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