUL 05

Meet the New NEA Presidents

In election results that surprised nobody anywhere, NEA delegates crowned heir apparent Lily Eskelson Garcia the new presidents of NEA.Liana Heitin reported on the election for EdWeek, and... well... I'm excited? Bemused? Worried about Garcia's susceptibility to cognitive dissonance."I believe Secretary Duncan is sincere...""And I absolutely believe he is sincerely wrong," she

200+ by Peter Greene / 7d hide  //  save

Duncan Slapped by NEA Rank and File

The NEA resolution calling for the departure of Arne Duncan will be picked apart at great length this weekend. I'm pretty sure that Arne is not looking at his paper this morning thinking, "Well, damn. I guess I'd better resign then." Nor do I think his resignation would accomplish much in practical terms. But it sends a message-- several, actually-- and those are interesting on their own

100+ by Peter Greene / 7d