Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 2/19/16

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Sleeping Giant of Education Politics - Parents - Are Awake and Rebelling

Sleeping Giant of Education Politics - Parents - Are Awake and Rebelling: Sleeping Giant of Education Politics - Parents - Are Awake and RebellingA New York Times frontpage headline last Aug. 13, 2015 stated,"20 percent of State Students Opted Out of Tests in Sign of a Rising Revolt."This grassroots rebellion is a response to the war on public education being waged by billionaire foundat

by mike simpson / 2h 

Competency Based Education – UnitED For Florida Children

Competency Based Education – UnitED For Florida Children: Competency Based EducationWe don’t have time to play these games!I can’t say you weren’t warned.By Laura McCraryFounder, United for FL ChildrenParents, I Cannot Protect Your Children –    I will do my best. But my best isn’t good enough – and I think that is the point I really want to make here…”  ~ (Peggy Robertson)I am going to be blunt h

by mike simpson / 2h 

Shavar Jeffries: The establishment Bernie Sanders likes - NY Daily News

Shavar Jeffries: The establishment Bernie Sanders likes - NY Daily News: Shavar Jeffries: The establishment Bernie Sanders likes As the next round of hand-wringing over the Democratic race commences, those of us who are focused on education policy have our own questions.First, why, when Democrats need a broad coalition of Latino and African-American voters, are our candidates shying away from an i

by mike simpson / 3h 

New National Report on Community Schools Model Shows Significant Success | Educate All Students: Larry Miller's Blog

New National Report on Community Schools Model Shows Significant Success | Educate All Students: Larry Miller's Blog: New National Report on Community Schools Model Shows Significant SuccessThe Center for Popular Democracy, the Coalition for Community Schools and the Southern Education Foundation published this new report.See the full report at: Community-Schools National ReportFor at least a deca

by mike simpson / 4h 

Day of Remembrance Is a Reminder to Continue to Fight Injustice - NBC News

Editorial: Day of Remembrance Is a Reminder to Continue to Fight Injustice - NBC News:  Day of Remembrance Is a Reminder to Continue to Fight InjusticeOn this day in 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which gave the U.S. military the authority to incarcerate more than 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. February 19 is observed today as the Day of Remembr

by mike simpson / 4h 

Nationwide ad campaign will chide parents: Don't let your child miss school | OregonLive.com

Nationwide ad campaign will chide parents: Don't let your child miss school | OregonLive.com: Nationwide ad campaign will chide parents: Don't let your child miss schoolThe federal government is launching a multimillion-dollar advertising campaigndesigned to persuade parents of elementary and middle school students to get them to school every day.The Ad Council's "Every Student, Every Day&quo

by mike simpson / 4h 

FACT SHEET: The White House Launches New National Effort to Eliminate Chronic Absenteeism

FACT SHEET: The White House Launches New National Effort and Ad Council Campaign to Eliminate Chronic Absenteeism and Drive Student Success | U.S. Department of Education: FACT SHEET: The White House Launches New National Effort and Ad Council Campaign to Eliminate Chronic Absenteeism and Drive Student SuccessToday, the White House and the U.S. Department of Education announce two groundbreaking c

by mike simpson / 4h 

California court to rule on suit to scrap K-12 funding system | 89.3 KPCC

California court to rule on suit to scrap K-12 funding system | 89.3 KPCC:California court to rule on suit to scrap K-12 funding system A California appeals court is expected to rule soon in a case that claims that the state's system of funding public schools in unconstitutional.If the plaintiffs in the case prevail, observers say, it could prompt a groundbreaking move towards focusing on providin

by mike simpson / 7h 

Shanker Blog: Student Attrition And "Backfilling" at Success Academy Charter Schools:

Shanker Blog: Student Attrition And "Backfilling" at Success Academy Charter Schools: What Student Enrollment Patterns Tell Us | National Education Policy Center: Shanker Blog: Student Attrition And "Backfilling" at Success Academy Charter Schools: What Student Enrollment Patterns Tell UsThis is the second of two posts on Success Academy Charter Schools. The first post was enti

by mike simpson / 7h 

Public vs Private and Charter Schools: The Biggest Issue Might Be the Brand

Public vs Private and Charter Schools: The Biggest Issue Might Be the Brand: The Biggest Public School Problem Might Be the BrandSurprisingly, public schools outperform private and charter schools—but no one knows it. Most people believe that charter and private schools are preferable alternatives to traditional public schools. This is evident in the palpable anxiety at school open houses, in over

by mike simpson / 7h 

PTA adopts position against state laws - President Obama adopts position against his own education policies - What is LAUSD to do? — PS connect

PTA adopts position against state laws - President Obama adopts position against his own education policies - What is LAUSD to do? — PS connect: PTA adopts position against state laws - President Obama adopts position against his own education policies - What is LAUSD to do?Now that winter has all but passed without the torrential rains we expected, Angelenos are wondering what all the fuss was ab

by mike simpson / 7h 

'School choice' is an idea whose time has passed - NonDoc

'School choice' is an idea whose time has passed - NonDoc: ‘School choice’ is an idea whose time has passedFor more than 25 years, I have cautiously supported school choice — at least in terms of homegrown charter schools offering alternatives to local families.Oklahoma City has been fortunate. We have excellent private schools and charters serving lower-poverty and alternative-school populations,

by mike simpson / 8h 

Democratic Party calls for firing over altered ISTEP report

Democratic Party calls for firing over altered ISTEP report: Democratic Party calls for firing over altered ISTEP reportThe chairman of Indiana’s Democratic Party called Thursday for the firing of a State Board of Educationofficial who altered a report that detailed a so-called independent investigation into the troubled and unpopular standardized ISTEP standardized exam.Chairman John Zody said th

by mike simpson / 8h 

Why Science Teachers Are Struggling With Climate Change : NPR Ed : NPR

Why Science Teachers Are Struggling With Climate Change : NPR Ed : NPR: Why Science Teachers Are Struggling With Climate Change Many middle and high school science teachers are getting climate change wrong.That's according to the results of a new, national teacher survey backed by theNational Center for Science Education and published in the journal Science.Before we get to those results, a quick,

by mike simpson / 8h 

Cartoons on Parenting | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Cartoons on Parenting | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice: Cartoons on ParentingSome cartoons about parenting that I found amusing. Enjoy.see more @  Cartoons on Parenting | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

by mike simpson / 8h 

Sacramento City teachers urge board to provide competitive salaries | The Sacramento Bee

Sacramento City teachers urge board to provide competitive salaries | The Sacramento Bee: Sacramento City teachers urge board to provide competitive salariesIf the Sacramento City Unified School District expects to recruit and maintain top teachers, it has to offer salaries and benefits that are competitive with those in other districts, teachers told board members.Teachers turned out in force for

by mike simpson / 8h 

What high court just did to the way Phila. schools are run

What high court just did to the way Phila. schools are run: What high court just did to the way Phila. schools are run Teacher reassignments. Caps on charters. School closings.All those weighty matters could be up in the air in Philadelphia schools, after this week's Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that stripped the School Reform Commission of extraordinary powers it had believed it had - and

by mike simpson / 8h 

CURMUDGUCATION: WI: Trying To Hide Charter Truth

CURMUDGUCATION: WI: Trying To Hide Charter Truth: WI: Trying To Hide Charter TruthOne of the great lies of the charter-choice movement is that you can run multiple school districts for the price of one.A school district of, say, 2,000 students can lose 75 students and with them about $750,000 dollars of revenue, and somehow that district of 1,925 students can operate for three quarter of a million

by mike simpson / 9h 

Why Common Core math is not as easy as riding a bike – Missouri Education Watchdog

Why Common Core math is not as easy as riding a bike – Missouri Education Watchdog: Why Common Core math is not as easy as riding a bike It is quite possible that if the CCSSI had only focused on reading and writing first, the public might not have noticed or cared much about the standards. The lack of good grammatical skills might easily be blamed on modern social media’s casual acceptance of poo

by mike simpson / 9h 

School Funding, Residual Budgeting, and Kansas | janresseger

School Funding, Residual Budgeting, and Kansas | janresseger: School Funding, Residual Budgeting, and Kansas If you live in Ohio, and if you were paying attention during the 1990s, the decade of decisions and appeals of the DeRolph school funding case, you understand the concept of residual budgeting.  School funding in Ohio, the plaintiff’s attorneys explained again and again, is a mere budgetary

by mike simpson / 9h hide  //  save

Charter Schools: Problems and Solutions

Charter Schools: Problems and Solutions: Charter Schools: Problems and SolutionsAs a State Rep, I get a ton of emails about supporting and opposing raising the cap on charter schools in Massachusetts. One side contends that there should be more choice in public schools and the other side contends that charter schools take money away from traditional public schools. Both sides are correct. But ther

by mike simpson / 9h 

YESTERDAY

Ability to opt out uncertain in lawsuit requiring student data release | EdSource

Ability to opt out uncertain in lawsuit requiring student data release | EdSource: Ability to opt out uncertain in lawsuit requiring student data releaseA judge’s order requiring the California Department of Education to release personal data for 10 million students as a result of a lawsuit over special education rights does not state whether parent objections will automatically trigger the remova

1 by mike simpson / 18h 

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 2/18/16

CORPORATE ED REFORMHow to prevent your school data — including your Social Security number — from getting wrapped up in a lawsuit | 89.3 KPCCHow to prevent your school data — including your Social Security number — from getting wrapped up in a lawsuit | 89.3 KPCC: How to prevent your school data — including your Social Security number — from getting wrapped up in a lawsuitIf you were a student in

44 by mike simpson / 23h 

Sleeping Giant of Education Politics - Parents - Are Awake and Rebelling

Sleeping Giant of Education Politics - Parents - Are Awake and Rebelling:

Sleeping Giant of Education Politics - Parents - Are Awake and Rebelling

A New York Times frontpage headline last Aug. 13, 2015 stated,

"20 percent of State Students Opted Out of Tests in Sign of a Rising Revolt."

This grassroots rebellion is a response to the war on public education being waged by billionaire foundation heads, corporate CEOs, Wall Street hedge funders, and numerous politicians who support the corporate reform agenda and who like campaign contributions that come with it.

Nancy Cauthen, a member of Change The Stakes an anti-testing organization and parent of two NYC students, criticized the "test-and-punish regime that remains fundamentally unchanged...The Bush-Obama-Gates experiment with public education needs to end -- now."

The opt out movement against high stakes standardized testing also includes a growing number of classroom teachers and is spreading across the country. Parents resorted to civil disobedience because they felt helpless to protect their children from the test prep and testing mania and from the damaging new Common Core State(not) national Standards.

Congress and President Obama saw the growing rebellion by progressive, moderate and conservative parents. Last December, they finally replaced the widely discredited No Child Left Behind law. Also former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who was politically tone deaf and became a lightning rod for criticism, resigned at the end of December.

But Congress and the president seemed to be addicted to testing because the federal mandate that states test all third through eighth graders was kept in the new law. The new law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, does empower the states to create their own accountability systems but they must be approved by John King the new Acting U.S. Secretary of the Department of Education (DOE).

King, the former Commissioner of the New York State Education Department, replaced Duncan, but was this a change in policy? No. King's prepared remarks for a speech delivered on April 10, 2014 as commissioner said, "And finally--we at the state level and our colleagues at the federal level need to own up to the unintended consequences of our policies -- from narrowing of the curriculum to an overemphasis on testing." Incredibly, he said we are going forward. (King and Obama both send their children to private, progressive schools)

Some states will have fewer tests, others shorter tests, still others won't time the test taking, etc. But less of a bad thing is still a bad thing.

Obama, King, and Congress keep ignoring a major nine-year study, "Incentives and Test-Based Accountability in Education," released in 2011 by the prestigious and highly respected National Academies of Sciences' National Research Council. It Sleeping Giant of Education Politics - Parents - Are Awake and Rebelling:

Competency Based Education – UnitED For Florida Children

Competency Based Education – UnitED For Florida Children:

Competency Based Education

We don’t have time to play these games!

I can’t say you weren’t warned.

By Laura McCrary
Founder, United for FL Children

Parents, I Cannot Protect Your Children –    I will do my best. But my best isn’t good enough – and I think that is the point I really want to make here…”  ~ (Peggy Robertson)

I am going to be blunt here.  If parents don’t wake up and take a stand right now, this year, we will only have ourselves to blame.  Ask yourself this.  How do you see education in four to six years?  I can promise you it won’t be the friendly teacher driven classrooms we are seeing today.  Changes are being made from the top down right now as you are reading this, and it isn’t pretty.  It is called Competency Based Education (also known as Competency Based Learning, Outcome Based Education, Personalized Learning, and Performance Based Education to name a few).

In theory, the idea behind Competency Based Education (CBE) isn’t all bad.  According to the Kentucky Department of Education, CBE is “a method that focuses on mastering specific skills or standards rather than completing course work over a specific period of time.”  However, the people who are voting this in, did not take minorities, English Language Learners, and ESE students into account.   In fact ,they were not thinking about the children at all.  CBE is a corporate driven movement by a vast network of foundations, think tanks, and governmental groups.

The following excerpt was taken from Peter Greene’s blog Curmudgucation, titled Selling Competency Based Education:

“This was bad enough when it was the focus of a once-a-year Big Standardized Test. But look at what Pearson envisions as its “Balanced Assessment System.” Their system features six types of assessment, including formative of which they say “This happens every day!” Yes, it’s all assessment, all the time.”

Yes, that is daily testing they are talking about. And, we think the yearly tests are bad!

The achievement gap will grow tremendously, and the need for qualified teachers will come to an end. How do you feel about the primary teacher being a computer program, tracking your child’s progress on every standard all day long?  So, you say that can never happen?  We will always need teachers in the classroom, and a computer will never take over the teacher’s job.  Hmmm…

This article  states,

“Desperate school leaders are already having to turn to unqualified staff to take lessons. As the Competency Based Education – UnitED For Florida Children:

Shavar Jeffries: The establishment Bernie Sanders likes - NY Daily News

Shavar Jeffries: The establishment Bernie Sanders likes - NY Daily News:

Shavar Jeffries: The establishment Bernie Sanders likes

 As the next round of hand-wringing over the Democratic race commences, those of us who are focused on education policy have our own questions.

First, why, when Democrats need a broad coalition of Latino and African-American voters, are our candidates shying away from an issue that consistently ranks at the top of those voters’ concerns — access to high-quality education?

And, second, why is no one calling out the flip-flops and hypocrisy in Bernie Sanders’ record on education? It reinforces his greatest perceived weakness — that he is incapable of putting together the diverse coalition necessary to win. And it undermines his greatest strength — the perception that he is ideologically consistent.

EDITORIAL: SANDERSIZING AMERICA

Sanders recently said that he is opposed to public charter schools because they undermine democracy and our competitiveness by diverting money from public education. This flawed argument ignores that public charters are public schools, and glosses over the life-changing outcomes produced by charters around the country.

In South Carolina — a major test for both campaigns — families are embracing these new educational opportunities by the thousands. Since 2007, the state’s public charter sector has seen 100% growth, with nearly 30,000 students attending 68 public charters.

In communities like Newark, New Orleans and Washington, D.C., public charters have helped to improve test scores and graduation rates, particularly in poor and minority communities that have too often been overlooked.

Sanders used to get it — in 1998, as a congressman, he voted in favor of the bipartisan Charter School Expansion Act. That same year, he entered testimony in the Congressional Record from a ninth-grade student who emphasized that public charters “open up (options) for disadvantaged students.” But fast-forward to 2016, and he’s apparently done an about-face.

SANDERS RELEASES NEW AD FEATURING ERIC GARNER'S DAUGHTER

On accountability, Sanders can’t decide if we should “monitor student performance to ensure our children, parents and educators are receiving the support they need” (April 2015) or if “high-stakes standardized testing” and “Draconian interventions” are taking over our schools (May 2015).

And in spending billions to make college free, Sanders focuses on funding, not outcomes. His plan is mostly about the adults — not about whether colleges should be pressed to improve graduation rates for economically disadvantaged and minority students.

Sanders’ educational platform is also out of touch with the electorate. Public charters are especially popular among African-American and Latino voters, who support parent choice to the tune of 60% and 70% respectively. On accountability, more than 60% of all voters support clear metrics to track what is working in our schools, and over 80% support benchmarks to measure classroom effectiveness.

Which is not to suggest that Hillary Clinton is perfect on these issues. When she was asked about charter schools in South Carolina last fall — and said charters “don’t take the hardest-to-teach kids” or don’t keep them if they do — we were troubled. But she has since reasserted her support for charters and has been open to these reforms that are working for kids.

Sanders, meanwhile, has doubled down on his anti-reform stance and otherwise ignored pressing K-12 issues throughout this campaign. For someone who professes to care about social justice, that is beyond troubling. It is disingenuous.

Sanders talks much about how he marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to challenge a status quo that perpetuated racial inequities. Sadly, two generations later, Sanders now stands with an educational status quo that in some cases produces inequities in educational outcomes worse than those produced during Jim Crow. It is unfortunate that Sanders’ railing against the machine stops at the schoolhouse door.

Jeffries is president of Democrats for Education Reform.Shavar Jeffries: The establishment Bernie Sanders likes - NY Daily News:

New National Report on Community Schools Model Shows Significant Success | Educate All Students: Larry Miller's Blog

New National Report on Community Schools Model Shows Significant Success | Educate All Students: Larry Miller's Blog:

New National Report on Community Schools Model Shows Significant Success

The Center for Popular Democracy, the Coalition for Community Schools and the Southern Education Foundation published this new report.

See the full report at: Community-Schools National Report

For at least a decade, the dominant idea about how to improve outcomes for children and youth has focused on control and compliance; holding adults accountable for raising test scores. This approach has proved least effective for our most vulnerable students. In our search for silver bullets, reformers and policymakers alike have overlooked strategies that have long shown promise and for which there is mounting evidence of success. Community Schools is one of these strategies.

Community Schools combine challenging and culturally relevant learning opportunities with the academic and social supports each and every child needs to reach their potential. These schools, at their core, are about investing in children, through quality teaching, challenging and engaging curricula, wrap around supports, positive school climate, strong ties to family and community and a clear focus on results.
It’s clear the tide is turning, as interest in this vision of schooling is now evident in the nation’s major education policy, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). We note in particular the inclusion of factors in accountability systems that extend beyond test scores, as well as provisions for the use of resources to strengthen school-community partnerships—including needs assessments, teacher
development on family/community engagement, and support for personalized learning—reflective of the Community Schools strategy.

This report profiles Community Schools across the country, all which demonstrate consistent improvement in a wide range of indicators of student success. The best of these schools leave nothing to chance. They are as committed to challenging academics as they are to health, wellness and social and emotional learning. They are sustained by the broad support they enjoy from their communities. And they represent the ultimate purpose of our schools: to prepare young people to pursue their aspirations and participate fully in our economy and democracy.
This report intends to shed light on how Community Schools come alive in practice, and the improvements in academic and social outcomes that emerge when these schools are given a chance to work. There are over 90 communities across the country with significant efforts underway.

In low income communities and communities of color, we have not always valued the power of citizen input and the capacities within communities to coalesce around their children. This New National Report on Community Schools Model Shows Significant Success | Educate All Students: Larry Miller's Blog:

Day of Remembrance Is a Reminder to Continue to Fight Injustice - NBC News

Editorial: Day of Remembrance Is a Reminder to Continue to Fight Injustice - NBC News:

 Day of Remembrance Is a Reminder to Continue to Fight Injustice

On this day in 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which gave the U.S. military the authority to incarcerate more than 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. February 19 is observed today as the Day of Remembrance.

Pictures of people who were incarcerated at Manzanar War Relocation Center are displayed alongside family tags at Manzanar National Historic Site on December 9, 2015 near Independence, California. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

In communities across the country, the Day of Remembrance is commemorated with events to promote education and understanding about this dark chapter in American history. The legacy of the World War II experience is personal to me: my father, Fred T. Korematsu, challenged the incarceration in a case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court, and he is the namesake of the civil rights organization I lead, which honors his fight for justice for all people.

The Day of Remembrance is a reminder that we cannot let down our guard against injustice even as we move farther from the events of World War II. We must find purpose in this history, seeking out its lessons and reaching out to educate others across different generations and diverse communities.

Karen Korematsu, founder and executive director of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute. Bob Hsiang / Courtesy of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute

RELATED: Digital Teach-In Provides Internment Camp History Lessons That Schools Lack

Today, that purpose is compelling and urgent. Racial tensions are prevalent, and stories of hate crimes, profiling, and discrimination against immigrants and minorities pervade the news. The American Muslim community, in particular, is facing a recent surge in the hostility it has confronted since 9/11, with some public leaders amplifying the unjust hysteria by proposing measures to curtail this community's freedom and civil liberties.

The public and political scapegoating, stereotyping, and profiling of American Muslims that is on the rise today most strongly parallels the experience of Japanese Americans during World War II. This treatment has extended to other communities, including Arab, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Americans.

A rosary and a stone sit on a monument honoring the dead in the cemetery at Manzanar National Historic Site on December 9, 2015 near Independence, California. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

In 1944, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Japanese American incarceration in my father's case, Korematsu v. United States. Although the decision has been widely condemned — including by current Justices of the Supreme Court and the late Justice Scalia — it has yet to be overturned. The ruling remains an ominous shadow on Americans' civil liberties in times of crisis, when our Constitution's principles must hold their strongest.

RELATED: Virginia to Celebrate Korematsu Day for First Time

Current racial tensions and challenges facing American Muslims, immigrants, and other minority communities across America remind us that we have not overcome the past. On this day, we are called not only to remember, but also to recommit to our collective responsibility to ensure that the lessons of history prevail over a repeat of history.

President Clinton presents Fred Korematsu with a Presidential Medal of Freedom during a ceremony at the White House. Dennis Cook / AP file

Karen Korematsu is founder and executive director of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute.

 Editorial: Day of Remembrance Is a Reminder to Continue to Fight Injustice - NBC News:

Nationwide ad campaign will chide parents: Don't let your child miss school | OregonLive.com

Nationwide ad campaign will chide parents: Don't let your child miss school | OregonLive.com:

Nationwide ad campaign will chide parents: Don't let your child miss school

The federal government is launching a multimillion-dollar advertising campaigndesigned to persuade parents of elementary and middle school students to get them to school every day.

The Ad Council's "Every Student, Every Day" campaign, paid for in part my the Mott Foundation, will target parents to inform them of the devastating toll on students who miss even one day of school every two or three weeks. Students who are chronically absent are unlikely to learn to read well and are even less likely to graduate from high school.

In Oregon last year, 94,000 students missed at least 10 percent of the school year, meaning they were chronically absent.

The Ad Council has a track record of helping the nation make progress on some of its biggest public health and safety concerns, federal officials said. Its new anti-absenteeism campaign will include billboards, public service announcements at bus shelters and posters hung in barbershops, doctors' offices and schools. A website will offer parents resources to help support them in getting their child to attend school, including an online tool kit with blog posts, infographics and absence trackers. The website will also include resources for educators, community leaders and organizers of after-school programs.A recent report by America's Promise Alliance found that having a caring adult in their lives was a major factor in lowering a student's odds of dropping out of high school. Having a caring adult in school had a larger impact than having a caring adult at home, reducing a student's likelihood of leaving school by 25 percent. 

The Oregonian/OregonLive explored Oregon's chronic absenteeism epidemic in great detail in its Empty Desks investigative report. You can read all five parts online or download your own copies of the series to print and share.

 Nationwide ad campaign will chide parents: Don't let your child miss school | OregonLive.com: