Thursday, January 5, 2012

by Anna M. Phillips

“BS Deserves Better,” said a sign at a rally outside of the Bronx High School of Science, one of the city’s most storied high schools that has been at war with itself for years over the pedagogical policies of its principal, Valerie J. Reidy.

On Thursday, roughly two dozen current students and recent alumni gathered on the field across from the school’s entrance to protest the school’s high rate of teacher turnover and what they perceive as a marked shift in the quality of classroom instruction.

It was not the first time students took action against their school’s administration; in 2008 between 150 and 200students staged a walkout demanding the principal’s firing.

Noah Morrison, a junior at Bronx Science, said he was frustrated with the “standardization” of teaching at the

Modern School: Online Ed: Trojan Horse for Destroying Teachers Unions

Modern School: Online Ed: Trojan Horse for Destroying Teachers Unions:

Online Ed: Trojan Horse for Destroying Teachers Unions

by Michael Dunn

Beware of Capitalist Bearing Gifts of Cheap Canned Curricula (Image from Flickr, by Perfecto Insecto)

Idaho teachers and parents are pissed off: Last year, their state Legislature passed a law requiring all high school students to take some online classes to graduate, according to theSan Francisco Chronicle. They also mandated that students and teachers be given laptops or tablets to take and manage these online courses. In order to pay for the hardware the state will likely have to slash teachers’ wages. Adding insult to injury, the state expects teachers to manage the online classes, simultaneously adding extra responsibilities and deskilling the teaching profession.

In response, teachers marched on the capital last year to oppose the legislation, accusing lawmakers of being in bed with lobbyists from the tech industry like Intel and Apple. Together

Final HQT “Highly Qualified Teacher” Workshop for 2011-12 - Letters (CA Dept of Education)

Final HQT Workshop for 2011-12 - Letters (CA Dept of Education):

Final HQT Workshop for 2011-12

The California Department of Education is hosting the final
Elementary and Secondary Education Act
“Highly Qualified Teacher” Workshop for 2011–12

Presented by
Lynda Nichols
Education Programs Consultant

Monday, April 2, 2012
East End Complex
1500 Capitol Avenue, Room ABC
Sacramento, CA 95814
10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

This workshop will focus on the “Highly Qualified Teacher” requirements related to the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Topics will include an overview of
the ESEA teacher compliance requirements, instructions on how to complete the
Certificate of Compliance form, the High Objective Uniform State Standard of Evaluation
Process (Parts 1 and 2), the Verification Process for Special Settings, and the
applicability of these requirements to charter schools. The workshop will include time for
questions and answers.

The workshop is designed for district and charter school administrators responsible for
ensuring that all core academic teachers meet ESEA Compliance Requirements.

RSVP by February 15, 2012, by sending an e-mail to the address listed below.
Include name, title, district or school affiliation, and contact information.

To RSVP or if you have any questions contact:
Kimberly Kearsing
Phone: 916-445-7331
E-mail: kkearsing@cde.ca.gov

Please note:
Refreshments and lunch will not be provided.
There is a coffee kiosk in the lobby.
A map of nearby eateries will be available.

This is the final workshop for the 2011–12 series and we encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity.

Questions: Office of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction| 9

Jersey Jazzman: REPOST: OK, Smart Guy - What Would YOU Do?

Jersey Jazzman: REPOST: OK, Smart Guy - What Would YOU Do?:

REPOST: OK, Smart Guy - What Would YOU Do?

by Duke

For all of my new, trollish freinds: here's the Jazzman Reform Plan from September, 2011. I may change a few things now, but I still think most of it is solid.

Over at Blue Jersey, I recently spent a week demolishing the corporate "reform" argument. Well, no, that's not quite right; I'd spent the last week bringing together a bunch of research and writing that did all the demolishing for me. Folks like Bruce Baker, Matt DiCarlo, Valerie Strauss, Leonie Haimson, and Diane Ravitch are among the many who have done the legwork that makes it so easy to build a case against these rash, uniformed, and just plain silly proposals.

But all of this leads to a question: what should we do instead?

It's a fair question. Even though this notion of an education "crisis" has been blown way out of proportion, I do believe that we could make things better. And I do believe that the continued achievement gap is a serious problem that needs to be

Would I announce my bargaining position before bargaining? No. But that’s me. « Fred Klonsky

Would I announce my bargaining position before bargaining? No. But that’s me. « Fred Klonsky:

Would I announce my bargaining position before bargaining? No. But that’s me.

by Fred Klonsky

There was some concern about the way I reported Senate President John Cullerton’s statement yesterday.

On the video I posted, Cullerton said plainly that the state employee unions, our leadership included, had expressed a willingness to negotiate adjustments in the pension benefits of union members.

I wan’t shocked by Cullerton’s statement because our union leadership has said the same thing for months.

“The union hasn’t agreed to any proposal,” I was reprimanded by a reader.

Never said they did.

But the IEA leadership has said what their position for a bargained agreement must contain: It must be

Concerned African American Mothers (CAAM) Call for End to Racial Profiling by the Milwaukee Police Department « Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!

Concerned African American Mothers (CAAM) Call for End to Racial Profiling by the Milwaukee Police Department « Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!:

Concerned African American Mothers (CAAM) Call for End to Racial Profiling by the Milwaukee Police Department

by millerlf

Concerned African-American Mothers (CAAM)

African-American Racial Profiling Complaint Against

the City of Milwaukee Police Department

Under the direction of Police Chief Edward Flynn, the City of Milwaukee Police Department from approximately July 2008 to the present has engaged in practice of racial profiling African-Americans, especially African-American male drivers and pedestrians in targeted African-American communities.

For approximately two (2) years we have observed on any major street in the African-American community African-American drivers, especially males pulled over for traffic stops. We have also observed when there are 2 or more African-American males in the vehicles, the driver and all passengers are removed from the car and required to sit on the curb, while the vehicle is searched; most of the time

Jersey Jazzman: The Reformy Incompetence of Duncan, Kopp, and Rhee

Jersey Jazzman: The Reformy Incompetence of Duncan, Kopp, and Rhee:

The Reformy Incompetence of Duncan, Kopp, and Rhee

by Duke

Valerie Strauss reports on a tiff with Matt Damon and his mom, education professor Nancy Carlson-Paige, on one side and NEA President Dennis Van Roekel on another. Personally, I think the NEA is not well-served bysidling up with the likes of Teach For America's Wendy Kopp, but I do see the point that she is well-funded and not going away any time soon.

What really hit me in Strauss's post, however, was this:

On Sept. 30, the two [Van Roekel and Kopp] appeared together with [US Education Secretary Arne] Duncan and others at a gathering where improving teacher training was the focus. Duncan outlined new steps to bring accountability to teacher education programs by measuring the achievement of students taught by graduates of these

GenEd and California Department of Education Working Together | Asbarez Armenian News

GenEd and California Department of Education Working Together | Asbarez Armenian News:

GenEd and California Department of Education Working Together

Murad Minasian (Left) and Raffi Momjian, GenEd Executive Director (Right), at meeting with Superintendent Tom Torlakson

Teacher survey and joint projects initiated

SAN FRANCISCO–The Genocide Education Project (GenEd) and the California Department of Education have initiated a working relationship aimed at expanding instruction of the Armenian Genocide to more schools across California. Through the efforts of Murad Minasian, the Armenian-American community liaison for the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson, GenEd is collaborating with the Superintendent’s office on a long-term strategic plan to insure that students in the state’s public high school system have the benefit of

Moving Beyond Political Rhetoric in International Comparisons | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights

Moving Beyond Political Rhetoric in International Comparisons | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights:

Moving Beyond Political Rhetoric in International Comparisons

by obriena

Making international comparisons about education systems was all the rage in 2011. Rhetoric suggested that America’s education system is performing so poorly that we as a nation have lost our competitive edge, and that the world’s emerging economies are out-educating us, which will result in the further decline of our nation.

I’m not sure if that rhetoric will stop in 2012, but it is time we move beyond it. How can we do that?

First off, in talking about our education system, we need to acknowledge that, as Dan Domenech (executive director of the American Association of School Administrators and chair of the Learning First Alliance Board of Directors) points out, it is actually the best that it has ever been. Graduation rates, college attendance rates and performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress

Charters challenge fairness of $21 million to DCPS - D.C. Schools Insider - The Washington Post

Charters challenge fairness of $21 million to DCPS - D.C. Schools Insider - The Washington Post:

Charters challenge fairness of $21 million to DCPS

by Bill Turque

DCPS got an early Christmas present last month when District Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi revised his revenue forecast to include an additional $42.2 million. Mayor Vincent C. Gray quickly announced that he will ask the D.C. Council to appropriate half of it to the city’s 123-school system to cover “spending pressures”--the polite term for cost overruns--in the current fiscal year.

Read full article >>

Support PURE! » ESEA begins another year’s journey

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » ESEA begins another year’s journey:

ESEA begins another year’s journey

by admin

Experts are predicting (alsohere) that the No Child Left Behind Act will not be revised in 2012. Meanwhile, Republican House education committee leaders are planning to change strategy and write a more comprehensive ESEA bill, dropping their efforts to come to agreement with Democrats on a set of issue-specific pieces and preparing a larger bill like the one passed out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee last October.

The House committee has already passed individual bills on expanding charter schools, program consolidation,

Seattle Schools Community Forum: State Supreme Court Issues Pointless Ruling

Seattle Schools Community Forum: State Supreme Court Issues Pointless Ruling:

State Supreme Court Issues Pointless Ruling

by Charlie Mas

The Washington State Supreme Court has upheld the ruling by a King County that the state is failing to fulfill its constitutional duty to provide funding for public schools.

Here is the Court's opinion.

Then the Court threw up their hands and admitted that there was nothing they could do about it. They can't - or won't - force the legislature to do anything and they have given the legislature six years to mend their ways. Can you imagine? "This Court finds that you have been mal-nourishing these children in your charge and gives you

Schools more and more resemble maximum security prisons: schools without playgrounds, children without recess, and kids without play | Dailycensored.com

Schools more and more resemble maximum security prisons: schools without playgrounds, children without recess, and kids without play | Dailycensored.com:

Schools more and more resemble maximum security prisons: schools without playgrounds, children without recess, and kids without play

Written by Danny WeilEducationJan 5, 2012

0digg

Picture of Thieves in Dante’s Hell

A new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) indicates that children in poor urban neighborhoods need more chances for old-fashioned playtime in their daily lives. A number of experts in the report have raised concerns that in the current climate of treating youth not at risk, but a risk themselves, children have little time for unstructured play — which, AAP says, is important for kids’ physical and mental development. Perhaps the lack of play is due to the fact that more and more students are spending all day in school classes, hunched over desks preparing for standardized tests under the corporatized Obama educational policy, Race to the Top. The (AAP) report seemed to think this was the case noting that even U.S. suburban children are “over-scheduled” with formal classes and lessons, leaving them little time for simple play (Poor kids miss out on playtime, pediatricians say, http://bit.ly/udH1U2 Pediatrics, online December 26, 2011).

A 2009 report by the Alliance for Childhood surveyed kindergartens in New

Danger in a Little Knowledge « My Island View

Danger in a Little Knowledge « My Island View:

Danger in a Little Knowledge

by tomwhitby

I just finished another post on how educators oppose technology, Teachers Resist High-Tech Push in Idaho Schools. The headline from the New York Times misleads somewhat from the content of the article, but it does support the seemingly anti-tech-in-education bias of the NYT. The focus of the article is on the resistance that educators and parents in Idaho are showing to legislation being moved forward in regard to mandating technology in education. As an ardent supporter of technology in education, one would think that I would wholeheartedly support this legislation. The problem with any legislation dealing with education however is the ignorance of the legislators in regard to education and learning.

The fact of the matter seems, in this case, to be that teachers are opposed, not to the technology, but rather, the intent of its use, as well as the lack of support for training and implementation of the technology. I addressed this same issue in my last post, Another Tarnished Silver Bullet. The purchasing of mass quantities of