Ed Notes Online: Susan Ohanian Goodies and Monty Neill Testing Fact Sheet

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Susan Ohanian Goodies and Monty Neill Testing Fact Sheet

I can't resist posting these. So much good stuff I don't have time to read them all but they are all enticing. I need to extract the Rich Gibson NEA report and post separately given I posted EIA's very different angle a few days ago ( and got a nice note from Mike Antonucci).

Give the often hopelessness of The Situation, it is mighty tempting to join Susan in raising yaks. Or camels. All one has to do is ask, "One hump or two?"

UPDATE: I wanted to include something Monty Neill sent out:

FairTest has revised and updated two of its most popular fact sheets (all FT fact sheets are at http://fairtest.org/fact%20sheets).

How Standardized Testing Damages Education - at http://fairtest.org/how-standardized-testing-damages-education-pdf

What's Wrong with Standardized Tests? - http://fairtest.org/facts/whatwron.htm

We hope you find these and our other fact sheets of use in your advocacy and education week. They may be freely circulated, printed, etc., so long as proper credit is given and the use is not for profit.

Monty

Susan Ohanian writes

Compiling and writing the items in this post drives me a whole lot closer to leaving the computer and taking up gardening or raising yaks. This is Vermont. There's a yurt a mile from my house. Also two wineries within three miles. Somebody has a camel 6 miles from here. I don't know why. I just mention these in realization that life COULD have possibilities other than obsession with Common Core resistance.

Not wanting to sound overly dramatic, I have to say these items have just drained my soul.

Cartoons: go to
http://susanohanian.org/cartoons.php
and you can see three on the screen. One is good news from Georgia.

You probably need to read the posts below on Georgia activities--two cartoons and two articles-- to understand why I posted the New Yorker cartoon.

More Cartoons: Georgia Data Source for Evaluating Teachers
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=796

NEA Rep Assembly Delegates Given SHARK Bags
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=795

Toddler Test Prep
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_cartoons.php?id=792

Common Core Enforcement Tool Coming to a School Near You
http://susanohanian.org/cartoon_fetch.php?id=668

Kudos to the Georgia professors. Kudos to the Georgia parents.

And there is a Good News item that will warm your heart. Kudos to 9-year-olds.

Susan

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New York State Reading Association Celebrates Common Core
Susan Ohanian
notes on conference program
2012-07-12
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=298

The Common Core State (sic) Standards dominate the NY State Reading Association conference. This mirrors what's happening across the country. Speakers lead audience in drinking Kool-Aid.

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Straight Talk about Common Core
Victor Rivero and Chet Linton, with Susan Ohanian
Tech Digest
2012-07-10
http://susanohanian.org/core.php?id=297

Let the reader beware. . .

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NEA's Representative Assembly Part Four Mopping Up... The Budget; The Left at and After the RA. Coming: Why are Things as They Are?
Rich Gibson

2012-07-11
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1033

Part 4 of Rich Gibson's analysis of the NEA Rep Assembly.

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School as Wonder, or Way Out
Ta-Nehisi Coates

2012-07-11
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=1032

The author, a senior editor at The Atlantic, talks about what happens when a kid internalizes failure. He speaks from first-hand knowledge.

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NEA Convention Report, Day Three... The NEA Representative Assembly Part Three 'We Mis-Educate Our Members and the Nation! No Bullying! Obama! Money=Values!'
Rich Gibson

2012-07-09
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=0

This is the kind of reporting we need: On-the-spot, knowledgeable,and very very skeptical.

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NEA Convention Report. Part Two, more of the same, and worse... If 'Wisconsin' was a victory, how does the NEA spell D E F E A T?... The NEA Representative Assembly Days Two and Three, 2012 Grueling T
Rich Gibson

2012-07-08
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=0

NEA wouldn't even back the student strikes in Canada. Does their refusal to back SOS mean Lily won't be there?

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NEA Convention Report. Part One... The National Education Association Representative Assembly 2012... 'Patriotism! Democracy! It’s About Us! We Teach America! '
Rich Gibson

2012-07-08
http://susanohanian.org/show_commentary.php?id=0

Here is part one of Rich Gibson's report from the NEA Representative Assembly.

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To the editor
Joanne Yatvin
The Oregonian
2012-07-10
http://susanohanian.org/show_letter.php?id=1457

Joanne Yatvin answers David Brooks.

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Georgia Department of Education Says Evaluation Plan Won’t Work But Will Implement it Anyway?
Jack Hassard
blog
2012-07-08
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1366

Georgia's requested modification of the RTTT required teacher evaluation system points to the absurdity of the whole system.

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Got Bullied? Get Disneyland!
Jo Scott-Coe
The Nervous Breakdown
2012-07-09
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1365

In this powerful essay Jo Scott-Coe asks us to look beyond the public outpouring of funds to the the 68-year old bus monitor who was treated so badly by 7th grade boys.

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On Special Education, Spurned Teacher Is Vindicated
Michael Powell
New York Times
2012-07-07
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1364

A teacher told his principal the school was violating state special ed requirements and she booted him. Now state vindicates him.

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9-Year-Old Who Changed School Lunches Silenced By Politicians
Maryn McKenna
Wired
0000-00-00
http://susanohanian.org/show_yahoo.php?id=773

Read the wonderful story of a 8-year-old girl and the charitable work she inspired.

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Georgia Professors Speak Up--Loudly and Clearly
letter from Georgia academics
GREATER
2012-06-25
http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.php?id=4249

Georgia professors speak out from their 'ethical, moral, and professional obligation.' This makes academics from 3 states. Will the other 47 remain silent?
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Order the CD of the resistance:
"No Child Left Behind? Bring Back the Joy."
To order online (and hear samples from the songs)
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dhbdrake4
Other orders: Send $15 to
Susan Ohanian
P. O. Box 26
Charlotte, VT 05445
--------------------------------------------

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"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, July 12, 2012

Susan Ohanian Goodies and Monty Neill Testing Fact Sheet

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