Friday, May 13, 2011

Schools Matter: Former KIPP Teachers: Share Your Story

Former KIPP Teachers: Share Your Story

by Jim Horn

I am very much interested in talking with former KIPP teachers who may want to take part in an interview study on the KIPP teaching experience. All participants are guaranteed complete anonymity, and no names, locations, or other information will be used that may jeopardize your privacy. I have completed three interviews so far, and I am interested in talking with another dozen or so former KIPP teachers. Email me if interested at james.horn@cambridgecollege.edu.

Please post this to your Twitter of Facebook page. Thanks much.

Bill Allen: California Struggles to Out-Dumb Texas

by Bill Allen

For those who felt confident that Texas holds a comfortable lead in dumbest assaults on education, the news out of California that a school board in Los Alamitos will mandate political influence into science topics will come as worrisome. Teachers in Texas remain convinced that the Lone Star State's hilariously-named Texas State Board of Education will fight back and call for even more interference by politicians in the teaching of Texas school children and thus re-establish Texas' firm lead as the laughing-stock of education.

Teachers in the Los Angeles-area town will force teachers to give presentations on how they present their course on environmental science. One school board member, more concerned about political positions than in allowing the teachers to deal with the actual science of global climate change, has been quoted as saying "I believe my role in the board is to represent the conservative voice of the community, and I'm not a big fan of global warming." This tells teachers, "Well, so much for dealing with actual scientific data and conclusions by competent scientists in teaching children about the world. Just make sure to let my political position dictate what you teach

An Urban Teacher's Education: Responding to The New York Times and Corporate Reform Bias

Responding to The New York Times and Corporate Reform Bias

by The Reflective Educator

Tuesday, The New York Times published an article about a teacher named Samantha Sherwood. Ms. Sherwood entered teaching through Teach for America and is currently in her third year of teaching middle school science in the South Bronx. Unfortunately, as a result of Bloomberg's budget cuts, she may lose her job this year.

The author of the Times article, Fernanda Santos, takes quite the liking to Sherwood. We're informed that Sherwood's idealism and commitment are exemplary. She works on Saturdays, has taken the lead in revamping the school's science curriculum, and has received nothing but satisfactory reviews. Her teaching style involves a "mix of drilled discipline and freedom to be creative." Sherwood makes impressive pledges to her students, and presumably follows through with them. Most impressively, Sherwood has the capacity to say really indie-educator type things that fit nicely into inspirational teacher articles: "We have to let children explore the beauty of what they're learning, not spoon-feed knowledge they're supposed to memorize." We're left with little doubt that Sherwood is indeed the kind of teacher any parent would want in front of their student.

Despite Sherwood's talent in the classroom, the relative short amount of time she's been employed as a teacher in New York City may mean her position may be among those lost to layoffs, a practice pejoratively referred to as last in, first out, or LIFO. Sherwood thinks this practice is unfair. She believes many experienced teachers

San Francisco School District to the NRA: Take Us Off Your Website - The Bay Citizen

San Francisco School District to the NRA: Take Us Off Your Website

by Scott James

The San Francisco Unified School District is taking aim at the National Rifle Association for promoting a non-existent affiliation between the gun group and the city’s most acclaimed high school. On Friday, the district asked the NRA to remove prestigious Lowell High School from the association’s website where it appears under the heading “NRA Near You.” Lowell is considered one of the nation’s top public high schools – graduates include Nobel Prize winners, famed artists, top government leaders, and a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. “Lowell High School has no affiliation with the NRA,” said Gentle Blythe, the school district’s spokesperson. “We have emailed the NRA contact email on their website with a request to remove this posting.” The press

A Dust-Up, Then Peace, Between Diane Ravitch, Deborah Gist - State EdWatch - Education Week

A Dust-Up, Then Peace, Between Diane Ravitch, Deborah Gist

by Sean Cavanagh

Diane Ravitch is a former assistant U.S. secretary of education and one of the country's leading historians of education. Deborah Gist is the education commissioner in Rhode Island and a nationally watched leader for her aggressive efforts to improve schools in her state.

But a meeting this month between the two became the source of unusual controversy, after Ravitch wrote a online item accusing Gist of cutting her off repeatedly during the discussion—an account that the Rhode Island official disputed.

As of late Friday, both sides indicated they wanted to move on. Gist had sent a conciliatory letter to Ravitch, who received it favorably.

The original disagreement arose from a meeting that Ravitch and Gist had with Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafeeat the state Capitol in Providence. Ravitch, who co-authors the Bridging Differences blog for Education Week, was in Rhode Island to speak at a teachers' college, on a trip sponsored by the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers. She says she was under the impression that the May 3 meeting with Chafee was going to be a private one, but later learned that it would be attended by Gist.

Ravitch had a brief, private meeting with Chafee, and then sat in on a longer meeting that included the governor,

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Late Friday FUs

Late Friday FUs

by Mike Klonsky

Since Blogger has been down for 2 days, I am posting my Friday FUs late in the day.

My first FU goes out to the Illinois Legislature for passing SB7, the most anti-teacher, anti-union piece of legislation is recent memory. The bill takes away teachers' job security, severely limits teacher collective-bargaining rights, including the right to strike, and basically destroys the ability of unions to represent their members with integrity by mandating how many votes are needed in a strike vote. SB7 also makes it easier for Chicago Mayor Emanuel to fire teachers in mass (something he is chomping at the bit to do), without due process, thereby increasing class sizes and replacing skilled, experienced, teachers with lower-paid newbies in schools where experience and stability count the most.

FUs especially go out to House members who voted 112 to 1 for passage, even after the CTU and the IFT

Open Letter to Pres. Obama: This is What Standardized Testing “Looks” Like! « Diary of a Public School Teacher!

Open Letter to Pres. Obama: This is What Standardized Testing “Looks” Like!

Dear President Obama,

Today was the first day of Round 3 of standardized testing in the state of Delaware. The test is administered online, and the students get their scores immediately. It covers everything we learned in the 5th grade, even though we have not finished the school year.

Let me begin with my morning. I attended a union meeting where I am told the state of Delaware has decided that they will decide whether I am a good teacher according to how well my students do on this test! It’s bad enough, that my school is judged by test scores, but now my ability to teach is questioned because of test scores? Does this seem as ridiculous to you as it does to me? Does anyone realize how many other factors control how our children perform in school?

I have prepared my students to the best of my ability for this test. As much as I despise it, I do not want them to fail. Aren’t we supposed to be creating critical thinkers? How can I do that, when instead of doing projects, or collaborating with our pen pals, we are filling in bubbles!!!!

The test. They worked hard, they really did, and all of them showed growth. In

SBE Announced Plans to Establish AIAC - State Board of Education (CA Dept of Education)

State Board of Education Announced Plans to Establish an
American Indian Advisory Commission

Sacramento -- The State Board of Education (SBE) announced plans to begin the work to establish the American Indian Advisory Commission (AIAC). The SBE discussed the need to establish this commission to help better understand the issues concerning the academic progress that exists between American Indian students and their counterparts.

There are over 44,000 American Indian students in California’s K-12 schools. According to the 2010 Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program results, only 45 percent of American Indian students scored proficient and above in the English language arts section and only 34 percent of American Indian students scored proficient or above in the mathematics portion of the examination.

"Today is a historical day and the Board has sent a strong statement that it is committed to finding ways to reduce the persistent lack of academic achievement that exists between American Indian students and their counterparts,” said James Ramos, SBE Board Member.

The AIAC will be charged with identifying strategies for advancing academic achievement; tracking federal and state funds that are allocated to support American Indian students; and developing curriculum that respects American Indian culture that provides an accurate account of California history that highlight the contributions of American Indians to California’s society today.

“I am very appreciative of the many letters of support from the American Indian communities of California,” said Ramos.

President Michael Kirst assigned Member Ramos as the board liaison to work with SBE and California Department of Education staff to finalize the charge and scope of work for the advisory commission.

Issues with Educating Everybody | Lefty Parent

Issues with Educating Everybody

by Cooper Zale

Lynn Stoddard

Lynn Stoddard, my friend and fellow participant in the Alternative Education Resource Organization (AERO), shared with me the text of a guest commentary, “Educating Everybody”, he wrote for the Ogden, UtahStandard-Examiner. Lynn is a now retired long-time teacher and founder of the Educating for Human Greatness Alliance. His commentary lays out clearly the vision of holistic education that has its roots in John Dewey,Maria Montessori, Rudolph Steiner and others. He is a great champion for a vision embraced by many alternative educators, and an approach to teaching that I acknowledge and respect. But with my emerging left-libertarian orientation to education, it is a vision that I have developed some issues with.

He sets the context in his opening paragraph…

The time has come to change the way we educate children in our public schools. There are signs

Report on Renaissance Schools is out | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Report on Renaissance Schools is out

by Erika Owens

The District just announced the release of an Accountability Review Council report on year one of theRenaissance Schools initiative. Research for Action was commissioned to conduct a study of the District's school turnaround initiative, and their findings are summarized in the ARC's 50-page report, which will be presented to the SRC on Wednesday. The study looks at the launch of the initiative and indicators like leadership, staffing, and climate, but it was completed too early in the school year to include any analysis of achievement.

The District is soliciting questions and comments on the report online. Anything jump out to you about the report?

Featured Title:

Just released

In exchange for giving up our bargaining and seniority rights, the Illinois legislature will now loot our pensions. « Fred Klonsky's blog

In exchange for giving up our bargaining and seniority rights, the Illinois legislature will now loot our pensions.

by Fred Klonsky

The rough outline of the deal is in. There will be a three tier pension proposal before the Illinois General Assembly by Wednesday of next week. Attacks on the pensions of presently retired teachers are also being considered.

All that is missing are the specific numbers. If it gets passed, teacher retirement as we know it will be gone. The average yearly pension for a teacher in Illinois is under $50,ooo a year and no Social Security. That is what they

Reading, writing and revenue: New education model - Sacramento Bee

Viewpoints: Reading, writing and revenue: New education model - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

Viewpoints: Reading, writing and revenue: New education model

PUBLISHED FRIDAY, MAY. 13, 2011

American education is going to be reformed until it rolls over and begs for mercy. Vouchers! Guns on campus! Just the other day, the Florida state Legislature took a giant step toward ending the scourge of droopy drawers in high school by upping the penalties for underwear-exposing pants.

Today, let's take a look at the privatization craze and the conviction that there is nothing about molding young minds that can't be improved by the profit motive.

Enrollment in for-profit colleges has ballooned to almost 2 million, propelled by more than $25 billion in federal student loans, many of which are apparently never going to be repaid. More than 700 public K-12 schools around the country are now managed by for-profit companies.

Last week, in Ohio, the state House went for the whole hog and approved legislation that would allow for-profit businesses to open up their own taxpayer-financed charter schools.

"It takes the public out of public education," complained Bill Sims of the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

This exciting new plan, which seemed to have been inserted into the state budget bill by a magical invisible hand, would also reduce oversight. It got a rave review in the Columbus Dispatch from an op-ed contributor named Thomas Needles, who cheered legislators for trying to end the "drip-drop of wrongheaded regulation" of charter schools.

Needles is a consultant for White Hat Management, the largest company currently managing charter schools in Ohio – and with none too great a record, according to the National Education Policy Center, which said that only 2 percent of the schools White Hat runs have scored well on yearly progress tests. The owner of White Hat is a gynormous donor to the state Republican Party. Not that that would make any difference. Just saying.

So that's the path-breaking privatization news in Ohio. Now let's take a look at Texas, which has been leading the way in putting for-profit companies in charge of certifying teachers.

"Very interesting and very disturbing," said Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor of education at Stanford who studies teacher certification issues.

Darling-Hammond says that when the federal government began demanding certified teachers in every classroom, Texas was among the states that responded by creating alternative certification programs, some of which have

4LAKids - : CALIFORNIA AT A CROSSROADS; MY GENERATION’S FUTURE HANGS IN BALANCE

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: CALIFORNIA AT A CROSSROADS; MY GENERATION’S FUTURE HANGS IN BALANCE

CALIFORNIA AT A CROSSROADS; MY GENERATION’S FUTURE HANGS IN BALANCE

BY MIRIAM HERNANDEZ - JUNIOR AT ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOL IN FRESNO | FROM THOUGHTS ON PUBLIC EDUCATION \ HTTP://BIT.LY/LTVRJS

5/10/11 • Today I’m traveling to Sacramento, along with hundreds of student and parent leaders from across California, to deliver an urgent but simple message to the State Legislature and the Governor: It’s time to upgrade California’s education system.

We’re coming to our state’s capitol as part of the Campaign for Quality Education, a statewide coalition of grassroots, civil rights, policy, and research organizations committed to educational equity for all communities in California’s public schools. We travel from the gritty grassroots to the halls of power, as mothers, fathers, students, brothers, sisters, and community leaders.

We’re here because California is at a crossroads. Our state’s economic future depends on the brainpower of the rising generation — my generation.

Over the past two years, $17 billion has been cut from education in California. According to the California Budget Project, in 2009-2010 California’s K-12 per-pupil spending ranked 45^th in the country. And we are last in students-per-teacher ratio.

I’m angry about it. I think we should move in a direction that strengthens the California Dream, not one that jeopardizes our economic future. An educated society is a

4LAKids - some of the news that doesn't fit: “THE CHILDREN DO NOTICE”

“THE CHILDREN DO NOTICE” by Paul L. Thomas II, Assistant Professor of Education at Furman University blogs at plthomasEdD | http://bit.ly/kDNEwa Mon May 09, 2011 at 05:12 PM PDT - I spent the first eighteen years of my career as an educator teaching high school English ...

ASSEMBLY GOP ISSUES BUDGET AHEAD OF GOVERENOR’S PLAN Posted by Kevin Yamamura SacBee Capitol Alert | http://bit.ly/jC27um May 12, 2011 - At long last, Assembly Republicans have issued their own budget plan. The proposal includes: a roughly 10 percent reduction in state employee costs; health and ...

WHAT DON’T LEGISLATORS UNDERSTAND ABOUT ’EMERGENCY’? Themes in the News for the week of May 9-13, 2011 by UCLA IDEA | http://bit.ly/mtGksE 05-13-2011 - The California Teachers Association, the state’s largest teacher union, has declared a state of emergency. Is that exaggeration? Hyperbole? Or an accurate ...

Jersey Jazzman: Testing Companies Want Your Money!

Testing Companies Want Your Money! And they're looking to get it in New York! New York state is weighing whether to prohibit high-school teachers from grading their own students' Regents exams. The Board of Regents, which sets education policy for the state, is set to vote next week on ...

What Motivates the Corporate Reformers? What drives today's corporate reformer? Rick Hess gives a clue: It was almost fifteen years ago now that I was sharing my Harvard dissertation, on the dynamics of school reform in fifty-seven urban districts, with a few potential publishers. [...] ...

Silent Blog... ... holy blog... Sorry, but I've got some composing deadlines that can not wait. Be back up Friday at the latest. Until then, the chef recommends: Blue Jersey School Finance 101 stopthefreezeNJ on Twitter And of course the many fine blogs for your ...

NYC Educator: Bursting, In More Ways Than One

Bursting, In More Ways Than One

by Miss Eyre

Kindergarteners sure are cute, aren't they? Back when I worked with younger students, my heart would just melt when I saw the kindergarteners, carefully maneuvering hand-in-hand through the hallways, looking like It's a Small World in action. Most of them love school and truly are filled with wonder and excitement. Not many people can look at kindergarteners and feel cynical.

But I can definitely feel cynical when I read something like this. P.S. 19, in Corona, Queens, is full to bursting with kids. A nearby school opened to ease overcrowding has already doubled in size. The school is so overcrowded that those same freakin'-adorable kindergarteners are going home with red faces and wet pants because they don't have regular access to a bathroom.

School Tech Connect: Deb Meier: Individualization vs. Personalization

Deb Meier: Individualization vs. Personalization

by effacethefacade@yahoo.com (Tim)

There's only so much you can do with a Flip cam from a distance in dim lighting. Next time I'll bring the better camera. Anyway, of all the footage I shot at Navy Pier, this is the only piece that I'm going to post.

In this short clip, Deb Meier is responding to Harold Levy, who had just described his belief that the future of education will be one of individualization through technology in general and in gaming technology specifically.

I think only a fool would assert that technology is going to recede into the background, and as for gaming, I think the military is already going down that road. Anyway, here's Deb.

I love technology, and in my own life, technology has helped me build a voice and a mission. Technology gets me out of the house and into the streets. But I hear what Deb is saying-- there's a difference between

This Week In Education: 5 Best Blogs: Conservative Infighting A Delightful Diversion

5 Best Blogs: Conservative Infighting A Delightful Diversion

Fordham and the Use of Passive Voice Jay P. Greene: Fordham, in coalition with its friends at Gates, Pearson, AFT, and the US Department of Education are trying to subvert this historical and legal consensus against federal control by failing to be candid about what they are proposing... Common Core Meltdown Whiteboard Advisors: These folks are not the tools of Beltway bureaucrats — that much is certain. This will ultimately be their decision, not Washington’s... School Turnarounds: Time to Try, Try Again? Education Next: Even if most individual turnaround attempts fail, you can achieve a cumulative success rate of 70 or 80% by retrying rapidly: bringing a new, more capable leader; closing the school and starting fresh with a new operator; or closing the school altogether and dispersing the students to other, better schools... The Obituaries for Data-Driven 'Reform' Are Being Written John Thompson: We should not rejoice in a return to the 1970s. But the sooner we throw the data-driven accountability hawks on the ash pile of history, the sooner we can get back to reality-driven school reforms... Spring Cleaning EdNext: School districts “with off-cycle elections pay experienced teachers over 3 percent more than districts that hold on-cycle elections.” ...The Facebook Worm Named After a High School Girl Gawker: Nicole Santos does exist. She's a high school student in Northern California running for vice president of her class...

Coal Industry Attempts to Muddy School Curriculum « MomsRising Blog

Coal Industry Attempts to Muddy School Curriculum

by Elisa Batista

I have been writing a lot about air quality as part of my work with Moms Clean Air Force, an initiative by the Environmental Defense Fund. While I have always been passionate about preserving our environment for my children and future generations, I have also learned a lot on the job.

For one, I never realized that half of our electricity is produced by coal plants — heavily polluting coal plants that not only sicken workers and their communities with lung disease, asthma and other respiratory illnesses, but are also responsible for a significant amount of green house gases that are causing erratic weather patterns. (Please see my story on this season’s allergies and how they are related to global warming.)

No doubt that part of the problem is US, the American consumer, failing to conserve energy, like turning off the lights and appliances in the house. But another problem is the manipulation by the coal industry to remain one of the top producers of energy in the country. Now, it’s taking its message to our children directly — in their

A Teacher Appreciation Story that Inspires

Sometimes, it takes a life-changing event to spur people to action. Dr. Lee Buono, a neurosurgeon from Medford, Burlington County, was encouraged by one of his patients to thank Albert Siedlecki, the teacher who inspired him to become a neurosurgeon. In the 1980s, Mr. Siedlecki taught Dr. Buono how to dissect a frogs brain. Nearly 20 years later, Dr. Buono is saving lives. Watch their story.

May 3-9, 2009 is Teacher Appreciation Week - a great time to celebrate the achievements of New Jerseys teachers. This week and every week NJEA is working to highlight the stories of teachers and educational support professionals who are making a difference in the lives of students. Watch Classroom Close-up, NJ on NJN or online to hear more stories of educators making a difference.

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