Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 12/13/15

CORPORATE ED REFORM

 

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI (December 13)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI (December 13): ICYMI (December 13)Time for that Sunday reading list!What's Your Purpose Rob Miller has one of those posts that is great for refocusing and gearing up for the week to come-- plus a cool diagramShaming the DevilMan. My hat is off-- way off-- to this blogger who decided to call out Steve Perry, the crowd-pleasing, money-grabing, self-aggrandizing reformster. Quit

by mike simpson / 0min 

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Asking about Advanced Learning and Highly Capable Issues

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Asking about Advanced Learning and Highly Capable Issues: Asking about Advanced Learning and Highly Capable IssuesBased on reader comments (as well as more than a few e-mails), I queried the district about several Advanced Learning issues.  Here are the replies(italics are SPS.)Thanks for reaching out to us about Advanced Learning. Some of these questions/statement

by mike simpson / 1min 

Peg with Pen: Solidarity on a Sunday Night

Peg with Pen: Solidarity on a Sunday Night: Solidarity on a Sunday NightNot enough time to blog lately but I get in a few short FB messages from time to time. From my FB tonight:Many thanks to everyone that continues to help with the Twitter storm (search hashtag #NPAF #rejectrelay for more info) against Relay fake Graduate School during the National Principal Academy Fellowship in NY this weekend

by mike simpson / 4min 

U.S. Department of Education Enters the Twilight Zone | Save Maine Schools

U.S. Department of Education Enters the Twilight Zone | Save Maine Schools: U.S. Department of Education Enters the Twilight Zone Last week, in a move that was timed to coincide so perfectly with the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that italmost made you wonder if the whole thing was pre-planned behind the scenes, the U.S. Department of Education released its five-yea

by mike simpson / 2h 

Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Classroom Update #4 fo 2015

Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Classroom Update #4 fo 2015: Classroom Update #4 fo 2015One of the ideas that the ELA curriculum wanted students to get in this first unit was, how author background affects their work. I did like the particular piece they chose for this, Langston Hughes’ Theme for English B. It was a work that I was not familiar with, but it works well with upper elementar

by mike simpson / 3h 

CURMUDGUCATION: TFA Is Rescued!

CURMUDGUCATION: TFA Is Rescued!:TFA Is Rescued!Teach for America continues to take shellacking from people who think to ask questions like "How do you prepare someone to be a teacher in five weeks?" or "Why aren't wealthy, white districts lined up to take advantage of this awesome program?" or "How exactly does it help a high needs school to have an endless parade of untra

by mike simpson / 4h 

THE LAUSD CONSPIRATORIAL CULT OF CONFORMITY - Perdaily.com

THE LAUSD CONSPIRATORIAL CULT OF CONFORMITY - Perdaily.com: THE LAUSD CONSPIRATORIAL CULT OF CONFORMITY (Mensaje se repite en Español)In looking at LAUSD's latest defamatory attack on nationally acclaimed teacher Rafe Esquith, one can only surmise that those running the district are starting to run scared, because Esquith's billion dollar lawsuit brought by lawyer Mark Geragos has too great a prob

by mike simpson / 5h 

A Look Back - Wait, What? Blogs of the past Week - Wait What?

A Look Back - Wait, What? Blogs of the past Week - Wait What?: A Look Back – Wait, What? Blogs of the past WeekWe hold these truths to be self-evident…The Decline of the Great American Middle ClassCT Republican Strategy 101 – Snatching Defeat out of the Jaws of VictoryWhile Team Malloy says full steam ahead on the Common Core and Common Core Testing Mania…Google Spying on 40 Million K-12 Students…

by mike simpson / 5h 

Charter schools and journalistic ethics | Bob Braun's Ledger

Charter schools and journalistic ethics | Bob Braun's Ledger: Charter schools and journalistic ethicsNatasha Levant, from her Facebook entryToday The Star-Ledger published an op-ed column by a woman identified as Natasha Levant in which she credited the school her son attends, the North Star Academy Charter School in Newark, for “changing” her son’s life and “saving” him.  The newspaper described

by mike simpson / 5h 

Schooling in the Ownership Society: The real force behind D.C. school 'reform'

Schooling in the Ownership Society: The real force behind D.C. school 'reform': The real force behind D.C. school 'reform'She's the wife of a media mogul, a friend of the Washington Post’s Graham family. She’s a philanthropist, adviser to public officials, and conduit to private foundations and investors in what has become her life’s work. In D.C., likely no private citizen is more involved in pub

by mike simpson / 5h 

Hundreds of Parents Pull Students Out of San Lorenzo Schools, Demand Raise for Teachers | NBC Bay Area

Hundreds of Parents Pull Students Out of San Lorenzo Schools, Demand Raise for Teachers | NBC Bay Area: Hundreds of Parents Pull Students Out of San Lorenzo Schools, Demand Raise for TeachersHundreds of parents pulled their kids out of school Monday in the San Lorenzo Unified School District and are calling on others to do the same thing on Tuesday.The move was the latest effort to get the distric

by mike simpson / 7h 

BustED Pencils Trending News: Grit; Segregation; Gold | BustED Pencils

BustED Pencils Trending News: Grit; Segregation; Gold | BustED Pencils: BustED Pencils Trending News: Grit; Segregation; Gold“the exposure to trauma has a profound impact…” , writes AISHA SULTANThe Limitations of Teaching ‘Grit’ in the Classroomhttp://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/12/when-grit-isnt-enough/418269/High-achievers segregated.The New ‘Education Segregation’ Hurting the U.S

by mike simpson / 8h 

With A Brooklyn Accent: Fordham, Gentrification and the University's Role in the Bronx

With A Brooklyn Accent: Fordham, Gentrification and the University's Role in the Bronx: Racial Tensions at Fordham are a Harbinger of What Gentrification Might Mean for the BronxFordham used to have a great reputation in the Bronx because it helped save the neighborhoods of the Northwest Bronx from the arson and disinvestment that swept through the Southern sections of the borough. But as the dang

by mike simpson / 8h 

“Good” and “Successful” Teaching: Where Does the Student Enter the Picture? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

“Good” and “Successful” Teaching: Where Does the Student Enter the Picture? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: “Good” and “Successful” Teaching: Where Does the Student Enter the Picture?The singular and important role of the classroom teacher in getting students to learn is well established in the research literature (see here and here). I have no quarrel with that frequent fin

by mike simpson / 8h 

Ed Notes Online: Wonderful Video - Seen Them Opting Out on Broadway - Alan Schwartz - The Bald Piano Man

Ed Notes Online: Wonderful Video - Seen Them Opting Out on Broadway - Alan Schwartz - The Bald Piano Man: Wonderful Video - Seen Them Opting Out on Broadway - Alan Schwartz - The Bald Piano Man-- Or how teachers' asses are being saved by the parent opt out movement."The unions didn't accomplish this. Parental anger at an arrogant state executive forced the change. To the power of parents ever

by mike simpson / 8h 

Russ on Reading: Teaching as Meaningful Work

Russ on Reading: Teaching as Meaningful Work: Teaching as Meaningful WorkIn his terrific 2009 book on the complexity of success, Outliers,Malcolm Gladwell identifies “meaningful work” as one necessary component of a fully successful life. Gladwell defines meaningful work as work that provides a person with autonomy, complexity and rewards that equal the effort put forth. Gladwell identifies teachi

by mike simpson / 8h 

Consolidating Power: Urban and Neighborhood Based Organization Matters - Online University of the Left

Consolidating Power: Urban and Neighborhood Based Organization Matters - Online University of the Left: Consolidating Power: Urban and Neighborhood Based Organization MattersDavid Harvey: ‘The Left Has to Rethink Its Theoretical and Tactical Apparatus.’FROM ROAR MAGAZINE. David Harvey, one of the leading Marxist thinkers of our times, sits down with the activist collective AK Malabocas to discuss

by mike simpson / 8h 

Ohio charter schools that misspent money still owe state $6 million | The Columbus Dispatch

Ohio charter schools that misspent money still owe state $6 million | The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio charter schools that misspent money still owe state $6 millionDozens of Ohio charter schools collectively have failed to repay more than $6 million in misspent tax dollars, a first-time compilation of state audits reveals.The improper spending involved about 40 of the tax-funded, privately operated sc

by mike simpson / 9h 

Report: Most states providing less K-12 funding than before Great Recession - The Washington Post

Report: Most states providing less K-12 funding than before Great Recession - The Washington Post: Report: Most states providing less K-12 funding than before Great RecessionA new report on public school funding across the country finds that most states are now providing less support per K-12 student than before the 2007-2009 Great Recession — and that some states continue to cut funding.The repor

by mike simpson / 9h 

AP: Florida gave charter schools millions before they closed - Washington Times

AP: Florida gave charter schools millions before they closed - Washington Times: AP: Florida gave charter schools millions before they closedTALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Less than a mile from the state Capitol, a former steakhouse shows little evidence that it was once part of a movement to change Florida’s schools.It was on this location nearly two decades ago that the leader of a prominent Tallahass

by mike simpson / 9h 

Educators wondering if John Bel Edwards plans rollback in public school ‘reforms’ | The New Orleans Advocate

Educators wondering if John Bel Edwards plans rollback in public school ‘reforms’ | The New Orleans Advocate — New Orleans, Louisiana: Educators wondering if John Bel Edwards plans rollback in public school ‘reforms’Whether Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards’ alliance with the state’s teacher unions means a push is brewing to undo the sweeping changes in public schools promoted by Gov. Bobby Jindal is a

by mike simpson / 9h 

YESTERDAY

New TNTP President Among the First to Have Her NYC School’s Charter Revoked | deutsch29

New TNTP President Among the First to Have Her NYC School’s Charter Revoked | deutsch29: New TNTP President Among the First to Have Her NYC School’s Charter RevokedIn February 2015, TNTP (used to be The New Teacher Project, but now is just the letters TNTP) announced that effective summer 2015, TNTP will be making some executive-level changes (euphemistically named a “long-term growth strategy”) b

by mike simpson / 21h 

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

CORPORATE ED REFORM New education law's 'flexibility' will require better leadership from Gov. Brown OregonLiveNew education law's 'flexibility' will require better leadership from Gov. Brown: Editorial Agenda 2015 | OregonLive.com: New education law's 'flexibility' will require better leadership from Gov. BrownOregon Gov. Kate Brown and education policymakers must keep students' needs front and c

by mike simpson / 1d 

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI (December 13)

CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI (December 13):

ICYMI (December 13)

Time for that Sunday reading list!

What's Your Purpose 

Rob Miller has one of those posts that is great for refocusing and gearing up for the week to come-- plus a cool diagram

Shaming the Devil

Man. My hat is off-- way off-- to this blogger who decided to call out Steve Perry, the crowd-pleasing, money-grabing, self-aggrandizing reformster. Quite a tale here.

Testifying before Cuomo's Common Core Task Force

This is a throwback, but since Cuomo's Task Force offered up their recommendations this week, it seems like the perfect time to revisit Critical Classroom's account of testifying before the Task Force five weeks ago.

EdTweak

Some I had up till now missed this little diversion-- a short faux journal published every now and then in the style of everybody's favorite education news publication. Check out articles like "Reformers Address Deficiencies in Children's Screen Time."


Ex-Star Principal Tells of Her Downfall

Depressing. If you want a picture of how a principal can get caught up in culture of graft and corruption, read this Detroit Free Press article about one of the school officials caught in the federal investigation of misbehavior in Detroit.

Progressive Public School Shakedown

I've been remiss in not bringing this up sooner. The Progressive magazine has assembled a group f twelve fellows to cover education reform news for the magazine. The group includes top drawer folks like Jose Luis Vilson, Xian Barrett, Jennifer Berkshire, and Sabrina Stevens  (and full disclosure-- I have also snuck into the group somehow). You can follow the project on twitter under @Progressive4Ed; the fellows offer up a new piece at least once weekly, and even those of you who may not consider yourselves in tune with the overall agenda of the magazine will find the Progressive Fellow pieces informative and useful.

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Asking about Advanced Learning and Highly Capable Issues

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Asking about Advanced Learning and Highly Capable Issues:

Asking about Advanced Learning and Highly Capable Issues

Based on reader comments (as well as more than a few e-mails), I queried the district about several Advanced Learning issues.  Here are the replies(italics are SPS.)

Thanks for reaching out to us about Advanced Learning. Some of these questions/statements are answered on our Advanced Learning pages, but for convenience sake, Stephen Martin has answered most of them below.

1. It is too difficult to understand the programs (especially Spectrum and how it is presented differently at nearly every single school in the district depending on principal).

Advanced Learner/Spectrum students are served according to the CSIP developed at each school. Some schools also have published ALO plans. The district embraces site-based decision making in meeting the needs of Advanced Learner/Spectrum students. Most schools have adopted the practice of grouping advanced students within general education classrooms rather than placing them in self-contained classrooms. This is consistent with existing policy and procedures. The AL office is committed to supporting Seattle Schools Community Forum: Asking about Advanced Learning and Highly Capable Issues:

Peg with Pen: Solidarity on a Sunday Night

Peg with Pen: Solidarity on a Sunday Night:

Solidarity on a Sunday Night

Not enough time to blog lately but I get in a few short FB messages from time to time. From my FB tonight:

Many thanks to everyone that continues to help with the Twitter storm (search hashtag #NPAF #rejectrelay for more info) against Relay fake Graduate School during the National Principal Academy Fellowship in NY this weekend. There are lots of folks out there watching quietly who appreciate your help. For those of you headed back to work tomorrow in a Relay environment please remember that you are not crazy - stay in touch with your humanity and your pedagogy. There is no research stating that standards, targets, and/or success criteria correlate with student achievement. None. So, you are not crazy to think that plastering this BS on your wall every day is a waste of time. It is a waste of time.

However, there is a clear correlation between compliant learners and test-taking for schools that use this technique combined with a no-excuse discipline model (Teach Like a Champion - which demands bad ideas like cold call, snapping, and barking orders atchildren in a militant way). All of this is done in order to demand "perseverance" and "fidelity" to the tests and therefore increase test scores. Test scores do not equal learning. And ultimately, all of this is done to drive out experienced teachers who know what Peg with Pen: Solidarity on a Sunday Night:

U.S. Department of Education Enters the Twilight Zone | Save Maine Schools

U.S. Department of Education Enters the Twilight Zone | Save Maine Schools:

U.S. Department of Education Enters the Twilight Zone

 Last week, in a move that was timed to coincide so perfectly with the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that italmost made you wonder if the whole thing was pre-planned behind the scenes, the U.S. Department of Education released its five-year technology plan.

No big surprise here: rather than offer sensible suggestions and grant opportunities for states and local districts to implement technology in ways that have been proven to be beneficial for kids, the plan instead reads like a blueprint for a complete overhaul of our national educational system.

It also mirrors the plan which is being pushed by the testing, charter, digital/online learning, and student loan industries, as most of its recommendations appear to come straight from “Ten Elements of High Quality Digital Learning” – a list of recommendations developed by a council of executives from testing giants like Pearson and McGraw Hill, charter chains like Rocketship, tech companies like Apple and Microsoft, and – of course – the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Personalized learning (Mark Zuckerberg’s other new baby), competency-based education, and embedded, stealth assessment – including assessment of “non-cognitive competencies” – all play prominent roles in both the “Ten Elements” and the U.S. DOE’s new technology plan.

But if that alone doesn’t give you shivers, there’s more.

Despite an admission that research on the effectiveness of technology-enabled programs and resources is still limited, the technology plan also suggests that “the roles of PK–12 classroom teachers and post-secondary instructors, librarians, families, and learners all will need to shift as technology enables new types of learning experiences.”

Yes – you read that right.  According the U.S. DOE, not only our schools, but also our families will need to change to make way for the Brave New World recommended by the edu-profiteers.

The plan also says that we will need to consider the “redesign of physical learning spaces to accommodate new and expanded relationships among U.S. Department of Education Enters the Twilight Zone | Save Maine Schools:

Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Classroom Update #4 fo 2015

Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Classroom Update #4 fo 2015:

Classroom Update #4 fo 2015

One of the ideas that the ELA curriculum wanted students to get in this first unit was, how author background affects their work. I did like the particular piece they chose for this, Langston Hughes’ Theme for English B. It was a work that I was not familiar with, but it works well with upper elementary (5th grade) since it is made up of statements delivered in a first person voice. The biggest problem I had was trying to get the kids to understand that it was not “auto-biographical” but “semi-autobiographical” since the author was NOT from Winston-Salem, but Missouri, etc. but having facts to point to is easier to discuss, than more abstract ideas. It’s a good way to introduce perspective in race. The line in the poem about being the only black person in the classroom seemed to resonate even among my non-black students. I found this nice video of the poem on YouTube that my students enjoyed.

At the same time I was using the Pam Allyn materials, we were readingBridge to Terabithia, and I found a great resource for author background Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Classroom Update #4 fo 2015:

CURMUDGUCATION: TFA Is Rescued!

CURMUDGUCATION: TFA Is Rescued!:
TFA Is Rescued!

Teach for America continues to take shellacking from people who think to ask questions like "How do you prepare someone to be a teacher in five weeks?" or "Why aren't wealthy, white districts lined up to take advantage of this awesome program?" or "How exactly does it help a high needs school to have an endless parade of untrained amateurs wandering through classrooms for just a couple of years at a time?"

But TFA fits the reformster narrative in many ways (Some people are just better than others, so they should make great teachers-- certainly better than those dopes who are in teaching as a career. Poor schools are failing because the Right People aren't there, so we'll put the Right People there and that will fix everything!), and it has allowed many people to put "teacher" on their resume as they move onto their real careers as bureaucrats, lobbyists and political appointees, so that TFA has become a multi-million dollar operation with plenty of friends in high places. Still, they also participate in another popular reformster narrative-- "Even though we are Better People and we're doing Great Things, people keep popping up to say mean things about us, and that makes us sad."

And so periodically reformsters try to fight back, and we get the bizarre spectacle of millions of dollars being spent to outfits like the $12 million Education Post or the $4 million per year the74 to combat a bunch of people who blog for little or no money.

Now TFA is joining the party. As reported by Lyndsey Layton in the Washington Post, NYCAN (part of  a network of pro-charter, anti-public school, anti-teacher union reformsters) has set up a Big Fat PR engine to combat TFA criticism. Why would NYCAN do that for TFA? Well, most likely because they CURMUDGUCATION: TFA Is Rescued!:

THE LAUSD CONSPIRATORIAL CULT OF CONFORMITY - Perdaily.com

THE LAUSD CONSPIRATORIAL CULT OF CONFORMITY - Perdaily.com:

THE LAUSD CONSPIRATORIAL CULT OF CONFORMITY

 (Mensaje se repite en Español)

In looking at LAUSD's latest defamatory attack on nationally acclaimed teacher Rafe Esquith, one can only surmise that those running the district are starting to run scared, because Esquith's billion dollar lawsuit brought by lawyer Mark Geragos has too great a probability of bankrupting the district, if allow it to be tried in a neutral court forum as it should be. So the LAUSD smear machine aka "LAUSD investigative team" is given their marching orders not to find the truth, but rather to get the goods on Esquith...even if they have to fabricate or distort the facts to do so. And what LAUSD has in place after years of war against teachers and other certificated and classified employees- whose only crime was they questioned district policy or made too much money- is an amoral group of administrators or outside contractors seeking to supplement their income or position, even if they have to lie, fabricate, or distort evidence to do so.

We can see how deceptive and lying public entity cultures like this work in the recent inditement of Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke for 1st degree murder, after a 13 month coverup of his execution of Laquan McDonald. One can see what happens when an organization is allowed to investigate itself in a manner where the preordained conclusion of organizational innocence is all that is acceptable for those whose loyalty to the organization takes precedence over their comittment to truth and the rule of law- giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming they ever had any.

At the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), this same self-dealing culture has existed for generations to the preclusion of good pragmatic public education. As a matter of fact, no administrator would ever have gotten to any THE LAUSD CONSPIRATORIAL CULT OF CONFORMITY - Perdaily.com: