Honestly, some things are better just left undone. This is ridiculous. It is very hard to find intelligent things to say about this. First thing I would say would be when the heck would they fit in such a "test" even it if were possible? In between the practicing for all the other tests they are to be given? The really stupid part about this is that if you can test it, analyze it, put it in a box and label it, then it is NOT creativity. That is something one has or doesn't have. It can be...

This is a great article from the Dallas Morning News. It says the Komen Foundation may deny it's politics, but it IS about politics....the politics of fear. They got bullied into shrinking away from Planned Parenthood by an organized lobbying effort that wants to make the oldest non-profit reproductive health organization in our nation too radioactive to touch. Well, it’s Komen’s money. It’s extremely able at raising it, and the charity can distribute the money as it sees fit. What ...

That budget is happening under a Democratic governor who really doesn't "approve" of it but will accept it anyway. Not only does the religious theme park get a huge tax break, but there is 11 million going to improve the roads around that park. From Think Progress: When Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) proposed his 2012-2013 budget this week, he admitted that it was “inadequate for the needs” of the state’s people. “We should be making substantial investments in our physical and intellectual...

This was tweeted by today. While the parents, teachers, and others ignore the warnings, the reformers are on the go. It is an example in my mind of "disaster" capitalism at work. Keep cutting funds, keep cutting resources, give public schools nothing.....then take them over by force. From Philly.com A draft legislative proposal from the governor's office made public earlier this month by several state legislators sheds more light on his views. It calls for state takeovers of distresse...

BUT...his own policies require it. Teachers are to be evaluated on how well their students score on one high stakes test, and in many states the schools are graded by those tests as well. It blows my mind. He must know his own policies as set forth by Arne Duncan, his Secretary of Education. Right? Here is what he said in the SOTU speech about teachers. From the transcript at the WH site: At a time when other countries are doubling down on education, tight budgets have forced states to lay ...

(Link)/ "If you’re new to StudentsFirst we want to welcome you and invite you to learn more about our grassroots movement to transform public education. In our first year one million members have come together to help pass more than 50 policies in seven states to improve the education of 8.7 million children. Learn more about StudentsFirst and how you can get involved at (Link). Thanks again for entering and best of luck! The StudentsFirst Team" And he links to RheeFirst which says that goo...

This is getting beyond ridiculous. He was only passing out flyers that disagreed with the Arne/Rhee type of education reforms. From the Washington Post: A retired D.C. teacher who has written critically about Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Michelle Rhee said security guards escorted him out of an education data summit where the two were speaking on Wednesday. Guy Brandenburg, who writes the GFBrandenburg’s Blog (which is subtitled “Just a blog by a guy who’s a retired math teacher”...

Using teaching as a way to launch a career and transitioning to a corporate job instead of making it a choice for a career...that is not a good idea. That really makes the students secondary to launching a career. And this group is pushing into more and more public schools while hundreds and thousands of teachers are laid off for lack of funds. It's mostly being ignored. The list is from 2009, and it is from Business Week. It was mentioned in this article from Rethinking Schools in 2010. ...

This is from December from the NYC Public School Parents' blog. I missed it then. They are actually buying confidential student and teacher data from NY schools. This week, the Wall St Journal reported that the NY Board of Regents approved the state's sharing of student and teacher information with a new national data base, to be funded by the Gates Foundation, and designed by News Corp's Wireless Generation. All this confidential student and teacher data will be held by a private limited co...

I think his qualifications to do so are suspect. He doesn't have to worry about his future, whether Medicare and Social Security are there for him. He doesn't know beans about the harm being done to public education. I frankly believe his attitude is like that of way too many Democrats, and it is going to divide this party this year regardless of the outcome of the November election. It is the attitude that one does not criticize the president, no matter what that president does. He...

There is an article in the upcoming issue of The Nation by Linda Darling Hammond. She was an advisor to Obama during his campaign, but she unfortunately lost out to Arne Duncan and his corporate school raiders for the position of Secretary of Education. I never heard this term, redlining, but it surely fits what they are doing to public schools. Redlining was the once-common practice in which banks would draw a red line on a map—often along a natural barrier like a highway or river—t...

It really does sound to me that the prosecutors may have problems getting charges to stick. The defense attorney says "the charges hang on whether he was providing therapeutic hypnosis." He was hypnotizing them, he said, for "academic and athletic improvement." He also diagnosed a resource officer with "Tourette's syndrome", and offered hypnosis as treatment. This is a very odd story. I do not see how there is any way he could do all this legally. I do not see how they should have trou...

It was way past time for it to be shut down. It happened in great part because the boys who were abused there years ago got together, got organized, and called themselves The White House Boys. In 2008 they had a plaque put on the building where they had been beaten. In memory of the children who passed these doors, we acknowledge their tribulations and offer our hope that they have found some measure of peace. May this building stand as a reminder of the need to remain vigilant in protect...

The whole education mess in Florida is out of control now. It should be the other way around. Public schools should be well-funded as more is demanded of them. The state should not be giving charter schools more money while requiring less of them. This is a long article about a Florida high school that is considering becoming a charter. It's a good read, but there are a few short paragraphs that tell the whole story of how quickly the public schools are being dismantled in this state. ...

Here are Arne's words from September. I don't think anyone in the country has done more over the past 15 to 20 years than Wendy Kopp to identify the talents and characteristics that lead to great teaching. This is complicated stuff—there is no easy formula. And no one has done a better job of tracking the impact that their graduates and alumni are having in the classroom. Wendy is relentless in looking at that data and honestly self-reflecting on what is working and what's not working in thei...

These are some quotes from her op ed in The Tennessean in December. She has been teaching for 27 years. I agree that teachers need to be evaluated and held accountable. I have no problem with a plan that requires all teachers to be evaluated annually. However, the state’s current plan has too many flaws; in their haste the state’s legislators implemented it before it was properly thought through, causing teachers, administrators and even students undue amounts of stress and anxiety. Let me g...

"Last week, Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis threw Amendment 7 off the ballot because of its deceptive language, but he did so on what amounts to a technicality. Judge Lewis refused to stop the Legislature from labeling it the "Religious Freedom" amendment, and upheld a new law that allows the state's attorney general to correct deceptive language. Previously, if the Legislature approved a misleading amendment, the measure would be off the ballot until the Legislature could write an honest ...

Apparently Amendment 7 doesn't just "permit" taxpayer money to go to private religious schools, it requires it for every child who wants it. And not just school vouchers...other religious services as well. It is scary stuff, and there is very little from the main media about it. One Palm Beach Post editor is speaking out on this, and I commend him. Floridians who don't want their tax dollars underwriting vouchers for religious schools should start to educate themselves on Amendment 7....

Luntz is a Republican party strategist who specializes in “testing language and finding words that will help his clients sell their product or turn public opinion on an issue or a candidate." Quote is courtesy of His book from 2006, New American Lexicon, has many lists of politically astute words to manipulate the voters. Political Cortex blog covered this in 2006. If you read the words and switch off to the other sections below, you will see that both parties are using this kind of langua...

Somehow I missed this column by the Miami Herald's Fred Grimm in mid-December. It's worth a read. Compared to modern school kids, I was a downright worthless student.I don’t mean worthless as a pejorative. (My father would have used a more colorful term to characterize my scholarly pursuits.) But worthless as a commodity. Us kids at Montrose Elementary School weren’t making anyone rich. Not like today’s pupils, particularly those in Florida, who’ve become valuable cogs in a burgeoning indust...

 
Here is the article from the NYT about the rally. At a school assembly here in South Carolina on Sept. 1, a preacher described how Christ saved him from drugs, telling his rapt audience that “a relationship with Jesus is what you need more than anything else.” A rapper shouted the Lord’s praise to a light show and most of the audience stepped forward to pledge themselves to Christ while a few remained, uncomfortable, in their seats. Such overt evangelizing would not be unusual at a prayer ...

Not much left for public schools, I hear. Some of the charters wait until the money is doled out, then they "counsel out" under-performing students...sending them back to public schools. But they get to keep the money. This week's cover story about Mavericks in Education Florida explores the pitfalls of a for-profit charter school company that promises to help at-risk kids. Florida has been especially friendly to charter schools, allowing private companies to continue opening them using t...

Here are his words: "Is bailing out people that chose to live on the coastline a proper function of the federal government?" he asks. "Why do people in Arizona have to be robbed in order to support the people on the coast?" Yes, in my view that IS a role of the government. That is from the Here are more of his views. He wants to repeal federal drug laws...but his reasons are different than those held by many. He says that decades of government programs can soften Americans' sense of pe...

being a good teacher did not matter. Our district had switched to the philosophy that teachers were there only to serve parents and students. We were not to make them unhappy. I never did figure how you could teach what needed to be taught, have classrooms managed, handle kids whose parents could not control them.....and still make parents happy. ;-)

I am sure many remember my loyalty to Dean's campaign during the 2004 election. I was mocked for being devoted to a political personality. Many of us were. Most of us realized that he was moving on, going back to his centrist roots....and we went other directions as well. I still believe that in that year he could have been a power house against Bush. It's ironic that so many who mocked me back then are even more devoted to a political personality. They judge me now not by my education...

Are we coming full circle with all our "bipartisanship"?

This article from the NYT was written in 2005 as Bush started his fight to have private accounts for Social Security. We fought him then. Now there is talk of cutting Social Security, and it's amazing how it's both parties now. It angers me. BY 1934, it was not hard to make the case for Social Security. The Great Depression had devastated employment, pensions, the stock market and savings. Many older Americans, and their beleaguered children with families of their own, found themselves sudd...

(Link) It's pretty bad.

Danziger hit the nail on the head last year with this cartoon. (Image) Online schools are surging now, and there is little or no accountability. K12 is one of the largest online schools in the country. Bill Bennett, its founder, once told the FCC Commissioner a shocking thing. Reed Hundt was Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission between 1993-97. During that time he was seeking legislation to implement a strategy to place computers and internet access in classrooms and librarie...

Because it is hopeless. Unless you address the poverty, the underlying problem, it is hopeless. "‘The children have lost hope’ To longtime education organizers like Jitu Brown of the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization (KOCO), the program is just another in a long line of failures. “Reconstitution, reorganization, charter schools–all these initiatives have failed miserably,” Brown says. “They’re window dressings. You have to address poverty before the problems of education.” Surrounded b...