Latest News and Comment from Education

Thursday, October 10, 2013

10-10-13 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:






EngageNY Adds Phone Sex To Liven Up The Lesson Planning
Can't be any more obscene than the classroom lessons they offer at EngageNY:The state Education Department’s EngageNY website was directing people with tech support problems to a telephone number for an engagement of a different kind Thursday.Instead of getting help to log on, people who call the number are greeted with a perky female voice announcing, “Welcome to America’s hottest talk line! Ladi


De Blasio Has 44 Point Lead Over Lhota In Marist Poll
Still a blowout:Democrat Bill de Blasio has a powerful 44-point lead over Republican Joe Lhota in the race for mayor, according to a Wall Street Journal-NBC 4-Marist poll released Thursday. "It's about as lopsided as you can envision," Marist's Lee Miringoff told the Journal. "Lhota is not a force at this point."43% have an unfavorable view of Lhota, only 32% favorable.De Blasi

Cuomo Stonewalls Daily News On Corruption Question
Capital Tonight has the transcript between Sheriff Andy and the DN reporter, Glenn Blain:Gov. Andrew Cuomo insisted today that it’s the co-chairs of the Morleand Commission on Public Corruption and not him or his staff who determine who should receive a subpoena. In Utica this afternoon, Cuomo was questioned extensively by The Daily News’s Glenn Blain, whose bureau chief Ken Lovett has broken a nu

Nice Day To Be Shorting K-12 Inc
From Ed Week:The stock of online provider K12 Inc. took a steep plunge this week following its release of information showing more modest projections for revenue and student enrollment than analysts had anticipated. In a statement released this week, the company estimated its average enrollment for the schools it manages at 128,000 students for the quarter, which was up nearly 6 percent from the f

Andrew Cuomo Won't Say Whether He Advised Moreland Commission To Kill Investigation Into His Campaign Donations
Sheriff Andy caught equivocating:Gov. Cuomo today denied that he or his staff ordered that his anti-corruption kills several subpoenas in recent week.But the governor was less definitive when asked by our Glenn Blain in Utica if he or his staff played a role in guiding those decisions.The Daily News recently reported that the commission and its three co-chairs had signed off on sending subpoenas t
Will Shilling For The ADVANCE Evaluation System Be Mulgrew's Downfall?
Norm Scott at Ed Notes:In all my years of activism one of the happiest moments I had was seeing James Eterno's face as he emerged from the Delegate Assembly yesterday. I was in the midst of trying to get people to take the MORE newsletter, MORE Stuff in Your Mail Bx" and get them to sign up to distribute in their school. I didn't have to work too hard as there were a batch of MOREistas over h

What The UFT Leadership Would Do If They Really Wanted To Solve The Evaluation Problems
From NYCDOEnuts at Gotham Charter Schools, in response to the UFT resolution calling for a moratorium on the high stakes attached to tests for a brief period of time:This is just a UFT ploy to trick the members into thinking they are doing something. If the UFT really cared about the rank-and-file they would demand a complete moratorium, on The Common Core, Danielson, and all aspects of Advance. T

UFT Leadership Supports ADVANCE Teacher Evaluation System And Danielson Rubric
James Eterno writes up yesterday's Delegate Assembly:Vincent W. from the Movement of Rank and File Educators rose from the room on the 19th floor (Delegate meetings are held on the 2nd floor of UFT HQ while overflow Delegates and visitors can watch on video from a room on the 19th floor) to shoot down the resolution.Vincent's main argument is that the whole evaluation system is flawed.  He pointed

Ed Deformer Says If You're A Critic Of Charters, You're A Segregationist
@DianeRavitch @rweingarten YOU, the 'historian', are on the same side of history as the segregationists who fought to keep ppl in the hood.— Dr. Steve Perry (@DrStevePerry) October 9, 2013Ravitch responds:@DrStevePerry @rweingarten George Wallace and Strom Thurmond fought for school choice. Dr. ML King fought for good public schools for all.— Diane Ravitch (@DianeRavitch) October 9, 2013This from
10-9-13 Perdido Street School
Perdido Street School: UFT Leadership Still Doesnt Realize The Problem Is The Common CoreJames Eterno writes at ICEUFT blog that the UFT Executive Board passed a resolution on Monday night calling for a moratorium on the high stakes part of the new ADVANCE teacher evaluation system.This moratorium call, btw, would be the same thing Randi Weingarten called for a while back.But the UFT Executive Boa