Education Links

"Brown, a former CNN and NBC reporter, is arguing against teachers' unions--but doesn't want to disclose that her husband is on the board of Michelle Rhee's anti-union organization."

""Empowering students to advocate for change." It's as if this organization was made just for me-just read my headline! If you take a few seconds to search around my blog documenting my vision, my involvement with students through mentoring and being a teachers assistant, my aspiration to be a future teacher, and restless dedication to elevating the student voice, it is no doubt I have full faith in the students role in education policy. As my blog was born out of my realizations of the inequalities in our education system, then continued further as I wanted to expose these silenced truths, this blog took me so far to revolutionizing my life. There is a never ending thirst for truth and knowledge, and the paramount responsibility I feel to share transparency for the sake of students' futures. I have a passion for the human capacity and potential, which is why I aim to be an educator who provides such opportunities for my future students. Which is why I fight hard against the push for more standardized tests, and teacher-evals that claim teacher effectiveness can be determined by a number. As I've stated multiple times before, "I want to leave this world knowing I did whatever I could to make the term "at-risk" one that is not so commonly associated with the term 'school.'" I have a restless drive for educational equity, which is why I stand against Students For Education Reform."

"Below Dov Rosenberg lists what he considers the 10 most inaccurate and damaging statements that some school reformers toss around. Rosenberg, who loves to help teachers use technology, has been serving North Carolina public school students and teachers for 11 years as a teacher and instructional technology facilitator."

"Recent days has seen a nasty tweet fight break out, as Mayor Bloomberg's proxies - Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson, StudentsFirst honcho and former Bloomberg Albany lobbyist Micah Lasher, and former television anchor Campbell Brown - have used the 140 character forum to launch a vicious slander that the UFT protects sexual predators, defending their return to the classroom.  Their argument is that since arbitrators who decide dismissal hearings against tenured teachers are jointly selected by the Department of Education and the UFT, they split the difference in decisions and do not fire teachers who have engaged in sexual misconduct or sexually inappropriate behavior. The only solution, they argue, is to overturn tenure and give the DoE the power of judge, jury and executioner. The UFT has a position of zero tolerance on sexual misconduct, and we have negotiated in our contract the strongest penalties for sexual misconduct in any collective bargaining agreement in the state of New York. If an adult violates the trust that is at the heart of the educator-student relationship with an act of sexual misconduct or with sexually inappropriate behavior, dismissal is the only appropriate response."

"For three years, 50 percent of the evaluations of many D.C. public school teachers were based on students standardized test scores, a key part of the ground-breaking IMPACT assessment system introduced by Michelle Rhee. Now, Rhee's successor as schools chancellor, Kaya Henderson, and her leadership team have decided that 50 percent is too much and that the better percentage for a job rating to be linked to test scores is 35 percent, as my colleague Emma Brown reported in this story. Sounds reasonable, right? It isn't."

"Yesterday, a variety of edu-Tweeps engaged in a lengthy debate over due process in instances when a teacher is investigated for inappropriate sexual misconduct with students. At issue is a New York legislative proposal that would give administrators the final word in firing teachers in such instances. (The current process depends heavily on arbitrators jointly selected by the teachers' union and the district.) Of course, as this was a Twitter debate, it's only right that we should share some of that thread as it unfolded. So here I present a Storify of the debate, which was primarily between American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and former CNN personality Campbell Brown."

"Our latest Storify gives some context to the ongoing media coverage of the Khan Academy. At first almost exclusively heralded as having the potential to be an education game-changer, the videos-and Salman Khan himself-have recently come under fire for what some say is questionable pedagogy."

"New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie submitted the new charter school regulations to the State School Board after the lawmakers failed to create their own guidelines."

"In the past few years I have come to realize that the main problem with our education system today is not what is taught, where it is taught, by whom it is taught or how it is taught. The main problem with education today is students who refuse to work."

"A new report details their excesses -- including an average CEO salary of $7.3 million."

"More D.C. teachers will be at risk of losing their jobs for poor performance in coming years, under a revised rating system, even though standardized test scores will carry less weight in their job evaluations. The changes - to be announced Friday - amount to the most extensive overhaul of a three-year-old evaluation system that has led to the firing of almost 400 teachers."

"The Wall Street Journal this morning failed to report ties between the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and controversial "parent-trigger" legislation that would allow parents to take over and convert public schools to charter schools. They also failed to report that the Journal's parent company, News Corp, is a member of ALEC. The Journal's treatment of the legislation also cited no criticism of the proposal, which has been described as an effort "to manipulate parents into letting [the charter school lobby] privatize more public schools."

"In response to a request under the NJ Open Public Records Act (OPRA), Education Law Center has obtained a confidential proposal prepared for the Broad Foundation by the NJ Department of Education (NJDOE) to "turnaround," take control, and potentially close over 200 public schools over the next three years.  NJ Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf submitted a draft "School Turnaround Proposal" to the Eli Broad Foundation in November 2011, seeking to secure millions in grant funds from the private, Los Angeles-based foundation. The draft formed the basis of a final proposal, submitted February 2012, requesting $7.6 million in grant funds."

"In the maelstrom of criticism surrounding America's unionized public teachers, the woman running the second-largest educator union says time has come to collaborate on public school reform rather than resist. Randi Weingarten, re-elected this week for a third term as president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) with 98 percent of the vote, wants her 1.5 million members to be open to changes that might improve public schools."

"Before you read on, I have to warn you. This piece is not a critique of Teach for America. It's merely a question."

"Gov. Chris Christie is expected to sign a bill Monday morning that would provide a sweeping overhaul of the tenure system for public school teachers, according to two officials with knowledge of the matter."

"The education debate rests on two faulty premises: that public schools are failures, and choice is the solution" "The "Overton Window" is not a new kind of low-glare, high-insulation windowpane. Nor is it the title of a paperback thriller like "The Eiger Sanction" or "The Bourne Supremacy." Identified by Joseph P. Overton of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the Overton Window refers to the boundaries of the limited range of ideas and policies that are acceptable for consideration in politics at any one time. In other words, the Overton Window is the "box" that we are constantly exhorted to think outside of, only to be ignored or punished if we succeed."

"This week Rhode Island got a bit of attention when education historian Diane Ravitch posted an email on her blog that she'd received from Theresa Laperche, a former participant in the Rhode Island Teaching Fellows program. This program, a partnership between RIDE and Michelle Rhee's New Teacher Project (TNTP), is a Teach For America-like alternative teacher certification program that recruits individuals with no education experience, gives them five weeks of training, and places them in a high-need urban school. This is a model that I've long questioned, but I had no idea just how problematic the program was until I read Theresa's account of her time as a Teaching Fellow. I decided to call her up myself to learn more about her perspective on the program."

"It's about time we all suck it up and realize that the best of economic research on factors associated with test score gains not only can, but must absolutely drive the redesign of our obviously dreadful American public education system! [despite substantial evidence to the contrary!] With that in mind, I have selectively mined some of my own favorite studies and summaries of studies in order to develop a framework for the absolutely awesomest school ever! I've chosen to focus on only economic studies of measurable stuff that is actually associated with measured test score gains. After all, that's what matters - that's all that matters! Mind you that this school will be awesomest not merely in terms of overall effectiveness, but also in terms of bang for the buck, because I'm not messin' around with expensive curriculum or elaborate facilities… or high priced consultants… or really expensive strategies like class size reduction."

From the you-can't-make-up-this-stuff department: Louisiana's governor and schools chief are championing an "accountability" plan for private schools in the state's voucher program that doesn't hold these schools accountable if they have fewer than 40 voucher students. Yes, as this Reuters story makes clear, a school can allow its 39 voucher students to fail to show basic competency in reading, math, social studies and science and still keep receiving state funds. Most of the schools in the voucher program this coming year, it turns out, will be covered by this provision.