Category Archives: Uncategorized

Those who follow the twists and turns of the “reform ” movement are aware of a growing number of books that exposé the false narrative of reform. The reform narrative is funded by billionaires and philanthropists who believe in the free market and scorn government regulation. It fastens on genuine problems–like the low performance of children who live in poverty–and blames their teachers rather than the poverty that limits their opportunity. The reformers divert their eyes from poverty, segregation, budget cuts, and loss of vital services. What began, arguably, as a well-intentioned effort to shake up schools and unleash innovation has now become a vehicle for privatization of the public schools.

The struggle to save public education will require an informed public. Only an informed public will have the motivation to vote for representatives to defend what belongs to the entire community and to stop the headlong rush to consumerism…

This is a very disturbing story. Approximately 8,000 books were removed from the shelves of Mitchell Middle School in Racine, Wisconsin.

Initially, librarians expected that 2,000 books would be “weeded,” but the number grew to 8,000, including “books on the Holocaust, Hiroshima, the Bible, the Koran, and Beowulf. In the end, over 8000 books were removed from library shelves.”

The Racine Education Association says the district plans to “weed” tens of thousands of books from public school library shelves that were copyrighted before 2000 or that are not aligned with the curriculum.

“While this is being passed off as business as usual, some librarians, who have been around since the 90′s, have never seen this happen. They want to know why is this happening now.

“One teacher said it’s quite suspicious that a parent of Pearson Publishing just happened to give a list of recommended books to buy recently. “The…

This is a must-read article.

One of the best education writers in New York State is Gary Stern of lohud.com, which covers the Lower Hudson region. This article shows how the passing marks (“cut scores”) were set for the state’s Common Core tests. It is a story that should have appeared in the New York Times. The State Education Department likes to boast that the cut scores are set by teachers. This is supposed to make them legitimate, on the assumption that the teachers have reasonable expectations and know the students’ capacity. All 95 teachers who participated in the process of setting cut scores were required to sign a confidentiality agreement, but Gary Stern persisted and found 18 who were willing to talk about the process without violating the agreement.

What Gary Stern found was that Pearson called the shots, not the teachers.

Here are some quotes.

“How does the…

Recently epaa/aape published a study called “National Affiliation or Local Representation: When TFA Alumni Run for School Board” (http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/1451/1311) that literally sent a chill down spine. The study was focused on Teach For America’s increased foray into school board races and what it meant as far as local issues being represented. Apparently over the past couple years TFA has developed a School Board Leadership Initiative, which encourages and supports alumni to run for school board positions. Taken alone this might not be a big deal but if you think about the possible underpinnings, this is terrifying and not just because its TFA, but that the blueprint could be set for any private group.

Over the past decade reformers have banged the drum that school boards are obsolete. They’ve blamed them for much of the perceived crisis in education. In their eyes school management would be better done with mayoral control and/or…

In what most surely be the most famous statement by David Coleman, the architect of the Common Core standards, he said that “no one gives a s— what you think or feel.” In place of personal motivation, Coleman stresses cool intellectual analysis of text and problems in the Common Core. Fiction, which might dwell too much on emotion, takes a back seat to informational text.

But this is wrong, says blogger John Chase. Even in the world of business, employers find that their most valued workers are engaged in their work. They bring passion to doing it well. The best places to work have a “soul,” and they strive to keep their workers engaged and purposeful.

He writes:

“K-12 education programs that claim to prepare students for college and careers should be focused more on cultivating a wide array of social and emotional competencies that are transferable workforce skills…

The attacks on tenure today have nothing to do with improving teaching and learning. They are designed to undermine teacher unions with the goal of silencing educators’ voices.  We firmly believe that in order for public education to succeed, teachers must have tenure, a protection that allows educators to stand with parents, for children.

Tenure is nothing more than due process, fair hearings with an independent arbitrator where evidence can be presented in order to protect oneself from false accusations. This ensures experienced educators have job security and encourages academic freedom. These are protections all workers should have. Tenure not only empowers teachers to advocate for children and public education, but also prevents educators from becoming “at will” employees and therefore positively impacts retention of experienced educators, which research shows is a significant factor for improving student achievement and adult outcomes. Tenure also unapologetically protects teachers not only…

Fifteen weeks before the November election and Governor Cuomo has a 37 point lead over his Republican opponent Rob Astorino as well as a huge advantage in dollars. Cuomo’s support of charter schools cut off a major source of funding for Astorino and the national Republican funding operation views him as a loser and has not committed dollars to his campaign. Whether we like it or not dollars decide elections, if you can’t reach the voters with your ideas, and besmirch your opponent, you’re left on the sidelines.

Cuomo’s campaign is taking nothing for granted, they are well aware in the race for Westchester County Executive, Astorino was polling behind the Democrat and won by 10% – Cuomo will be charging as hard as he can up until election day.

While the gubernatorial election will grab the headlines the key races in New York State are for control of the…

Co-authored by: Glen Dalgleish: Parent, Education Advocate, co-Founder “Stop Common Core in New York State”.

David Greene: Teacher, Parent, Author: Doing The Right Thing: A Teacher Speaks, Public Education Advocate. Treasurer Save Our Schools March, Program Consultant WISE Services.

Since the Vergara ruling in California, there has been a lot of discussion about “tenure” but there has also been a lot of different interpretations what it actually means and unfortunately there has also been a lot of misinformation. Glen and I will try and put some more clarity around the subject with this brief description and explanation. We also hope to try and demonstrate its significance in a teacher’s professional life.

What Tenure is:

“Tenure is legal protection granted to some teachers that requires the school district to prove just cause before a termination. Tenure is obtained through a multi-year evaluation process of a teacher in a probationary track position…

What day is it?

The AFT convention is one meeting after another in a vast convention center… meeting slides into meeting.

The delegates arrived on Thursday, the 3,000 plus delegates from around the country. From New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Miami, Detroit, Cleveland, the large city delegations as well as delegates from Montana, Utah, North Dakota and Montana and Virgin Islands and many other smaller local; public school teachers, college teachers, paraprofessionals, nurses and the newest chapter, professional workers at the United Nations, all prepared to listen to a wide range of speakers and participate in vigorous debate.

The locals around the nation submit resolutions, this year 91 resolutions were submitted and they were distributed to 13 committees. All delegates choose which committee they want to attend – the committees range from 75 delegates to as many as 800 delegates. The Executive Council, the three officers and the 43…