Thursday, August 4, 2011

Unionized Charter Teacher Speaks Out for Small Class Size | Edwize

Unionized Charter Teacher Speaks Out for Small Class Size

by Christina Collins

The LA Times just published a powerful essay from a union member who teaches at a Green Dot Charter School in Los Angeles. She effectively captures the importance of small class sizes in building teacher-student relationships — and in ensuring that every student gets the personalized attention they need to successfully learn:

I’m not sure what the breaking point is, but once you get much above 25 students, providing individual attention becomes difficult. To keep my English class of 31 under control, I have to rely on high-energy routines and structured group activities. In place of freewheeling discussion, I pepper the room with rapid-fire questions. To respond to their essays, I use a rubric emphasizing the four or five qualities I’m targeting for the whole class, and then write one or two short individualized sentences at the bottom of the page. With more than 150 students in my classes, I

Public Financing Supports Growth of Online Charter Schools - ParentAdvocates.org

Parent Advocates - ParentAdvocates.org

Public Financing Supports Growth of Online Charter Schools
Linda Brown said her ninth-grade son, who is in special education, “is doing way better than he would have in public school.” But she added that for her fifth-grade daughter, “the social aspect is the thing we miss the most.” On their own, San Jose parents have organized and take turns teaching weekly art, music and science programs at a local church. Oversight for California public charter schools falls to the authorizing districts. Although the Jefferson Elementary School district reviews CAVA’s curriculum and its budget, it lacks the manpower to verify the records.

June 4, 2010
THE BAY CITIZEN
Public Financing Supports Growth of Online Charter Schools

By CAROL POGASH
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/04/us/04bccharter.html
Laura Drews has converted a corner of her San Jose dining room into a public school. Every weekday, she guides her first-, fifth- and eighth-grade children through their class assignments, delivered through textbooks and desktop computers.

The Drews’ unorthodox education is paid for by taxpayers,

Guy who debunked Rhee's Baltimore ''miracle'' blows up her faux DC miracle

Guy who debunked Rhee's Baltimore ''miracle'' blows up her faux DC miracle Guy Brandenburg, a former teacher and mathematician, who famously debunked Rhee’s Baltimore miracle claims has posted a series analyzing the latest DC standardized test scores. Once again, he thoroughly and meticulously dissects the test scores this ...

Test scores at top ErasureGate schools drop Written by Jay Mathews for the Washington Post. Read the entire article here. “*We finally know how individual schools did on the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System tests in 2011. It turns out that some of the schools that faced questions about ...

Post-ErasureGate, DC test scores flatline Written by Bill Turque for the Washington Post. Read the entire article here. “*The school-by-school 2011 DC CAS data released Tuesday tell a more revealing story than the aggregate numbers reported last month. Those figures showed DCPS elementary ...

All Education Matters: Arianna Huffington, "245,000 College Grads Looking for Sugar Daddies"

Arianna Huffington, "245,000 College Grads Looking for Sugar Daddies"

from All Education Matters by C. Cryn Johannsen

Lawrence O'Donnell interviewed Arianna Huffinton last night to discuss the disastrous debt deal that the President helped implement. At one point she said he needs intense therapy, because it makes no sense politically or economically.

But here's what is most disgusting, and something I've been writing about for nearly 3 years - the student lending crisis. She brought it up, too.

Arianna referred to a recent article that was written in the Huff Post about young, college grads seeking "sugar

Narrow Thinking about Health and Schools | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Narrow Thinking about Health and Schools

by larrycuban

In 1965, Jack Geiger, a doctor working in the Mississippi Delta, founded one of the first federally-funded community health centers in the U.S. There he treated many children who were seriously malnourished. He wrote “prescriptions” for meat, milk, vegetables, and fruit that were to be “filled” at nearby grocery stores. Grocery store owners then submitted bills to the community health center where Geiger used the pharmacy budget to pay the bills.

The federal agency that funded community health centers, then called the Office of Economic Opportunity

A Walton Family Funded Group, a Hedge Fund BIllionaire, and Circumventing the Political Process in Connecticut | Scathing Purple Musings

A Walton Family Funded Group, a Hedge Fund BIllionaire, and Circumventing the Political Process in Connecticut

by Bob Sikes

The usual suspects and the same sleezy business model have emerged in Connecticut. And another day,another hedge fund billionaire looks to throw his money around in the coporate takeover of education.

Using a similar template as that from Washington DC and New York City goes the route of billionaire hedge funder Steve Mandel in a bid to give Bridgeport, Connecticut’s school board oversight to the mayor. The parties were put together by a group funded by $1.3 million from the Walton Family Foundation. From the Connecticut Post:

HARTFORD — A consultant for a Greenwich billionaire interested in education reform was

Meaningful Student Involvement in Education Reform

STUDENT VOICE IN EDUCATION REFORM There are school systems where students are being engaged as leaders in education reform. Following are examples and resources highlighting specific efforts where educators have worked with students to improve schools through education reform programs. Examples | Tools | Info about Ed Reform

Meaningful Student Involvement Def: Engaging students as partners in educational planning, research, teaching, evaluating, decision-making, advocacy, and more.

There are three criteria for being included on this list:

Student-Inclusive Leadership - The activities are driven, led, or guided by students.
Education System-Focused - The activities are led by or equally partnered with district or state education agencies.
Sustained Activity - The action does not stop after a single event or process.

EXAMPLES of Student Voice in Education Reform

Portland Superintendent's Student Advisory Council Student Body Presidents and/or their representatives from every High School and Middle

Shanker Blog » In The Classroom, Differences Can Become Assets

In The Classroom, Differences Can Become Assets

by Esther Quintero

Author, speaker and education expert Sir Ken Robinson argues that today’s education system is anachronistic and needs to be rethought. Robinson notes that our current model, shaped by the industrial revolution, reveals a “production line” approach: for example, we group kids by “date of manufacture”, instruct them “by batches”, and subject them all to standardized tests. Yet, we often miss the most fundamental questions – for example, Robinson asks, “Why is age the most important thing kids have in common?”

In spite of the various theories about the stages of cognitive development (Piaget, etc.), it is difficult to decide how to group children. Academically and linguistically diverse classrooms have become a prevalent phenomenon in the U.S. and other parts of the world, posing important challenges for educators whose mission is to support

AFT Criticized for Parent-Trigger Presentation - Teacher Beat - Education Week

AFT Criticized for Parent-Trigger Presentation

by Stephen Sawchuk

The American Federation of Teachers has landed in a bit of hot water over a presentation, given by a regional affiliate lobbyist at its recent TEACH professional-development conference, that details how the Connecticut chapter "diffused" a "parent trigger" legislative proposal in that state.

Parent triggers, as you know, generally would allow parents to sign a petition to close and reconstitute a struggling school under new governance, such as a charter school.

The Powerpoint presentation was highlighted by union critic RiShawn Biddle at DropoutNation.

The presentation characterizes the parent-trigger bill as a sub rosa attempt by charter school supporters to create more such schools, references attempts to "kill" the bill, and ultimately details how the AFT Connecticut

Schools scramble to keep federal grants - latimes.com

Schools scramble to keep federal grants

Local officials are quickly revising some school reform plans to keep federal grants of up to $2 million per school this year for a group of campuses, including some overseen by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Problems arose when federal evaluators found that a small sampling of schools they visited in March had not carried out promised reforms or else had carried out plans with elements not eligible for funding. State reviewers then followed up to identify problems in more than 40 school systems, including Los Angeles Unified, Pomona Unified, Riverside Unified, Santa Ana Unified, San Bernardino City Unified, San Diego Unified and San Francisco Unified.

The state Board of Education voted in July to delay funding if key issues were not addressed by the fall.

San Francisco Unified has had among the most pressing shortcomings to resolve. That district had

The Unfunded Mandates of Florida’s New School Reform Bill | Scathing Purple Musings

The Unfunded Mandates of Florida’s New School Reform Bill

by Bob Sikes

Intrepid Flagler School Board member Colleen Conklin has responded to criticism of her proposal to sue the state of Florida for failing to fund education. Conklin takes the state’s lawmakers to task for unfunded mandates.

Every year legislators burden Florida school districts and taxpayers with bills that mandate actions, but provide little or no funding for implementation. This past year, Senate Bill 736 was loaded with expensive, unproven reforms. According to the Florida Senate’s own analysis, development and administration of the statewide, standardized assessments in SB 736 will cost

Are Smart People Getting Smarter, or Just Better at Taking Standardized Tests? - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

Are Smart People Getting Smarter, or Just Better at Taking Standardized Tests?

by E.D. Kain

Jonah Lehrer has a piece up touching on a recent study examining the “Flynn Effect” which describes increases in the IQ of populations over the past several decades. Lehrer suggests several factors which might be leading to increased intelligence, including a more complex and intellectual culture, with more complicated TV shows like Lost and the various “cognitive workouts” aired on HBO.

Alex Knapp begs to differ. His alternative hypothesis? Far from a more intellectual culture, he notes the rise of standardized tests:

As far as I’ve been able to tell, standardized test use in schools has increased since the 1960s and that use continues to grow apace. I’d suggest that as standardized tests are used more in schools, students get better at

A Pitch for the Creators of ‘Parks and Recreation’: Do an Episode About Lemonade Stands

by E.D. Kain

I often ask myself this question: “What Would Ron Swanson Do?”

The question bubbled up recently when I wrote this piece on the war on lemonade stands. All across the country, local governments are shutting down the lemonade stands of five and six-year-old kids who are operating without a license.

Now, many Americans probably don’t realize that in order to sell lemonade outside of your house or down the street you probably need a food handler’s permit, or a peddler’s permit, or a vendor’s license, or some other piece of paper or the cops will shut you

Schooling in the Ownership Society: New ed fiefdom: The Murdoch/Gates alliance

New ed fiefdom: The Murdoch/Gates alliance

by Mike Klonsky

Bill Gates & Rupert Murdoch at the 2009 Microsoft CEO Summit

The Obama/Boehner Debt Ceiling deal could weaken and even destroy large areas of public space and public sector educational initiatives. At the same time, it will expand the power of new private fiefdoms built on alliances between giant philanthropies and corporate "reformers."

The latest fiefdom is being constructed as an alliance between the Gates Foundation and corrupt media mogul

Democrats and Educational Equity | DeFENSE

Democrats and Educational Equity

by defensedenver

by Ed Augden, Retired DPS Teacher and Community Activist

Alexander Ooms may be right in his viewpoint expressed in the Denver Post on July 25, that elected Democrats may now favor so-called “education reform.” At least, Democratic politicians in Colorado’s state legislature appear to favor a conservative approach to education or acquiesce to it. SB 191, for example, was sponsored by State Sen. Michael Johnston and supported by former State Sen. Chris Romer. This is the face of the Colorado Democrats on educational issues, one that adheres to amateur educators and ignores teachers and verifiable research. Johnston represents the leadership of the Colorado Democratic Party. While most middle class and poor families with school age children seek a neighborhood school that offers a comprehensive education, corporate Democratic legislators such as Johnston, often favor replacing neighborhood schools with charter

Media’s take on the Save Our Schools Rally and March | Dissident Voice #sosmarch

Media’s take on the Save Our Schools Rally and March | Dissident Voice

Media’s take on the Save Our Schools Rally and March

by Myles Hoenig

We know the media sucks when it comes to reporting real news with real facts and real analysis. Liberal media personalities, like Olbermann, Shultz, etc. are as pathetically vacuous in their reporting and analysis as well, if in a different way.  People are going ape shit over Keith Olbermann’s Four Great Hypocrisies About the Debt Deal.Yet nowhere does he put any responsibility of the crisis on the Democrats, or even Obama. Apparently, it’s not important or newsworthy that it was Obama who originally called for cutting into Social Security, not the Republicans. It was a Republican financial mess from beginning to end. It’s all their fault.

But playing to their base is what they do. Fox appeals to conservatives and hate groups. Keith, Ed, Rachel, et al. cater to bourgeois liberals.

There is a nascent movement growing to fight for public education, to reverse the attacks on teachers, calls for equity in funding and an end to high stakes tests that do absolutely nothing to help students learn and, in fact, force the dumbing down of curriculum in order to make AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) rather than face the fate of takeover by a private corporation. There’s a lot of money to be made in privatizing what was once public

Advise Texas: Why high school counselors matter | The Education Front Blog | dallasnews.com

Advise Texas: Why high school counselors matter

By

William McKenzie/ Editorial Columnist

wmckenzie@dallasnews.com | Bio

5:00 AM on Thu., Aug. 4, 2011 | Permalink

One thing that Raymund Paredes, the state's higher education commissioner, said during our Sunday Points interview is that the state has launched a program to get more college students to become high school counselors. He likened Advise Texas to Teach for America, which searches for young, top talent to enter teaching.

When he said that, I thought back to a conversation I once had with Robert Scott, the state's public education commissioner. I asked him how Texas gets more families who have no college-going tradition to think about sending their kids to college. He said that more counselors in high schools would help.

They could make a huge impact by getting the word out to students about what various universities look for,

Not a photo op, but a real protest - The Boston Globe

Not a photo op, but a real protest

August 4, 2011

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I WENT to the Save Our Schools march in Washington last Saturday with my son, Matt Damon, and thousands of citizens who are worried about the harm corporate education reform is causing to children, teachers, and communities. The only reporting of this march in The Boston Globe was in the “Names’’ section in a trivial little item called “Damon loves teachers,’’ that made no mention of the importance of this march and its goals.

Not only did thousands of people pour into Washington to protest education policy, but the nation’s leading education thinkers were all there speaking out. I would think you would sit up and take notice when the nation’s top education leaders are out in the streets protesting the policies the government is implementing.

Since the passage of No Child Left Behind, the Globe has been publishing editorials that are in support of the corporate education reforms that promot

Matt Damon’s Mom Scolds the Bostin Globe on its Pro-Corporate Refrom Bias | Scathing Purple Musings

Matt Damon’s Mom Scolds the Bostin Globe on its Pro-Corporate Refrom Bias

by Bob Sikes

Matt Damon’s mother, a former teacher, joined her son at the July 30 Save Our Schools March in Washington DC. Nancy Carlsson-Paige certainly supported the March, but focused much of a letter she wrote to the editor ofThe Boston Globe on the newspaper itself:

I WENT to the Save Our Schools march in Washington last Saturday with my son, Matt Damon, and thousands of citizens who are worried about the harm corporate education reform is causing to children, teachers, and communities. The only reporting of this march in The Boston Globe was in the “Names’’ section in a trivial little item called “Damon loves teachers,’’ that made no mention of the importance of this march and its goals
Not only did thousands of people pour into Washington to protest education policy, but the nation’s

Jersey Jazzman: Lawrence O'Donnell Nails It

Lawrence O'Donnell Nails It

by Duke

When students can shuffle off their failures onto their teachers, are we really creating a culture of accountability?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

When I brought home a bad report card, it never occurred to me, or my parents, to blame my teacher... I also hated and did badly in anything involving writing of any kind. Which is kind of like wicked ironic since I then grew up to be a writer. That just points to the unpredictable ways we learn things.

As I have argued here before: failure IS an option. It can be a very powerful motivator for a student (or a parent). I

The pragmatic Audrey Soglin. « Fred Klonsky's blog

The pragmatic Audrey Soglin.

by Fred Klonsky

There are a couple of different narratives the emerged from the L’affaire Edelman.

One was Jonah Edelman’s video narrative. The one where he came swooping into Illinois and manipulated everyone from Michael Madigan to my mama into buying into Stand for Children’s program.

In this narrative, the IEA leadership was bamboozled into backing Senate Bill 7.

Another narrative is the union’s narrative. In this story, Illinois established the model for collaboration nationwide.

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Thursday, August 4, 2011

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Not a photo op, but a real protest