Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, February 24, 2012

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top Late Nite Posts 2-24 #soschat #ReclaimingReform


Blue Jersey:: Dysfunctional School Aid

Blue Jersey:: Dysfunctional School Aid:Dysfunctional School Aidby Jersey JazzmanSchool financing in New Jersey is like a dysfunctional family's Christmas. Everyone wakes up early, runs downstairs, and anxiously divvies up what's under the tree. Some favored children get a big pile of shiny new toys; others get socks. No one knows why, and everyone knows next year will be different; it all depends on Daddy's mood the night before (and how deep he got into the eggnog bowl).Here in Jersey, "Daddy" ... more »

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Looking back to '09: Boy was I wrong!

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Looking back to '09: Boy was I wrong!:Looking back to '09: Boy was I wrong!by Mike Klonsky Three years ago today, opponents of Renaissance 2010 protest Chicago school board decision to close or "turnaround" 16 schools.It was three years ago yesterday, still joyful from the great election victory three months earlier, that I took a swipe at Diane Ravitch for her comment: "It looks like Obama's education policy will be a third term for President George ... more »

City Teacher Data Reports Are Released – SchoolBook

City Teacher Data Reports Are Released – SchoolBook:City Teacher Data Reports Are Releasedby Fernanda Santos12:00 p.m. | Updated After a long legal battle and amid much anguish by teachers and other educators, the city Department of Education released individual performance rankings of 18,000 New York City public school teachers to the public on Friday, after admonishing the news media not to use the scores to label or pillory teachers.The reports, which name teachers as well as their schools, rank teachers ... more »

Getting everyone to the table. « Fred Klonsky

Getting everyone to the table. « Fred Klonsky:Getting everyone to the table.by Fred KlonskyI was not reassured by Governor Quinn’s budget speech.Luckily he only has two sides of his mouth.That seems to have created a limit on the number of different positions on pension reform that the governor could take.On one side said he supported pension reform that is constitutional and fair to pension members.On the other side he said that when it came to public employee pensions, everything is ... more »

War on teachers continues: Publication of Teacher “Data” Reports « JD2718

War on teachers continues: Publication of Teacher “Data” Reports « JD2718:War on teachers continues: Publication of Teacher “Data” ReportsFEBRUARY 24, 2012 PM29 1:07 PMtags: Gotham Schools, Insideschools, Michael Bloomberg, New York Daily News, Teacher Data ReportsThe court forced NYC to hand over the reports? That’s what Bloomberg claimed on the John Gambling Show on WOR: “I think what people miss is the courts have ordered us to release the data.” Typical of that weasel. The media filed FOI requests because ... more »

This Week In Education: Media: NYT & WNYC Publishing Old, Inaccurate Teacher Scores

This Week In Education: Media: NYT WNYC Publishing Old, Inaccurate Teacher Scores:Media: NYT WNYC Publishing Old, Inaccurate Teacher ScoresYou'd think it would be the small, scrappy, online-only publication that would do something rash and regrettable, not the venerable legacy media outlet. But that's not how it's playing out in New York City, where everything is upside down right now. Tiny GothamSchools has declined to publish individual teacher ratings and the massive New York Times has come up with a fancy ... more »

Obama 2013 Discretionary Budget Invests in Kids | First Focus

Home | First Focus:December 20, 2011The Recession’s Ongoing Impact on America’s ChildrenA new First Focus analysis authored by Brookings scholar Julia Isaacs reveals the recession’s continuing effects – often unseen through conventional economic metrics – on America's children. The paper offers a national snapshot and state-by-state breakdowns of three key economic indicators of child well-being: the number of children living with an unemployed parent; the number who rely upon the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamps); and the ... more »

Are charter schools succeeding nationally? | The Daily Circuit Blog | Minnesota Public Radio

Are charter schools succeeding nationally? | The Daily Circuit Blog | Minnesota Public Radio:Are charter schools succeeding nationally?Posted at 9:05 AM on February 24, 2012 by Emily Kaiser (0 Comments)Filed under: News TrendsFrom The Daily Circuit's Tom Weber:Reporter Tim Post brought us the story during Morning Edition about a new study that finds charter schools in the Twin Cities metro area underperform academically in comparison to their traditional public counterparts and are more racially segregated.The report is from the Institute ... more »

White Hat can't add Columbus charter school, state says | The Columbus Dispatch

White Hat can't add Columbus charter school, state says | The Columbus Dispatch:White Hat can't add Columbus charter school, state saysByJennifer Smith RichardsThe Columbus DispatchThursday February 23, 2012 1:30 PMThe state has denied White Hat Management’s request to open four of six new charter schools it hoped to open, including one in Columbus.White Hat, the state’s largest for-profit charter-school manager, wanted the Ohio Department of Education to sponsor six new Signal Tree schools. One was planned for the West Side.Education ... more »

Weekly Update: Smart ALEC, Black Teachers Fired En Masse in Chicago and Chalk Face | Seattle Education

Weekly Update: Smart ALEC, Black Teachers Fired En Masse in Chicago and Chalk Face | Seattle Education:Weekly Update: Smart ALEC, Black Teachers Fired En Masse in Chicago and Chalk Faceby seattleducation2011Glen Ford nails it in his commentary on A Black Agenda Radio Black Teachers Fired En Mass.In his introduction Mr. Ford states:Educational policy in the Obama era isn’t about education at all. It’s about replacing skilled, experienced teachers with rootless temps better suited to serve in the privatized holding tanks ... more »

Danza: School cuts signal to kids ‘they really don’t matter’ - Philly.com

Danza: School cuts signal to kids ‘they really don’t matter’ - Philly.com:Danza: School cuts signal to kids ‘they really don’t matter’February 23, 2012|By Kristen A. Graham, INQUIRER STAFF WRITERThe speakers came from different backgrounds - an actor-turned-teacher, two union officials and a state senator - but their message was the same: budget cuts have hit the Philadelphia School District too hard and must stop.Speaking at a news conference on the steps of the district's North Broad Street headquarters Thursday, Danza ... more »

Outside evaluator must tell us how well prepared are we for Common Core | Thoughts on Public Education

Outside evaluator must tell us how well prepared are we for Common Core | Thoughts on Public Education:Outside evaluator must tell us how well prepared are we for Common Core - by John Affeldtby John AffeldtCalifornia, like many states, is embarking on an ambitious rewiring of its public school system. By the 2014-15 school year, it plans to implement new Common Core academic standards in English and math for all grades. The new standards were adopted by the State Board ... more »

Duncan’s equity commission and the ‘rising tide’ of avarice, hostility, testing - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Duncan’s equity commission and the ‘rising tide’ of avarice, hostility, testing - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post:Duncan’s equity commission and the ‘rising tide’ of avarice, hostility, testingby Valerie StraussThis was written by John Merrow, veteran education reporter for PBS, NPR, and dozens of national publications. He is the president of the nonprofit media production company Learning Matters. Merrow’s latest book is “The Influence of Teachers.” This post first appeared on Merrow’s blog, Taking Note.Read full article A test ... more »

School Tech Connect: The Crane Deal's A Crock

School Tech Connect: The Crane Deal's A Crock:The Crane Deal's A Crockby noreply@blogger.com (Tim)I started to regret saying anything positive about the Crane “deal” the instant I heard that Rahm had praised it. In the very same nanosecond, I started to worry that the deal won't be what it seems, that it would be steeped in patronage, and that it would somehow turn out to be a disaster for the neighborhood Crane serves and the teachers who work there. That's ... more »

Rahm Emanuel: Protests over school closings ‘noise associated with change’ - Chicago Sun-Times

Rahm Emanuel: Protests over school closings ‘noise associated with change’ - Chicago Sun-Times:Rahm Emanuel: Protests over school closings ‘noise associated with change’BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com February 23, 2012 2:34PMReprints11Mayor Rahm Emanuel visited with preschoolers at Metropolitan Family Services at 3249 N. Central Ave. L-r: Yeasbeth Ortiz, Serena Reyes and Izabella Lagunas-Hernandez. | Al Podgorski~Chicago Sun-TimesRELATED STORIESBoard of Education OKs shake-ups for 17 schoolsUpdated: February 24, 2012 2:24AM Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday... more »

Occupy Dallas interrupts DISD meeting, members escorted out | Dallas ISD Blog | dallasnews.com

Occupy Dallas interrupts DISD meeting, members escorted out | Dallas ISD Blog | dallasnews.com:Occupy Dallas interrupts DISD meeting, members escorted outby Tawnell Hobbs/ReporterSome Occupy Dallas members were removed from a Dallas ISD board meeting on Thursday after breaking out in loud chant. The group was escorted out of the auditorium by DISD police. They were protesting various issues, including the board's recent decision to close 11 schools and its approval to extend teacher workdays by 45 minutes without more pay. ... more »

Why The New York Times Is Asking Me To Validate Myself | The Jose Vilson

Why The New York Times Is Asking Me To Validate Myself | The Jose Vilson:Why The New York Times Is Asking Me To Validate Myselfby JoseNot sure if you’ve heard, but, against their own wishes -ahem-, the NYC Department of Education is releasing their infamous Teacher Data Reports, a set of papers ostensibly compiling a teacher’s student scores on English and Math scores from 3rd to 8th grade to determine their effectiveness, normalizing scores for effects like poverty and growth. ... more »

NYC Educator: Bullets Are Only One Small Part of the Gun

NYC Educator: Bullets Are Only One Small Part of the Gun:Bullets Are Only One Small Part of the Gunby NYC EducatorSo says Mike Klonsky, on whether VAM, or value-added, should be part of any evaluation system. This notwithstanding, there are various ways of looking at New York's new evaluation system, and UFT High School VP Leo Casey may not see eye to eye with Klonsky.I'd like nothing more than to agree with Casey. This would mean that all my colleagues ... more »

Missouri Education Watchdog: In Ten Years, Maybe the Food Police in Schools will be Arrested for their Actions Which Led to...Eating Disorders

Missouri Education Watchdog: In Ten Years, Maybe the Food Police in Schools will be Arrested for their Actions Which Led to...Eating Disorders:In Ten Years, Maybe the Food Police in Schools will be Arrested for their Actions Which Led to...Eating Disordersby stlgretchenThe government obsession of obesity and controlling student food choices may result in unintended consequences.Producing fit workers for the society might just boomerang into producing a generation of children with increasing emotional problems. While the food police is obsessing about ... more »

AFT - Research Begins to Detail Success in Community Schools

AFT - A Union of Professionals - Research Begins to Detail Success in Community Schools:Research Begins to Detail Successin Community SchoolsTeachers know firsthand that wraparound services like healthcare and family counseling really help when it comes to getting students ready to learn. But education experts are only beginning to gather actual data that show us how."Positive Student Outcomes in Community Schools" begins to fill that gap. The report, produced by the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities ... more »

Today's Big Education Ape - PostRank Top Early Evening Posts 2-23 #SOSchat #p2 #edreform

Buyer Beware - Bridging Differences - Education WeekBig Education Ape - PostRank (PostRank: All)-46 minutes agoBuyer Beware - Bridging Differences - Education Week:Buyer Bewareby Deborah MeierDear Diane,Three days with the North Dakota Study Group restores my spirits every year. Some great speeches, small "works in progress" workshops, presentations by students, and just food and talk, talk, talk.I read your blog this week while I was at the NDSG and passed it around. It's superb, and we should all tweet it ... more »

Why we won’t publish individual teachers’ value-added scores | GothamSchools

Why we won’t publish individual teachers’ value-added scores | GothamSchools:Why we won’t publish individual teachers’ value-added scoresby Elizabeth Green and Philissa Cramer, at 6:24 pmTomorrow’s planned release of 12,000 New York City teacher ratings raises questions for the courts, parents, principals, bureaucrats, teachers — and one other party: news organizations. The journalists who requested the release of the data in the first place now must decide what to do with it all.At GothamSchools, we joined other reporters in requesting to ... more »

Thirty minutes with Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis. « Fred Klonsky

Thirty minutes with Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis. « Fred Klonsky:Thirty minutes with Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis.by Fred KlonskyToday on my favorite local news show.The in box: Will Guzzardi challenges Toni Berrio’s lies.by Fred KlonskyRepresentative Berrios,I hope this email finds you well. I wanted to ask a quick question about a mailer you sent out recently, discussing a law firm you claim is “allied with” me.This struck me as curious, given that I’m not allied with any ... more »

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Cracks in the pavement

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Cracks in the pavement:Cracks in the pavementby Mike Klonsky"This is Little Rock, 1957," Jackson told the board. "This is apartheid."The mayor had no trouble getting his hand-picked gaggle of billionaires and their toadies on the school board to unanimously vote for more school closings and turnarounds. But it's become clear that mounting protests have begun to create some space for dissent among the minions. Media coverage of the protests seems to have moved somewhat out of ... more »

Video: Mr. Raymond Goes to Sacramento - Rosemont, CA Patch

Video: Mr. Raymond Goes to Sacramento - Rosemont, CA Patch:Video: Mr. Raymond Goes to SacramentoThe Sacramento City Unified School District's superintendent testified before the California senate last week.By Cody KitauraEmail the author2:00 pm Email Print Comment1 of 1 Upload Photos and VideosThe school district that includes Rosemont made some tough budget decisions earlier this month, cutting $28 million from next year's budget.Last week, Sacramento City Unified School District Superintendent Jonathan Raymond went to the source of the district's funding to ...more »

United Opt Out National

United Opt Out National:OCCUPY THE DOE IN DC – ALL DETAILS HERE – PLEASE READ ENTIRE POSTEvent:Occupy the DOE in DC – ALL DETAILS HERE – Please read entire postStart:March 30, 2012End:April 2, 2012Organizer:Occupy the DOE in DC – ALL DETAILS HERE – Please read entire postUpdated:December 9, 2011Venue:U.S. Department of EducationAddress:Google Map400 Maryland Ave, SW ,Washington, DC, 20202,United StatesUnited Opt Out National endorses Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Together by creating ACTION in solidarity. PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE POST ... more »

INSANE or NUMB? (please report) | Mr. Teachbad

INSANE or NUMB? (please report) | Mr. Teachbad:INSANE or NUMB? (please report)by teachbadA couple of weeks ago someone posted a comment I think you should read. Jessica Knapp wrote about what teaching can do to people. Her words struck an arrow through my heart. I would very much like for you to add your thoughts and stories. Here’s what she said: I taught KG for 6 years in an inner city school where 94% of the stu­dent body qual­i­fied for ... more »

Arne Duncan on a legislative proposal in South Carolina to block implementation of the Common Core

Statement by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan | U.S. Department of Education:Statement by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne DuncanOn a Legislative Proposal in South Carolina to Block Implementation of the Common Core Academic StandardsFEBRUARY 23, 2012Contact: Press Office, (202) 401-1576, press@ed.gov Following is a statement by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on a legislative proposal in South Carolina to block implementation of the Common Core academic standards:“The idea that the Common Core standards are nationally-imposed is a conspiracy ... more »