Illinois Democrats and Florida Republicans pillage teacher pensions SIMULTANEOUSLY | Reclaim Reform

Illinois Democrats and Florida Republicans pillage teacher pensions SIMULTANEOUSLY | Reclaim Reform:

Illinois Democrats and Florida Republicans pillage teacher pensions SIMULTANEOUSLY

by kenpreviti

Illinois Democrats and Florida Republicans legislate to pillage active and retired teacher pensions simultaneously. This is NO coincidence.
Who wants to teach where teachers past and present are being openly scapegoated and financially ripped? Who wants their children to attend public school?
Teachers and other public workers are threatened with a vote to pillage their pensions tomorrow by the Florida Republican super-majority legislature just as the Illinois Democratic super-majority legislature did today. There is a well financed War against the Middle Class going on at this minute and hundreds of thousands are being financially attacked and hurt as you read this.
  
The bluest of blue states, Illinois, with its Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and his super-majority legislature and one 

#msnbc: Will they or won’t they cover racism in Chicago? – @ the chalk face

#msnbc: Will they or won’t they cover racism in Chicago? – @ the chalk face:

#msnbc: Will they or won’t they cover racism in Chicago?

by Timothy D. Slekar

Here is the latest out of Chicago brought to us by MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry.

Breaking: Chicago to close 61 school buildings

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/03/21/breaking-chicago-to-close-61-public-schools/
They are SCHOOLS filled with children—not buildings!
Here is what I have been trying to post to the discussion section of the story.

If MSNBC turns away from this story then we know that it is a corporate owned propaganda factory. The research on closing schools is extremely valuable. Simply, school closings hurt neighborhoods and result in poor learning conditions for the schools that absorb children from closed schools. The buildings are typically then used to house Charter Schools that refuse to admit local children. This leads to a gentrification process that pushes out the local residents. And 90% of the time this is done in minority communities.
This is blatant racism and classism! It doesn’t matter that the mayor is a Democrat and that the current President is from Chicago. Cover the story and hit the guilty parties hard.
It does not matter to the families and children of closed schools if it is a Democrat or a Republican 

Stop School Closings! Chicago March and Rally March 27th 4:00PM

Stop School Closings! Chicago March and Rally March 27th 4:00PM:

Stop School Closings! Chicago March and Rally March 27th 4:00PM

by Server

Action Alert

Stop School Closings! March and Rally March 27th 4:00PM

Scores of parents, students, teachers, public school employees and community residents are gearing up for the next stage in their fight to save 129 schools from the chopping block. While the District contemplates how many neighborhood schools they will shutter this year, taxpayers who have had enough of these top-down, draconian measures are strategizing about how to elevate their voices in the school closing fight.
An anti-school closings march and rally is planned for 4:00 p.m. on March 27 in downtown Chicago.
Demonstrators will gather at Daley Plaza, proceed to City Hall and then head toward the Board of Education.
GEM activists and CTU members are holding joint meetings this week in each network. Please see the flyer below for individual meetings times and locations.
The Chicago Teachers Union, the Grassroots Education Movement, parents, students and legislators demand a full moratorium on school closings and charter proliferation this school year. School closings do not save money. Already, 10 people have been arrested in protest of the mayor’s school closing policies. After CPS releases its “hit list” of schools targeted for closure and consolidation, members of the Board of Education will vote in May whether to uphold the proposed actions.

Click any flyer below to download a printable version.
CTU Organizing Meetings.
Members, Parents, Students, Community.
Suport Our Schools.
Do Not Close Them. March 27th RallySpanish Version; Support Our Schools.
Do Not Close Them. March 27th Rally

UPDATE: Notes from Diane + Why the Strongsville Strike Matters for Education | The Network For Public Education

Why the Strongsville Strike Matters for Education | The Network For Public Education:

Why the Strongsville Strike Matters for Education

by admin

In the last few weeks, something big has been happening in our small town. The Strongsville Education Association, our local teacher’s union, has been on strike since Monday, March 4th. As an alumna of this district, the last two weeks have taught me some important things about our town, the national conversation about education  and the future of unions and middle class jobs.

The current national debate about teacher pay and public unions is built on two notions that are now “common wisdom.”

1. Teachers (and public employees) are not doing a good enough job and would not be able to compete in the private sector. Challenging or breaking their unions is important to improving the quality of the services provided.
2. Teachers are overpaid and their salaries and benefits are unsustainable for local and state governments

The Strongsville teachers are the first teachers to strike in the state of Ohio in more than five years. More

Notes from Diane – March 22, 2013

by admin

Diane Ravitch President

Dear Friends,
The Network for Public Education has received a very positive response, and we are building alliances with grassroots groups across the nation. If you know of any who have not signed up, please tell them how to find us.
You know what we oppose: High-stakes testing; privatization of public education; mass school closures to save money or to facilitate privatization; demonization of teachers; lowering of standards for the education profession; for-profit management of schools.

Here is what we support:

• We support schools that offer a full and rich curriculum for all children, including the arts, physical education, history, civics, foreign languages, literature, mathematics, and the sciences.
• We support schools that are subject to democratic control by members of their community.

New Mexico Education Secretary Left in Limbo and Strong Policy on the Governor’s Desk

by admin

By Elaine Romero
New Mexico has alternating 30-day and 60-day legislative sessions. The 2013 60-day included 33% new senators and 48% new representatives.  Never before had a governor played such a prominent role in local races as GOP Governor Suzanna Martinez during the 2012 elections of senators and representatives.  The session began on January 15 with a 42-member Senate (25D-17R) and a 70-member House (38D-32R).  The session ended in total disarray as the Governor rammed a complicated tax package of corporate tax breaks through in the final 5 seconds of the House session.  This is a strategy that we are witnessing across the country as was recently documented by our NPE colleague, Larry Lee in Alabama.
The Senate Education Committee consisted of 6 out of 9 freshmen senators.  The chair, Senator John Sapien (D), his first year as chair, was in his 2nd term and the ranking member Senator Gay Kernan (R) in her 4th term.  The House Education Committee consisted of 5 out of 13 freshman representatives.  The chair, Representative Mimi Stewart (D), her first year as chair, was in her 10th term and the ranking member was Majority Floor 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: CReATE PRESS RELEASE ON NEW STUDY

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: CReATE PRESS RELEASE ON NEW STUDY:

CReATE PRESS RELEASE ON NEW STUDY

by Mike Klonsky

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Stephanie Farmer, Roosevelt University
773-628-7680
sfarmer@roosevelt.edu

New Study from CReATE: School Closures will Negatively Impact Academic Performance, Destabilize Communities

CHICAGO (March 21, 2013) -- Closing public schools in Chicago will negatively impact academic performance and create more hardship for communities that are already suffering from disinvestment, according to a new study by Chicagoland Researchers and Advocates for Transformative Education (CReATE), a group of Chicago-area university professors specializing in educational research.

After a review of scholarly research and new data on school closings occurring in Chicago and around the country, CReATE, a network for more than 100 professors from Chicago-area universities, urged the Chicago Board of Education on Thursday to reject a proposal that would shutter 80 neighborhood schools.

“We find that the history of previous school closures and school actions reveal that closures will negatively impact academic performance and create hardship for communities. Simply put, we believe that massive school closures will do more harm than good for Chicago’s children,” said David Stovall, professor education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and contributor to the CReATE report.

Calling the school-closure issue “the most critical education policy decision today” for Chicago and its future, CReATE researchers found evidence that:

School closures historically have had a negative impact on children’s academic performance.  Analyses of school closures in Chicago reveal that 94% of students from closed CPS schools did not go on to “academically strong” new schools.  The evidence also shows that students transitioned to new schools experience lower test scores and are at an increased risk of dropping out.  School closings also negatively affect the achievement levels for students in the receiving schools due to increased class sizes and overcrowding in receiving schools.

School closures have not historically resulted in the savings predicted by school officials. In national studies of school closings, closure-related costs have consistently been underestimated or understated by officials, as districts found themselves paying for closed school site maintenance or demolition, moving services, new costs of transporting students and support for both displaced students and the schools that received them.  A Pew study shows that CPS is having difficulty disposing of the schools they have already closed.  Furthermore, public school districts may also lose federal and state grants if parents remove students from the destabilized public school system and send them to charter schools.

Chicago Public Schools measurement of ideal utilization of 30 children per classroom reflects poor education policy.  The evidence shows a huge gap between the number of empty seats CPS claims it has versus what CPS has reported in their yearly data, thus casting doubt on the magnitude of the so-called underutilization problem.  More importantly, studies on class sizes advise against the Chicago Board of Education’s standard of ideal utilization at 30 children per classroom.  The most credible study on the impact of class size, Tennessee’s Student Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) program found that students from smaller classes outperformed students from larger classes, with the biggest gains seen amongst African American students, lower-income students, and students from urban areas.

School closures have historically benefited charter school expansion.  Previous rounds of CPS school closures have facilitated charter school expansion whereby 40% of closed CPS school buildings have been leased to privately operated charter schools.  Enrollment data show that the presence of charter schools contributes to declining CPS enrollment in neighborhood schools, which goes on to create the conditions for neighborhood school closures.  Charter school funding from the state is expanding while funds for public neighborhood schools are significantly reduced.  Finally, CPS signed an agreement with the Gates Foundation to introduce 60 more charter schools in Chicago at precisely the same time CPS threatens to close 80 neighborhood schools due to underutilization.

School closures exacerbate racial inequalities in Chicago.  Approximately 90% of the school closings will impact predominately African-American communities.  The pattern of schools being considered for closure overlays the patterns of disinvestment in African-American communities such as closed public housing units, foreclosures, city-owned vacant properties and troubled mortgages.  We believe that closing schools will deepen the distress and insecurity that these communities are already confronting.

School closings will contribute to even more violence Chicago communities are enduring.  Studies of previous school closures in Chicago found spikes of violence in and around the elementary and high schools where students from closed schools were sent.

For all these reasons, CReATE has determined that school closures are not in the best interest of Chicago children, parents, residents and communities.

“We strongly believe that the pathway to stronger schools for children is paved by safe and stable school environments, and strong communities.  School closures undermine these conditions,” Stephanie Farmer, professor of sociology at Roosevelt University and contributor to the CReATE report.

The CReATE Research Brief on School Closures is available at http://createchicago.blogspot.com.

The briefing paper was prepared by professors Stephanie Farmer of Roosevelt University, Isaura Pulido of Northeastern Illinois University, Pamela J. Konkol of Concordia University, Kate Phillippo of Loyola University, David Stovall of the University of Illinois at Chicago and Mike Klonsky of DePaul University.

The in box. I was told my school was slated for turn-around and was provided a list of free mental health services. | Fred Klonsky

The in box. I was told my school was slated for turn-around and was provided a list of free mental health services. | Fred Klonsky:

The in box. I was told my school was slated for turn-around and was provided a list of free mental health services.

by Fred Klonsky

Fred,
This morning a meeting was called, prior to our actual start time, to explain that my school was slated for turn-around. I was provided a handout that listed free mental health services and within five minutes I was required to retrieve my students and start my day. 17 years of working within a community , a neighborhood school, commitment, continued degrees, national board certification. Long enough to start to teach the children of former students. Relationships built, baby shower invitations, funerals and burials. My school is identified as a failure, the children failing and 

This Week In Education: Thompson: Secrecy, Not Privatization, Marred Broad Grad's Oklahoma City Tenure

This Week In Education: Thompson: Secrecy, Not Privatization, Marred Broad Grad's Oklahoma City Tenure:

Thompson: Secrecy, Not Privatization, Marred Broad Grad's Oklahoma City Tenure

by john thompson

Alexander' recent Scholastic Administrator Profile of Eli Broad makes a strong case that Eli Broad does not seek to privatize public schools.  Those of us who despise Broad's policies are on firmer ground when explaining how the harm he has caused is due to his self-proclaimed "art of being unreasonable."
Russo cites the education blogger (and critic) Tom Hoffman who says the Gates Foundation is “feckless and trendy” on school reform, as compared with the “focused malice” of the Broad Foundation. I agree, but, who cares whether Broad's damage is the result of his impatience or anger?
According to Russo, Broad has been willing to make adjustments in his metrics, and two districts asked his foundation to do diagnostic audits of their systems.  I welcome any diagnostic metrics and I would also offer a suggestion.
Oklahoma City's Broadie ordered audits of seven aspects of our school system, but he kept them private.

Missouri Education Watchdog: Is DESE telling the truth on Common Core Standards?

Missouri Education Watchdog: Is DESE telling the truth on Common Core Standards?:

Is DESE telling the truth on Common Core Standards?

by stlgretchen

James Shuls, education policy analyst at Show-Me Institute, finds claims that the Common Core State Standards will not influence instructional practices downright disingenuous and obviously false.

He writes in Jay P. Greene's blog an article challenging Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's claims that CCSS will not affect curriculum.  From Constructive Criticism for Common Core Constructivism Deniers:

In a recent Twitter exchange, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education informed me that the CCSS don’t “tell teachers how to teach.” This is a phrase that has been echoing across the country as the Common Core has come under attack from the left and the right.

The fact is that curriculum standards don’t tell teachers how to teach in the same way that a high jump bar doesn’t tell a jumper how to jump. You could theoretically jump over a high jump bar in whatever way you would like; but because of how the jump is structured there is 

GO Public Schools’ Proposal Gets an F from OUSD Teacher | Classroom Struggle

GO Public Schools’ Proposal Gets an F from OUSD Teacher | Classroom Struggle:

GO Public Schools’ Proposal Gets an F from OUSD Teacher

by ClassroomStruggle

We post a fiery letter  from an OUSD teacher who attended GO Public Schools’ event Wednesday night.  There GO and a coalition of other organizations (including SEIU 1021, Youth Together, Youth Uprising, OCO, and Education Trust-West) proposed to evaluate, fire, and hire teachers according to student test score data.  Click here for the report.  The teacher is as angry for what it leaves out as what it proposes.  A must read on a very relevant issue for Oakland, as GO and Tony Smith appear to be making a full-court press to evaluate teachers by test scores.

Dear Great Oakland Public Schools, National Council for Teacher Quality and the Oakland Effective Teaching Coalition,

These are my thoughts about your “Teacher Quality Roadmap” and your event tonight, March 20th.

You presentation was based on an analysis of exceptional, average and weak teachers.

The only brief explanation of how you determine who is an exceptional teacher, average or weak teachers was in the number of years a student’s learning increases within a school year (based on standardized test scores I imagine although this was not explicitly stated). They said that highly effective teachers 

Schools Matter: AERA's Bill Tierney: Clueless Per Usual

Schools Matter: AERA's Bill Tierney: Clueless Per Usual:

AERA's Bill Tierney: Clueless Per Usual

by Jim Horn

Ever since Bill Tierney began his not-so-subtle business-friendly nods to the austerity zealots and the plutocrats who think they know more about education than educators, his emails to the AERA membership have consistently shown him to be a neoliberal do-gooder who has no notion of what it means to do social science research that matters to the educational, political, and cultural health of democratic societies.

Here's an example from near the end of his latest email that offers a failed opportunity to take up the subject of poverty in a way that would lay down a challenge to researchers and academics:

I am suggesting that, based on our mission, we must not simply produce high-quality research with various theoretical frames and methodologies. We must engage directly with policy makers and local communities, and we must take part in thoughtful dialogue with people who disagree with us. . .

Here Tierney offers us a classic false dichotomy of either doing rigorous research that upholds some element 

Not by the numbers Former teacher falls out of good graces with district over school-closure disagreement Sacramento News & Review -

Sacramento News & Review - Not by the numbers - Bites - Opinions - March 21, 2013:

Not by the numbers

Former teacher falls out of good graces with district over school-closure disagreement

Cosmo Garvin 
cosmog@newsreview.com

Read 4 reader submitted comments

This article was published on 03.21.13.

Related stories: Fail Those who supported the deeply flawed Sacramento city school-closure process and outcome need to be held accountable in the media—and in the next election. SN&R, 02.28.13. Laugh it up The Actor’s Theatre of Sacramento presents comedy galore. SN&R, 02.17.11.

Karen Swett is something of a guru when it comes to school budgets, particularly in the Sacramento City Unified School District, where she was once a teacher.
Though retired from the district, she was until a few weeks ago given access to the school district’s online budget data. It’s all public information, but most of us have to go through the district public-information office to get it. Swett got to pull information for herself, accessing the online system, called Escape, and the ability to generate reports on her own.
She says the access came from Superintendent Jonathan Raymondhimself, so that she might help the community better understand school budgets. Swett used her access and her knowledge to work with parents and with the many official school site councils—made up of teachers and parents and principals—who meet to figure out how to make the best of the limited dollars available to each school. She even formed a little nonprofit called Making Cents Work, to help school sites and residents navigate the sometimes bewildering terrain of school finance.
For the most part, Swett kept a pretty low profile, even when she saw things at the district she didn’t agree with. But she couldn’t keep quiet about the district’s mass closure of schools in Sacramento low-income neighborhoods. It didn’t make any sense to her, didn’t save much money, and much more money was being wasted or left on the table in the form of “categorical” funds from the state.
She said so, leading community meetings and working with others who are fighting school closures to come up with an “alternative budget.” She tried to talk some members of the Sac city school board of trustees, hoping to show them just how damaging and unnecessary the 

Rep. Honda's STEM Education Bill Puts a Band-Aid on the Real Problem | The Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education

Rep. Honda's STEM Education Bill Puts a Band-Aid on the Real Problem | The Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education:

Rep. Honda's STEM Education Bill Puts a Band-Aid on the Real Problem

by Kate_Lenox

From the article about STEM Education:  "Here's an overview of the problem: If a school district focuses only on performing well on a high-stakes California state test, an opportunity to experience and make applications in science, engineering design and computer science is lost. Rote memorization of facts and figures is over-valued. Our students' school experience, consequently, becomes a test prep factory, a setting devoid of meaningful human interaction and richer curricular connection. A child's spirit of wonder and intrigue becomes a sterile test score result."
There's no arguing with that statement. Business interests have been complaining about schools since the turn of the last century when somehow it was decided that the purpose of public schools was not to educate citizens to participate in our democracy, but to train workers to participate in the economy. These days businesses have a point when they say schools place too much emphasis on testing and rote learning, but it seems they are complaining to the wrong people. It's not individual school district's that place emphasis on testing, it's federal education policy. Why aren't Fortune 500 companies lobbying the federal government ? Why aren't the Silicon Valley companies  that value real learning speaking out against Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. It seems 

Diane in the Evening 3-21-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Karen Lewis on Chicago School Closings

by dianerav

The mass closing of public schools in Chicago should be the lead story on every news channel tonight. It is not. The fact is that a dozen years of No Child Left Behind and three-plus years of Race to the Top has persuaded the American public that closing schools is “reform.”
It is not.
It is a dereliction of responsibility. It is an abdication of any oath of office that a public official in this country takes. It is a betrayal of any commitment to equality of educational opportunity. It is a capitulation to corpora

Outrage! School Closings in Chicago

by dianerav

Guess whose schools were closed? The poorest, the neediest, the children of color. Now the charter operators will decide which ones they want. They will take the “strivers.” Who will take the others?
Which children will be left behind in the era of No Child Left Behind?
Which children come in last in Arne Duncan’s Race to the Top?
How will the PR folks spin the mass closure of 50 public schools as a victory in “the civil rights issue of our 

TFA: Follow the Money

by dianerav

To regular readers of this blog, the story is not new.
Teach for America is one of the richest nonprofit organizations in the United States, yet it passes the begging bowl as if it desperately needs cash.
TFA is a brand, a money machine. Its tax reports got out on the Internet, and now everyone who wants to know knows that TFA collected nearly a billion dollars in a five-year period. And that Wendy Kopp, its CEO, pays 

Who Decided to Close 50 Public Schools in Chicago?

by dianerav

The mass closure of 50 public schools is unprecedented.
Who decided?
This from a reader:
I am appalled at the lack of objectivity, fairness and independence that was brought to the table by the Commission on School Utilization, which conducted the study of school utilization and found, of course, that schools were underutilized. The Chicago Teachers Union has reported that this commission is staffed with those 

Kirp vs. Rhee on L.A. Election

by dianerav

In this pairing of opposites, David Kirp takes on the mythology of corporate reformers and says we should fix theschools we have, rather than close them. He boldly challenges the claims of Michelle Rhee and disparages the hapless Race to the Top
On the same page, Michelle Rhee displays her inability to speak truth. She reviews the Los Angeles school board election and makes the bizarre claim that school board president Monica Garcia won even though she was “strongly targeted” by the United Teachers of Los Angeles.
She neglects to mention that Garcia had the help of the $4 million fund raised by Rhee and friends, while the 

LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 3-21-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

coopmike48 at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Indiana: Who Is Pushing for and against Common Core by dianerav Indiana voters booted out State superintendent Tony Bennett because of a strange coalition: Democrats who disliked his all-out assault on teachers and public education, allied with Republicans who disliked his fierce advocacy for the Common Core. Now the struggle against the Common Core continues in that state, as advocates like the rightwing Stand for Children run an advertising campaign to suppo... more »

Weekly Leg Fax: Democratic governance of schools | Parents Across America

Weekly Leg Fax: Democratic governance of schools | Parents Across America:

Weekly Leg Fax: Democratic governance of schools

by pureparents

Parent Voices Weekly Education Fax

March 20, 2013

 Support democratic governance of public schools

The story: Legislative proposal seeks to strengthen local control of schools

Last November, voters in Bridgeport, Connecticut rejected a corporate reform-backed effort to strip voters of their right to an elected school board. PAA Connecticut member Wendy Lecker wrote, “Bridgeport’s voters were not fooled by the reformers’ claims. A sound majority elected to retain their right to vote, maintaining public accountability for education.”

87% of last fall’s voters in Chicago favored of an elected school board in the 35 of 50 wards where the advisory referendum was on the ballot**. The initiative was supported by PAA Chicago affiliates 19th Ward Parents Organization and PURE. 19th Ward’s Becky Malone said, “As long as we have an appointed board accountable only to the Mayor, we will never see real change in our public schools.”

Now, Representatives Aaron Schock and Pat Meehan have announced their intention to introduce the Local School Board Governance and Flexibility Act, which will reaffirm the role of local educational agencies as the principal democratic governance body in determining how children in local communities are educated.

Unfortunately, in recent years, this local authority has been unnecessarily eroded through policies and requirements unilaterally established by federal agencies. One such example is the federal Department of Education placing additional requirements on schools boards in order to receive a federal grant.

PAA’s position: PAA strongly supports democratic governance of schools, including elected parent-majority school site councils. We have opposed mandates like Race to the Top which require states and districts to enact questionable policies in order to win federal funding. We also support the right of local communities to approve or disapprove the establishment of charter schools in their communities, either through direct vote or through their school board or other locally-elected body, rather than through appointed commissions.

PAA recommends that Congress give this proposal due consideration when it is introduced.

Louisiana wants to link student funding to test scores:

Louisiana wants to link student funding to test scores

Posted by Valerie Strauss on March 21, 2013 at 1:52 pm

Just when you think there are no other ways to pervert the use of  high-stakes standardized test scores, school reformers show just how creative they are.

Its not enough, apparently, to judge students, teachers, principals, schools, districts and states, on test scores, not to mention the Education Department’sproposal to evaluate education schools based on the test scores earned by the students of their graduates. (Got that?) Now Louisiana Education Superintendent John White has come up with a novel idea: He wants to link the funding for students labeled “gifted” to how well they do on standardized tests. Really. Money for test scores.

The plan, already approved by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and set to be considered by the Louisiana legislature this spring, is part of an overall $3.5 billion school funding proposal.

One part, according to The Advocate, would apply to gifted and talented high school 

Students seek to repeal Alabama law forcing teachers to say homosexuality is criminal

by Valerie Strauss

In Alabama, a 1992 state law requires that sex education teachers tell students that homosexuality is a crime and that it is “not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public.” Now two Alabama students have started a petition on change.org … Continue reading →