Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, January 28, 2013

Special Late Nite Cap UPDATE 1-28-13 #SOSCHAT #EDCHAT #P2



Nite Cap UPDATE

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE


On Writing As Revenge



What happens when your writing becomes revenge?
The Rock, WWE Champion 2013
The Rock, WWE Champion 2013
Not the Twilight-Mean-Girls type of revenge, but the revenge that James Brown yells in “The Big Payback“?
I get that hate is too big a burden to bear a-la MLK Jr, but this isn’t hate. This harkens back to a remembrance, a devaluing, a necessity to reprove one’s ostensible skill even before it fully blossomed. As with other motivations in life, they’ve asked you to step aside, break out a highlight reel, or worse, sit on the sidelines while the supposed pros get to work.
Some of us don’t actually need more motivation, but we’ll take the extra wood for the fire, thank you.
It started at a summer camp in my teens. The writing instructor, at the time a senior counselor when I was 




The New Witch Hunt for Psycho Children

Future Serial Killers! (Image from Flickr by Ano Lobb@healthryx

Every time there is a new school massacre, school districts across the nation reevaluate, refine and retest their emergency protocols. The emphasis is always on training teachers in security procedures and identifying potential psychos—even though school shootings account for fewer than 10 deaths per year—with little or no emphasis on providing better overall mental health services for all children at school or improving the conditions they face at home and in their communities (e.g., chronic poverty or physical, mental and sexual abuse)—problems that affect thousands of children every year.

Thus it is reassuring to hear that some school districts are now looking into improving overall 


Education commissioner, Senate committee spar on school funding

Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf, shown in this file photo, addresses the Senate education committee today. Star-Ledger file photo   TRENTON — Testifying before the Senate Education Committee for the first time since he was confirmed as education commissioner, Christopher...

How is Danielson Being Used at Your School? MORE Calls for Reports From the Field

And UFT and DOE agree on Danielson (see below).

From the MORE Blog
Calling All Teachers!

Help us file our “Reports From the Field” on MORE’s blog next week!

How is Danielson being used at your school? On your colleagues? On you?
We are hearing alarming reports about how Danielson is being used against our colleagues all 

Parents Support MORE Too

Yes Virginia, building a social justice caucus aligned with parents is part of the game plan. MORE is forging parent and even college student liaison groups -- there was quite a nice crew at the MORE meeting on Saturday -- the MORE counterforce to the phony no-nothing Student First anti-teacher crew from Columbia. Here is a great letter sent out from parent activist Janine Sopp.
Dear Parents, Teachers and Friends,

You may already know about the Movement of Rank and File Educators, a new caucus of progressive educators who will be running in the 2013 UFT elections. As a parent working on issues of high stakes testing, increasing class sizes, charter school invasions and budget cuts, it thrills me to see another option and new energy stir within the teachers in our schools. Watching the events unfold in Chicago a few months ago and now in Seattle, our teachers can make a 

First-Ever Guidelines Issued for Treating Type 2 Diabetes in Kids

First-Ever Guidelines Issued for Treating Type 2 Diabetes in Kids
Experts say rising obesity makes condition much more common in children.
For the first time ever, the American Academy of Pediatrics has issued guidelines for the management of type 2 diabetes in children and teenagers aged 10 to 18.
Until recently, pediatricians have mostly had to deal with type 1 diabetes, which has a different cause and usually a different management than type 2 diabetes. But, today, due largely to the rise in childhood obesity, as many as one in three children diagnosed with diabetes has type 2.
“Pediatricians and pediatric endocrinologists are used to dealing with type 1 diabetes. Most have had no formal 

Out Lesbian and Gay Presidents Discuss Pathways to Leadership

Dr. Rebecca Dolinsky
Dr. Rebecca DolinskyThe conference, titled The Quality of U.S. Degrees:  Innovations, Efficiencies, and Disruptions — To What Ends?, provided space for faculty and administrators to grapple with some of the challenges they face in the current economic, political, and technological moment.  Many session panelists focused on the necessity of ensuring a high-quality education for all students in world full of technological “disruptions.”

 One of the panels, presented by LGBTQ Presidents in Higher Education, featured four lesbian and gay presidents who discussed their professional pathways to higher education presidencies, and what it means to be out lesbian and gay presidents at their respective institutions.  Presidents Raymond E. Crossman (Adler School of Professional Psychology), Margaret L. Drugovich (Hartwick College), DeRionne P. Pollard (Montgomery 

Critique of 'Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in the Digital Age'

Last week this document created quite a storm of controversy. Comments trended toward two themes: a growing backlash to all the attention that MOOCs are getting at the expense of so many on-going distance learning initiatives already in place and the thought that it is old wine in new bottles.

I share these reactions, and yet I could not help but be intrigued at least a little bit with what the authors -- many big names in higher education -- considered important to raise to the level of "rights." The right to learn, and 

Andrew Cuomo Goes Full Goofus

Around this time last year, I told New York Governor Andrew Cuomo that he had to make a decision:
Governor Cuomo, you have a choice here, and you have two role models for your choice:

Governor Goofus of New Jersey only had ONE working teacher on his task force. Worse, he included people who had no training, experience, knowledge, or even a stake in teacher evaluation systems design.

Governor Gallant of California, however, took advantage of a scandal within the 


Crenshaw High group opposes reform plan and school closings

Parents, students and teachers rallied Monday in front of Crenshaw High School to protest a plan to restructure the low-performing campus and require teachers to reapply for their jobs.
Under the plan, approved this month by the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education, the school would open next fall as three magnet programs, which are open to students from across the nation’s second-largest school system.
L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy said starting over was necessary to address high dropout rates and low student


Wallington OKs ballot question proposing $4.3M financing for school renovations

The school board on Monday approved putting a question before voters this spring seeking permission to bond up to $4.3 million for upgrades and repairs to the district’s three schools.



All 23 Florida Four-year Colleges OK $10K Degrees

MIAMI — Gov. Rick Scott says all 23 state colleges offering four-year degrees in Florida have accepted his $10,000 tuition challenge.
The Republican governor made the announcement at Miami-Dade College on Monday.
Scott in November challenged the schools to hold tuition to $10,000 for selected four-year degrees. That’s more than $3,000 under the average for the state colleges. They already charge about half as much as Florida’s public 



LAUSD's Van Nuys Airport mechanic school could stay open if FAA approves rent cut

Los Angeles Unified would have enough money to continue operating its embattled mechanics school at Van Nuys Airport if the federal government agrees to slash the rent to $1 a year, according to a new business plan.