Education Top Ten

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J from Alan Singer

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J from Alan Singer

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J from Alan Singer

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J "Scientists have been warning for decades that climate change is a threat to the immense tracts of forest that ring the Northern Hemisphere, with rising temperatures, drying trees and earlier melting of snow contributing to a growing number of wildfires. The near-destruction of a Canadian city last week by a fire that sent almost 90,000 people fleeing for their lives is grim proof that the threat to these vast stands of spruce and other resinous trees, collectively known as the boreal forest, is real. And scientists say a large-scale loss of the forest could have profound consequences for efforts to limit the damage from climate change." - The New York Times, May 11, 2016, p. 1. "Donald J. Trump traveled Thursday to the heart of America's oil and gas boom, where he called for more fossil fuel drilling and fewer environmental regulations while vowing to "cancel the Paris climate agreement," the 2015 accord committing nearly every n...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J As a teacher and as a citizen I am worried, but I do not feel powerless. Anti-democratic movements are growing in size and power in western democracies. They use the mechanisms of democratic process to threaten the fundamental ideas that democracy is based on. Their success underscores the importance of promoting democratic values in school, the media, and society, not just focusing on elections as if they were sporting contests. The news, right now, is not good for people who believe in democratic values like liberty, equality, and brotherhood. The right-wing French Front National has growing support among youthful voters ages 18 to 30 while Germany's even more vitriolic anti-immigrant and anti-Islam Alternative for Germany shows increasing strength in public opinion polls. Austrian voters , fueled by antagonism toward refugees from Mid-Eastern conflicts, nearly elected a far-right candidate as President. The Israeli Prime Minister just welcomed into hi...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Columbia University Professor Celia Oyler posted online a critique of the 4th grade English-Language Arts PARCC exam written by an anonymous fourth grade teacher. In the critique the teacher quoted from specific questions that were on the test. Then the firestorm hit. PARCC Inc. , citing copyright law and confidentiality agreements, has been stalking the Internet and twitter to get the questions taken down. PARCC also demanded that Oyler identify the offending teacher, which she refuses to do. The teacher, in the post, makes clear that he or she was aware of the legal ramifications of these actions, but felt compelled to inform parents and the general the public how "the high-stakes accountability system has deformed teaching and warped learning in many public schools across the United States." Why are testing companies so anxious to keep this analysis from parents and the general public? If the anonymous teacher is correct, and I believe he or ...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J NYS Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE) is calling on New York State parents to support a boycott of new high-stakes assessments being field-tested in grades three-to- eight between May 23 and June 10. NYSAPE asks parents to contact school district offices requesting that they return the field tests to the New York State Education Department (NYSED). While the field-testing takes less than an hour, it contributes to the climate of high-stakes assessment that drives curriculum in the state. The New Paltz Board of Education has already rejected field-testing its students. On May 4, it passed a unanimous resolution directing its school superintendent to return the field-testing material to NYSED and to inform it that the tests would not completed by students. In an earlier resolution, the New Paltz school board complained that since neither students nor teachers received performance results from field tests, the tests had no educational benefit. They also charg...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Read these news briefs on Detroit and Flint, Michigan, Wichita, Kansas, Texas, and Puerto Rican schools. What do they have in common? You decide. See my answers at the end of the post. Detroit: In May, Detroit's 2,600 public school teachers staged a two-day "sick-out" protesting against threats that the bankrupt school district would be unable to meet payroll after June. Ninety-four out of ninety-seven schools were forced to close. For the last several years the Detroit school system has borrowed money to cover expenses. Debt payments have been rolled over and at the end of this school year the district will have a budget-deficit of $320 million. That does not even count $3.5 billion in long-term obligations such as teacher pensions, construction costs, and other outstanding debts. Many Detroit schools are physically falling apart . There is crumbling plaster, water damage, rats and roaches, and mold in the buildings. According to the New ...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Readers of my Huffington Post blog know I am very critical of the skills focus of the national Common Core standards for turning reading into a discombobulated and often meaningless chore for young people and a strong supporter of the high-stakes testing opt-out movement. But in this case, in this particular case, the Common Core reading standards provide a useful dissecting tool for understanding the motives behind charter school propaganda. And remember, I already know how to read pretty "good," and I learned to read without Common Core. So let's turn Common Core on its head. According to the national Common Core reading standards , endorsed by the New York Times in a 2014 editorial , middle school students should be able to "[i]dentify aspects of a text that reveal an author's point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts)" (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.6) and "[d]istinguish among ...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J This Sunday is graduation day at Hofstra University. Graduation days are times to celebrate and think about the things you have learned. In this post I share thoughts about teaching from graduates completing the teacher education program. New York State student teachers are saddled with a series of questionable tests that they must pass in order to become certified. Probably the most difficult is the edTPA , a sixty page commentary that includes video segments that is submitted electronically to Pearson (Mis)Education for evaluation, but no feedback for improvement. The project is so complex and stressful that it essentially swallows up the entire student teaching experience, interfering with the ability of prospective teachers to really learn how to teach. Despite testing, edTPA, and Pearson, New York State's newest group of teachers are determined to learn the skills they will need to make a difference in the lives of students. Under the circumstances ...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J In a May 2014 blog , Pearson CEO John Fallon, claimed there are " no gag orders " and teachers are free to discuss their opinions of Pearson tests. According to Fallon, test design is a "complex system and one that, working with the education community, we're constantly looking to improve. With all that going into creating an assessment, it's understandable when confusions arise. A recent example - that there are " gag orders " in these contracts - is in danger of becoming a popular misconception. Let's be clear: there are no gag orders in testing contracts." Not only that, but "we believe that progress can only be made if everyone contributes to improving the system." But unfortunately some of Pearson employees have not gotten the message! Michael Ludwig is a teacher educator in a health education program in New York State. Recently I reported that he wrote Pearson (Mis)Education alerting them that edTPA rev...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Advocates for charters schools like to talk about their unwavering commitment to student success, parental choice and the benefits of privatization , but their main argument for charter schools is that with their " no excuses " approach they can do a better job than public schools educating inner-city minority youth. In 2009, the Board of Education of the Los Angeles Unified School District passed a Public School Choice Motion that expanded the number of charter schools in the district. While in my Huffington Post blogs I frequently complain about both charter schools and the way high-stakes testing is perverting education in the United States, sometimes the data the tests produce can be useful. So to answer the question "Do Charter Schools Really Do Better?" let's look at some test score numbers from Los Angeles. On SAT exams administered to high school juniors 2400 is the maximum possible score. A score of 1500 is considered ...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J The Measurement According to its website , "The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas." Its mandate to test was included in the original No Child Left Behind legislation. NAEP tests are given to a representative sampling of about 30,000 private and public school students every two years in Grades 4, 8 and 12. NAEP , which is administered by a federal agency that is part of the national Department of Education, periodically tests students in math, reading, science, the arts, civics, geography, U.S. history, and technical literacy. The NAEP started testing students in 1969-1970, but the design of the tests used today dates to 1992. Its current testing " partners " include the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), one of the groups behind the national Common Core Standards, Educat...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Pearson stockholders meet in London on Friday April 29 where management faces a revolt against its destructive attacks on public education worldwide and lousy business practices. Charges include that "Pearson is spending millions on privatized schools in the global south so they can engineer new markets for their products. In doing so they're jeopardizing the right of a free public education for the world's poorest communities." The low points of Pearson's 2015 annual report include: Sales down £4.5 billion ($6.5 billion) or -5% Operating Profit down £723 million ($1 billion) or -3% Adjusted Earnings per share 2010-2015 -1.9% Operating Cash Flow -16.3% Pearson Share price Performance -38.2% According to Education International (EI) researcher Curtis Riep of the University of Alberta, Pearson's business strategy is to turn education from a social good and essential public service into a marketable for-profit commodity. But ...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J The secondary education student teachers I work with in New York State are in the process of completing and submitting their edTPA portfolio to Pearson for evaluation. They generally include two ten-minute video segments cut out of three 40+ minute lessons and approximately sixty pages of commentary with sample student work. It is an arduous task that takes months to complete. Instead of learning how to become teachers, they learn how to master edTPA. In New York State, the Pearson evaluated edTPA portfolio is a requirement for teacher certification, despite the fact that its legitimacy is constantly challenged by teacher educators and the union representing faculty in the state university system. It is one of those "higher standards" education reforms that seem to spread like a virus without any evidence that it will improve the quality of teaching or student learning. Unfortunately there is no vaccine in sight. Starting this spring, edTPA will al...