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Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Tennessee's York Institute Shows How Education Can Improve the Quality of Life in Rural America - The Atlantic

Tennessee's York Institute Shows How Education Can Improve the Quality of Life in Rural America - The Atlantic:

Salvaging Education in Rural America

Rural towns struggle with widespread poverty, limited opportunity, and low college-attendance rates. What role do schools play in improving the quality of life?



Alvin C. York Agricultural Institute sits in the heart of Fentress County, Tennessee, high on the Cumberland Plateau within spitting distance of the Kentucky border. The area is a beautiful, bucolic place characterized by rising hills and encroaching forests, tumbling creeks and hard-won farmland. It can also be a pretty bleak place to live.
When teachers, theorists, and pundits analyze America’s educational system, they usually focus on urban centers, but rural school systems make up more than half of the nation’s operating school districts, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Like many of their urban peers, children there fight to overcome scant funding, generational poverty, rampant malnutrition, and limited job prospects.

As the Southern Education Foundation announced last January, a majority of the schoolchildren attending the nation’s public schools now come from low-income families. The implications, for rural, urban, and suburban children alike, are serious. Students who come to school hungry often find it difficult to focus on learning. Students without computers or Internet access may have trouble with their homework. Students who are homeless or need clothing or lack medical care can develop behavioral problems.
Compared to students in urban or suburban schools, students in rural areas and small towns are less likely to attend college. Part of this is because of financial concerns. In Fentress County, close to 40 percent of children live in poverty.According to the Obama administration, it’s one of 301 rural counties (compared to 52 non-rural ones) in the country that suffer from “persistent poverty,” meaning poverty rates have exceeded 20 percent in every census since 1980. In the 2011, 65 percent of children in the county qualified for free or reduced lunches, a key marker of childhood poverty. That is 18 percent higher than Tennessee’s average. The community has some of the highest rates of premature death, sick leave, and injury-related deaths in the state. Thirty-eight percent of the county’s adults are obese.  

Rural students in Fentress County and elsewhere also have limited opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities (another factor that boosts a kid’s chances of graduating from high school and attending college); many of them simply live too far away to stay after school for practice or club meetings. One bus from York drives over an hour-and-a-half and then drops off a handful of kids at a car, which takes them the rest of the way home.

Another reason for their low college-attendance rates is that rural students come from places where higher education traditionally hasn’t been of much use. Previous generations could find good jobs in factories or agriculture, which is part of the reason why  in Fentress County only 58 percent of adults have a high-school diploma. Just 8 percent have a bachelor’s degree—by some estimates, Tennessee's York Institute Shows How Education Can Improve the Quality of Life in Rural America - The Atlantic:
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Who profits from charter schools?

Letter | Who profits from charter schools?:

 Who profits from charter schools?

Reign of Error (click picture)
In regards to "Governor makes pitch on charter schools to pastors" (Dec. 31), before anyone accepts the arguments of the deceptively entitled "school choice" advocates (i.e. pro-charter and pro-voucher), I urge them to question the underlying motives of this movement - and to dig out the data.
A few years ago The Courier-Journal reviewed the very readable 2013 book entitled "Reign of Error - The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools" by Diane Ravitch (currently a professor of education at New York University). Formerly a supporter of the so-called "reform" movement (she was the assistant secretary of education for President George H.W. Bush), Ms. Ravitch has done the digging - and presents the data. This is her second recent book on this topic, and as she states in her introduction:
"In this book, I report additional evidence about the failure of the Bush-Obama 'reforms.' "
THE COURIER-JOURNAL
Grawemeyer winner Diane Ravitch says standardized testing hurting education
Those who stand to profit from a widespread switch to the privatization of public schools want us to believe that they have a simple solution to the complex challenges facing our schools; they don't want us to know that such privatization just happens to allow them to pocket billions of public dollars -- money that would much better be devoted to addressing the underlying causes of our schools' achievement gaps - poverty and the inequitable distribution of our education funds.
I hope our local pastors and our new governor will read Reign of Error - soon!


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Education leaders mourn loss of inspirational Red Deer teacher Joe Bower | Edmonton Journal

Education leaders mourn loss of inspirational Red Deer teacher Joe Bower | Edmonton Journal:

Education leaders mourn loss of inspirational Red Deer teacher Joe Bower

Educators are mourning the sudden death of Red Deer Grade 6 and 8 teacher Joe Bower.

Diane Ravitch, professor of education at New York University: “He was one of those educators that you wish were in charge of an entire state or nation. He was kind, caring, compassionate, and loved children.”

Members of Alberta’s education community are mourning the unexpected death of a Red Deer teacher who had gained a wide following for his views on inspiring and assessing students. 
Tributes and prayers for Joe Bower, 37, flooded social media sites Sunday and Monday, after news broke that the junior high school educator had suffered a massive heart attack New Year’s Eve. He died Sunday after his family made the decision to take him off life support. 
“Joe really made an impact on a lot of teachers in Alberta, but his work was known worldwide,” saidGeorge Couros, the division principal for the Parkland School Division, who initially got to know Bower through Twitter and their shared interest in innovative education.
“He really challenged, in his way, the traditional ways we think about school. He was relentless in his passion to help students.”
Bower was probably best known for his advocacy around getting rid of grading in school. His blog, For the love of learning, featured many posts about the subject and other topics related to the education process, including discipline, homework and lesson planning. 
“When we reduce something as magnificently messy as learning to a number, we always conceal far more than we ever reveal,” he wrote in his last post, published Dec. 17. As of Sunday night, his blog had received about 60,000 page views in the last month. 
Red Deer Public Schools issued a statement Monday that noted the contributions of Bower
“Joe was a passionate and committed educator who was a strong advocate for students and teachers,” the statement said. “Joe will be deeply missed, however, he will be fondly remembered and his legacy will endure.”
The district said it has not yet planned any memorial event for Bower. Funeral arrangements have not been announced. 
According to his blog, Bower had been teaching for 16 years in public schools. Included was four years teaching at a children’s psychiatric assessment unit at the Red Deer Regional Hospital. 
Bower’s death spawned comments from dozens of social media users all over North America, many of whom reposted one of his recent Twitter remarks: “Want to collect data on how children are learning? Know them. Watch them. Listen to them. Talk with them. Sit with them. Be with them.”
Postings about Bower came from a number of politicians, relatives, friends and former students.  
Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark: “Alberta is a lesser place without @. You gave so much to , your family, your province and to education worldwide.”
Liberal MP Kent Hehr: “We have lost a tremendous advocate for education & progressive politics.”
Former PC cabinet minister Thomas Lukaszuk: “Alberta lost a great educator. Such loss is not only felt now, but for generations to come.”
Former premier Dave Hancock: “Joe was passionate, intelligent education advocate. Many great discussions.”
Jennifer Bower-Hannotte, Bower’s sister: “Joe Bower’s passion will be his legacy. He has touched the lives of so many and I am honoured to have him as my big brother.”
Friend Jesse Bourne: “His passion and unapologetic ways both inspire and frustrate people, and have ultimately had a massive impact on many.”
Friend Nadine Smith: “I was thrilled to see and chat with him about his path in teaching — and was not at all surprised by how passionate he was about it (as he had always been with everything, big or small) nor the fact that he was pushing boundaries all over the place and being so outspoken with what he believed in (whether it made him popular or not). This was the Joe I had known.”
Diane Ravitch, professor of education at New York University: “He was one of those educators that you wish were in charge of an entire state or nation. He was kind, caring, compassionate, and loved children.”
Education leaders mourn loss of inspirational Red Deer teacher Joe Bower | Edmonton Journal:
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Monday, January 4, 2016

ALEC Education Task Force - SourceWatch

ALEC Education Task Force - SourceWatch:





About ALEC
ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on ourPRWatch.org site.
(Until it was disbanded in April 2012, ALEC also operated a Public Safety and Elections Task Force, which adopted such "model" bills as the "Stand Your Ground" bill or "Castle Law" doctrine and the voter ID Act. Later in 2012, ALEC launched the "Justice Performance Project" (JPP) in place of the Public Safety and Elections Task Force. The bills associated with the JPP in task force materials obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy and posted by ALEC appear to continue ALEC's modus operandi of promoting the financial interests of the corporations and special interest groups that fund it, such as the American Bail Coalition, according to PRWatch.[1])
This article is about ALEC's Education Task Force. Corporations can join this task force for $2,500 a year.[2] For model legislation crafted and adopted by the Education Task Force, go here. For task force directories and meeting agendas, go here.ALEC Education Task Force - SourceWatch:

2015 States and Nation Policy Summit Substantive Agenda

The following "model" bills were proposed for the Scottsdale, Arizona conference:[3]
Presentations and panel discussions to be held at the conference included:[3]
  • "The Future of Blaine Amendments"
  • "God and Man Disinvited at Yale?"

2015 Annual Meeting Substantive Agenda

The following "model" bills were proposed for the San Diego, California conference:[4]
Presentations and panel discussion to be held at the conference included:[4]
  • "Legislative Roundtable: Educational Savings Accounts"
  • "Doing Less With Much Less and Getting More: Transforming American Higher Education"

2015 Spring Task Force Summit Substantive Agenda

The following "model" bills were proposed for the Savannah, Georgia conference:[5]
Presentations and panel discussions to be held at the conference included:[5]
  • "Impact of Charter Schools on Rural Southern Counties"
  • "Public Charter School Model Bills"
  • "Biometrics Applications in Education"
  • "Bringing the Concepts of Free Markets to Educational Content Purchasing"
  • "North Carolina - Digital Learning"
  • "The Great State of Texas - Overview"
  • "College and Career Readiness, Building a Global Workforce"
  • "Course Choice"

2014 States and Nation Policy Summit Substantive Agenda

The following "model" bills were proposed for the Washington, DC conference:[6]
Presentations and panel discussions to be held at the conference included:[6]
  • "19th Edition Report Card on American Education"
  • "Charter School Working Group Update"
  • "Educational Savings Accounts - Education Reform Today"
  • "Public Charter School Act"
  • "States' Role in Protecting Student Information"
  • "Public Charter Schools Funding Act"

2014 Annual Meeting Substantive Agenda

The following "model" bills were proposed for the Dallas, TX conference:[7]
Presentations and panel discussions to be held at the conference included:[7]
  • "Restoring Primacy to Public Higher Education: Federal Student Financial Aid Programs and the Law of Unintended Consequences”
  • "Review and Update: ALEC's Education Principles"
  • "Fiscal Notes Calculator"
  • "Report Card on American Education 19th Edition"
  • "Standardized Tests: A Study On Education Control Systems"

2014 Spring Task Force Summit Substantive Agenda

The following "model" bills were proposed at the Kansas City, Missouri conference:[8]
Presentations and panel discussions to be held at the conference included:[8]
  • "Education Reform Presentation: The Best Course on Course Choice"
  • "Review and Update ALEC's Education Principles"
  • "Digital Learning Presentation: 1:1 Devices vs. High Quality Computer Assisted Instruction"
  • "Model Policy Discussion and Voting: Sunset Review"
    • "Credit Articulation Agreements Act"
    • "Inclusive College Savings Plan Act"
    • "Founding Principles Act"
    • "Online Learning Clearinghouse Act"
    • "The Public School Financial Transparency Act"
    • "Higher Education Scholarships for High School Pupils Act"ALEC Education Task Force - SourceWatch:
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Choosing Democracy: Business "Leaders" Fail at Public Education

Choosing Democracy: Business "Leaders" Fail at Public Education:

Business "Leaders" Fail at Public Education

Diane Ravitch. 
Let’s state a simple fact: there is NO EVIDENCE that Common Core will improve education or test scores. It was launched in 2010. It has been tested in many states, and test scores have collapsed. Why the stubborn insistence that it will raise American test scores compared to the rest of the world or prepare all students for college and career? There is no evidence for this stubborn belief. If businessmen acted this way in their own corporations, every one of their products would be untested. Their gasoline would cause engines to explode, their buildings would collapse, their software would be fraught with bugs, and their hardware would melt. And they wouldn’t understand why. They would keep insisting that we have to keep doing the same things over and over. At least their customers would have a choice, unlike American parents and children, who are forced to endure Common Core despite their protests.

First, our schools are NOT failing. Test scores on the NAEP are at their highest point ever, for all groups of students, including whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians. Scores on NAEP rose steadily since the 1970s until NCLB went into effect; then the rate of gains slowed. But in 2015, the NAEP scores went flat or declined, when the full force of NCLB , Race to the Top, and Common Core converged. Repeat, our schools are NOT failing, but our policymakers have rained chaos and disruption on them since 2001.

Second, we have heard this claim about “our failing schools” since 1983, when the Reagan-era report “A Nation at Risk” was published to moaning and groaning. We have been warned again and again that the schools were harming our economy. Yet our economy has grown since 1983. The biggest harm to our economy has come not from our schools but from major corporations outsourcing jobs to other countries where labor is cheaper, not better.



Third, the article repeats the same tired litany about our terrible international scores, but those scores prove nothing, zero, zilch. Our nation has had low international scores since 1964, when the first international test was given, and those scores had no effect upon the economy. In fact, our economy has surpassed those nations with higher scores on TIMSS and PISA. The scores of 15-year-olds on standardized tests do not predict the future.

Fourth, there is no evidence whatever that the Common Core standards will improve education. None. It has been tried nowhere before it Choosing Democracy: Business "Leaders" Fail at Public Education:
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About That Fortune Article on Common Core… | deutsch29

About That Fortune Article on Common Core… | deutsch29:

About That Fortune Article on Common Core…

marshmallow
I have been reading Peter Elkind’s January 01, 2016, article in Fortune on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
Elkind’s work is a study in foolishness. Basically, he demonstrates the unfounded faith that powerful individuals whose lives only skirt the worlds of whose with children in public schools have placed in a set of rushed, contrived standards to cure all that ails American public education. Whether such ailments are real or contrived becomes irrelevant; CCSS is the needed fix.
Nevertheless, truth regarding CCSS leaks out from among Elkind’s words. Consider this statement in regards to billionaire Bill Gates’ trying to convince billionaire Charles Koch to support CCSS (a failed effort on Gates’ part):
This extraordinary tête-à-tête is just one example of how the war over Common Core has personally engaged—and bedeviled—some of America’s most powerful business leaders. Hugely controversial, it has thrust executives into the uncomfortable intersection of business and politics.
CCSS is hugely controversial, if for no other reason than its rushed-and-hushed creation. And surely one must wonder about the motives behind Gates’ continued push of what is little more than a Gates latest-and-greatest pet project.
Had CCSS been developed and implemented with sense– one grade level at a time, About That Fortune Article on Common Core… | deutsch29:


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Success Academy Principal Who Created ‘Got to Go’ List Takes Leave - The New York Times

Success Academy Principal Who Created ‘Got to Go’ List Takes Leave - The New York Times:

Success Academy Principal Who Created ‘Got to Go’ List Takes Leave


The principal at a Success Academy charter school who created a “Got to Go” list of difficult students is taking a personal leave of absence, a Success Academy spokeswoman said on Monday.
Critics of Success Academy, the high-performing New York City charter school network, have said its high test scores are partly a result of weeding out underperforming and disruptive students. The existence of the list, reported by The New York Times in October, appeared to support the accusations.
At a news conference that month, Success Academy’s founder, Eva S. Moskowitz, said the list was an anomaly and that it existed for only three 
days in 2014 before the principal, Candido Brown, was chastised for it. Mr. Brown apologized, saying he was doing what he thought was needed to fix an unsafe school and that the list was his idea alone.
Still, nine of the 16 students on the list eventually left the school, Success Academy Success Academy Principal Who Created ‘Got to Go’ List Takes Leave - The New York Times:

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California’s list of poor schools posted again | The Sacramento Bee

California’s list of poor schools posted again | The Sacramento Bee:

California’s list of poor schools posted again


Facing a lawsuit threat, the state Department of Education has changed its position on posting a list of low-performing schools whose students could be transferred to schools with higher academic test scores.
A state “open enrollment law,” enacted in 2010, requires the department to list 1,000 “low-achieving schools” by Jan. 1 of each year and allows parents of children in those schools to move them to other schools.
Late last year, the department, which is directed by state schools Sept. Tom Torlakson, posted a notice on its website that it would not release a list of the schools because the “academic performance index” on which the list was based had been suspended.
That action, which was not announced publicly, drew fire from state Sen. Bob Huff and school improvement groups, which threatened to sue.
Last week, just days before Jan. 1 deadline, Torlakson’s department altered its notice and posted the previous 1,000-school list, based on 2013 tests, that parents could use to exercise their open enrollment option. Here is a link to a spreadsheet of the list.
However, the department also warned that those seeking to use the list “should know that many changes have occurred since the creation of the list” and “caution should be used when reviewing the list or making any decisions based on the list…”
Bill Lucia of EdVoice, who had been one of the critics and suggested that legal action might ensue, said Monday that with the revised posting, “For now, we will be telling students and districts to use the last list as the legally operational list from which eligibility derives for utilizing the authority of an interdistrict transfer under the open enrollment act.”
Another section of the 2010 law also allows parents of children in low-achieving schools to petition to take control via charter.
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Who Needs “Education” Anyway? | Save Maine Schools

Who Needs “Education” Anyway? | Save Maine Schools:

Who Needs “Education” Anyway?

5749305_orig.jpg
I’m telling you – these guys just keep letting the cat out of the bag.
Jamie Merisotis, who makes $619,334 a year as CEO of the Lumina Foundation, recently suggested in this article that we combine the U.S. Department of Education with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) of the Department of Labor and the talent recruitment functions of the Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) of the Department of Homeland Security into one, super “Department of Talent.”
“The net result,” Merisotis writes, “would be an agency actually aimed at the true outcome of the policies inherent in the current disconnected mess—talent—rather than an agency that is focused on processes and tools like “education,” “training,” “visas,” and so on.”
And yes – he actually puts “education” in quotes.
According to Merisotis, this new super-department “could develop and implement strategies for high-quality, locally managed workforce development programs…Ideally, there would be a coordinated approach that seamlessly relates K-12 standards to learning outcomes frameworks for education and training beyond high school.”
In other words, it would do what our current Department of Education is busy doing: turning our local public schools into Who Needs “Education” Anyway? | Save Maine Schools:
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