Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 9/12/15 #FightForDyett

SPECIAL NITE CAP 

CORPORATE ED REFORM

School choice complicates Promise Neighborhood’s efforts to help kids - The Washington Post

School choice complicates Promise Neighborhood’s efforts to help kids - The Washington Post: School choice complicates Promise Neighborhood’s efforts to help kidsAn impoverished pocket of Northeast Washington has been receiving $25 million in federal grants to fund tutors, literacy programs and early-childhood education, largely to improve the neighborhood’s three struggling schools. Officials say

by mike simpson / 0min 

More on PARCC and Its Cut Scores | deutsch29

More on PARCC and Its Cut Scores | deutsch29: More on PARCC and Its Cut ScoresOn September 11, 2015, I wrote a post entitled, “PARCC Cut Scores to Differ by State?”In that post, I noted that PARCC was reluctant to publicize its cut scores. Reporter Catherine Gewertz of EdWeek first noted the absence of the full set of PARCC cut scores in her September 10, 2015, post. However, she later updated her

by mike simpson / 2h 

Take that, charter schools: Why a Washington court decision will force accountability to a movement that needs it badly - Salon.com

Take that, charter schools: Why a Washington court decision will force accountability to a movement that needs it badly - Salon.com: Take that, charter schools: Why a Washington court decision will force accountability to a movement that needs it badlyCharter schools will be accountable when they are just as transparent as public schools. Now it might happenThe recent ruling by the Supreme Court o

by mike simpson / 3h 

Marie Corfield: Debunking Reformy Logic One Tweet At A Time Part 3

Marie Corfield: Debunking Reformy Logic One Tweet At A Time Part 3: Debunking Reformy Logic One Tweet At A Time Part 3This one's personalAs I reported in Part 1 of this series, I recently got into a Twitter debate with Laura Waters, Derrell Bradford and Ryan Hill which turned into an all-day affair, with Save Our Schools NJ, Jersey Jazzman and a few other pro-public education advocates chiming in.

by mike simpson / 3h 

Et tu, Brute? - Democrats line up to betray Connecticut’s Latinos - Wait What?

Et tu, Brute? - Democrats line up to betray Connecticut’s Latinos - Wait What?: Et tu, Brute? – Democrats line up to betray Connecticut’s LatinosDespite the herculean efforts of the political spinmeister surrounding Governor Dannel Malloy and Connecticut’s Democratic Party leaders, the truth about what is taking place in Hartford, Connecticut is becoming increasingly apparent.While the outcome of

by mike simpson / 4h 

Think it Up: Has the Gates Foundation Turned a Corner? - Living in Dialogue

Think it Up: Has the Gates Foundation Turned a Corner? - Living in Dialogue: Think it Up: Has the Gates Foundation Turned a Corner? By Anthony Cody.Last night I watched the hour-long telethon called Think it Up! sponsored by the Gates Foundation. I have to say, it was a far better program than their last television extravaganza, Education Nation. The emphasis was on building support for schools an

by mike simpson / 4h 

David Sarasohn: Virtual charter school uses smaller district for bigger money (OPINION) | OregonLive.com

David Sarasohn: Virtual charter school uses smaller district for bigger money (OPINION) | OregonLive.com:  Virtual charter school uses smaller district for bigger money They ran perpetually throughout the summer — TV ads for schools along with other hot-weather spots for fast food and beach wear. Engaging young professionals, standing next to engaging middle-school versions of themselves, explain

by mike simpson / 4h 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: From A Seattle Scohols Teacher's POV

Seattle Schools Community Forum: From A Seattle Scohols Teacher's POV:  From A Seattle Scohols Teacher's POVSEA member...Elspeth Travani and her Facebook post:First of all, it is clear to me from talking with people at the pickets that striking is emotionally difficult for many of us. There is a lot of uncertainty, rumors fly, and information is hard to come by.What is happening:  The chief negoti

by mike simpson / 4h 

CURMUDGUCATION: Implementationism and Barber

CURMUDGUCATION: Implementationism and Barber: Implementationism and BarberThis week, the Education Delivery Institute is delighted to announce a new book/marketing initiative co-authored by Nick Rodriguez, Ellyn Artis, and Sir Michael Barber. Rodriguez and Artis may not be familiar to you, but Barber is best known as the head honcho of Pearson. So you know where this is headed. This is Nick Rodrig

by mike simpson / 8h 

Scranton teachers to school board: time to walk the walk! — Medium

Scranton teachers to school board: time to walk the walk! — Medium: Scranton teachers to school board: time to walk the walk!On Tuesday, I joined hundreds of educators who streamed into a board meeting in Scranton, Pa., to show their determination to fight for smaller class sizes, school nurses, strong professional development and teacher voice — just some of the school essentials that are threate

by mike simpson / 8h 

Striking PASCO Teachers Need Your Help! - UNITED OPT OUT: The Movement to End Corporate Education Reform

Striking PASCO Teachers Need Your Help! - UNITED OPT OUT: The Movement to End Corporate Education Reform: Striking PASCO Teachers Need Your Help!A CALL TO ACTIONCopy and paste to the Pasco school board (rbrault@psd1.org slehman@psd1.org schristensen@psd1.org slancon@psd1.org aphillips@psd1.org shill@psd1.org).Pasco Teachers need: Curriculum: Pasco Teachers need current, robust curriculum. Teachers

by mike simpson / 8h 

US elementary school does away with gendered bathrooms - Yahoo News

US elementary school does away with gendered bathrooms - Yahoo News: US elementary school does away with gendered bathroomsLos Angeles (AFP) - A California elementary school has become one of the first in the country to phase out gendered bathrooms, a move in line with a national trend to recognize the needs of transgender people.The principal at Miraloma Elementary School in San Francisco said th

by mike simpson / 9h 

‘Painfully offensive’ racial stereotypes lead school district to recall books - The Washington Post

‘Painfully offensive’ racial stereotypes lead school district to recall books - The Washington Post: ‘Painfully offensive’ racial stereotypes lead school district to recall booksMinneapolis Public Schools shelled out more than $1.2 million as part of a contract that included new books aimed at closing the district’s yawning racial achievement gap. But over the summer, some teachers preparing for t

by mike simpson / 9h 

The congressional move to undercut the education secretary’s power - The Washington Post

The congressional move to undercut the education secretary’s power - The Washington Post: The congressional move to undercut the education secretary’s powerKevin Carey directs the education policy program at New America.When Arne Duncan became education secretary in 2009, the nation’s high school dropout problem was on his mind. Hundreds of thousands of young people were leaving school without a d

by mike simpson / 9h 

Reddit Collects the Sickest Burns From Teacher to Students - Yahoo News

Reddit Collects the Sickest Burns From Teacher to Students - Yahoo News: Reddit Collects the Sickest Burns From Teacher to StudentsThere's something so satisfying about a teacher completely destroying a smart-ass student with a sick burn in front of a whole class. It probably has something to do with corny teachers being the underdog when they're outnumbered like 30 to 1 by younger, "cooler&q

by mike simpson / 9h 

Inslee: Saving charter schools is not a priority; focus will be on public schools - Puget Sound Business Journal

Inslee: Saving charter schools is not a priority; focus will be on public schools - Puget Sound Business Journal: Inslee: Saving charter schools is not a priority; focus will be on public schoolsWashington Gov. Jay Inslee on Friday announced he will not call a special session to address the state Supreme Court’s finding on charter schools.Justices ruled last week Washington’s voter-approved charte

by mike simpson / 9h 

These New York Schools Aren’t Just Letting Kids Opt Out of Testing—They’re Giving Them an Alternative | The Nation

These New York Schools Aren’t Just Letting Kids Opt Out of Testing—They’re Giving Them an Alternative | The Nation: These New York Schools Aren’t Just Letting Kids Opt Out of Testing—They’re Giving Them an AlternativeStudents in the New York Performance Standards Consortium are learning to be critical thinkers, deeply engaged in their education.This week, children across New York State will exchan

by mike simpson / 9h 

Washington education chief wants special session on charter schools » Bulletin Leader

Washington education chief wants special session on charter schools » Bulletin Leader: Washington education chief wants special session on charter schoolsThe state teachers union and the League of Women Voters were among the groups that challenged the law.The Washington court overturning a 2012 law that allowed publicly funded but privately operated schools.The latest donations may buy time for th

by mike simpson / 9h 

YESTERDAY

PARCC Cut Scores to Differ by PARCC State? | deutsch29

PARCC Cut Scores to Differ by PARCC State? | deutsch29: PARCC Cut Scores to Differ by PARCC State?In Spring 2015, a number of states and DC administered Pearson-vended PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) tests, supposedly aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which CCSS proponents assume surely translates into the well-marketed “college and career r

by mike simpson / 20h 

Marie Corfield: Remembering 9/11

Marie Corfield: Remembering 9/11: Remembering 9/11I've told this story many times, and on today's anniversary, I have to tell it again.I took this picture somewhere around 1987Having grown up less than 10 miles from Manhattan, I watched the Twin Towers being built every day as I walked to St. Stephen's School in Kearny. The Chestnut Street bridge offered the best vantage point. Every day, every we

by mike simpson / 20h hide  //  save

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Inslee Not Calling Special Session - Doesn't Back Charters

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Inslee Not Calling Special Session - Doesn't Back Charters:  Inslee Not Calling Special Session - Doesn't Back ChartersYet.  This from The Stranger:Today, Governor Jay Inslee admitted to the outlaw nature of our current state government in a letter (.PDF) to all state legislators that, among other things, says flatly that Olympia's standing is eroding "with Wa

by mike simpson / 22h 

“The Teacher Held My Hand” — Medium

“The Teacher Held My Hand” — Medium: “The Teacher Held My Hand” My letter to members of the United Federation of Teachers in September of 2001, reposted today in memory of their heroism, and the of those we lost.It was Primary Day. I was leafleting near Brooklyn Borough Hall with Alan Hevesi. Rush hour was nearly over. Suddenly, we heard an explosion. Smoke rose on the eastern horizon. We stopped

by mike simpson / 22h 

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 9/11/15 #FightForDyett

SPECIAL NITE CAP CORPORATE ED REFORMCalifornia legislation would prohibit for-profit charter schools like those run by K-12 Inc. - Sacramento Business JournalCalifornia legislation would prohibit for-profit charter schools like those run by K-12 Inc. - Sacramento Business Journal: Brown to consider axing for-profit charter schoolsCalifornia would abolish all for-profit charter schools under legisl

by mike simpson / 23h 

School choice complicates Promise Neighborhood’s efforts to help kids - The Washington Post

School choice complicates Promise Neighborhood’s efforts to help kids - The Washington Post:

School choice complicates Promise Neighborhood’s efforts to help kids

An impoverished pocket of Northeast Washington has been receiving $25 million in federal grants to fund tutors, literacy programs and early-childhood education, largely to improve the neighborhood’s three struggling schools. Officials say school attendance is up, and the local charter high school has seen a boost in math scores.

But the children of Kenilworth-Parkside aren’t all benefiting from the “Promise Neighborhood” program. Less than a third of the 1,600 students who live there attend neighborhood schools; the rest are enrolled in 184 others, scattered across a city that has embraced school choice more than almost any other.

The children in the neighborhood — and similar communities across the country — are living with two sometimes-competing visions of education reform. One offers a better education and a brighter future through a citywide enrollment lottery that sends them to schools far and wide. The other promises positive outcomes from heavy investments in schools and services near their homes.

“Traditionally, many years ago, you could target this sort of effort in one physical geographic location and you would reach students the entire time they are awake,” said Isaac Castillo, deputy director of the D.C. Promise Neighborhood Initiative. “Now you have to be more creative. We don’t have staffing and resources to be at 184 schools.”

Promise Neighborhoods are modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone, Geoffrey Canada’s widely publicized effort to saturate 97 square blocks of New York with support from infancy through adulthood. The approach is considered one of the most ambitious anti-poverty experiments in a generation.

New townhouses in the Kenilworth-Parkside community in Washington. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)

The U.S. Education Department has awarded 58 Promise Neighborhood grants since 2010, a combined investment of more than $200 million through 2014. Mary Brown, the program’s executive director, said the work is only beginning and is focused on raising funds and setting plans for the long term. Education Secretary Arne Duncan visited Kenilworth-Parkside three years ago to celebrate its designation as one of these areas.

The District — where 44 percent of public school students attend charter School choice complicates Promise Neighborhood’s efforts to help kids - The Washington Post:

More on PARCC and Its Cut Scores | deutsch29

More on PARCC and Its Cut Scores | deutsch29:

More on PARCC and Its Cut Scores

On September 11, 2015, I wrote a post entitled, “PARCC Cut Scores to Differ by State?”

In that post, I noted that PARCC was reluctant to publicize its cut scores. Reporter Catherine Gewertz of EdWeek first noted the absence of the full set of PARCC cut scores in her September 10, 2015, post. However, she later updated her post because PARCC decided to produce the missing cut scores. From Gewertz’s update:

UPDATE: PARCC decided Thursday afternoon to release the rest of the cut scores. Updated “mock” score reports on its website, which had earlier had placeholder numbers for cut scores, now show the actual cut scores the board approved, according to PARCC assessment chief Jeff Nellhaus.  They are: 700 to score at Level 2, 725 to score at Level 3, and, as previously reported, 750 to score at Level 4. The cut point for Level 5 will vary somewhat by grade and subject, but will be around 803, Nellhaus said during a webinar for the Education Writers Association.

Thus, it reads like the PARCC cut scores are a done deal. However, when I read the PARCC website page also dated September 10, 2015, entitled, “Setting Cut Scores”, I noticed this bit of information at the end of the page:

With the conclusion of performance level setting last week, the work of these 200 or so educators will go to the PARCC states, whose state education commissioners/superintendents will make the final call on what level or work shows each level of performance. That, in turn, sets the stage for the release of the first-ever PARCC score results this fall. 

So, the work of the PARCC committee setting PARCC cut scores is to “go back to the PARCC states.” And it is with the PARCC states’ superintendents that the “final call” will be made. Therefore, it is logical to conclude that the PARCC cut-score-setting is not a done deal.

Furthermore, the information above does not indicate that these superintendents will arrive at a single set of cut scores to be utilized in all of their states.

I concluded that the superintendents could be acting independently and could arrive at their own determinations of cut scores for their states. When noting the collective work of PARCC states, the PARCC MOU uses the term “the Consortium,” which is not the term used above.

On September 12, 2015, David Connerty-Marin, who Gewertz identified in More on PARCC and Its Cut Scores | deutsch29:

Take that, charter schools: Why a Washington court decision will force accountability to a movement that needs it badly - Salon.com

Take that, charter schools: Why a Washington court decision will force accountability to a movement that needs it badly - Salon.com:

Take that, charter schools: Why a Washington court decision will force accountability to a movement that needs it badly

Charter schools will be accountable when they are just as transparent as public schools. Now it might happen

The recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Washington state that charter schools are unconstitutional because they aren’t really public schools has sent advocates for these schools into a fit. But their often over-the-top criticisms of the decision are reflective of what is most often misunderstood about the charter school sector and what that industry has come to represent in the political debate about public schools.

First, about the ruling: As Emma Brown of the Washington Post reports, “Washington state’s Supreme Court has become the first in the nation to decide that taxpayer-funded charter schools are unconstitutional, reasoning that charters are not truly public schools because they aren’t governed by elected boards and therefore not accountable to voters.”

Brown explains how voters in the state previously rejected charter schools on two ballot initiatives only to see an initiative pass on the third attempt, in 2012, when awho’s who of billionaires – including Bill Gates and members of the Walton (Walmart) and Bezos (Amazon) families – donated millions of dollars to ensure passage. Today, there are nine charter schools in Washington serving about 1,200 students.

The court’s 6-to-3 ruling, Brown explains, relies “on a century-old precedent that defined ‘common schools,’ or public schools, as those that are ‘common to all children of proper age and capacity, free, and subject to and under the control of the qualified voters of the school district.’”

The Washington court’s ruling certainly didn’t catch education historian Diane Ravitch by surprise. On her personal blog, she points to a letter from Parents Across America, a parent-led advocacy group supporting locally operated public schools, that explained to the state superintendent, over two years ago, “Charter schools would not meet the definition of ‘common schools’” in the state constitution.

Nevertheless, charter school advocates seethed.

Early out of the gate to object to the ruling was the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal whose headline blared, ” The Judges Who Stole School Choice.” The editors’ opprobrium continued, “The liberal majority’s real concern is preserving the union monopoly … Charter schools are public schools too.”

At the blog site of the right-wing Thomas B. Fordham Institute, the director the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education called the ruling a “decision only the Kremlin could love.”

But anyone with a clear understanding of the issues – rather than a charter school advocacy job bankrolled by billionaires – could see this ruling coming from a mile away.

Why Charter Schools Aren’t Really “Public” Schools

As the Post’s Brown reported, the Washington’s court’s ruling “highlights a question that has spurred much debate in education circles as charter schools – which are funded with taxpayer dollars, but run by independent organizations – have expanded rapidly during the past two decades: What makes a public school public?”

To critics of the charter school sector, the very idea of calling charter schools “public” schools makes about as much sense as calling defense contractors “public” companies. The fact these entities get taxpayer money does not mean they are “public.”

For years, education law and finance scholars have warned that the legal status of charter schools is on shaky ground. In 2012, Rutgers University professor Bruce Baker asked, on his personal blog, “Charter Schools Are… [Public? Private? Neither? Both?].”

Baker notes, first, that charter schools differ from public schools, in most statutory law, because they have limited public access. Unlike public schools, charter schools “can define the number of enrollment slots they wish to make available … admit Take that, charter schools: Why a Washington court decision will force accountability to a movement that needs it badly - Salon.com:

Marie Corfield: Debunking Reformy Logic One Tweet At A Time Part 3

Marie Corfield: Debunking Reformy Logic One Tweet At A Time Part 3:

Debunking Reformy Logic One Tweet At A Time Part 3

This one's personal

As I reported in Part 1 of this series, I recently got into a Twitter debate with Laura Waters, Derrell Bradford and Ryan Hill which turned into an all-day affair, with Save Our Schools NJ, Jersey Jazzman and a few other pro-public education advocates chiming in. It all started with this Tweet:

It was a 3-pronged discussion focusing on:

1. Part 1: Waters' continuous, illogical reasoning 
2. Part 2: Hill's assertions that:
   - charter schools are underfunded compared to district schools
   - every child should have choice but only when that choice is a charter school
3. And here Part 3: Bradford's assertions that:
   - I'm a teacher, therefore I am not an expert on public education
   - I'm a white, suburban woman so I should "say nothing"

Who is Derrell Bradford?

Currently the executive director for the 'reformy' group, NYCAN (The New York Campaign for Achievment Now), his previous stints include two 'reformy' NJ shops: the billionaire-funded Better Education for Kids (B4K), and Excellent Education for Everyone (E3).

Bradford's 'reform' pedigree also includes many public speaking gigs including one Marie Corfield: Debunking Reformy Logic One Tweet At A Time Part 3:

Et tu, Brute? - Democrats line up to betray Connecticut’s Latinos - Wait What?

Et tu, Brute? - Democrats line up to betray Connecticut’s Latinos - Wait What?:

Et tu, Brute? – Democrats line up to betray Connecticut’s Latinos

Despite the herculean efforts of the political spinmeister surrounding Governor Dannel Malloy and Connecticut’s Democratic Party leaders, the truth about what is taking place in Hartford, Connecticut is becoming increasingly apparent.

While the outcome of Hartford’s Democratic Primary for Mayor won’t be known until the last votes are counted on Wednesday, September 16, 2015, Greenwich Native and Hartford newcomer Luke Bronin appears to be on the verge of defeating the only Puerto Rican mayor of any major city across the 50 States.

If the political take-down occurs, the vast majority of the “credit” goes to the “Divine Invisible” hand of Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy, Malloy’s political operatives and Luke Bronin’s record breaking expensive campaign.

The harsh and disturbing reality is that if successful, Luke Bronin’s defeat of Mayor Pedro Segarra may very well be the most audacious political attack on the Latino community by a sitting Democratic Governor.

Novice Luke Bronin’s quest to become the next Mayor of Hartford, Connecticut is a case study on Dannel Malloy’s effort to deliver the money and political support necessary to install an affluent, white, protégée as mayor of Connecticut’s Capital, a community in which so-called “minority” residents make up well over 70 percent of Hartford’s 125,000 population and where at least 48 percent of Hartford residents speak a language other than English at home.

In Hartford’s public schools, less than 10 percent of the students are White and just over 50 percent are Latino or Hispanic.  Approximately one in five Hartford students is not fluent in English and 85% of all students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

But in an extremely unreported, but extraordinarily dramatic set of circumstances, an individual who has never run for office, never worked in municipal government and never attended a public school is poised to defeat Hartford’s Latino Mayor, Pedro Segarra.

While Mayor Segarra has had his problems, challenges and difficulties, the race isn’t so much about the incumbent as it is about the challenger’s unprecedented campaign, a Et tu, Brute? - Democrats line up to betray Connecticut’s Latinos - Wait What?:

Think it Up: Has the Gates Foundation Turned a Corner? - Living in Dialogue

Think it Up: Has the Gates Foundation Turned a Corner? - Living in Dialogue:

Think it Up: Has the Gates Foundation Turned a Corner? 

By Anthony Cody.

Last night I watched the hour-long telethon called Think it Up! sponsored by the Gates Foundation. I have to say, it was a far better program than their last television extravaganza, Education Nation. The emphasis was on building support for schools and teachers to do exciting, engaging projects, and that is a good thing. While we had to endure a bit of Justin Bieber hopping around in his pajamas, eventually we got some messages about what our schools need.

One of the celebrities said this:

Every student in America deserves the chance to learn and become the person they aspire to be. And that means every classroom should have what it needs to encourage great learning. Every science class should have equipment if students and teachers want to create projects in biology or chemistry or physics. Every history class should have the most up-to-date materials so that students can learn about and from the past. There should be paint brushes and oil paints and art classes so students can try to blow more minds than Banksy. And music classes should always have keyboards playing, guitars strumming, and someone banging on the drums. Please, please let’s empower our students and teachers to do these amazing things. Go to Thinkitup.org and donate…

She is absolutely correct, that every student should have this. And it is a great starting point for a campaign. My only question is why it is necessary to put out a begging bowl to fund these things? Don’t we have a more effective “crowd-sourced” funding system in place to provide for the funding of public schools? Why can’t we simply have corporations and wealthy individuals who have cornered the vast increase in wealth over the past decade pay their fair share of taxes, and then fund our schools from that revenue?

But perhaps I should be grateful. The message this time is so very different from what we heard in 2009 from Waiting for Superman, and from Gates himself on Education Nation and Oprah. Then the emphasis was on getting rid of “bad teachers” who were dragging down our schools. The public schools were declared to be so broken, in fact, that they should be abandoned and replaced with charter schools. Charter schools featured strongly in last night’s show, to be sure, in many of the examples of innovation. But we did not have a sledgehammer taken to the public schools.

Students were encouraged to propose ideas for projects that would interest them to their teachers, and teachers were invited to submit their proposals to be funded. I think projects are a great way to engage students and it is wonderful for teachers and students to work together to develop ideas that will serve their communities, as was suggested here.

Comedian Jessica Williams announced a campaign asking students to “reimagine high school” in new ways. This could generate some interesting ideas. The odd thing was that she cited US performance on international tests to justify the need for this innovation. And this brings me to my biggest problem with the whole program. To be clear, I support project based learning. I think it is wonderful to engage students in extended inquiry into real-world issues and challenges. However, I do not think this is entirely compatible with instruction focused on raising test scores.

The best projects do not focus narrowly on a set of testable outcomes. They focus on real world issues and Think it Up: Has the Gates Foundation Turned a Corner? - Living in Dialogue:

David Sarasohn: Virtual charter school uses smaller district for bigger money (OPINION) | OregonLive.com

David Sarasohn: Virtual charter school uses smaller district for bigger money (OPINION) | OregonLive.com:

 Virtual charter school uses smaller district for bigger money 

They ran perpetually throughout the summer — TV ads for schools along with other hot-weather spots for fast food and beach wear. Engaging young professionals, standing next to engaging middle-school versions of themselves, explain how their studies at Oregon Connections Academy (ORCA) readied them for success in life.

The spots are part of a promotional build-up that has helped explode the enrollment of the online, for-profit school past 4,000, making it a respectable-sized Oregon school district — virtually. The Legislature has increased the permissible number of online students, and ORCA and other virtual schools are approaching that level.

But if Oregon Connections is expanding and remodeling its virtual address, it has dramatically changed its — you should excuse the expression — physical address, and notably changed its residential expenses.

Oregon law requires online schools, like other charters, to be sponsored by a school district, which stores the online school's records — apparently the Legislature wasn't comfortable just having them in the cloud — and, at least in theory, provides some oversight. For its decade of existence, Oregon Connections has had its mailing address — as opposed to its emailing address — at Linn County's Scio School District, with a student body of 650, considerably smaller than the online enrollment it oversaw. In exchange, ORCA, collecting the per-student Oregon state payment, passed 10 percent per K-8 student and 5 percent per high school student on to Scio, which split the money with the student's home district.

But Oregon Connections has now found a better deal. For this year, it has switched its sponsorship to the yet-smaller Santiam Canyon School District in Mill City, about 30 miles east of Salem, with a 2012-2013 enrollment of 528. Explained now-departed ORCA School Board Chairman Jeff Kropf, a founder of the online academy and a former state representative, "The ORCA board is truly excited to be able to offer new educational opportunities for our students by establishing a new partnership with the Santiam Canyon School District."

Whatever the new educational opportunities, there is one clear attraction to the new sponsor: According to the ORCA-Santiam Canyon contract on file with the Oregon David Sarasohn: Virtual charter school uses smaller district for bigger money (OPINION) | OregonLive.com:

Seattle Schools Community Forum: From A Seattle Scohols Teacher's POV

Seattle Schools Community Forum: From A Seattle Scohols Teacher's POV:

 From A Seattle Scohols Teacher's POV

SEA member...Elspeth Travani and her Facebook post:

First of all, it is clear to me from talking with people at the pickets that striking is emotionally difficult for many of us. There is a lot of uncertainty, rumors fly, and information is hard to come by.

What is happening:  
The chief negotiators on both sides are meeting several times a day with the mediators. The SEA team has not been called back to the table, because the district has made no further concessions, and the package proposal they offered was untenable. We are meetingtomorrow morning at 9:00 AM to debrief, strategize, etc. If the district is beginning to feel the mounting pressure as Monday draws closer, we might be called in to actual full-team negotiationstomorrow afternoon. I'll be happy to let you know how it goes, but don't expect to hear anything until late on Saturday, or perhapsSunday morning, as we may be there late.

WHAT ARE WE STRIKING FOR?

The major obstacle as I see it is NOT our raises. We are not hugely far apart on the raise at this point, and my feeling is that that difference can be bridged over a few more tough hours of wrangling.

MAJOR OBSTACLE NUMBER ONE: The longer day. I'm am going to paste in here what I put on Facebook about that, and I urge you to repost it. We need the community to push the school board so we can end this strike:

The board wants a longer student day. They put this on the table on August 17th. This is a complex issue - more is not always better.
- How will teachers be impacted?
-Are K-1 kids going to be guaranteed 45 minutes of recess if they are at school later?
-Are high school teachers going to be asked to teach a 7 period day (6 out of 7 periods rather than 5 out of 6?)
-Are PE, Art and Music teachers going to be asked to teach longer periods or more sections? (Some would like longer periods, but more sections would be Seattle Schools Community Forum: From A Seattle Scohols Teacher's POV:

CURMUDGUCATION: Implementationism and Barber

CURMUDGUCATION: Implementationism and Barber:

Implementationism and Barber



This week, the Education Delivery Institute is delighted to announce a new book/marketing initiative co-authored by Nick Rodriguez, Ellyn Artis, and Sir Michael Barber. Rodriguez and Artis may not be familiar to you, but Barber is best known as the head honcho of Pearson. So you know where this is headed.

 This is Nick Rodriguez, a personal trainer in Houston. Not the same guy.



Their new book has the more-than-a-mouthful title Deliverology in Practice: How Education Leaders Are Improving Student Outcomes, and it sets out to answer the Big Question:

Why, with all the policy changes in education over the past five years, has progress in raising student achievement and reducing inequalities been so slow?

In other words-- since we've had full-on reformsterism running for five years, why can't they yet point to any clear successes? They said this stuff was going to make the world of education awesome. Why isn't it happening?

Now, you or I might think the answer to that question could be "Because the reformy ideas are actually bad ideas" or "The premises of the reforms are flawed" or "The people who said this stuff would work turn out to be just plain wrong." But no-- that's not where Barber et al are headed at all. Instead, they turn back to what has long been a popular excuse explanation for the authors of failed education reforms.

Implementation. 

"Well, my idea is genius. You're just doing it wrong!" is the cry of many a failed geniuses in many fields of human endeavor, and education reformsters have been no exception.

Just an implementation problem. As in, don't implement these into your digestive system.





I have trouble wrapping my head around the notion that implementation is somehow separate fromconception. Cold fusion is a neat concept, but the fact that it cannot actually be implemented in the world we physically inhabit renders it kind of useless. Politics are particularly susceptible to the fallacy that My Idea Is Pure Genius and if people would just behave the way I want them to, it will all work out brilliantly.

"Millions starving? Don't worry-- it's just an implementation problem."








The implementation fallacy has created all sorts of complicated messes, but the fallacy itself is simply expressed:

There is no good way to implement a bad idea. 

Barber, described in this article as "a monkish former teacher,"  has been a champion of bad ideas. CURMUDGUCATION: Implementationism and Barber: