VAM explained

Finally, in terms EVERYONE can understand and be insulted by!
Diane Ravitch shared this today.

What do you make?

Taylor Mali says it best.

What do you make?

We may be destroying the Monarchs

In spite of a protected preserve in their wtntering gounds in Mexico, and putting a stop to illegal logging in and around the preserve, Monarch butterfly numbers continue to decline. Now it's because of human activity north of the border. Without changes, especially in agricultural practice, we may .lose the monarchs entirely

Bees like a buzz, too.

Apparently, some plant nectars contain caffeine, and the bees like it. A research group at Newcastle University (UK) was even able to train bees to a sugar solution laced with comparable amounts of caffeine. Supposedly ir gives them an adge.

Is this a natural extension of the TFA model?

An 'agent for change' who has made her name as a community activist/organizer/advocate in the South Bronx, then parlays it into a pricey consulting business, now finds herself on the receiving end of comments she herself once hurled at an adversary. In 1999,  she shouted at members of another community group, South Bronx Clean Air Coalition, for supporting the proposal: “You are accepting money from them and playing their community partner.”  That is exactly what some in the community are saying to Majora Carter now, as she is under contract with Fresh Direct to help bring their operation to the Bronx. By the way, until this flap hit the local media, Fresh Direct did not even do business in the Bronx, bringing a sense of elitism to the affair. From the Times article: Class implications idled near the surface: FreshDirect had become a hit with Manhattan residents who paid a premium to have their groceries dropped off at their doors, but it did not serve most of the Bronx, including the very streets where the government-subsidized headquarters were planned.
It is a sad reality of American business that impoverished and stressed communities are always considered as sources of labor, but not considered as potential markets.

Priceless

First saw this on the Teachers Don't Suck blog.
I started thinking of those old MasterCard commercials, where they gave you prices of things and ended with something priceless.
Here's the projected cost of implementing Common Core. Where the hell is this going to come from, in this age of school closings and reductions in force?

Can your child do this?

Some of my students can't. We can't contact parents because kids don't know a working phone number. And I'm not just talking about kids with serious learning problems.

 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/missing-pet-parakeet-chirps-home-address-police-article-1.1072051

Bicycles and teachers

Like comparing apples and oranges, you so, say? Oh, not so, my friends. Take a look at how Crazy Crawfish puts it all together for you. He's specifically discussing Louisiana, but the analogy works for any state, perhaps country, even, based on what I've read of  'reforms' in the UK and Australia. Beauty of it is, it all makes just as much sense as this VAM nonsense being offered as a solution to a nonexistent 'crisis' in education and global competition.

Class Warfare

Class Warfare

Shock Doctrine, anyone? Necessary reading these days.

More on using 'data'

Of course, the 'data' can be made to show pretty much whatever you want it to show...

Bruce Baker does a fine job of making the point here.

Again, this appeared on Diane Ravitch's blog. I love what she does.

No Fab Formula for Jalen Rose

No Fab Formula for Jalen Rose

If my school were in this much disarray, I'd be praying for the district to shut us down. As it is schools nowhere near such dire straits are closed every day (Chicago, Philly, NYC, etc). Yet, this place is allowed to continue. Why? Why? Why? It's time to channel Cee Lo Green and say, "Forget you!"

This isn't how you fatten the pig!

Continually weighing the pig, without feeding it, will not cause the pig to gain weight.

Likewise, continually testing the students, at the expense of actually TEACHING them, will not make them 'learn' more. (I disagree with the idea that these tests can show what's been learned.)

Some in Texas (yes, the folks who broght us NCLB) are beginning to realize that solution to the invented 'crisis' in education is not more testing. Not all agree, unfortunately, and even if testing is reined in in TX, it will probably take years for the rest of the country to catch up. In GA, more like 20 years...  

Thanks to Diane Ravitch for finding and posting the link at her blog.

For real, dude!

This is so apropo to my normal day...

from Facebook

Why Are Americans So Ignorant?

Why Are Americans So Ignorant?

Standardized Tests and the Joys of Spring

Standardized Tests and the Joys of Spring

Holding Their Tongues? Public Employees’ Rights and the Testing Debate

Holding Their Tongues? Public Employees’ Rights and the Testing Debate

you would never choose this for your child

But, by cutting back on schools, this is not so far off. We are not long from seeing a return to the days when daughters were married off to get them out of the house where they were costing money.
How is this different from the teenage girls who leave high school to go live with a boyfriend?
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/01/world/asia/afghan-debts-painful-payment-a-daughter-6.html?smid=fb-share

No kidding.

I often tell students a story from my childhood that pretty much makes this same point.
Shared with me on Facebook.

180 days

It's the typical length of an American school year. sure some schools go longer (year round charters, for example), some shorter (4 day week, anyone?), but basicaly we are on a 180-day calendar that hasn't changed in a hundred years.

A lot can happen in 180 days. Like a documentary.

PBS bagan airing it in late March, and I caught it during Spring Break. It follows the teachers and students of Washington Metropolitan High School in DC, known as "DC Met" to them. By the end of the year, they had their first graduating class, although a few kids had come up short and did not graduate. The principal was 'non-renewed'. In other words, fired. The Chancellor (Rhee's successor, Kaya Henderson) and the district never gave a reason for the decision. Nor did they ever provide the school with necessary resources. It's another view into the chaos that results from 'data-driven' decision making in education.

What the frack?

Is it really possible to induce earthquake through hydraulic fracturing? There seem to be some questions that need answering: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/03/does-fracking-cause-earthquakes-wastewater-dewatering

DCSS moves ahead with closure agenda - WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports

DCSS moves ahead with closure agenda - WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports

The consent decree has been in place forever. It is pointless, and has been pointless for a long time. It serves no real purpose. that said, I completely disagree with plans to close schools.

Just when you think you've heard it all

Some wingnut decides young children should be trained to attack mass murderers:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/03/kids-fight-school-shooters-alice-newtown

Much better idea than restricting access to 55-round magazines, right?

Maybe one day this will happen for teachers too

redicsovery of 'extinct' species after 135 years without a sighting...

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Lizard-species-rediscovered-after-135-years/articleshow/19220349.cms

just cause it makes me smile

Wish this were my supt, or principal

Rod Rock of Clarkston Community Schools in Michigan. Dianne Ravitch has a letter he wrote to his faculty. Among other things, he says: Please help our children discover, create, and continuously recreate their own, unique definitions of themselves. If they don’t know themselves, they’ll struggle to contribute and become.

It was only a matter of time

before someone noticed that schools are sitting on real estate that could be generating income. big income. Well, Bloomberg & Co have finally picked up on it and are offering 3 sites for development. Odd thing, 2 of them are NOT 'failing' schools, and all 3 have had substantial investment in renovations/upgrades. Huh?
http://edushyster.com/?p=2277

I know this kid.

And I mean it this time...

What a student!

How great to read about a kid who is thinking about something in attition to the latest movie, CD, or the girl across the room! He is thinking about a solution to a worldwide problem: oceanic garbage patches. http://inhabitat.com/19-year-old-student-develops-ocean-cleanup-array-that-could-remove-7250000-tons-of-plastic-from-the-worlds-oceans/

He has his own website too: http://www.boyanslat.com/

And a TED Talk: http://www.boyanslat.com/TEDx/

skills gap debunked

Well, well, well. I've noticed for years the factors that are mentioned in the book about the "skills gap" in corporate employment. Take a look here:

http://andreagabor.com/2013/03/16/a-new-book-by-wharton-professor-debunks-the-skills-gap/

What, you mean we really are good enough?

All the new evaluation schemes are coming into being, and instead of rating large numbers of teachers as ineffective, the opposite seems to be happening. And the 'reformers' don't understand why. Maybe it's that the bar is set so low for the benefit of higher student pass rates. maybe it's that VAM is total bullshit. Maybe it's that we just don't know how to define, much less measure "effictiveness". The NY Times had an interesting article on the subject, entitled Curious Grade for Teachers: Nearly All Pass, and it included this tidbit:
Grover J. Whitehurst, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, said variations in teacher quality had been proven to affect student academic growth. If an evaluation system is not finding a wider distribution of effectiveness, “it is flawed,” he said.

“It would be an unusual profession that at least 5 percent are not deemed ineffective,” he added.

So, you aren't really interested in finding out if we are effective. You only want to rank and sort us in order to get rid of the lowest performers (regardless of how good they might really be).
What, exactly, is the evidence for the second statement? Do we routinely fire 5% of our firefighters, police officers, legislators for lack of performance? Do 5% or more of doctors, accountants, or lawyers lose their license to practice their profession for perceived inadequacy?

and the small schools experiments continue...

even though Bill Gates has admitted that he misjudged the impact of small programs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/nyregion/at-the-stevenson-campus-nine-high-schools-one-roof.html?hpw&_r=0&pagewanted=all

Do you trust these morons to make decisions for you?

It's like the gang that couldn't shoot straight, or Keystone Kops. Arrests have been made in a campaign bribery case being called "the dumbest, most delusional scheme ever concocted." Some Queens knucklehead is accused of trying to bribe his way onto the mayoral ballot. And he had company! It's a 28-page indictment, with multiple named defendants. Guess they didn't care to do it the old-fashioned way: lots of Gates/Walton/Bloomberg money.

Cool, Bill. Now if only

If only you had asked some of these things before starting down the Yellow Brick Road. It doesn't take millions of dollars to find out that teachers need and want some intangibles above and beyond the paycheck. MetLife gathers that information for us every year (since 1984). Morale among the ranks is at a new low. You've been arrogant and short-sighted and you've contributed to the destruction of American public education by pursuing your agenda without any evidence or prospects of efficacy. I'll be waiting for the apology.
Check out Anthony Cody's take on the editorial, and don't miss his Billionaire Philanthropist Evaluation, in the name of accountability. It's great.

Mesopotamian Marsh

In between the first and second Gulf Wars, Saddam Hussein launched a massive project to drain the Mesopotamian Marshes, fed by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. It was an area twice the size of the Everglades. There were about a quarter million people who lived in and near the marshes, making their living by fishing, raising water buffalo, cutting reeds, etc. They are tribal groups collectively known as Marsh Arabs, and for unknown reasons, Hussein decided to starve them out. He had massive dikes constructed to impede the flow of water into the marshes from the rivers, and also dug canals to drain the marshes themselves.

Imagine what could have been accomplished with all that time, effort, and money- schools, hospitals, clinics, food, roads, the list goes on. But I digress.

By the time international military personnel reached the area (near Basra) in 2003, the marshes no longer existed. The area had been converted to a desert. If you have trouble understanding how the Sahara became a desert, you can clearly see it in the before and after photos and video in Braving Iraq, produced for Nature on PBS. The program documents efforts over the past 10 years to restore the marshes and the culture and wildlife that once flourished here.

So far, a small portion of the marshes is back, but the Marsh Arabs are returning, the reeds are growing, fish and frogs are reproducing, and migrating birds are nesting once again. Nature Iraq is working to restore the natural flow of the rivers, the flood cycle, and maintain a balance between conservation and sustainable human activity. They envision a national park, with eco-tourism, that will be on the list of must-see places in the world. When you see the flocks of pelicans and teals rise out of the reeds, you want them to succeed at their mission.

And, how does any of this help the child?

So, the little girl smells. Like what, they don't say in the article. Apparently the school thinks it's an issue of hygiene. So, why not help the kid out. Maybe let her get a shower at school. Maybe she needs a change of clothing. Mom says it's not a medical issue- did the school even consider that?  How does it fix the problem to have her miss 24 days of school (and counting!)?

This comes up regularly with older kids, and I've gotten good at 'the talk'. I've done it with groups, individually, and I even have some sample sizes of soaps and deodorants in my classroom in case they are needed or wanted. I've never had to call a parent about it, but it would never cross my mind that such a child should go through discipline over it.

Segregationist Time warp

Four years ago, people across the country were shocked to hear that segregated proms were still being held all over the South. The NY Times even covered the subject.
On the early news today, there was a report on a group of girls in Wilcox County, GA, are trying to organize an inclusive, Integrated Prom at their school this year. One of the girls was named Homecoming Queen, but even Homecoming dances are segregated, so she and the Homecoming King attended separate events. That kind of did it, I guess, and the four friends are trying to change things. It's not proving to be easy. Posters have been torn down, and adults are upset.
Funny thing, I applied for a job at that high school a couple of years ago. Wish I'd been hired. This is something I'd have sponsored.

UPDATE 4/5/13: This story has been picked up by national media. Both the NY Times and Wash Post have taken note, in addition to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Detroit Schools Emergency Manager Gets Accolades as Children Fall Further Behind

Detroit Schools Emergency Manager Gets Accolades as Children Fall Further Behind

The title says it all. and a 'data' bonus: if the data don't support your narrative, just make stuff up!

I think I'm glad I missed the 'summit'. NBC and their "Education Nation' make me mad. As a hatter. Like, I scream at the tv and throw things.

Jersey Jazzman: Charter School "Chef" Makes More Than Teachers!

How do I get a job like this one? 95K to make sandwiches for the kids, I canhandle that. Oh, wait, gotta sleep with... I'll get back to you on that...

Jersey Jazzman: Charter School "Chef" Makes More Than Teachers!: Want to make money at a charter school? Don't become a teacher; be a chef ! A March 2012 menu feature at Camden's LEAP Academy Uni...

Thanks again to Diane. Good laugh, after I was done being nauseous.

reading fiction- necessary for the soul

William Styron: You live several lives while reading.
Bradbury: “You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” 
Fran Lebowitz: “Think before you speak. Read before you think.” 
Joseph Brodsky: “There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.” 
Willliam Nicholson: We read to know that we are not alone.
George R.R,Martin: “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.” 
Stephen King: “Books are a uniquely portable magic.” 
Cassandra Clare: “Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry.” 
Jules Verne:“We are of opinion that instead of letting books grow moldy behind an iron grating, far from the vulgar gaze, it is better to let them wear out by being read.” 
Emerson: “I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.” 
Jane Smiley: “Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.” 

http://www.rotary.org/en/mediaandnews/therotarian/pages/business1303.aspx


all quotes found at goodreads.com

No Child Left Behind, unless they are gifted...

Not only did NCLB gut gifted programs along with Special Education, but Jacob JAvits funding was also cut by the feds about 4 years ago. I was earning my gifted endorsement at the time (still haven't gotten to use all that learning, like many of my classmates) and found the notice while working on research for a class assignment.


http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2013/03/26/no-child-left-behind-neglected-gifted-students-that-is-about-to-change-in-georgia/

"failing school" as a historical concept

I've also seen a comment somewhere that the notion of 'failing' or inadequate schools arose in the aftermath of forced desegregation...

http://federaleducationpolicy.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/historic-use-of-the-term-failing-school/

I know the feeling

This was my thought when I found out about the new statewide evlauation formula that passed the legislature last week with no media coverage whatsoever. Even my professional organization didn't mention it.

Cheating investigations: A Tale of Two Cities

Sol Stern of the Daily Beast has an interesting comparison of how the APS cheating scandal was handled by Gov Perdue, vs Bloomberg's handling of cheating allegations in NYC. One could easily toss in Rhee's handling of cheating 'investigation' in DC schools.
He also points out what all of us know: there are always those who will game the system, and play the rules that are make for personal advantage; a few people (not necessarily those who were directly changing answers) profited mightily from this culture of coercion for results.
As other states prepare to impose teacher evaluation systems heavily based on test results, they need to consider carefully the likely responses of those they propose to 'incentivize' for higher achievement. While I know that my kids are doing their personal best, despite their parents, the test will not reflect their growth because it is below-grade-level growth. That means, that sometime after 2014-15, my job will be on the line for being "ineffective". My principal's job will be on the line shortly after that, if too many of us are "ineffective". Do you really think no one will try something? I've got a lovely bridge to sell you.

SAT by any other name...

It wasn't so great when I took it back in 1984, and I doubt it will be improved in upgrade 3.0. Maybe it's time to accept that it doesn't really give us any real or useful information.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-nelson/the-college-board-fails-t_b_2801884.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNot

professional standing (or falling?)

From tne Times, a year ago: "By all accounts, the teaching profession is at a crossroads. Since the early 1980's, when a presidential commission and the Carnegie Foundation declared a crisis of confidence in the public schools, attention has increasingly shifted to the poor quality of many teachers and of teacher education programs as sources of what the commission called ''a rising tide of mediocrity.''    
"At first, his friends admired him for being brave and daring enough to teach in what they considered a ghetto school. ''People said, 'Wow, that's so cool, so noble. Aren't you scared?' '' he recalled. But as the years went by, they started asking him when he was going to get a real job."   
"Mr. Plaks is struggling against the cynicism of both people like his mother and some of his colleagues."
"In the last year, he has seen five of his most senior and most skillful colleagues at Public School 192 retire."

They got it wrong. It's not about Social Status. It's about professional image and perception. We are not longer treated as educated professionals, but a production workers with no independent judgement. The legislature here has just passed a new law that will mandate test scores to comprise a minimum of 50% of teacher evaluations.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/17/nyregion/as-social-status-sags-teachers-call-it-a-career.html?gwh=638D3268A32FA2B971CE69C10E241E17

Should Ga Tech change mascot?

A survey has been released today, ecplaining the various reasons to consider giving up on the yellow jacket (my favorite- In a series of tests, an actual bulldog was put in a room with an actual yellow jacket and the bulldog killed the yellow jacket 99 percent of the time. This is demoralizing for the football team, who would prefer a mascot that can, in real life, kill a real bulldog.)

You can vote here: http://newbuzz.gatech.edu/

But wait: http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2013/04/01/to-bee-or-not-to-bee-is-it-time-for-georgia-tech-to-introduce-a-killer-buzz-or-a-robotic-one/

this is the primary consideration?

Now, I agree there are silly reasons why school calendars are set as they are, or changed. But, should tourism dollars and summer jobs for teens be the primary considerations? Here we get annual reports about how the school calendars affect revenue at Six Flags. You would think that the park gets no out of town/state visitors...

http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2013/03/25/shorter-summers-short-teens-chances-to-earn-money/

now, THAT'S what I'm talking about

AP makeover

Maybe it's time to stop putting all our eggs in one basket. And every day, we change the stupid basket! How about if there were thoughful discussions, followed by some sane decisions, instead of running around looking for the silver bullet that will cure the werewolf?

http://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2013/03/06/advanced-placement-courses-need-more-than-a-makeover-jack-schneider/