PAA responds to President Obama’s letter on testing | Parents Across America

PAA responds to President Obama’s letter on testing | Parents Across America:

PAA responds to President Obama’s letter on testing

On Monday, President Obama published an open letter to parents and teachers about testing.

The letter introduced his administration’s new Testing Action Plan which is supposed to fix the problems of excessive testing. The plan defines a set of testing principles for states and school districts to follow to make for “fewer and smarter” tests.

The President invited us to respond to this plan. We shared our response today (see below or download our letter here).

We agree with Diane Ravitch and the Network for Public Education that the plan is too little, too late.

The principles outlined in the plan leave out too many issues that parents care about including test bias, lack of transparency in the actual test questions, student data privacy, growing student test anxiety, etc.

We suspect that this letter is less an expression of shared parental concern and more a last-ditch effort to make sure that any revision of ESEA maintains an annual testing requirement.

You can add your thoughts to ours using the comment form link provided by the White House.

Parents Across America

Response to President Obama’s open letter to parents and teachers on testing

Parents unconvinced that new Obama Testing Action Plan will fix testing crisis

October 29, 2015

Dear President Obama,

Thank you for reaching out to parents and teachers on the important issue of testing in our schools.

As a network of public school parents of all backgrounds from around the U.S., Parents Across America (PAA) helps bring the voice of public school parents – and common sense – to local, state, and national education debates.

In this role, PAA has consistently raised concerns about the way standardized tests have taken over our schools, and we appreciate the fact that you took the time to raise some of these same concerns in your October 26 letter to parents and teachers. We would like to respond to points you raise in your letter, and then share some of our concerns about the limitations of the Testing Action Plan.

As parents, we especially appreciate the fact that you approach over-testing as a father, saying, “I certainly wouldn’t want that for my girls.” We feel the same way about our children. You and Secretary Duncan have been able to

- See more at: http://parentsacrossamerica.org/paa-responds-president-obamas-letter-testing/#sthash.7aJFLhIp.dpuf

Peg with Pen: U.S. Dept. of Ed. and Educational Warfare

Peg with Pen: U.S. Dept. of Ed. and Educational Warfare:

U.S. Dept. of Ed. and Educational Warfare

Obama has done a stellar job of launching a mainstream campaign to alert the public to his deep concerns around too much testing, the need for better testing, and testing that we embrace and love. Please remember, those who have destroyed your public schools won't suddenly do an about face to save them.

All of us however, have done a stellar job of creating the People's Movement - the Opt Out Movement. Hold how that makes you feel - and remember it. Remember the power you have, the relationships you have built, and keep that feeling strong and those relationships strong - as you will need it. 

But back to the new mainstream "testing" campaign.......

In HuffPost's Open Letter to America's parents and teachers Obama states: First, our kids should only take tests that are worth taking -- tests that are high quality, aimed at good instruction, and make sure everyone is on track. Second, tests shouldn't occupy too much classroom time, or crowd out teaching and learning. And third, tests should be just one source of information. We should use classroom work, surveys, and other factors to give us an all-around look at how our students and schools are doing.

It's interesting to see the choice of language being used in the Testing Action Plan as well as in his Open letter. Much of the language alludes clearly to a shift to quick and snappy online daily testing as I mentioned in my post here earlier this week. The language is really about redirecting the conversation to usher in a new and better form of cash crop testing - testing that will be renamed I am sure - but for now it's best known as competency based testing, Peg with Pen: U.S. Dept. of Ed. and Educational Warfare:

Three Candidates Seek Two School Board Seats | South Pasadena Now

Three Candidates Seek Two School Board Seats | South Pasadena Now:

Three Candidates Seek Two School Board Seats Election on Tuesday

NPE Action Endorses Dr. Suzie Abajian - NPE Action http://bit.ly/1MXCEAh

Three candidates are seeking two seats on the South Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education as residents go to polls next Tuesday, November 3, to cast votes. Joe Loo is the incumbent and will be challenged by Suzie Abajian and Jon Primuth. The South Pasadena Review asked each candidate to express his or her views on local school issues. Here is what they had to say:
Dr. Suzie Abajian
How can you make a difference by serving on South Pasadena’s Board of Education?
I bring to the table 16 years of experience in the field of education, including many years of teaching at the K-12 and university levels. I understand educational policies and the impact that their implementation has at the classroom level. Because of my professional background in education, I will be able to ask the right questions to hired educational experts, consultants and staff and ensure that the School Board is making sound policy decisions. As someone with an extensive mathematics education background, I will use my experience and knowledge of innovative mathematics curricula and educational practices to bolster our mathematics programs. My connections and work in higher education will be invaluable in partnering with local colleges and universities to provide more resources and opportunities for our students. I will work with the School Board to broaden partnerships with local organizations and strengthen collaboration between the School Board and the City Council.
In your estimation, what is the state of South Pasadena schools?
In South Pasadena, we have award-winning schools and a dedicated teaching force. However, our academic programs, such as mathematics, could be further supported and strengthened, particularly within the context of the newly released 11th grade Smarter Balanced test scores. Although we are performing above the county average, our 11th grade mathematics scores are below neighboring schools such as Mark Keppel in Alhambra and Arcadia High School. Also, we have a persistent achievement gap. Although our schools provide an excellent education to many students, there are still different groups of students who are underserved and need further support including our Special Needs students. Additionally, we do not have the wealth of enrichment programs that a district like ours could provide its students. We can expand our arts, music, theater and Dual Language Immersion programs, offer alternative foreign language instruction for elementary school students and invest in alternative athletic programs and girls’ sports.
If elected, what would be your top three priorities for the Board of Education?
When elected my top priorities will include:
1) Bolstering our Mathematics and STEM programs as well as advocating for a well-rounded curriculum for our students that encompasses a strong arts, theater, music, Dual Language Immersion, foreign language instruction and alternative/varied athletic programs.
2) Addressing our persistent achievement gap for our underserved students including Special Needs students.
3) Building stronger communication and collaboration between the South Pasadena School Board, South Pasadena City Council and the larger South Pasadena community.
The South Pasadena Unified School District is looking to have a 91-unit residential complex constructed in its parking lot as a revenue stream to support local schools. How do you feel about the project? Should it be built?
We need to carefully evaluate the findings of the Draft EIR that will be released in January and the impact that the development will have on issues of congestion, traffic, pollution and water usage. A careful cost/benefit analysis must be conducted, with sufficient community input, to decide what is the most sustainable and profitable move for our school district and community because this decision has significant ramifications that will impact many generations to come. We have to consider the effects of this project on our school district, given the expanding student population and the increasing need for space within our schools. The School Board needs to make a more concerted effort in engaging the community and listening to the concerns of the residents living within close vicinity of the project and make a decision that is best for the district as well as the City of South Pasadena.Three Candidates Seek Two School Board Seats | South Pasadena Now:

CURMUDGUCATION: StudentsFirst Weak Core Endorsement

CURMUDGUCATION: StudentsFirst Weak Core Endorsement:

StudentsFirst Weak Core Endorsement

Andy Cuomo's Common Core Task Force is supposed to be busily working today to come up with a new name for the Common Core to carefully examine and consider educational modifications to the Core because it's politically expedient to do so because it's politically expedient to do so.

StudentsFirst NY was only too happy to get involved with a forum sponsored by High Achievement New York, a coalition that asks the question, "If you rub a whole bunch of astroturf together, can you light a fire under New York politicians?" Today they're reporting the testimony of four parents, and it's a sign of how weak the pro-Core argument has become. I'm not going to list the parent names, though SFNY does. I just want to concentrate on the actual argument being pushed here.

Parent #1

Parent #1 has a third grade student who will be taking his first CCSS-aligned test in February. And he has a story to tell.

In the past, I had no way of really knowing if he was making the grade. Last year, he fell behind academically and the only way I found out was after I asked his teacher at a parent teacher conference.  I don’t understand why they didn’t let me know he needed extra help. 

Let me be clear-- this is a real problem, and Parent #1 has every reason to be upset. However, the CURMUDGUCATION: StudentsFirst Weak Core Endorsement:

Jersey Jazzman: Charter Schools, An Exchange: Part IV

Jersey Jazzman: Charter Schools, An Exchange: Part IV:

Charter Schools, An Exchange: Part IV

Dmitri Mehlhorn and I continue our exchange about charter schools.

Part I: Mehlhorn's opener.

Part II: My reply.

Part III: Mehlhorn's response.

 Leave your thoughts in the comments below. We'll go one more round before we finish this series. Again, my thanks to Dmitri for participating in this debate.

* * *

Dmitri Mehlhorn starts off his latest chapter in this debate by quoting me:

“As Jazzman wrote to me: ‘Almost everything you say is factually correct; however … you arrive at conclusions that simply are not warranted.’”

Notice the ellipsis? Here’s what I said in its entirety:

“Your essay is, in many ways, a perfect example of "reform" thinking. Almost everything you say is factually correct; however, you are so selective in your citations, and so lacking in context when discussing them, that you arrive at conclusions that simply are not warranted.”

Reads a little bit different when you get the whole quote, doesn’t it?

In a way, I’m glad Mehlhorn did this: unwittingly, he has given a perfect demonstration of why the charter sector's arguments in favor of the rampant expansion of charter schools simply do not hold up. He cherry-picks his data and places it completely out of appropriate

- See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2015/10/charter-schools-exchange-part-iv.html#sthash.BEJh24Da.dpuf

Billionaires for Bronin - Wait What?

Billionaires for Bronin - Wait What?:

Billionaires for Bronin

Hartford voters can thank Connecticut’s 4^th wealthiest resident for helping provide Luke Bronin with the money he wanted in order to run for Mayor of Connecticut’s Capital City.

In fact, as Greenwich native and Hartford newcomer Luke Bronin eagerly awaits being elected Hartford’s next Mayor, he will need to thank many people for funding his record breaking $1.2 million mayoral campaign.

Among those who deserve “special recognition” are all of those on the extensive list of Greenwich residents who, taken together, donated nearly $100,000 to fund their hometown guy’s dream of leading the City of Hartford and its residents.

And first among all of those equals is real-life Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones II whose net worth exceeds $4.6 Billion, making him the 108^th richest American and placing him in the number 352 on the list of wealthiest people in the world.

Jones resides, at least some of the time, in a 13,000 square-foot Greenwich mansion that includes a 26-car garage.

Earlier this year, Paul Tudor Jones made news when he gave a TED talk in Canada condemning the “unsustainable” wealth gap between the rich and everyone else.   While stating that he was not only an extremely success but a “proud capitalist” Jones observed Billionaires for Bronin - Wait What?:

CURMUDGUCATION: Ask Arne: Testing and Accountability

CURMUDGUCATION: Ask Arne: Testing and Accountability:

Ask Arne: Testing and Accountability

You know I'm a huge fan of the Ask Arne video series, because who doesn't enjoy seeing their tax dollars used to produce little pieces of high tech advertising for failing policies? You can read about previous Ask Arne videos here, here, here, and here.

Today's entry was put up on December 9, but seems linked to the baloneyfest that started with CCSSO and CGCS announcing they were really looking at testing, with "looking at" meaning "trying to fix how it's playing in Peoria" and not "considering substantive changes." Then Arne said, "Me, too" in a Washington Post op-ed that dodged the issue of federal responsibility for testing issues. All of that happened back in October, but it appears to be in the recent past for the making of this video.

This video represents a real change in style for the Ask Arne franchise, which usually depends on a "conversation" between the Secretary of Education and ordinary civilians (hand picked by the Dept. of Education). Today's host is my personal favorite-- Emily Davis, on loan from her job teaching middle school Spanish in St. Augustine, FL-- but beyond her intro (filmed in what is below-standard lighting for this series), her function is to ask basically just one question.

Her intro sets us up. "Lately we've heard a lot of questions from educators, principals and teachers, as well as parents and students around the current climate of testing in schools." It's a nicely shaded choice of verbage, suggesting a more generalized curiosity ("So, how's that testing business shaping CURMUDGUCATION: Ask Arne: Testing and Accountability:

Obama Fails on Testing | Alan Singer

Obama Fails on Testing | Alan Singer:

Obama Fails on Testing

Barack Obama is a pretty smart guy, so it is amazing that even his efforts to compromise on high-stakes standardized testing are so far off. On testing he keeps failing the test.

After six years of pushing high-stakes testing as part of his Race to the Top education initiative, Obama decided there is now too much testing in American schools. This decision is a response to intense push back by parents and teachers against the testing regime.

It seems that the average student in some United States big-city schools now takes over 100 hundred hours of mandatory standardized tests during their school career. Eighth grade students are the most tested. They sit through between 20 and 25 hours of standardized tests, which makes up about 2.3% of school time. The Obama Administration proposed that Congress cap standardized testing at 2% of instruction time when it votes on reauthorizing federal legislation governing elementary and secondary schools.

Why 2% test time? How did this become the magic number? Nobody knows. Must have been the algorithm.

But wait kids before you celebrate. First, the highly partisan divided Congress has not been so good at passing anything. Second, the Obama proposal does not mean students will not have to take traditional teacher-made, school, and district tests which somehow did not figure into their hourly calculations.

In addition, Arne Duncan, lame-duck Education Secretary made it clear that the Obama Fails on Testing | Alan Singer:

Outside groups disappointed over LA Unified's search process - LA School Report

Outside groups disappointed over LA Unified's search process - LA School Report:

Outside groups disappointed over LA Unified’s search process

Sure, they can go to any of the communitymeetings. Sure, they can fill out asurvey online. But, ultimately, outside groups say they want a seat at the table when deciding the next LA Unified school superintendent.

At a special session after a closed session on Tuesday, the school board voted against a proposal to create a separate community panel of seven people, each school board member appointing one. The proposal by MónicaGarcía, who was lobbied heavily by many of the groups, was voted down 5-2.

“We are very disappointed the board turned down another opportunity to let community organizations have a say in picking the next superintendent,” said Sarah Angel, the managing regional director of the California Charter Schools Association. “We proposed a plan that wasn’t quite as harsh as the one Móníca Garcia proposed, and we still hope there is a way to be move involved.”

The board faced a more open proposal by board member Mónica Ratliff that would have allowed the entire community to meet the finalists of the superintendent search. That was voted down by a 4-3 vote.

“We think that something in between those two ideas would work the best,” said Angel, whose group was one of the signatories to the CLASS (Communities for Los Angeles Student Success) letter that originally asked for wider community participation in the search. Some of the groups, like CCSA, had to request to be included to give their input into the search.

Sara Mooney, of United Way LA, said, “The school board made a non-welcoming vote for community involvement. They are against sharing responsibilities for the community to be involved in the choice of the next superintendent. We are disappointed.”

Like some of the other community organizations, Mooney said the United Way had to ask to have a meeting with search firms and was not among the groups picked by the school board members to be involved in the process. Mooney said she has spoken to parents who feel as if they have no say in the process “and feel like they already have a list and what their input is makes no difference.”

A few coalitions of educational groups have appealed to keep the search confidential but include a committee of community groups to help screen the finalists. Several board members said they feared that such a process would diminish responsibilities that the board was elected to carry out.

But what exactly do these scores tell us? It turns out that much depends on which scores one chooses to focus on, what time frame one looks at, and whether one looks at growth in scores rather than at scores at fixed points in time.

For now, the community outreach appears lacking, say some of the groups.

“I have been disappointed in the student turnout for some of these sessions,” saidMelanie Kimes, the youth organizer of the Community Coalition. “I was in a group where only 15 students showed up.”

Also speaking before the board after their decision on Tuesday was Konstantin Outside groups disappointed over LA Unified's search process - LA School Report:

7 percent of U.S. kids have had a parent in jail

7 percent of U.S. kids have had a parent in jail:

7 percent of U.S. kids have had a parent in jail

More than 5 million children in the U.S. have had a parent in jail. That’s roughly 7 percent of the nation’s kids 17 and under, or one out of every 14 children.

Findings from Child Trends — a nonprofit based in Maryland — explores “the prevalence of parental incarceration and child outcomes associated with it.” Data from 2011-2012 showed that children in poverty were three times more likely to experience a parent in incarceration, and the percentage rate among black children was twice as high as that of white children.

Child Trends found that of those children who had a parent in jail:

• More than 50 percent had lived with someone with a substance abuse problem.
• Roughly three in five had encountered parental divorce or separation.
• More than one-third had seen violence between parents or guardians.
• More than one in four had lived with a mentally ill or suicidal individual.
• Nearly one in 10 experienced the death of a parent.

The data may very well be an “underestimate,” Child Trends reports, as it does not include children with a non-residential incarcerated parent.

2.2 million people are behind bars. Learn more via PBS NewsHour’s “Broken Justice.”7 percent of U.S. kids have had a parent in jail:

Merrow vs Moskowitz: What Happens to Those Who Speak Out? - Living in Dialogue

Merrow vs Moskowitz: What Happens to Those Who Speak Out? - Living in Dialogue:

Merrow vs Moskowitz: What Happens to Those Who Speak Out? 

By John Thompson.

While I disagree with PBS’s ombudsman, Michael Getler, I believe we should take his statement on John Merrow’s News Hour finale as a learning experience opportunity for education activists. Then we can make it a teachable moment for the non-education press.

Merrow closed his illustrious career with a hugely important report on suspensions at Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy. Getler doesn’t seem to understand how big of a story it is.

PBS News Hour acknowledges that as the story unfolded there was a miscommunication with Merrow, the News Hour, and Moskowitz about student privacy laws. Getler doesn’t seem to understand the complexity of those laws — and how inappropriate Moskowitz was in flouting them. If Merrow had done something wrong, I sense Getler would have said so explicitly. Instead, he focuses on a new issue – the use of confidential sources.

The ombudsman recognizes that “Merrow is a highly-experienced, well-respected specialist in this field of reporting, so what he reports and says may be absolutely true and very important in disclosing questionable activities of a high-profile school system and the impact on young children.” He further admits, “I have no special insight into education procedures, can’t evaluate the battle that still rages over the accuracy of the statistical analysis used in this segment, and can’t really tell who is right and wrong on the substance of school policy and procedure.”

Getler’s complaint was that Merrow had to use too many sources who would not go on the record. I wonder if he has the same complaint with the New York Times Magazine’s coverage of Moskowitz. Daniel Bergner watched Moskowitz for months and says her, “impatience with dissent emerged as one part of a furious and almost crazed passion.” He cites two unnamed sources to support the seemingly noncontroversial statement that Moskowitz is “downright imperious.” When reporting on another charge that is intertwined with the battle over her Success Academy, the Times’s wording is very similar to Merrow’s on suspensions, “In talking to dozens of current and former Success Academy employees and parents, the critique with the most staying power involved the schools’ overly heated preparation for the state exams.” (emphasis mine) The names of those dozens of sources were not revealed.

Getler understands that the use of confidential sources is often necessary but, “This is not a big national security issue or something like that when sources frequently decline to be identified. This is charter schools and policies that we are talking about, a big universe and surely not everyone out there with a supportable case to make is afraid of Eva Moskowitz. Or are they?”

(I should also add that given the pervasive nature of Success Academy’s test prep, the universe of Bergner’s potential sources is big. Given the charter schools’ ability to “cream” the easiest-to-teach students, the Merrow vs Moskowitz: What Happens to Those Who Speak Out? - Living in Dialogue:

How the New SAT Test Is Taking Cues from Common Core - The Atlantic

How the New SAT Test Is Taking Cues from Common Core - The Atlantic:

How the Common Core Is Transforming the SAT

The college-admissions test is being restructured as an extension of the controversial public-school reading and writing standards.

High-school students who enjoy obscure vocabulary and puzzle-like math problems might want to sign up for the SAT now, before the 89-year-old college-admissions test is revamped this March to better reflect what students are learning in high-school classrooms in the age of the Common Core.

While other standardized tests have also been criticized for rewarding the students who’ve mastered the idiosyncrasies of the test over those who have the best command of the underlying substance, the SAT—with its arcane analogy questions and somewhat counterintuitive scoring practices—often received special scorn.

Even David Coleman—the president of The College Board, a nonprofit that designs and administers the SAT—readily admits that for far too long students who could afford special classes and tutoring on the test’s tricks (programs that could cost tens of thousands of dollars in some parts of the country) had an unfair advantage. Coleman, who is often called the architect of the Common Core, arrived at the nonprofit in 2012 and has since been on a campaign to make an SAT test that would incentivize students to take rigorous high-school classes and not just the best How the New SAT Test Is Taking Cues from Common Core - The Atlantic:

For American-Israeli Teacher, Death Came on the No. 78 Bus - The New York Times

For American-Israeli Teacher, Death Came on the No. 78 Bus - The New York Times:

For American-Israeli Teacher, Death Came on the No. 78 Bus

BEIT SHEMESH, Israel — Richard Lakin’s funeral on Wednesday was touching in the tiny, usual ways. His grown son tearfully recalled a man who began every morning with a banana and a chuckle. His teenage granddaughter thanked him for teaching her to ride a bike and, barely able to get the words out, “for watching ‘Charlotte’s Web’ endless times with me.”

There were also hints at the unusual circumstances of his death. The United States ambassador to Israel sitting in the chapel’s last row, the former member of Israel’s Parliament helping fill the grave with dirt. And the son, Micah Avni, asking in his eulogy, “How is it that such a beautiful person is struck down in such a brutal and horrific manner?”

Mr. Lakin, 76, was shot in the head and stabbed in the face and chest byPalestinian assailants on a public bus in Jerusalem at the height of this month’s violent uprising. An American who moved to Israel three decades ago, he died after two weeks in the hospital, where he had much surgery and a parade of visitors, including Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations and students from Hand in Hand, Jerusalem’s joint Arab-Jewish school.

Photo

Richard LakinCreditCourtesy of the Lakin Family, via Associated Press

He was one of nine Israeli Jews killed byPalestinians since Oct. 1. One of the two bus attackers was among more than 25 Palestinian suspects shot dead by Israelis during the same period; some 35 other Palestinians have been killed in clashes with security forces.

Each, undoubtedly, is a story in itself. Mr. Lakin’s is one of a teacher slain by young men who could have been his students, of a social media devotee whose family is now suing Facebook over posts they say incite violence, of a man who stood up for coexistence being felled by its failure.

“He was just a deeply optimistic and hopeful person, and refused to be deterred by the grim political reality here,” said Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman of Kol Haneshama, the Jerusalem synagogue where Mr. Lakin was a longtime member. “He wasn’t oblivious to the reality, but it didn’t affect his basic existential nature. He could not imagine a solution wasn’t possible and that people couldn’t learn to live together.”

A civil rights activist and Connecticut elementary school principal, Mr. Lakin moved to Jerusalem with his family in 1984. He taught English to Israeli and Palestinian children, performed in musicals and, according to Rabbi Weiman-Kelman, never missed a peace rally.

After a routine doctor’s appointment on Oct. 13, Mr. Lakin called his ex-wife (and still best friend), Karen, to say he was taking the No. 78 bus rather than walking home because he thought it would be safer amid the spate of stabbings on Jerusalem streets. When news broke that a No. 78 had been attacked, she and her son started frantically dialing Mr. Lakin’s number.

“Eventually, one of the nurses in the operating room answered his phone,” recalled Mr. Avni, 46, who works in finance and had walked out of a meeting in his Tel Aviv office to drive to Jerusalem. “She said, ‘Come to Hadassah Ein Karem as soon as possible.’ ”

Hadassah and Jerusalem’s other hospitals are rare oases of the Arab-Jewish coexistence Mr. Lakin promoted. A Palestinian nurse in the emergency room recognized him as he was wheeled in: Her two sons had taken his classes. The surgical team that struggled to stitch together his injured organs included Dr. Abed Khalaileh, an Arab from East Jerusalem, like the attackers on the bus.

“When I talked to the family, I had tears in my eyes — this is a man and he didn’t do anything. What did he do to deserve such a punishment?” Dr. Khalaileh said later. “I am not political here, my goal is not to judge, and I try and disconnect. But still, you live with a sensation that isn’t good, that after all, the person who carried out this attack is from your people.”

One of the attackers, Bilal Abu Ghanem, had surgery in the same hospital, at the same time.

Photo

Shachar Boteach, center, at 16 the oldest of Mr. Lakin’s eight grandchildren, during his funeral in the town of Beit Shemesh, Israel. CreditBaz Ratner/Reuters

“I had the auspicious pleasure of holding my father’s hand and looking that man straight in the eye as he woke up in the intensive-care unit,” Mr. Avni recalled. “And it sounds like he’s doing O.K. — as opposed to my father.”

Mr. Avni, who Hebraicized his last name, said he soon learned that the slain attacker, Bahas Alian, had announced his plans on Facebook. While sitting vigil in the hospital, the family was incensed to find on social networks a re-enactment of the bus attack “to encourage others to take the same action,” Mr. Avni said, and “specific instructions on how to slice someone’s chest open and cut their intestines like what was done to my father.”

Mr. Lakin’s own Facebook page had as its cover a photo of a boy in a Jewish skullcap and one in a Palestinian kaffiyeh under a “Coexist” logo made from religious symbols. The morning of the attack, he posted an article about a long-ago discovery regarding diabetes, but the days before, his page was filled with links regarding the uprising. Mr. Lakin had also made 38,000 Twitter posts since joining in 2009, and had 4,634 followers.

“My father had been a great beneficiary of social media. He used Facebook and Twitter to express his thoughts on education and on peace,” Mr. Avni said. “He also became the victim of a tremendous amount of incitement and hate on those vehicles.”

Now, Mr. Lakin is the lead plaintiff in a suit filed this week in New York by a conservative Israeli antiterrorism group that seeks an injunction to force Facebook to block posts that call for violence against Jews.

None of this was mentioned at Wednesday’s funeral, where Karen Lakin read from Robert Frost and described her ex-husband as the grandson of a Yiddish-speaking socialist farmer.

One group among the hundreds of mourners recalled his roles in the Jerusalem English Speaking Theater’s productions of “The Music Man,” “Pajama Game,” “South Pacific” and “Annie.”

“He was a wonderful, warm, compassionate President Roosevelt,” said Brian Negin, who played Harold Ickes in that “Annie” back in 1998.

“Just like Richard,” added Mr. Negin’s wife, Susan Lazinger.

Shachar Boteach, at 16 the oldest of Mr. Lakin’s eight grandchildren, told the crowd it felt “like the air has been taken out of my lungs.”

“I know you would want me to always try to be a better person and do the right thing. You would want me to spread love and happiness everywhere I go,” she said, speaking directly to his body wrapped in a Jewish prayer shawl. “I think you wouldn’t want me to have not even one ounce of hate in my body, even though what has been done to you.”For American-Israeli Teacher, Death Came on the No. 78 Bus - The New York Times:

Richard Lakin's Thanks2Teachers.com - A Wellspring of Teacher Appreciation and Teacher Inspiration > Home > Home http://bit.ly/1Lly9iQ

Teaching as an Act of Love: Thoughts and Recollections of a Former Teacher ... - Richard Lakin - Google Books http://bit.ly/1LlyimB

Richard Lakin's Thanks2Teachers.com - A Wellspring of Teacher Appreciation and Teacher Inspiration > Home > Home http://bit.ly/1Lly9iQ Teaching as an Act of Love: Thoughts and Recollections of a Former Teacher ... - Richard Lakin - Google Bookshttp://bit.ly/1LlyimB