inBloom officially closes | Parents Across America

inBloom officially closes | Parents Across America:



inBloom officially closes | Parents Across America

 After months of parent pushback on the threat to student data privacy, a campaign spearheaded by PAA co-founder Leonie Haimson of NYC’s Class Size Matters, inBloom today announced that they are closing their offices. We congratulate Leonie and all of the parents, teachers, students and others around the country who stood up and spoke out against the potential commercialization of our children’s school information.

Here’s Leonie’s statement:

Today’s announcement that inBloom is closing its doors  will hopefully make government officials, corporations and foundations more aware that parental concerns cannot be ignored, and that they must stop foisting their “solutions” on our schools and classrooms with no attention given to the legitimate concerns of parents and their right to protect their children from harm.

Yet the statement issued by inBloom’s CEO reeks of arrogance and condescension, and makes it clear that those in charge still have not learned any lessons from this debacle.  The fervent opposition to inBloom among parents throughout the country did not result from “misunderstandings”,  but inBloom‘s utter inability to provide a convincing rationale that would supercede the huge risks to student security and privacy involved.

Contrary to the claims of Iwan Streichenberger and others,  InBloom was  not designed to protect student privacy but the opposite: to facilitate the sharing of children’s personal and very sensitive information with data-mining vendors,  with no attention paid to the need for parental notification or consent, and this is

- See more at: http://parentsacrossamerica.org/inbloom-officially-closes/

Sacramento City Unified's Withdrawal from the CORE Waiver is No Big Loss | The Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education

Sacramento City Unified's Withdrawal from the CORE Waiver is No Big Loss | The Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education:

Sacramento City Unified's Withdrawal from the CORE Waiver is No Big Loss

published by Kate_Lenox on Mon, 04/21/2014 - 2:32pm

       Jonathon Raymond left Sacramento last December for personal reasons.  It must gall him that since his departure, Sacramento City Unified School District has declined to continue with one of his professional goals--participation in the California Office to Reform Education waiver from NCLB. After all it's the professional goal of Broad Academy graduates to privatize public education. Raymond used the opinion pages of the Sunday Sacramento Bee to bemoan the losses and outline the consequences that the district will face without the waiver. Aside from the loss of flexibility in the 20% of Title 1 money that will once again have to be set aside for tutoring by non-district vendors, the district isn't missing out on anything.

Sacrament City Unified will once again have schools labeled has failures--No Child Left Behind doesn't label schools as failures. It places them in Program Improvement. It is the media that has portrayed these schools as failures. The CORE waiver ranks schools from reward to focus. Woe to those labeled focus schools--if they fail to raise test scores in two to four years they face "turn around" regimes, conversion to charter schools or closure. If the district had failed to follow those prescriptions, it could have been sanctioned by the appointed oversight commission, which is the arbiter of compliance with the waiver. The district, however, will have more options for schools in Program Improvement under NCLB.

Sacramento City Unified will lose the ability to evaluate schools with meaningful measures of success-- it's questionable how meaningful it is to measure a student's "social and emotional" learning, if that can even be done. What the waiver created was new jobs for consultants in "social and emotional" learning. It also depended Sacramento City Unified's Withdrawal from the CORE Waiver is No Big Loss | The Sacramento Coalition to Save Public Education:

4-21-14 The Whole Child Blog — Getting Back to the Real Policy Basics — Whole Child Education

Getting Back to the Real Policy Basics — Whole Child Education:

Getting Back to the Real Policy Basics

Post written by Howard Adelman, PhD, and Linda Taylor, PhD, codirectors of whole child partner Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA. The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model provides another opportunity to get back to policy basics. A fundamental societal need is to end the marginalization (and ongoing fragmentation) of efforts to transform how schools address barriers to lea

by ASCD Whole Child ... / 2min 

4-19-14 THE WHOLE WEEK @ The Whole Child Blog — Whole Child Education

The Whole Child Blog — Whole Child Education:THE WHOLE WEEK @ The Whole Child Blog Engaging Curriculum: A Foundation for Positive School CulturePost written by David Hunter As a curriculum designer who advocates for project-based learning, I strongly believe that curriculum plays a major role in the school culture but can often go unconsidered when developing a vision around that culture. At first

by mike simpson / 15min 

2014-15 Approved Indirect Cost Rates - Correspondence (CA Dept of Education)

2014-15 Approved Indirect Cost Rates - Correspondence (CA Dept of Education):

2014–15 APPROVED INDIRECT COST RATES

As the agency authorized by the United States Department of Education to approve California kindergarten through grade twelve (K–12) local educational agency (LEA) indirect cost rates, the California Department of Education (CDE) has reviewed the 2012–13 standardized account code structure (SACS) expenditure data and has finalized the approved indirect cost rates. The rates are for use, as allowable, with 2014–15 federal and state programs.

Approved Indirect Cost Rates

Please share the enclosed listing with the school districts and joint powers agencies (JPAs) in your county. The indirect cost rates are also posted on the CDE Indirect Cost Rate (ICR) Web page at http://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/ac/ic/index.asp.

Indirect Cost Rates for JPAs

As a reminder, because JPAs do not generally meet the guidelines for receiving approved indirect cost rates, they are not given an approved rate unless it is requested during the SACS data submission process. For further information on indirect cost rates applicable to JPAs, including the guidelines that must be met to receive an indirect cost rate, see Procedure 805 of the California School Accounting Manual which is available on our Web page at http://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/ac/sa/.

Charter School Indirect Cost Rates

The approved 2014–15 indirect cost rates for charter schools are also posted on the ICR Web page listed above. Please share them with the applicable school districts and charter schools.

Statewide Average Indirect Cost Rates

The 2014–15 statewide average indirect cost rate is 5.69%. 

California Education Code (EC) section 38101(c) limits food service program indirect costs to amounts derived using the lesser of a school district's approved indirect cost rate or the statewide average indirect cost rate. Each district should compare this statewide average rate with its individual indirect cost rate to determine the lesser rate for use with this program.

A listing showing the statewide average rates for the last five years is also available on the ICR Web page listed above.

SACS Query Page

To aid staff in identifying the allowable indirect cost rates for various programs, the SACS Query system available on our Web page at http://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/ac/ac/index.asp includes this information for most programs.

If you have any questions regarding the indirect cost rates, please contact our office by phone at 916-322-1770 or by e-mail atsacsinfo@cde.ca.gov.

Sincerely,



Peggy O’Guin, Administrator
Financial Accountability and Information Services

NYC Public School Parents: Statement on inBloom's demise

NYC Public School Parents: Statement on inBloom's demise:

Statement on inBloom's demise

Today's announcement that inBloom is closing its doors  will hopefully make government officials, corporations and foundations more aware that parental concerns cannot be ignored, and that they must stop foisting their “solutions” on our schools and classrooms with no attention given to the legitimate concerns of parents and their right to protect their children from harm.

Yet the statement issued by inBloom’s CEO reeks of arrogance and condescension, and makes it clear that those in charge still have not learned any lessons from this debacle.  The fervent opposition to inBloom among parents throughout the country did not result from “misunderstandings”,  but inBloom‘s utter inability to provide a convincing rationale that would supercede the huge risks to student security and privacy involved.

Contrary to the claims of Iwan Streichenberger and others,  InBloom was  not designed to protect student privacy but the opposite: to facilitate the sharing of children’s personal and very sensitive information with data-mining vendors,  with no attention paid to the need for parental notification or consent, and this is something that parents will not stand for.  In New York, the last state to pull out of inBloom and the only one in which legislation was needed to do so, parents were joined by superintendents and teachers in pointing out that the risks to children’s privacy and safety far outweighed any educational benefits.

At the same time, we realize that the fight for student privacy is just beginning. There are more and more data-mining vendors who, with the help of government officials, foundations, and think-tanks, are eager to make money off of student information in the name of “big data” and “personalized” learning, and in the process see parents, if they recognize our existence at all, as ignorant obstacles to their Orwellian plans. This is despite the fact that the educational value of putting kids on computers and subjecting them to canned software programs is not supported by evidence, and is yet another way in which children’s education is being mechanized, depersonalized, and outsourced to corporate hands. 

As a consequence to inBloom’s overreach, parents throughout the country have also become painfully aware of the way in which the federal government has actively encouraged data-sharing and data-mining of personal student information by eviscerating FERPA.  We will continue to work with parents and advocates to see that the federal government returns to its original role as protecting  student privacy, and recognizing the parental right to notification and consent,  rather than furthering the ability of for-profit vendors and other third parties to commercialize this data without regard to its potential harm.

4-21-14 With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs

With A Brooklyn Accent:

Join "Heal for America!" Coming to Your Campus This Spring!

It's time to announce the amazing new program " Heal for America" coming from the folks who brought you TFA. Starting this spring, recruiters for HFA are going to be scouring the nation's top colleges for brilliant, idealistic students who are willing to go through a rigorous five week summer program to prepare them to be doctors in inner city health clinics starting September. Mayors an

6 by Mark Naison / 1h 

4-20-14 With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs

With A Brooklyn Accent: Game On!!! How Common Core Changed the Face of Education Activism in the USTeachers never were treated with much respect in the United States, but until recently they weren't demonized or singled out as responsible for the nation's problems and weaknesses. What has changed? That public education is now viewed as a major opportunity for profitable investment if it can be pri

by mike simpson / 18min 

Why Gym Class Isn't the Cure for Childhood Obesity - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

Why Gym Class Isn't the Cure for Childhood Obesity - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

Why Gym Class Isn't the Cure for Childhood Obesity

By Nancy Flanagan on April 21, 2014 1:46 PM

Let me be clear here, right from the beginning: I know, I know. It's physical education, not "gym class." And physical education is essential for all children, across the K-12 spectrum. Some of my best friends are gym--uh, physical education--teachers, and I have been, over three decades in the classroom, thoroughly schooled in what vibrant physical education programs look like, and their tangible benefits for children.

I'm certainly down with P.E., and want all children in America to have lots of exercise and fresh air. We could start by looking at the way Finland postholes regular periods of recess between short bursts of in-your-seat academic lessons. What I don't want is another legislated fiat, pushed through by a commission, that further ties the hands of school districts. Like this proposal, from Michigan, that legislatively require 90 minutes of P.E. weekly for  grades K-5, plus an additional 60 minutes of "recess and other physical activity." In grades 6-8, schools would be ordered to provide a semester of daily physical education for each child.

Pretty reasonable, right? Just mandate these changes, and --boom!--we're on our way to healthier kids, who will  "show greater attention, have faster cognitive processing speed and perform better on standardized tests than children who are not as active." Except that we leave thousands of elementary and middle schools (who, trust me, want very much to provide physical education for their students) stuck with another well-meant set of demands to fit into the limited parameters of Why Gym Class Isn't the Cure for Childhood Obesity - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

4-21-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter:

Former Teacher Describes KIPP's Special Ed Program as "a lawsuit waiting to happen"

The following excerpt is from another interview with a former KIPP teacher who was hired to solve the special education problem at one KIPP school.  This teacher served for two years at KIPP, and it was the day she ran into another car as she went to sleep on the way home after another 12 hour day that she finally decided to leave KIPP.  She offers many details about life at KIPP, including the cu

by Jim Horn / 7min 

Will Harry Be Held Back in Kindergarten?

Back in December I reported on Harry, a little boy I have come to know who goes to kindergarten in the leafy suburbs of Germantown, TN.  I talked with Harry's dad yesterday and got an update on how school is going, with only 4 weeks left in the year. Harry's dexterity has improved since December, so that now he is not being downgraded for not clicking in the answers on the computerized bubble shee

by Jim Horn / 11min  

4-20-14 Schools Matter

Schools Matter: Newark Citizens United Against CorpEd Miseducation PlanSigned by 77 local ministers:by Jim Horn / 0min 4-19-14 Schools Matter All WeekSchools Matter:  Schools Matter All WeekCitizen Jack's analysis of Michelle Rhee's recent mendaciousness"In an even more disturbing revelation heard on the tape Rhee laughs about when the tape was removed hurting the children and some even start

by mike simpson / 23h 

4-21-14 LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD

LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District):

CHAMPS in jeopardy of losing charter over credit card theft

The Charter High School of Arts – Multimedia and Performing, better known as CHAMPS, is at risk of losing its charter after school administrators failed to act aggressively last year when learning that an employee used a school credit card for her personal use. As a result, the LA Unified School Board has put the Van Nuys school on notice that if could lose its charter if school administrators hav

by Vanessa Romo / 1min 

Analysis: Just what does Caputo-Pearl’s first-round victory mean?

Caputo-Pearl at the podium; Fletcher, on the right The first round of the UTLA elections produced two stunning results. One: For the first time in recent memory, a political faction within the union — Union Power – has gained near total control of the union. In a field of 10 candidates for president, Alex Caputo-Pearl out-polled his nearest competitor, incumbent Warren Fletcher, by a 2-to-1 margin

by Michael Janofsky / 0min 

Morning Read: Counties going easy on spending plans

County offices to cut districts some slack for now on their LCAPs State and county education officials are seeking to reassure school districts that might be worried that county superintendents will reject the new accountability plans they’ll submit by July 1 for the 2014-15 year. Tighter scrutiny will come, just not for the initial plan. EdSource Mentoring group gives L.A. Unified students an ex

by Aaron Stella / 11min 

4-19-14 This Week in LA - School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD

LA School Report - What's Really Going on Inside LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District):Tutoring center busted for scamming millions in fed dollarsA tutoring company billing itself as “The trusted name for specialized tutoring” may not be so trustworthy after all. Unless, that specialty is in defrauding the federal government. The Academic Advantage, whose website is endorsed by The Governato

by mike simpson / 17min

TALLAHASSEE: South Miami-based charter school management company under federal scrutiny - Miami-Dade - MiamiHerald.com

TALLAHASSEE: South Miami-based charter school management company under federal scrutiny - Miami-Dade - MiamiHerald.com:

South Miami-based charter school management company under federal scrutiny

 

BY KATHLEEN MCGRORY

HERALD/TIMES TALLAHASSEE BUREAU

TALLAHASSEE -- The state’s largest charter school management company has come under scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Education for potential conflicts of interests in its business practices, federal authorities have confirmed.

The Education Department’s Inspector General Office is auditing the South Miami-based Academica Corp. as part of a broader examination of school management companies nationwide. The audit will be complete this summer, department spokeswoman Catherine Grant said.

A preliminary audit report obtained by the Herald/Times identified potential conflicts of interest between the for-profit company Academica and the Mater Academy charter schools it manages. One example the auditors cited was the transfer of money from Mater Academy to its private support organization, which shares the same board of directors.

When asked about the potential conflicts of interest raised in the report, Academica attorney Marcos Daniel Jiménez, in an email to the Herald/Times, touted the charter school network's academic record and commitment to its students.

Jiménez also said Academica had sent a response letter to the U.S. Department of Education correcting what he called “inaccuracies and false statements” contained in the preliminary report. But Academica declined the Herald/Times request to be provided the response, saying the Education Department considered the report and the response from Academica to be confidential.

The Education Department’s findings come as the Florida Legislature considers a bill that could weaken TALLAHASSEE: South Miami-based charter school management company under federal scrutiny - Miami-Dade - MiamiHerald.com:

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/04/20/4070016/florida-charter-school-management.html#storylink=cpy

Interview with Michelle Gunderson co-founder of the Network for Social Justice Unionism

Network for Social Justice Unionism:

Network for Social Justice Unionism

By Roshan Bliss

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Michelle Gunderson

Interview with Michelle Gunderson co-founder of the Network for Social Justice Unionism

Earlier this month at the Labor Notes Conference, rank and file labor leaders announced for the first time the creation of the Network for Social Justice Unionism (NSJU), a new infrastructure that unionists concerned with advancing social justice beyond the workplace hope to use to organize for a shift in the way the labor movement operates.

The NSJU seeks to encourage the creation of social justice caucuses in union locals across the nation and to establish working relationships between those caucuses to be able to support each other’s struggles. Together, these caucuses hope to create an movement inside of organized labor that pushes union leaders across the country to do more to see that union power benefits not just workers themselves, but also the communities that unions are embedded in and rely upon.

Plans for the NSJU have been in the works for over a year, and NSJU members are optimistic that their work will not only be enthusiastically received by workers and social justice activists, but that it could eventually transform and revitalize an aging labor movement. The NSJU effort has its roots in recent struggles for change led by teachers, but seeks to encourage workers of all kinds to commit to lending their knowledge, resources, and influence to other ongoing struggles for justice beyond their workplaces.

NSJU co-founder Michelle Gunderson is a member of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) who helped start the Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE). She sat down to talk about creation and purpose of Network for Social Justice Unionism and the potential of it work.

Roshan Bliss: Talk about the Network for Social Justice Unionism. Where did it come from?

Michelle Gunderson: It came from a definition. What does it mean to be a social justice unionist? What that means, in my mind, is that we hold workers’ rights in the same plane and in the same balance as students’ rights and community rights. We don’t hold our needs above students’. I will fight to the death for the right of Network for Social Justice Unionism:

Oklahoma lawmakers, parents rethinking past education reforms | News OK

Oklahoma lawmakers, parents rethinking past education reforms | News OK:

Oklahoma lawmakers, parents rethinking past education reforms

Efforts result in rolling back of educational reforms from previous years.

By Nate Robson, Oklahoma Watch • Published: April 19, 2014

One by one, K-12 education reforms passed in previous years by Oklahoma lawmakers are being targeted for weakening or repeal.

Among them: Common Core State Standards, the Reading Sufficiency Act, A-F school grades for districts, and middle school end-of-instruction exams for history and social studies. These all could be scaled back or revoked by various legislative bills that have passed in both the House and Senate.

It is Republicans, who have driven the accountability and testing movement statewide and nationally, who are voting in sometimes large majorities to roll back reforms.

It’s too early to tell how far the retrenchment will go, and whether it’s a temporary shift driven by cautionary election-year strategies that will abate after the primary in June and general election in November. But so far, the fallback does not appear to be letting up, in Oklahoma or nationally.

Education officials and advocates cite various reasons for the tempering of reforms, but one of the most frequent is a pushback from parents, teachers and other voters.

“I think their constituents are getting engaged and involved,” said Meredith Exline, president of the Oklahoma Central Parent Legislative Action Committee. “They are paying attention to the issues, and they will look at their options when it’s time to vote.”

One of the biggest changes in the making is the relaxing of the mandatory retention of third-graders who fail the state’s reading assessment administered under the Reading Sufficiency Act. On Wednesday, the Republican-controlled Senate passed the bill, 43-1, and it now heads back to the House for final consideration.

The House passed its version of the bill, 84-6, on March 4. Among other things, the bill would allow a panel of parents, teachers and school leaders to let a student who failed the test advance to fourth grade and receive intervention.

Many parents and teachers have spoken out against mandatory retention tied to the Oklahoma lawmakers, parents rethinking past education reforms | News OK:

Teachers are losing their jobs, but Teach for America’s expanding. What’s wrong with that? | Hechinger Report

Teachers are losing their jobs, but Teach for America’s expanding. What’s wrong with that? | Hechinger Report:

Teachers are losing their jobs, but Teach for America’s expanding. What’s wrong with that?

By Alexandra Hootnick

This story also appeared at:

For the second week in a row in his new home, Kenneth Maldonado’s evening ritual began with lumping sweaters and sleeping bags into the shape of a mattress in his otherwise empty bedroom. It was late September of 2011, the end of his first month as a Teach for America instructor. Having been only recently approved to teach in the Seattle school district, he was broke. But Maldonado and his two roommates — also TFA teachers — were among the lucky ones. Just a few weeks earlier, a half-dozen of their fellow recruits had been camped out on the hardwood floor of the unfurnished common area, homeless and unemployed.

The Teach for America program, now 24 years old, selects and sends young college graduates (referred to as “corps members”) to teach in schools serving primarily disadvantaged children of color, after giving its recruits five intensive weeks of training over the summer. Like the Peace Corps, TFA is a résumé booster, and its alumni have gone on to successful careers from the White House to Wall Street.

The 2011–12 school year was the organization’s fledgling year in Seattle, and Maldonado, then 24, initially felt excited to be one of the first 38 recruits. His family didn’t have much when he was growing up in Los Angeles — his father, a former teacher in Guatemala, took on maintenance jobs after fleeing to the United States to escape the country’s civil war. But Maldonado excelled in school, graduating from the University of California Santa Cruz, with a theater major and an education minor. He soon got a job with a San Jose–based nonprofit that helps people find low-income housing.

Kenneth Maldonado joined Teach for America in 2011 in Seattle, where the organization’s expansion efforts led to a controversial contract with Seattle Public Schools. Maldonado said that while he is supportive of TFA and its mission, its early missteps in Seattle were part of what he saw as the organization’s “misjudged optimism.” (Photo: Alexandra Hootnick

Although TFA requires only a two-year commitment, Maldonado was serious about a teaching career, and he saw the program as a guaranteed way into the profession without the time and expense of grad school. He especially appreciated its focus on disadvantaged schools. So when he learned of his acceptance into the program, he quit his job in California and prepared to move to the Pacific Northwest. “I wasn’t stressed out, I wasn’t worried,” he said. “I fully trusted Teach for America had everything figured out.”

It hadn’t. In 2009, the Seattle school district was hardly in the grip of a teacher shortage: 13,800 teachers had applied for just 352 full- and part-time positions. But the schools were facing a $25 million deficit, and TFA was asking for a $4,000 annual fee per recruit (area philanthropists would later cover it; on average, schools contracting with the organization pay $5,000 a year for Teachers are losing their jobs, but Teach for America’s expanding. What’s wrong with that? | Hechinger Report: