Ed Notes Online: Incoming- DUCK

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Incoming- DUCK

Excuse the sloppy formatting. There is so much stuff coming in and I'm really falling behind. Here are a bunch of links to check out, many of which I haven't had time for so far.

Also, make sure to check out the new link I added on the side panel to my Los Angeles list - The Charter School Invasion in Los Angeles - (all the links make lovely reading) on tepid results for Green Dot and other schools in LA.

From Patrick Sullivan
(Patrick as the Manhattan borough parent rep has been the lone voice of opposition to BloomKlein on the PEP - the joke of a NYC board of education.)

I've read the Obama Administration's proposal for the 4.5 billion dollar Race to the Top Fund and find it disturbing. I've written two posts for the [NYC Parents] blog here and here.

I encourage everyone to read it and provide a comment on the official form on regulations.gov. There is a pdf version which is best for reading here.

http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#documentDetail?R=09000064809fdd04

Patrick is one parent who gets it as he comments:
I see the main thrust is about holding teachers accountable for student performance using high stakes tests. With parents in the mix then things get messy, someone might actually suggest we are accountable. Better to just focus on the teachers.

From Susan Ohanian's daily updates (you really should subscribe). Yesterday she compiled quite a list. Use her comments to pick and choose. Susan continues to be one of the major voices of the resistance.


This is another posting that got away from me. Sorry there are so many.


There are a lot more articles here that are outrageous almost beyond belief, though these days we know that nothing is so outrageous that the people on
Arne's team won't do it.

Meanwhile, I hope you will send me news of your activism so I can post it at
www.stopnationalstandards.org

Susan
susano@gmavt.net

PO Box 26
Charlotte, VT 05445

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Are charters schools a price of entry to reform?
Donna Gordon Blankinship
Associated Press
2009-08-17
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=8808

So why would these 11 states participate in the Common Core Standards if their lack of support of charters takes them out of the running for Race to the Top
bribes?

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Tutoring tots? Kids prep for kindergarten
Jacqueline Stenson
MSNBC
2009-08-18
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=8807

An article on skills tutoring for pre-kindergartners sets Ohanian toreminiscing. And there's a funny aside about the ads that appear on Amazon.com.

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Veteran teachers treated unfairly in competitive job market, some say
Sarah Carr
Times-Picayune
2009-08-18
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=8806

In the most competitive market for job-hunting teachers in New Orleans in recent
memory -- perhaps ever -- some worry that veteran educators have received short
shrift.

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Education Equality Project Continues Strong American Schools' Mission
Joel I. Klein
Education Equality Project
2009-08-18
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=8805

An e-mail from Joel Klein, you know, the fellow who claims to be building a
civil rights movement.

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Why Most Schools Don't have the Nerve to Ask Third Graders for an Evaluation
Don Perl with Cade
Coalition for Better Education
2009-08-17
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=8804

A third grader starts school and writes and evaluation.

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Oprah Promotes Michelle Rhee
Staff
O Magazine
0000-00-00
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=8803

O Magazine's first ever O Power List. 20 remarkable visionaries who are flexing
their muscles in business and finance, politics and justice, science and the
arts.

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Connecting Anxious Parents and Educators, at $450 an Hour
Susan Dominus
New  York Times
2009-08-18
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=8802

Find out what book wealthy New York parents of pre-schools are buying.

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Obama Pushes States to Shift on Education
Sam Dillon
New  York Times
2009-08-17
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=8801

That aggressive use of economic stimulus money by Education Secretary Arne
Duncan is provoking heated debates over the uses of standardized testing and the
proper federal role in education, issues that flared frequently during President
George W. Bushâ€™s enforcement of his signature education law, called No Child
Left Behind.  NOTE: The two national unions have not formally commented on the
proposed rules.



And California residents need to get on Gloria Romero's case.

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California Teacher Takes Criticism of Race to the Top to the Union
Virginia Tibbetts
Stop National Standards
2009-08-10
http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=8800

Isn't it time for every union member to demand some answers and some action from
their union?

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To the editor
Juanita Doyon
News Tribune
2009-08-19
http://susanohanian.org/show_letters.html?id=1067

Three cheers for Juanita Doyon, who helps activist causes throughout the country
with custom-made buttons and advice when she's not writing letters to the
editor.

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Open Letter to Arne Duncan
Herbert Kohl
The Progressive
2009-08-18
http://susanohanian.org/show_letters.html?id=1066

Herb Kohl says Arne Duncan misread his book and offers to send him another copy.

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To the editor
Stephen Krashen and Susan Ohanian
Newsweek
2009-08-16
http://susanohanian.org/show_letters.html?id=1065

Ms. Clift, a professional political writer, and Mr. Duncan, a former
professional basketball player, have not spent enough time with children and
teachers, and neither they nor their staffs are familiar with the vast research
literature that says that children are not programmable robots.

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An Open Letter to NCTE Members about the Common Core State Standards
Kylene Beers, President NCTE
NCTE
2009-08-17
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=582



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Gates Gives 15 States an Edge in Race to the Top
Michele McNeil
Education Week blog
2009-08-18
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=581



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Connecting the Dots
Jay Spuck and Susan Ohanian
Business Week, Wireless PR, & Chicago contract
2009-08-17
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=580



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Dear DOE
Diane Ravitch
Race to the Top Public Comments
2009-08-17
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=579



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Reinventing No Child Left Behind
Stephen Lendman
The People's Voice.org
2009-08-19
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.html?id=3688

NCLB's real aim is to commodify public education, end government responsibility
for it, and make it another business profit center. Obama plans to reinvent a
failed policy, give it a new name, and claim it will fix NCLB's shortcomings.

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Race to the Top won't get students any further ahead
Mike Schutz
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
2009-08-18
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.html?id=3687

You want to know how best to spend time and money to provide kids with the best
possible learning experience? Ask a classroom teacher.

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Against National Standards:Let the states decide what to teach- they'll do less
harm.
Liam Julian
Weekly Standard
2009-08-10
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.html?id=3685

A conservative argues that the quality of the product, and the possibility of
developing excellent standards shouldn't be sacrificed for the sake of middling
countrywide uniformity.

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Educating for individuality
Lynn Stoddard
Ogden Standard Examiner
2009-08-15
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.html?id=3684

Lynn Stoddard warns: Now you have a choice. Do nothing and get national
standards for student uniformity imposed on your schools. OR .....

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Freedom in Education Meeting
Joe  Lucido

2009-08-19
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_stories.html?id=399

Fresno is the place to be on August 29. Come organize for resistance.

1 comment:

Jonam said...: tis very helpful for kids and parenting; Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 8:37:00 AM EDT

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/cory-booker-clear-and-present-threat-public-education

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Of course for another view, check out the review at New Politics of the Kahlenberg Bio on Shanker by Vera Pavone and me: Albert Shanker: Ruthless Neocon

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:
http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/
I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You can sign up for this free series at :
http://act.bcfed.ca/online-campaigning-for-union-activists/

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

Ex-HSA Teacher has left a new comment on your post "Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire ...":

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy Tyson
Professor of African American Studies and History
Duke University

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.
- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Full article with charts here.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

More at Substance

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.
Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/12/on-growing-use-of-corporate-test.html

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

Published on Sunday, March 15, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

SEE MY VIDEO ON HARLEM SUCCESS RALLY 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEp7rg_L5JI

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Ed Notes Extended

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Incoming- DUCK

1 comment: