| Michael Baker's Room 101 |
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Listen in every Wednesday night at 6 PM CST
July 2: Christina Conn, a teacher from California who was fired by her district for advocating for her own children with special needs.
July 9: Susan Neuman, former assistant Secretary of Education under the first Bush administration who has recently been highly critical of NCLB.
July 16: Jim Horn, Massachusetts educator and responsible for the blog, Schools Matter and Foundations of Educational Leadership.
July 23: Armand Fusco, former public school administrator and critic of public school fiscal policy. Code for corruption in public school bureaucracy
July 30: Coach Tom Osborne, Athletic Director of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln discussing various issues facing student athletes as they transition from high school to college.
August 13: Deborah Meier, author, education reformer, and activist
The call in number is 402-474-5086.
Podcasts available here.
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Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 11:52:26 AM CDT
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| I wonder how many teachers will sell themselves to the devil for a few more dollars. If this idea grabs hold, kiss your professionalism, autonomy, security, and health benefits goodbye. Each person needs to search within themselves to see how much $ it would take to compromise one's knowledge that test score abuse and its damage to children is destroying education. Big business cares nothing for kids. They just want taxpayer money and want unions out of the way. I'm not saying that our unions are the best, but they are the only thing that stands between the freedom to educate children humanely or to corrupt them insanely. "We must all hang together, or we WILL hang separately". Read at the link below: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article2008/07/02/AR2008070203498_pf.html |
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Mon Jun 30, 2008 at 11:27:54 AM CDT
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| I needed a crumb thrown my way after almost 8 years of thoughtlessness. Denver's August event is a GREEN Democratic Convention. The DNC is hosting the August convention as a majorly GREEN event, from recycling patrol people, composting, providing organic, locally grown food and balanced menu options, and requests for fanny packs for volunteers that are from recycled materials--I LOVE IT! It's so freakin' bold. Repetition and modeling ways of thinking and being in today's world....not unlike ways of thinking about and implementing innovative and childhood-related educational practices....hmmmmm!? I must be desperate--I emailed the Dem Party, DNC, DNCC and the hosting committees...I need a Life, but I am glad SOMEbody's doing SOMEthing. |
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Fri Jun 27, 2008 at 08:05:49 AM CDT
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| Ohio's governor wants a more flexible and personalized system of public schools where students are encouraged to be more creative and innovative. “We are trying to force some students into a mold," and "neglect the full array of abilities and potentials that exist within a student.” Gov. Strickland (D) is promoting a new classroom environment that is more adaptable and less focused on high-stakes testing, a system he believes will help Ohio graduates succeed in an increasingly competitive global economy. No two children are alike. Every child has strengths, and our education system should emphasize an individualized approach that will make it possible for a student to have his or her strengths utilized. I have for a very long time felt strongly that there are certain trends in education that are leading to the homogenization of education. I think it can be seen in some of the curriculum decisions that are being made where the arts are sometimes considered of lesser importance and where...we are eliminating physical education.
Strickland said he supports student assessments and testing to keep schools accountable but that they cannot be the sole emphasis of school. (I expect to see Maggie the Substitute Teacher making a visit to Ohio soon. She can't allow any local or state entities gain control of W's federal education system.) [Find the Columbus Dispatch article HERE.] |
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Thu Jun 26, 2008 at 15:46:30 PM CDT
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| You have to see this. This is who is running our education department! Congressman Honda's drilling reveals some telling facts about Spellings' real motives. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zSJexwOGvs If it doesn't work, try this. Click on the "wonderful moment" highlight at: http://susanohanian.org/show_nclb_atrocities.html?id=3438 Share it with your friends. Write letters to congress in outrage. Carbon copy them to the NEA. |
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Sat Jun 21, 2008 at 11:54:07 AM CDT
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| Here is a link to a story in today's "Orlando Sentinel" about Michael Bloomberg's speech at the Excellence in Action in education reform summit hosted by Governor Jeb Bush. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/education/orl-edsummit2108jun21,0,7801304.story This is from the guy whose school district houses teachers in an archipelago of rubber rooms on, often, mere allegations of wrongdoing. Teacher Doug Avella, whose students turned in blank tests, is now imprisioned in one of them. Reform to these guys is more of the same capitalistic propaganda of making the schools scapegoats for not turning out more cogs for global economic competition. |
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Thu Jun 19, 2008 at 17:21:29 PM CDT
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| The American Educational Studies Association (AESA) meets in Savannah October 29-Nov 2. If five of you are willing to attend, I will ask for space on the program for a discussion session, but you need to contact me quickly. I want to discuss getting printed copies off the petition to Obama's staff. Then I want to discuss whether or not we keep these two sites going. As you may recall, I signed on for 2 years of "Chair." We should discuss who will take the "chair," this blog and the other site over. I'm off to grade papers. |
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Thu Jun 19, 2008 at 11:49:14 AM CDT
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32898. Beverly Brigman My dear friend just lost her fifteen year old son to suicide because of test stress over EOG's regulated by NCLB
We do not know the details, we do not know the whole story, but it sure makes you wonder...
Call me naive but I think there should be legislation making it illegal to attach life altering consequences to standardized tests. |
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Mon Jun 16, 2008 at 18:11:57 PM CDT
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[Posted this morning to the main middle school level listserv.]
Marion
___________________
Hi,
The June 8 issue of TIME magazine carried a story verifying what some of
us have long suspected. Susan Neuman, a member of the group that actually
WROTE the NCLB legislation, said some members of her team "saw NCLB as a
Trojan horse for the choice agenda -- a way to expose the failure of public
education and 'blow it up a bit'. "
Got that? They DESIGNED NCLB to make you and your profession look as
sorry as possible!
If that doesn't make you mad, you're not paying attention. The
education establishment should have screamed bloody murder. Instead, it has
pretty much cooperated in the effort, writing thousands of wrong-headed
"standards" and administering corporately produced tests that test little of
real consequence. Even this admission of NCLB'a true intent hasn't caused a
ripple. Nobody on this list seems even to have heard of this admission,
much less joined in a serious effort to kill NCLB.
Below is a link to a letter. I hope you'll at least take a minute to
read it. Better yet, give thought to the well-being of America's kids and
add your name to it.
http://www.avwebnet.com/EducationReformLetter.asp
Marion |
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Mon Jun 16, 2008 at 11:50:26 AM CDT
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| suggests it's time to improve U.S. education A Memphis entrepreneur's documentary compares high-achieving students from India, China and America. It has drawn mixed reactions from academics.
It was over dinner in Bangalore that Bob Compton began to suspect something was deeply amiss in the way America educates its young. Compton, a successful venture capitalist... had expected math and science nerds. But they also knew more about history, geography and literature than most Americans he knew. "I said to them, 'How'd you get this way?' " he recalled. "They said, 'Well, at school.' " The result was "Two Million Minutes," a one-hour documentary. ....Tony Wagner, a Harvard education professor, was among those who watched Compton's film at its Cambridge screening and one of the few whose reaction was positive. Wagner studies innovation in U.S. education and has written a book due out this summer called "The Global Achievement Gap."...
..."We don't challenge kids in schools," he said. "We don't challenge them to think; we don't challenge them to create. We challenge them to get good enough grades to get into a good enough college." Wagner believes the solution is an overhaul of American education to emphasize innovation and critical thinking, not simply working harder at math and science.... |
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Fri Jun 13, 2008 at 22:31:42 PM CDT
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| Karen Salazar, a second year teacher at Jordan High School in Watts gets dismissed for allegedly being "too Afro-Centric." Check out the story and the YouTube links. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-jordan12-2008jun12,0,6859592,print.story http://youtube.com/watch?v=-jMqxo2uMj8 http://youtube.com/watch?v=3sIO8Oh6OtE&feature=related |
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Fri Jun 13, 2008 at 17:32:59 PM CDT
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| Yea Susan! And Educator Roundtable got a mention too! http://www.book-smarts.net/spring08/Hinchey-on-Ohanian.htm |
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Fri Jun 13, 2008 at 14:22:32 PM CDT
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| A question came across the NACAC (National Association for College Admission Counseling) discussion list about the legitimacy of Jefferson High School, an online high school. Their program charges $199. But a Google search found Belford High School has a $249 package which includes “1 original accredited diploma, 2 original transcripts, 1 award of excellence, 1 certificate of distinction, 1 certificate of membership, and 4 educational verification letters." Don’t have the fees? They have flexible payment plans. All of this without "taking admission", "any hassle of attending classes", or "studying long hours for tough exams". Accredited? Yes. But not by any agency you’re likely to run into regularly. Belford has a "talk around the bush" discussion about their accreditation — basically the colleges and their accrediting agencies decide whether the diploma is worth anything. I’m sending this same information to Margaret Spellings. Think what a great record NCLB can have with this resource! |
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Fri Jun 13, 2008 at 10:02:21 AM CDT
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| WE TOLD YOU SO. h/t Jim Horn... "This isn't helping poor kids," said Jack Jennings, president and chief executive of the Center on Education Policy in the District, which monitors implementation of the federal law. "All it's doing is taking money out of classrooms and putting it into the hands of private companies. The full story... |
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Fri Jun 13, 2008 at 00:59:19 AM CDT
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| Come one, come all to the BIGGEST circus in town! And BECAUSE it's the biggest circus, there are lots of animal droppings. LOTS OF THEM. Read on---(now Susan Neuman, our NCLB "insider" is part of the "bigger, broader" fix on education. Peter was right- they have no conscience.) http:nytimes.com/2008/06/12/us/12education.html (Maggie continues to spew---rainbowy sweet marshmallows this time) http://nytimes.com/2008/06/12/washington/12spellings.html |
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Mon Jun 09, 2008 at 18:34:03 PM CDT
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| I couldn't get the article to post, but please read this here: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1812758,00.html This is a huge article, considering that TIME has published other things seeming to be in favor of NCLB recently. Shocking. |
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Sun Jun 08, 2008 at 13:07:44 PM CDT
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| USAToday (6/8) indicates the two candidates are not too far apart on the education issues. (McCain's education advisor is Lisa Graham Keegan, former superintendent of public instruction in Arizona; Obama's is Jeanne Century, director of Science Education, Research and Evaluation at the University of Chicago's Center for Elementary Mathematics and Science Education). Both: - believe in rigorous standards and rich curricula to help students compete in a global economy;
- support publicly funded, but privately run, charter schools;
- oppose using taxpayer dollars for large-scale voucher programs;
- push for so-called "value added" provisions that would give schools credit for test score gains that children make each year, even if all children don't meet a pre-set proficiency goal in reading or math;
- would tweak NCLB's funding:
- McCain would figure out more efficient, focused ways to spend NCLB's "unprecedented" increase in funding to schools.
- Obama believes NCLB "was insufficiently funded and poorly implemented."
Differences:
- McCain supports tying teacher pay to improvements in children's standardized test scores. Obama "is against traditional merit pay that ties individual pay to student outcomes, but is open to other arrangements" which include rewarding teachers for "deep content knowledge," mentoring, extra certification and "classroom excellence;
- McCain doesn't say much about early childhood education. Obama believes that "making sure children have a healthy beginning of life" saves taxpayers money on interventions in the long run.
They still don't get it. What can we do? Who else can get their ear? It's time to get active again!
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Wed Jun 04, 2008 at 10:54:06 AM CDT
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| From TC Record: Although the intent of the No Child Left Behind legislation is to identify schools in which students are not being educated well and to compel improvement, its approach to doing so is built on a model from which long-standing disparities were constructed in the first place.
The use of high-stakes standardized testing and direct instruction (DI) methods of teaching—both likely effects of the policies of the NCLB Act—reify the idea that mathematics is something to be put into students’ heads, apart from their lived experiences and daily lives. This approach to mathematics education provides a rationale for students’ (continued) stratification within an “objective” system of standardized testing and instruction.
When considering reforms that aim to reduce inequities in educational outcomes, particularly in mathematics, forms of assessment and instruction must be developed and promoted that get away from the divisiveness of the traditional truth games and move toward a focus on students making sense of mathematics in ways that are meaningful, flexible, and connected to their sense of self.
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Wed Jun 04, 2008 at 08:19:57 AM CDT
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| A study conducted by researchers at Tufts University found that children who consumed a breakfast of Quaker instant oatmeal displayed better spatial memory and an increased ability to stay on task (what the study called “vigilance attention”) when performing a battery of cognitive tests than children who ate Cap’n Crunch, and, perhaps surprisingly, those who ate the sweetened cereal performed better than those who ate nothing. Another study, this one by researchers at the University of Reading, found that adolescents fed a sugary drink in the morning will subsequently display all the mental agility of a 70-year-old. It’s not much of a leap to assume that an adult who skips breakfast will have the same difficulty concentrating at work as a kid sitting in a classroom—hunger is distracting whatever your age—but distracted office workers have not been a major concern for breakfast researchers.
You can read the entire piece here. |
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Wed Jun 04, 2008 at 07:50:12 AM CDT
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| Ohanian links below the fold... |
| There's More...
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Sun Jun 01, 2008 at 22:30:34 PM CDT
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Unstoppable U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings is at it again. On hand today with representatives from top toy manufacturer Mattel, Spellings curtailed her trips around U.S. cities promoting charter schools long enough to announce the launch of a distinctive new line of Barbie dolls and accessories being manufactured specifically to appeal to poor and minority children as well as poor white trash children. Read all about it here... |
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| For Your Consideration |
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Teacher Education Quarterly has given us permission to post their upcoming issue.
Contributers include Alex Molnar, David Gabbard, Kathy Emory, Michael Apple, Ken Saltman, Jean Anyon, et al.
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| Recommended Diaries |
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| About |
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This is about opening our conversations up to a much larger audience. It is about encouraging local teachers, administrators, students, policy makers, and concerned citizens to talk to one another about changing our schools.
If not NCLB then what?
We have some suggestions.
What are yours?
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