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Wednesday, November 13, 2013

David Coleman Again Demonstrates He Doesn’t Get Education | Truth in American Education

David Coleman Again Demonstrates He Doesn’t Get Education | Truth in American Education:

David Coleman Again Demonstrates He Doesn’t Get Education

Filed in Common Core State Standards by  on November 13, 2013 • 0 Comments
coleman_wide_1Common Core architect and College Board President David Coleman recently joined a public forum to discuss “the next America.” His eight-minute speech gives a window into the ideas of those driving education in this country, which many Common Core critics have disagreed with all along.
First is the central idea of college as a pathway to financial security. Coleman opens with this: “The fact is completing a college degree is the most powerful force in driving against income inequality in this country. Seriously, it is the only technology we have.”
Odd. He seems not to have noticed the research demonstrating that intact families are a far better “technology” for fostering economic opportunity. Also, research typically does not show that getting a college degree automatically makes young people better off. It shows that better off people more often have a college degree. This distinction is significant, and understood by anyone who has ever heard in science class the difference between “correlation” and “causation.” For someone who says he is “obsessed with data,” Coleman is extremely sloppy on this point.
The worst thing about his statement, however, is its assumption that the point of college is money. I’m sure if you asked him this, Coleman would say “of course college is not just about 
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Broad Foundation names Bruce Reed – Vice-President Joe Biden's chief of staff – its new president | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC

Broad Foundation names Bruce Reed – Vice-President Joe Biden's chief of staff – its new president | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC:

Broad Foundation names Bruce Reed – Vice-President Joe Biden's chief of staff – its new president

Mary Plummer | 
Bruce Reed Broad Foundation

Courtesy The White House

Bruce Reed, Vice President Joe Biden's chief of staff, has been named the new president of the Broad Foundation.
The Broad Foundation is changing its leadership structure – Bruce Reed is leaving the Obama administration to become president of the education reform organization based in Los Angeles. Reed has been Vice President Joe Biden's chief of staff since January 2011.
The announcement of the new position came Wednesday morning.
In a statement, Reed praised the founders of the foundation – billionaire Eli Broad and his wife Edythe Broad – for their visionary philanthropy.
"No one is more committed to improving our public schools," Reed said. "And their generosity is matched by their focus on making the world a better place."
The hunt for a president has been underway for about a year, according to a Karen Denne, chief communications officer for The Broad Foundation. Eli Broad will now add chairman to his title at the organization, which began making education investments in 1999.
Since that time, the foundation has put more than $580 million toward improving schools nationwide.
"The team can't wait until he comes on board," Denne said. "He's really bringing new 
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AFT chief Randi Weingarten fights hedge funds on pensions

AFT chief Randi Weingarten fights hedge funds on pensions:

Teachers union fights hedge funds on pensions

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Published: Wednesday, 13 Nov 2013 | 1:02 PM ET
By:  | Producer, CNBC's "Squawk Box"
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Sad Loeb wouldn't meet pension trustees: Weingarten
Wednesday, 13 Nov 2013 | 8:49 AM ET
Discussing whether pension funds should invest in funds like Dan Loeb's Third Point, with American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten. She explains why Loeb had trouble with being transparent.











The American Federation of Teachers union is taking on Third Point's Dan Loeb and other big hedge fund managers over pensions.
"What we said to Dan Loeb and other investment managers is that transparency counts," AFT President Randi Weingarten told CNBC on Wednesday.
She was echoing the sentiments of an AFT report titled "Ranking Asset Managers," in which the union wrote: "Many of the organizations attacking defined benefit [pension] plans are funded by hedge fund and private equity managers."
The AFT put together what it called an "Investment Manager Watch List." The union's list consisted of money managers who it claimed "contributed to, or sit on the governing board of, an organization that advocates for the replacement of defined 
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Mother Crusader: Diane Ravitch Is Public (Charter) Enemy Number One; or How Public Money Just Keeps On Feeding Private Greed

Mother Crusader: Diane Ravitch Is Public (Charter) Enemy Number One; or How Public Money Just Keeps On Feeding Private Greed:

Diane Ravitch Is Public (Charter) Enemy Number One; or How Public Money Just Keeps On Feeding Private Greed




I literally laughed out loud when I read the woefully misguided attempted take-down of Diane Ravitch in yesterday's Trenton Times.

It was written by charter founder/leader Debbie Pontoriero.  I first came across Pontoriero when I helped the good people of Florence Township successfully defeat the expansion of the Riverbank Charter School of Excellence. Riverbank had taken root in Florence before the backlash against boutique suburban charters became vogue. 

Pontoriero, who identified herself as Riverbank's School Business Adminstrator (SBA), presented the expansion of Riverbank Charter School of Excellence to the press as a done deal.
Debbie Pontoriero, Riverbank’s business administrator, said the school’s founders are confident that the department will renew the charter and approve the proposed expansion given the school’s high performance record on standardized tests as well as other evaluations.
My, she's awfully cocky, isn't she? What Potoriero didn't factor in was that engaged parents in Florence Township were not about to lose more programs and services for their students to support the expansion of a charter that segregates and divides their community.

She also didn't bet on Florence's State Senator, Diane Allen (who just happens to sit on the Senate Education Committee) sending a letter to Education Commissioner Chris Cerf stating that
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Bolstering STEM: A Citywide Call to Action

Bolstering STEM: A Citywide Call to Action:

Bolstering STEM: A Citywide Call to Action

PHILLYACTIVE™ (NEWS THAT GETS PHILLY ACTIVE) The City of Philadelphia Announces Touts Major Efforts to Increase STEM Education, Mentorship for Students.



STEM at TU

 By Christopher “Flood the Drummer®” Norris

11.12.13: Philadelphia – (Technology/Education): A week before City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson is to host a panel discussion on integrating STEM into early-childhood education, the City of Philadelphia today announced it has been selected as one of thirteen first-round finalists for the US2020 City Competition, a Clinton Global Initiative project that capitalizes on the role of cities as centers for innovation, supporting outstanding efforts to build science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) mentoring capacity at the local level.
Led by Chief Education Officer Lori Shorr – who will serve as a panelist at Councilman Johnson’s event next Tuesday, November 19th, 2013, from 1:30-3:00pm at City Hall, Room 400 – Philadelphia has brought together, with support from the Mayor’s Office of Grants, a strong guiding coalition of partners to enhance and expand STEM-related opportunities for Philadelphia youth – particularly those who are low income, of color and/or female, to provide focused, hands-on mentoring from local STEM professionals.
“In Philadelphia and across the country, there is a critical need for increased participation in STEM related education and fields.  Our City has incredible STEM resources available to excite, educate and prepare our young people – especially girls, children of color and children from low-income families,” stated Mayor Michael A. Nutter in a press release.  “As a part of our US2020 application, we are bringing together a coalition of STEM partners from colleges and 
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NYC Educator: In Which I Broaden My Horizons

NYC Educator: In Which I Broaden My Horizons:

In Which I Broaden My Horizons

I'm the chapter leader of a very large school. As a consequence, people complain to me about everything. Why doesn't the faucet work in the ladies' room? How come the kid in my third row hasn't been suspended? Why can't you get us a new contract?

I muddle through as best I can, and I get a little better at it each year. I help everyone I can, and if I can't, I can usually find someone who can. But the questions this year are fundamentally different.

Where has the joy gone? I used to think it was a privilege to have this job and to be able to teach these kids. Now they give me reading lists of things neither I nor anyone in the known universe wants to read. You know, they don't want joy. They want rigor. Who the hell wakes up in the morning and wishes for rigor? Do people other than John King walk around wishing one another a rigorous day?

Teachers come to me and talk of their children. They used to love school. Now they pretend they're sick and don't even want to get out of bed. Should 8-year-old children be behaving like that? My daughter used to read every night. Now she does homework until ten or eleven o' clock and doesn't have time for that. My son can't understand the math in his book. I had to go to his school, pretend he had left something in his desk, and photograph every page of his 
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THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG 11-13-13 Authenticity to Support Common Core Instruction and Assessment — Whole Child Education

Authenticity to Support Common Core Instruction and Assessment — Whole Child Education:




Authenticity to Support Common Core Instruction and Assessment
How do we support our students in being career and college ready? This is not a new question, and educators continually struggle with what that even means. We leverage rigor and relevance as keys to prepare students for the post K–12 world, but what does that look like? What are some practical ways to promote rigor and relevance and target specific Common Core State Standards? One key method, whic
by Andrew Miller / 30min 




THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG 11-12-13 Common Core: An Educator's Perspective
Common Core: An Educator's Perspective — Whole Child Education: THE WHOLE CHILD BLOGCommon Core: An Educator’s PerspectiveNovember 7, 2013 by Steven WeberIf the state of North Carolina decides to pull the plug on the Common Core State Standards, it will be a slap in the face to the teachers and administrators who have spent countless hours (most on their own time without reimbursement) preparing t
by mike simpson / 6h 
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Early Steps to School Success - Save the Children

Early Steps to School Success - Save the Children:

Early Steps to School Success

Jennifer Garner visits Save the Children Programs in California. Watch the video above.

Make Preschool a Priority

TAKE ACTION

Growing Up in America

All children are born ready to learn, but for 16 million children living in poverty in America, they enter school unready to succeed.
Actor Jennifer Garner visits with school children who are participants of a Save the Children reading program at LBJ Elementary School in, Kentucky. Photo by David Stephenson
Actor Jennifer Garner visits with school children who are participants of a Save the Children reading program at LBJ Elementary School in, Kentucky. Photo by David Stephenson
Before even walking through the classroom door, American children living in poverty have already fallen behind in school. By age 4, children from low-income families are up to 18 months behind their peers developmentally.
A child's brain is already 80 % formed by age 3; 90 % by age 5. But children in poverty are less likely to attend preschool and often live in households where early learning activities are few and far between.

Closing the Achievement Gap before It Starts

The best way to ensure all children have a fair chance at a brighter future is to give each child the opportunity to learn and grow early on. Our Early Steps to School Successprogram lays a critical foundation of language and literacy skills for children from birth to age 5, so they can enter school ready to succeed.
Through home visits, book exchanges, parenting groups, and an emphasis on transition to school, Early Steps staff helps children with language, social and emotional development, and equips parents and caregivers with the skills to successfully support children's growth.

Jennifer Garner Advocates for Education

Jennifer Garner, actor and mother of three, has been an advocate for Save the Children's early education programs. In places like Garner's home state of West Virginia, where generational poverty is a barrier to children's success, early childhood education is fundamental to breaking the cycle of poverty. "[Advocating], to me, is one of the most important actions we can undertake," she said. Together, Save the Children and Jennifer Garner are working to ensure that every child in America has access to quality education from cradle to cap and gown.

In the News

Actor Jennifer Garner and Save the Children's Mark Shriver advocate for legislation that equalizes early childhood education. Watch the interview on CNN below.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan visited rural Kentucky to showcase the benefits of preschool education. Read the Article

Huffington Post Blogs

Early Steps Across the States Fact Sheets

Early Steps to School Success Program

State Specific Program Fact Sheets

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UPDATE: School District court case opens up questions about 'pay to play' | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

School District court case opens up questions about 'pay to play' | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

School District court case opens up questions about 'pay to play'

by Helen Gym on Nov 13 2013 Posted in Commentary
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“Pay to play” is a universally reviled practice in government, but that’s effectively what the District's legal argument would establish through its challenge of an Open Records case in state court.
For more than ten months, Parents United for Public Education and our lawyers at the Public Interest Law Center have been fighting to make public the Boston Consulting Group’s list of 60 school closings and the criteria it used for those closings. In 2012, BCG contracted with the William Penn Foundation to provide “contract deliverables,” one of which was identifying a list of 60 public schools for closure. William Penn Foundation solicited donations for this contract, including some from real estate developers and those promoting charter expansion. The “BCG list” was referenced by former Chief Recovery Officer Thomas Knudsen in public statements. But District officials refused to release the list, stating it was an internal document and therefore protected from public review.
Last spring, Parents United and PILCOP won our case with the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records, largely because the District appears to have shared the BCG list with top officials at the William Penn Foundation. Now, the District is taking its challenge to state court.
District officials aren’t just going to court to block the release of the BCG list. They want to completely redefine what it means to declare a document internal. In particular, the District's arguments show that it believes that certain and selectively defined groups -- specifically donors -- can essentially buy their way to specialized access otherwise denied to the rest of the public.
Here’s their rationale.
“William Penn Foundation’s role was that of a grantor who funded the second phase of BCG’s consultant services. As grantor, the philanthropic entity had the right – and indeed an 


After counselors, District brings back assistant principals, teachers, secretaries
With the $45 million in state aid released by Gov. Corbett, Superintendent William Hite has restored 40 additional positions to schools. Nearly half of those, 19, are assistant principals. The 40 are in addition to 80 counselors that were restored earlier. The Notebook calculates that with each position costing approximately $100,000 (the assistant principals cost closer to $150,000 each, includin
1 by Dale Mezzacappa / 8min 

Students risk a lot to buy into charismatic principal's vision
by Kevin McCorry for NewsWorks Anthony Majewski learned at an early age what it means to lose trust in the powers that be. As a 6th grader, he says he was "jacked up" by a math teacher who told him he was "never going to be anybody." "Like, he actually jacked me up, and put me up against the wall, 'cause I don't sit still too well," Majewski said, chuckling. "I d
1 by thenotebook / 12min 


Notes from the news, Nov. 13
​Witness tells how charter's documents were doctored. Inquirer Philadelphia schools see cash in old classrooms. NY Times William Penn alums want to revive shuttered school. Daily News Philly guidance counselors transferred to teaching duty. NewsWorks Who are the educational reformers and why should anyone listen to them? NewsWorks McCall school’s partnerships give students tools to succeed. Tribune Volunteers open doors to reading for grade schoolers. Tribune This Penn student cofounded a national network of high school hackathons. Technically Philly How an independent political party helped r
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Advice for parents: Creating an effective Individualized Education Program
by Anne L. Hunter                  First grader Anthony Powell Jr. can’t live without supportive services. Without them, he – like many other children with autism – he has nothing to steady him. Dawn Powell, Anthony’s mother, remembers his first bus ride to preschool at the Center for Autism. “He had to have someone sit next to him because he would take the seatbelt off and rise from his seat. It was a whole bunch of issues,” she said. “Anthony will try everything and anything he can. His challenge is to learn boundaries.” read more
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YESTERDAY

Philly guidance counselors transferred to teaching duty
by Kevin McCorry for NewsWorks Wanda Raudenbush does not consider herself a teacher. Yet for the first two months of school, she woke up every school day, went to Fox Chase Elementary School, and willed herself to teach 4th grade. For the four years before this, she was a guidance counselor. This year, she was a teacher. Image:  Image Caption:  Wanda Raudenbush and 37 of her guidance cou
8 by thenotebook / 23h 
Notes from the news, Nov. 12
District, Catholic, charter schools share applications. Inquirer Activist spearheads movement for historical marker at old Edison High. Liberty City Press Dystopian Philly schools now physically, not just psychologically, unhealthy. Philly Mag Philadelphian comes clean on "How I Helped Teachers Cheat." Daily News Teaching physics with felt. Edutopia Charter school eyed by FBI, Pa. watchd
2 by thenotebook / 1d mark as read  //  save
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