David Anthony of Raise Your Hand Texas on charter schools and accountability | Education Blog

David Anthony of Raise Your Hand Texas on charter schools and accountability | Education Blog:

David Anthony of Raise Your Hand Texas on charter schools and accountability

By Bill McKenzie / Editorial Columnist
wmckenzie@dallasnews.com
6:08 pm on March 10, 2013 | Permalink

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Dr. David Anthony is CEO of Raise Your Hand Texas, a statewide organization that bills itself as a non-profit education advocacy group. You can read more about the organization at this website. Anthony also once served as superintendent of the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District.

He and I exchanged emails last week about SB 2, the measure by GOP Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston to increase charter schools. We also discussed some issues at play in the Legislature over school accountability. Here is our exchange:

GOP State Sen. Dan Patrick, chair of the Texas Senate Education Committee, wants to expand the number of charter schools in Texas, including through lifting the current cap on the number of charters the state can authorize. What’s wrong with that aim?

Raise Your Hand Texas is supportive of better choices for students within the public school area. However, more does not necessarily mean better.

Charter school campuses are rated academically unacceptable at nearly twice the rate of traditional public schools (11.2% v. 5.9%). Let’s put strong oversight in place, and improve the process for revoking failing charters which can currently drag on for years of litigation.

Once we have ensured quality, then we can talk quantity. The proposal to eliminate the cap on charter 

After 63 years, Palisades High English teacher closes the book | toteachornototeach

After 63 years, Palisades High English teacher closes the book | toteachornototeach:

After 63 years, Palisades High English teacher closes the book

by aristotlethewise

After 63 years, Palisades High English teacher closes the book

Rose Gilbert, who retired three weeks ago at 94, achieved celebrity status for being the oldest full-time teacher in the L.A. Unified School District. A drama classroom has been named in her honor.
By Louis Sahagun
The boisterous applause of hundreds of admirers echoed through Palisades Charter High School’s newly refurbished drama classroom on Saturday as Rose Gilbert steadied herself in a walker and made her way to a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its entrance.
The diminutive English teacher of 63 years smiled at the crush of people around her, many of them former students from 18 to 66 years of age, and said: “Gilbert Hall is now open.”
In recent years, Gilbert, who retired three weeks ago at age 94, achieved celebrity status for being the oldest full-

The Weekly Cheddar : blue cheddar

The Weekly Cheddar : blue cheddar:

The Weekly Cheddar

March 10, 2013

By bluecheddar

March 3 - 9, 2013

Here’s another edition of my round-up of Wisconsin political news. If I missed something major, please leave a comment about it.

Public Education for K-12 is–

– on the chopping block.  More on that here:
Walker’s budget is a school killer; legislative Republicans propose a severe beating instead

And here: ‘This is an all-out attack on public education’: ”SIREN—Those were the sentiments of Scott Johnson, district administrator for the Siren Schools to his school board Monday night.He was referring to the 2013-15 budget proposal released by Governor Scott Walker last week.”

There’s some weak compromise sauce from Walker.   Nobody is talking about pulling the vouchers altogether and nobody is talking about refusing to vote for the budget at all (the voucher language is tucked into the state’s budget):  Walker signals willingness to modify voucher expansion» Income Tax Tradeoffs

Walker’s rent-to-own Wisconsin

This budget is a landfill of surprises, isn’t it?:

“Republican Gov. Scott Walker has quietly tucked provisions into his executive budget that would free rent-to-own businesses from Wisconsin’s consumer 

Melissa Harris-Perry: Why people are saying Detroit is where democracy goes to die

Melissa Harris-Perry: Why people are saying Detroit is where democracy goes to die:

Melissa Harris-Perry video: Why people are saying Detroit is where democracy goes to die -

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

Lost Apple Core, Part I: Nagging Doubt |:

Lost Apple Core, Part I: Nagging Doubt

“The Dame School”, 1887. Frederic George Cotman (1850-1920), British landscape, portrait, genre and history painter. Oil on canvas.

Recently I was sitting down with a fellow educator discussing the Common Core State Standards and what affect we thought they might have on public schools. I have been on the fence regarding The Core for a while now, not wanting to pass judgment prematurely. My questions to my colleague: Do you think CCSS will simply be a continuation of NCLB policy? Do you believe it will stifle the workshop model of instruction that both you and I are promoting? His response was that since the only way to achieve these standards is to teach in an authentic, learner-centered manner, that the CCSS will ultimately support such teaching practices.

At the moment I felt relieved by his view. I want to believe this as much as the 

Bruce Rauner. Rahm’s BFF. Stuart Levine’s pal. | Fred Klonsky

Bruce Rauner. Rahm’s BFF. Stuart Levine’s pal. | Fred Klonsky:

Bruce Rauner. Rahm’s BFF. Stuart Levine’s pal.

by Fred Klonsky

The list of money man Bruce Rauner’s gubernatorial exploratory committee is filled with the rich and influential.
Even so, Rauner is being modest.
Rahm’s not on it even though he is a Rauner BFF.
Neither is Tony Rezko  and Stuart Levine.
Remember Rezko and Levine?
They were tied to the deals that sent Blago to jail.
And they were connected to shady deals involving the 

The Oxygen of Homeschooling. – @ the chalk face

The Oxygen of Homeschooling. – @ the chalk face:

The Oxygen of Homeschooling.

by Activism in paradise - Voices from down under

From http://treehornexpress.wordpress.com
Australian Ken Woolford is a strong advocate for learning at home and the importance of the family in developing effective, enthusiastic, long-life learning skills. Ken was a Principal who sent back the boxes of testing material when it arrived at his school and who, with wife Suesi, tried to open their own school in Toowoomba but were ‘outrageously stomped on’. Then, back in the classroom, he says. “ I continued my twice a year one hour conferences out of school time [in their homes if necessary] with parents although it was not appreciated by fellow teachers who were happy with the 15 minutes a family in school time, where ‘the parent came to listen to US’.
I knew that the concept of ‘non frigid’ education needed to be ‘sold’ and to be ‘sold’ again. I also believed that parents needed to be shown that I believed that their role in their children’s education was prime and paramount. I worked very hard at this for over ten years. I found that as long as I could maintain this type of conferencing my 

Mr. White,– @ the chalk face

– @ the chalk face:

by Kuhio Kane

Mr. White,
During my last two years as a teacher, I had a similar experience.  It wasn’t bullying or an anonymous call, but it was heavy handedness by the divisional head of our ten campus system of schools that gave orders to my site’s principal to make things bad for me, enough so that I would resign.
I, too, had been a strong voice against the destructive forces being brought to bear upon our public schools.  For me, it was bereft policy of NCLB and the additional  indignation of high stakes testing, the CAHSEE (California High School Exit Exam).  If a student didn’t pass, they didn’t graduate.  For so many of our kids living in high poverty areas who hadn’t the privilege of opportunity afforded kids living in well provisioned, middle class homes, the threat this test inflicted was painful, demeaning, and developed by state legislation without regards to the connection of socioeconomic circumstance and providing the right supports to “raise all boats.”
Only a few of us in the system would take on the additional tasks of presenting and going to workshops on all the latest testing and curriculum regimes that began raining down upon us.  We would return to our campuses, reiterate the latest schemes which changed as often as the weather, and that was that.  No more discussion.  Teachers and staff were out of the decision making process.
I voiced my opinions at staff meetings and encouraged public participation through a column I was given b

Arguing about school reforms that go nowhere - Class Struggle - The Washington Post

Arguing about school reforms that go nowhere - Class Struggle - The Washington Post:

Arguing about school reforms that go nowhere

By Jay Mathews

In the 1990s, Las Montanas High School (a fictional name for a real place) throbbed with excitement over technological advances in California’s Silicon Valley where it was located. Forty-four percent of the students were low-income but the school’s administrators and teachers vowed to override that handicap by turning it into a high tech magnet with a strong interdisciplinary focus.

They envisioned students learning by doing projects, and thus understanding more than ever before. Ten computer labs were scattered throughout the campus. When Stanford University scholar Larry Cuban and two of his graduate students spent the 1998-1999 school year there, the desire for change was evident.

Cuban is a former Arlington County school superintendent who defected to academia. He has spent decades examining the allegedly game-

NCTQ Letter Grades and the Reformer Agenda–Part VIII | deutsch29

NCTQ Letter Grades and the Reformer Agenda–Part VIII | deutsch29:

NCTQ Letter Grades and the Reformer Agenda–Part VIII

February 2, 2013

One of my favorite pasttimes involves reading true crime.  I enjoy everything about forensics, from interpreting the crime scene, to determining motives and personality quirks of the perpetrators, to learning of the seemingly insignificant bit of information that finally broke the case. And as I consider what I know about NCTQ advisory board member Michelle Rhee, I realize that I will likely be unshelving some book about her from the true crime section of a bookstore in the years to come.

For now, here she is, complete with self-promoting NCTQ bio:  Michelle Rhee.

Michelle Rhee

Michelle Rhee CEO of StudentsFirst, formerly served as Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools. Ms. Rhee is a change agent who had already transformed many urban public school systems through her work with The New Teacher Project (TNTP) which she founded in 1997, and is now a nationally recognized leader in understanding and developing innovative solutions to the challenges of new teacher hiring. As Chief Executive Officer and President, she partnered with school districts, state education agencies, non-profit organizations, and unions, to transform the way schools and other implemented widespread reform in teacher hiring, improving teacher hiring in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Miami, New York, Oakland, and Philadelphia. Thanks to TNTP, 23,000 new, high-quality teachers were placed in these schools across the 

Where are the voices of teachers in DeKalb mess? Here is one and he’s not holding back. | Get Schooled

Where are the voices of teachers in DeKalb mess? Here is one and he’s not holding back. | Get Schooled:

Where are the voices of teachers in DeKalb mess? Here is one and he’s not holding back.

by Maureen Downey

A DeKalb teacher sent me this piece, noting that none of the blog commentaries on the crisis in DeKalb have come from teachers.
I suspect teachers all over the country will agree with his comments about the lack of respect for the profession. (At his request, I am not using his name because of his concerns for his job.)
This teacher is responding to a recent DeKalb commentary on the blog  by Oglethorpe University President Lawrence Schall, but his essay speaks to the conditions facing teachers in many places:

I’ve seen so many commentaries over the weeks about the plight of the DeKalb School Systems – from interim superintendents to possible ex-board members to concerned politicians. The blaring omission of a teacher voice rings louder about our current state of affairs. I’ve shrugged all of them off and kept-calm-and-carried-on as has been the trickle-down mantra for years in DeKalb County.
Then, l read I read Lawrence M. Schall’s “wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing” commentary.
His …

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Odds and Ends

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Odds and Ends:

Odds and Ends

by Melissa Westbrook

Is this homework a kindergartener should be able to do?  I heard that at one Seattle elementary (it slips my mind which one but I think it is Roxhill) that they have ended homework and require only reading every night.    Should kindergartners have homework?

An upcoming event that may be of interest to you and your student - the unveiling of Mirror, a permanent art installation at SAM.  From their website:

MIRROR is an urban earthwork that changes in real time in response to the movements and life around it.

At the unveiling, guests will experience an unprecedented performance with synchronized choreography of MIRROR in relation to compositions by minimalist composers Steve Reich and Terry Riley. Mr. Riley will be in Seattle for the performance of his monumental work In C, featuring musicians from the Seattle Symphony 

UPDATE: Jeb Bush's education nonprofit rakes in cash + How Truthful are the Bush Foundation’s Assertions About Their Sponsors? | Scathing Purple Musings

How Truthful are the Bush Foundation’s Assertions About Their Sponsors? | Scathing Purple Musings:

How Truthful are the Bush Foundation’s Assertions About Their Sponsors?

by Bob Sikes

As part of a response to a Mississippi public school advocate in January, Foundation for Excellence in Education CEO Patricia Levesque wrote the following:

(Nancy) Loome notes that we take funding from for-profit providers. In fact, more than 90 percent of the Foundation’s budget comes from family foundations or philanthropic organizations dedicated to improving students’ educational success.
We advocate for policies that benefit students, not the interests of one particular non-profit or private entity.

Levesque knows that her claim cannot be verified as the latest financials on FEE come from 2011. And FEE

Jeb Bush's education nonprofit rakes in cash

Conservative foundations, charter school backers fill coffers of potential 2016 contender's nonprofit

By Michael Beckelemail

 

4:08 pm, March 7, 2013 Updated: 4:10 pm, March 7, 2013

Text complexity in the early grades: Shooting ourselves in the foot? | Dangerously Irrelevant

Text complexity in the early grades: Shooting ourselves in the foot? | Dangerously Irrelevant:

Text complexity in the early grades: Shooting ourselves in the foot?

by dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)

Here are some quotes from the most recent issue of Educational Researcherregarding text complexity in the early grades, one of the hallmark pushes of the Common Core State Standards:

the CCSS text complexity standards for Grade 3 appear to be aspirational, much like the No Child Left Behind Adequate Yearly Progress targets (Shepard, 2008). The small set of studies that have examined text complexity over time does not show that text complexity at Grade 3 has deteriorated. Neither is there evidence that the accelerated targets in the primary grades are necessary for high school graduates to read the texts of college and careers. (p. 47)

AND

Another potential indirect effect on students may be their motivation and engagement. The