NYC Educator: What's With Mayor Mike?

NYC Educator: What's With Mayor Mike?:

What's With Mayor Mike?

by NYC Educator

Mayor4Life is shooting his mouth off again, saying he won't accept any evaluation system that doesn't hold teachers' feet to the fire. He also says he wants all teacher evaluation reports released to the public. This is ironic, because Mayor Mike is currently applying to the Supreme Court to make sure his correspondence with failed Chancellor Cathie Black is not made public. After all, accountability is for the little people.

The interesting point, though, is that his combativeness does not actually indicate a sincere desire to rate teachers. Were that the case, he wouldn't be using hit and miss nonsensical junk science like VAM. Sure, a new evaluation system will render tenure meaningless and allow Mayor Mike to fire a whole lot more teachers, but that probably 

Sen Durbin to hold hearing on school-to-prison pipeline Parents United for Responsible Education

Parents United for Responsible Education » Blog Archive » Sen Durbin to hold hearing on school-to-prison pipeline:

Sen Durbin to hold hearing on school-to-prison pipeline

by admin

Testimony is due today for Wednesday hearing. From Dignity in Schools:

Ending the School to Prison Pipeline

Hearing before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights

For the first time ever, Congress is holding a hearing on the School to Prison Pipeline (12/12/12, 2pm et at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC). If you are anywhere near DC, please help pack the room. If you are not, please make your voice heard! Feel free to use this form, developed by the Dignity in Schools Campaign, as a template for a written statement.
If you have any questions, please email Matt Cregor at mcregor@naacpldf.org.
To submit your statement, please send it to Stephanie_Trifone@Judiciary-dem.Senate.gov.
Please send a copy to Matt as well for the DSC website: mcregor@naacpldf.org
Instructions from the Senate on Written Testimony:
Statements for the Record: Chairman Durbin invites advocates, students, educators, experts, and other stakeholders to submit written testimony to be included in the hearing record. These statements help educate Committee members about the issue and are very important to demonstrating community interest. Statements should be less than 10 pages, and should be emailed to Stephanie Trifone at Stephanie_Trifone@Judiciary-dem.Senate.govas early as possible, but no later than Monday, December 10, 2012 at 5:00 p.m.
Suggested Questions (drafted by DSC):
Name: ____________________ City and State: _______________________________
Organization (optional): ___________________________________________________

1. How have you experienced the school-to-prison pipeline and/or school pushout? What does school discipline look like in your school/your child’s school? Is your school a charter or traditional public school? What sort of things are students suspended, expelled, or arrested for? If you are a parent or a teacher, in what ways is school discipline different now than when you were a student?

1. How has the school-to-prison pipeline impacted you, your family, and your community? What message does suspension or arrest send to students?

1. What are you doing to end the school-to-prison pipeline in your community? What positive solutions can be used to stop school pushout? What can be done at the federal level to support this?

Thirteen Things Nick Kristof Should Know About American Families “Profiting From Iliteracy” « Student Activism

Thirteen Things Nick Kristof Should Know About American Families “Profiting From Iliteracy” « Student Activism:

Thirteen Things Nick Kristof Should Know About American Families “Profiting From Iliteracy”

by Angus Johnston

This weekend Nick Kristof wrote a column called “Profiting from a Child’s Illiteracy” in which he suggested — without evidence — that a significant portion of American children who are receiving Social Security disability are doing so because their parents find it “easier” to collect government checks than to find and keep gainful employment. Describing their disabilities as “fuzzier” and “less clear-cut” than those of past generations, Kristof claimed that it is SSI, and the “huge stake in their failing” that it gives their parents, which “condemn[s]” them “to a life of poverty on the dole.”

Thirteen facts on those children, courtesy of the Social Security Administration:

• Fewer than thirty percent live with both parents.
• Half live in a household with at least one other person with a disability.
• Almost seventy percent had seen a doctor three or more times in the previous year.

The Ghettoization of Public Education

The Ghettoization of Public Education:

The Ghettoization of Public Education

Monday, 10 December 2012 15:09By Thom Hartmann and Sam Sacks, The Daily Take | Op-Ed

Quick - when you hear "public housing," what picture jumps into your mind?  Or "public hospital"? 

All around us, our public institutions are disintegrating, and the most important public institution of all – our public education system – is the next to be ghettoized.

Despite several progressive victories this Election Day, there was one significant defeat in Georgia, as voters approved of Constitutional Amendment 1, which changes Georgia’s Constitution to give Republicans in that state the power to create charter schools as part of Georgia’s public education system. The result will be crucial taxpayer dollars being funneled away from free public schools and directed toward brand new, sometimes for-profit, privately-run charter schools.

Even though studies show that costly private schools don’t produce any better educational results than free public schools, for-profit schools have popped up all around the nation in recent years because of how valuable they are to corporate 

Jersey Jazzman: Put Up The Proof, TFA

Jersey Jazzman: Put Up The Proof, TFA:

Put Up The Proof, TFA

by Duke

Anthony Cody points us to a remarkable claim from Teach For America's Wendy Kopp:

In this interview, Wendy Kopp states: "On average, our corps members stay in the classroom for eight years." Honestly, I find this claim incredible.

I have firsthand experience with Teach For America. I worked in high poverty schools in Oakland, California, for 24 years. In my last four years (2007 to 2011) I led a mentoring program that was developed to provide support to the many new science teachers we had in the District. The District was relying on TFA and a program affiliated with The New Teacher Project to fill vacancies. Unfortunately this simply fed into the cycle, because these novices did NOT last an average of eight years. In fact, three years after they started, 75% of them were gone. That meant we were constantly training the replacements for the ones that were leaving. While our mentoring program was 

Student Loan Asset Backed Securities and the $1 trillion dollar student loan debt

Student Loan Asset Backed Securities and the $1 trillion dollar student loan debt:

Student Loan Asset Backed Securities and the $1 trillion dollar student loan debt

by Danny Weil

“In times of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

George Orwell

I was fortunate enough to be a guest on the radio show

Clearing the FOG – Speaking truth to expose the forces of greed.

http://www.facebook.com/ClearingtheFogRadioShow. The show originates from Washington DC on 1480 AM.

The issue that was addressed was the spiraling student loan debt, now over $1 trillion and rising.  Lynn Petrovich, an accountant that has documented fraudulent behavior by Sallie Mae was also on the air.

Here is the link to the archived edition of this important issue which both trapping students in debt peonage and  is an IED waiting to explode and cause the next bubble burs in the economy.  At a time when those in the 

Daily Kos: Clones, Assembly-line Capitalism, and Wage-Slaves

Daily Kos: Clones, Assembly-line Capitalism, and Wage-Slaves:

Clones, Assembly-line Capitalism, and Wage-Slaves

by rss@dailykos.com (plthomasEdD)

Beyond its flair for the fantastic, science fiction (SF) almost always offers the allegorical. In SF, humankind literally masters cloning and produces not quite human slaves, facilitating some sort of truce between the long history of human conquering human to enslave and the contemporary illusion that eradicating institutional slavery absolves us of culpability in the de facto wage-slavery of assembly-line capitalism.
David Mitchell's often tedious but always masterful Cloud Atlas builds through a menagerie of genres and modes of discourse to a powerful ending that highlights a motif central to the novel, of human (and clone) bondage:

"Belief is both prize & battlefield, within the mind & in the mind's mirror, the world. If we believehumanity is a ladder of tribes, a colosseum of confrontation, exploitation & bestiality, such a humanity is surely brought into being, & history's Horroxes, Boerhaaves & Gooses shall prevail. You & I, the moneyed, the privileged, the fortunate, shall not fare so badly in this world, provided our luck holds. What of it if our consciences itch? Why undermine the dominance of our race, our 

Transitioning to Standards-Based Learning — Whole Child Education

Transitioning to Standards-Based Learning — Whole Child Education:

Transitioning to Standards-Based Learning

December 10, 2012 by ASCD Whole Child Bloggers

Cathy Vatterott began her ASCD Conference on Teaching and Learning session, "Not Your Mother's Gradebook: Transitioning to Standards-Based Learning," by asking participants to think about the reasons that conventional tests may not be the best method to assess student learning.

Participants shared that

• Tests can be rigid, covering only specific goals and objectives as taught in a particular textbook.
• Tests lack formative assessment.
• Some students are not good test takers. Some children will do poorly no matter whether it is a commercial test or a teacher-made test.
• Some tests are timed, and some students do not do well in a timed situation.

Next, Vattertott asked attendees to answer this question: On a typical high school geometry test,

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

Giveaway: Classroom Instruction That Works DVD Series

December 10, 2012 by ASCD Whole Child Bloggers

Want to fine-tune some of your teaching techniques in 2013? ASCD has partnered with Edutopia and, this week, one lucky winner will receive ASCD's Classroom Instruction That Works, a DVD series that brings to life nine research-based instructional strategies for elementary, middle, and high school classrooms (a $349 value!). With concrete examples and lessons, you'll have plenty of ideas to bring to your classroom in the new year.

Go to www.edutopia.org/giveaway by midnight Pacific time on Sunday, December 16, to enter for a chance to win. In addition, once you've entered to win, you'll receive a discount code for other ASCD products.

UPDATE: Connecticut’s Holiday “Budget Deficit Roadmap” uses state credit card for (again) - Wait, What?

Connecticut’s Holiday “Budget Deficit Roadmap” uses state credit card for (again) - Wait, What?:

Connecticut’s Holiday “Budget Deficit Roadmap” uses state credit card for (again)

by jonpelto

On December 19, 2012, the 2011-2012 Connecticut General Assembly will meet one more time, this time for a special session to deal with Connecticut’s growing budget deficit.

Call it the Holiday Special Session, or perhaps more aptly, it should be called the, “let’s cut vital human services the week before Christmas” Special Session.

In addition to the $123 million the Governor already cut from this year’s budget using his rescission authority, Malloy has now proposed an additional $220 million in cuts.  These cuts, however, would require legislative approval.

The hardest hit agencies are the social services provided by the Department of Social 

Achievement First – Hartford: A disturbing history of losing students along the way

by jonpelto

What is really going on at Achievement First – Hartford?

One of the most serious criticisms of the charter school industry is that they “cherry-pick” their students.  In a world in which poverty, language barriers and the need for special education services are the three greatest factors limiting educational outcomes, charter schools have a lower percentage of poor students, fail to accept and keep their fair share of students who aren’t fluent in English and take far fewer students who need special education services.

Charter schools brag that their students get higher scores on standardized tests, but of course they do, when they fail to take the students who are most likely to need extra help.

The fact is simple and stark; despite a so-called “open enrollment process,” charter 

Can This Claim Be True? TFAers in the Classroom for 8 Years? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Can This Claim Be True? TFAers in the Classroom for 8 Years? - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Can This Claim Be True? TFAers in the Classroom for 8 Years?

by Anthony Cody

The Huffington Post this morning features an interview with Teach For America founder Wendy Kopp, focused on how much TFA has to offer the poor of the world. Five years ago, Kopp founded Teach For All, in order to export the TFA model to other countries around the world.
In this interview, Wendy Kopp states: "On average, our corps members stay in the classroom for eight years." Honestly, I find this claim incredible.
I have firsthand experience with Teach For America. I worked in high poverty schools in Oakland, California, for 24 years. In my last four years (2007 to 2011) I led a mentoring program that was developed to provide support to the many new science teachers we had in the District. The District was relying on TFA and a program affiliated 

Schools Matter: The Eternal Failure of a NAEP Mind

Schools Matter: The Eternal Failure of a NAEP Mind:

The Eternal Failure of a NAEP Mind

by P. L. Thomas

After Sandy Banks in the Los Angeles Times stated, "We see what we are looking for—and that sends a message to students at schools like Jordan. They know we don't expect much of them," David B. Cohen replied:

"Do you think that the same lesson applies to the public, or journalists, or legislators, and the messages they send to the faculty and staff at struggling schools? I don’t mean to make excuses for anyone, but is it possible that an honest assessment of the challenges they face should include the burden of social apathy, distrust, even hostility? I know a lot of teachers and more than a few administrators, and you can probably infer from my question what I think the answer is."

In that context, what message does this drumbeat of NAEP-related stories and headlines send from Education Week?

Most 8th Graders Fall Short on NAEP Science Test (May 10, 2012) 

Gov. Brown’s top education advisor to retire | EdSource Today

Gov. Brown’s top education advisor to retire | EdSource Today:

Gov. Brown’s top education advisor to retire

December 10th, 2012 | Add a Comment | 
By Kathryn Baron

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Sue Burr

Sue Burr, executive director of California’s State board of Education and a key force at local and state levels in guiding California through decades of education reform, is stepping down at the end of this year.

Burr, who in her current position also serves as Gov. Jerry Brown’s top advisor on education policy, announced her retirement in a Nov. 9 letter to the governor in which she thanked him for “providing a wonderful coda to my career,” but gave no specific reason for leaving other than the end of the year marking 40 years in public service.

Her retirement follows the administration’s exhausting and successful campaign to win voter support for Proposition 30, Brown’s ballot initiative to raise taxes on the wealthiest Californians and increase the sales tax to boost education funding.

“Sue brought a deep understanding of school policy and operations to her many years of public service. I thank her for her counsel and steady leadership,” said  Brown in statement.

But, as Burr noted in her letter, she’s leaving as California policy makers and educators wade into 

Shanker Blog » Cheating, Honestly

Shanker Blog » Cheating, Honestly:

Cheating, Honestly

by Matthew Di Carlo

Whatever one thinks of the heavy reliance on standardized tests in U.S. public education, one of the things on which there is wide agreement is that cheating must be prevented, and investigated when there’s evidence it might have occurred.
For anyone familiar with test-based accountability, recent cheating scandals in Atlanta, Washington, D.C.,Philadelphia and elsewhere are unlikely to have been surprising. There has always been cheating, and it can take many forms, ranging from explicit answer-changing to subtle coaching on test day. One cannot say with any certainty how widespread cheating is, but there is every reason to believe that high-stakes testing increases the likelihood that it will happen. The first step toward addressing that problem is to recognize it.
A district, state or nation that is unable or unwilling to acknowledge the possibility of cheating, do everything possible to prevent it, and face up to it when evidence suggests it has occurred, is ill-equipped to rely on test-based accountability policies.
There are disturbing indications of highly uneven quality in test security. A recent Atlanta Journal 

solidaridad: Open letter to Los Angeles County Federation of Labor on School Privatization and Ms. Mónica García

solidaridad: Open letter to Los Angeles County Federation of Labor on School Privatization and Ms. Mónica García:

Open letter to Los Angeles County Federation of Labor on School Privatization and Ms. Mónica García

by Robert D. Skeels * rdsathene

"I can't wait until all contracts are thin contracts." — LAUSD President Mónica García on Unions

School Privatization Hurts Everyone

Privatization via charter schools removes agency from communities and encourages the lowest wages possible. Aside from eschewing organized labor within schools themselves, every aspect of privatized schools encourages the use of non-unionized labor and at-will employees. This is true from construction, to food services, to site maintenance, and every other aspect of building, running, and maintaining schools.
Corporate charter chains like CNCA are under no obligation to even consider contractors with agreements with organized trade unions. Instead of their numerous projects benefiting the workers in the community, those tax dollars go into the pockets of well heeled developers. Other large charter chains like Alliance outsource to 501c3 firms all the work that would typically be done by classified union employees at public schools.
Ultimately school privatization drives down wages, commoditizes labor, and takes the dignity out of work and our communities.

President Mónica García supports school privatization

Mónica García's policies of giving schools away to outside bidders has exacerbated anti-labor practices. Even in the case where she can't eliminate organized labor, she has made disparaging remarks like "I can't wait until all contracts are thin contracts." Rather than viewing unions as partners in educating students, she treats them as adversaries. Her disdain for collective bargaining is disconcerting.
While real estate firms, contractors, and charter executives have flourished under Ms. García's leadership, we've seen a steady decline in certified and classified personnel in the district. This trend towards privatization affects all labor.
Moreover, her policies have been hurtful to the community at large. Here are a few of the more egregious things she can take credit for.

• Mónica García has consistently ignored the voices and needs of our parents, students and communities, employing repression to stifle legitimate dissent. 
• Under García's leadership, tens of thousands of teachers, librarians, and health and human service employees have been  subjected to reduction in force notices. While some of these educators have been rehired, the net effect has been teacher demoralization; a disincentive to enter the teaching profession; a disruption and marginalization of impoverished schools; and arguably illegal classroom overcrowding. 
• Under García's watch, hundreds of millions of dollars in LAUSD properties and resources have been given to privately managed charter school corporations, systematically starving public schools of resources. 
• García has overseen several destructive school reconstitutions and closures, despite warnings from scholars that such drastic "reforms" do nothing to improve outcomes. 
• García has been a party to handing public schools over to charter corporations which are documented to perform worse than the schools they replaced. 
• The hallmark of García's tenure has been hundreds of millions of dollars squandered on unnecessary tests, consultants, and questionable hiring priorities. This budget mismanagement has led to the current situation where programs critical to poor and immigrant families including: The School Readiness Language Development Program, Early Education Centers, Elementary Arts, and Adult Education have been cut, while the District held millions in reserve. 
• Under García, LAUSD has taken Federal Title I and Title III funds (supporting low-income students and English Language Learners respectively) away from school sites.

In the interest of our communities and all the hard working women and men who still have the hard earned right of collective bargaining, we need to endorse school board members who will partner with labor.

New York Teacher | Edwize

New York Teacher | Edwize:

New York Teacher

by W.J. Levay

Highlights from the latest issue of New York Teacher:
UCAN uniting communities and neighborhoods — and they do
UCAN. It stands for Uniting Communities and Neighborhoods, and it’s a new good-will project in the Bronx that has dozens of UFT members hammering or cleaning or beautifying or just playing games with children at a shelter.
Stress takes a holiday
Thanksgiving took on new meaning for the students and staff from PS/MS 105 in storm-ravaged Far Rockaway when their welcoming hosts at JHS 72 in Jamaica invited them to share a preholiday Community Feast — turkey and all the trimmings.
UFT creates hurricane hotline
A Hurricane Sandy hotline is now part of the UFT’s continuing and expanding outreach to members who need assistance in the wake of the devastating late-October storm.
Second Day of Action helps storm victims recoverMarking another UFT Day of Action on Saturday, Nov. 17, nearly 1,000 volunteers traveled to the city neighborhoods devastated by Hurricane Sandy or came to UFT headquarters to help stuff backpacks with supplies for displaced students.
Midwinter break shortened due to Sandy
State law and regulations mandate that New York City public school teachers make up three of the instructional days lost due to Hurricane Sandy. Schools will be open the last three days — Wednesday, Feb. 20, through Friday, Feb. 22 — of the city school system’s usual weeklong midwinter break.
Fighting the testing obsession
The push by so-called education reformers for increased testing of students in the nation’s public schools is facing growing opposition from concerned parents and committed educators who understand that high-stakes exams can never substitute for real student learning.
Academy not turning out good leaders
The city Department of Education has finally admitted that its Leadership Academy is not doing a good enough job of recruiting, developing and producing top-notch principals to lead New York City’s high-needs schools.
Leaving no child behind — for real this time
Policy advisers are calling on Obama to actually grapple with child poverty and its effects on students instead of tinkering with accountability measurement.
Supporting students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms
With the special education reform in full swing, many of us teachers — especially general education teachers — will find ourselves teaching students with disabilities and possibly collaborating with special education teachers.

Teachers need to be accountable, but to whom? | Sweat to Inspire

Teachers need to be accountable, but to whom? | Sweat to Inspire:

Teachers need to be accountable, but to whom?

On Thursday night, after working all day and attending a union round table discussion about education, I met up with an old college friend at the bar to catch up. He is a vice-president of a small financial services company, lives in an affluent community, and enjoys the finer things in life. After getting past the normal pleasantries and catching up with news about each others families, he asked me Why I was on his “side” off town. As I attempted to explain about the “education reform” movement in the state of Michigan and how it is affecting teachers, he asked “Shouldn’t it be about what parents and students want?”

This question rings true: Shouldn’t education reform be about what the community wants? Not what legislators desire. I agreed with him, since I have never had a parent complain about my instruction and the district where I work 

Inside ALEC's Education Task Force: Private Players Manipulating Public Education | Alternet

Inside ALEC's Education Task Force: Private Players Manipulating Public Education | Alternet:

Inside ALEC's Education Task Force: Private Players Manipulating Public Education

The author infiltrated ALEC's inner sanctum -- and what she saw was chilling.

December 6, 2012  |  

 

 

EDITOR'S NOTE: On Monday. we published this video of educator-activist Sabrina Stevens confronting members of ALEC's education task force over their destructive plans for America's schools. Below, she shares more about her experience inside the doors of ALEC's highly secretive proceedings.

“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”   --Frederic Bastillat

It’s one thing to know that corporate and elitist special interest groups have bought themselves premium access to the inner workings of what’s supposed to 

Taylor Graham – The Privacy Dilemma: Putting Power Back In the User’s Hands | Student Voice

Taylor Graham – The Privacy Dilemma: Putting Power Back In the User’s Hands | Student Voice:

Taylor Graham – The Privacy Dilemma: Putting Power Back In the User’s Hands

by admin

          Each Sunday night, an average audience of 100 million people tune in to NBC to watch Sunday Night Football, allowing the network to charge over $500,000 for a 30 second commercial slot during that time (Ludwig, 2012). Now, imagine the amount of advertising revenue that social media giant Facebook commands during that same evening with over one billion active users. Websites such as Facebook, that glean enormous profits from their massive audiences, have another distinct advantage over television networks: their ability to track and target their audiences like hunted prey.
 In recent years, websites have begun closely tracking their users’ searching, browsing, clicking and liking habits, using the data to build detailed, online advertising profiles of users. These “advertising clones” can then be sold to advertising agencies with no legal drawbacks. The ensuing gathering of information has turned the average online user into a target of online advertising and, as a result, made them increasingly vulnerable to identity theft. In response to increasingly vocal, and valid, concerns over the mounting volume of user data currently being collected, it is time for the government to step in and create policies that will allow average users