If you maintain good grades, you will have two years of free community college education proposes President Obama. In an Air Force One video-taped statement, President Obama said, “Put simply, what I’d like to do is to see the first two years of community college free for everyone who’s willing to work for it.” The president will spell out the details on Friday January 9, 2015 in Tennessee. States will cover 25% of the cost while the federal government will cover 75 %. Stay tuned for more details!
Comment on the Proposed Regulations for Teacher Preparation Programs to Education Department by February 2nd!
I received this notification from William Buxton which I would like to share because I believe that it is very important. William Buxton, Associate Professor at State University of New York Cortland, on behalf of American Federation of Teachers, AFT, is calling on all educators to let the Department of Education know by February 2nd 2015 their opinions and comments on the proposed regulations for teacher preparation programs before the final regulations are written.
William Buxton writes
The Education Department wants to use unreliable, out-of-context data like K-12 standardized test scores and employment numbers to punish teacher preparation programs.
We have until Feb. 2 to comment before the department goes into the process of writing the final regulations. Who better to tell them what we need than educators like you?
The way the department wants to judge programs is complicated, so here’s an example. Sasha goes to UCLA to become a teacher. After graduation, Sasha gets a job as an eighth-grade English teacher in East Los Angeles. To judge whether UCLA’s program was good, California will use the standardized test scores from Sasha’s students. If the students’ scores aren’t high enough, UCLA will get a bad grade.
Crazy, right? And it gets worse. Because of the use of employment numbers, when a recession hits and Sasha is laid off due to budget cuts, UCLA can get another bad grade.
And those bad grades come with punishments. Schools with poor ratings can lose federal resources, like student grants and aid.
Using these measures also means that preparation programs whose graduates teach in high-need schools are more likely to receive those punishments, because of lower test scores and higher teacher turnover in those schools. As a result, preparation programs could be discouraged from preparing students to take on tough assignments, and may even steer students away from jobs in high-need schools. The last thing we need is a system that makes it HARDER to recruit teachers for our highest-need students!
Tell the Department of Education that this test-and-punish style of accountability is not a route to improvement, just as it has not improved K-12 education.
What is wrong with the proposed regulations? K-12 test scores were not designed to rate teacher prep programs. Cash-strapped states will have to build new data systems. And these regulations don’t set a level playing field for all programs. Alternative preparation programs, for example, where teachers learn on the job, are rated differently, giving them an advantage.
The AFT supports a rigorous, professional preparation process for aspiring teachers, as laid out in our Raising the Bar report. We believe that our system for preparing and licensing teachers should ensure that every teacher is fully trained and ready on their first day in the classroom.
We want systemic improvement, and we want the information that will help us to get there, including multiple measures of student performance and data on who enters the teaching profession and who stays. But taking this data out of context, and then attaching high-stakes consequences, isn’t the answer.
Teaching and learning in the K-12 system will improve when we invest in the teaching profession—investing in high-quality teacher preparation and supporting teachers before and while they are in the classroom.
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Mississippi Elected Officials Reject Common Core Standards
Heather Kays a research fellow of The Heartland Institute and the managing editor of School Reform News, a national monthly publication reported in the Heartlander on December 31, 2014 on the growing anti-Common Core standards movement in Mississippi. Many Mississippians and Senator Angela Hill (R-District 40, Marion, Pearl River, Walthall) are happy that Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves indicated their disapproval of the Common Core K-12 math and language standards. Senator Hill who has been working on repealing the Common Core standards stated to School Reform News, “I’m encouraged by the actions and the words of the governor and lieutenant governor. I’m ready to work with the lieutenant governor to establish higher standards than Common Core and higher standards than Mississippi has ever had.”
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Bill Gates Admits Naivety
Educators at all levels should be cognizant of the admissions and statements made by Bill Gates about the inadequate progress and success of his foundation’s projects as cautionary measures when implementing programs that have not been vetted over time. Education’s products are living and breathing human beings unlike the products of most businesses.
Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post’s Answer Sheet Blog on January 3rd 2015 analyzes the recent admissions by Bill Gates about the performance of his various projects. Bill Gates indicated that he was naive about his expectations for the “Grand Challenges” project which has not made a significant contribution in saving and improving the lives of residents in the developing countries of the world.
In the field of education, Gates and members of his foundation have admitted short-comings about the success of small schools because “small-school effort “fell short” of expectations.” Gates also admitted during an interview at Harvard University last September that “It would be great if our education stuff worked, but that we won’t know for probably a decade.” Gates Foundation expressed reservations about Value Added Measurements (VAM) through its K-12 education director, Vicky Phillips. The Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan last January 2014 indicated that while the funds from wealthy philanthropists such as Bill Gates and Eli Broad are welcome and useful, the donations do not entitle these philanthropists to make policy decisions about education.
Ms. Strauss concludes eloquently that
“There is indeed a big place for philanthropy in American society, but there are consequences for replacing public policy with the dreams of the super-rich, not the least of which is that public institutions become testing grounds for philanthropic experimentation. Given that there are methods and approaches that have been proven to work already in education areas such as teacher evaluation, class size, etc., the public might want to start to ask why it allows itself to be used as a guinea pig.”
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Happy 2015!
I would like to wish everyone a very happy, prosperous and favor-filled 2015!
Thank you for making my blog very successful in 2014 and I am looking forward to more robust and enlightened blogging associations in 2015 and beyond!
Fondly,
Ogo
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Teachers and Principals Believe in Santa Claus Too!
As 2014 winds down and we await the dawn of 2015 with anticipation, it seemed appropriate to share an uplifting human interest article that showcases faith, hope, trust, wonder, service and education. As educators we daily exhibit faith, hope, trust and wonder as we perform our services to our students in a climate of limited or lack of adequate resources.
According to an article by Valerie Srauss in the Washington Post, on December 25, 2014, New York City Laura Virginia O’Hanlon of the famous “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” served 43 years a teacher and principal after earning a master’s degree from Columbia University and a PhD from Fordham University in New York City. The Studio School which has a scholarship in her name was started in her Greenwich Village childhood home in New York City. The website gives her the following tribute:
“In the tradition of a curious young girl, Virginia, who lived in the house that became our school, we celebrate the promise and fulfillment of every child. The Virginia O’Hanlon Scholarship Fund will make it possible for more children to grow up to believe in themselves, and embrace the journey of learning. Virginia grew up to be an educator and advocate for children’s rights and believed that all children, regardless of social background, should have the same learning opportunities.”
Virginia, like most teachers and principals in order to keep motivating students to achieve beyond expectations, and to keep thriving against all odds still believe that there is a “Santa Claus”. We believe our students are capable and we work hard to help our students grow into well-rounded citizens of the world who can also succeed in college or in chosen careers. We choose not to act as “Virginia’s friends” described by the editor of the Sun in Sept. 21, 1897 as follows:
“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” “Virginia, Your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible to their little minds.”
in 2015 and beyond, keep up the great work you do with students in all schools across the globe in your roles as teachers, principals and educators!
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2014 Education News: Best and Worst!
Here is a sample of Larry Ferlazzo’s list of what he considers 2014 education’s “best and worst news”. Ferlazzo’s annual list is usually very insightful and worth checking out. Ferlazzo is a teacher, author and blogger.
The Best Education News Of 2014
Demand for changes to the teacher evaluation system.
Increase in high school graduation rates.
Decrease in drop-out rates.
NAEP test scores showed an increase, especially for minority students.
Students in Colorado successfully fought to keep their Advanced Placement History course intact.
Newark, New Jersey elected Ras Baraka its mayor over the “One Reform” platform.
National Education Association elected Lily Eskelsen García as president.
Pennsylvania elected Tom Wolfe as its governor over Tom Corbett.
Tom Torlakson was retained as the State Superintendent of Public Instruction in California.
Karen Lewis is recovering from a brain surgery in Chicago.
Standardized testing received many attacks.
“Malala Yousafzai won the Nobel Peace Prize.”
“Dana Goldstein’s book, The Teacher Wars, was published and became a bestseller.”
“The millions of students who had great learning experiences in their schools this year.”
“Two destructive “school reformers” left the public scene:”
“Michelle Rhee stepped down as chief of StudentsFirst.”
“John Deasy resigned (or was pushed) from his position as Los Angeles school superintendent after a series of arrogant and disastrous maneuvers, including a fiasco of trying to purchase thousands of iPads. Earlier this month, the FBI seized twenty boxes of documents related to that program from the District’s offices.”
Read about Ferlazzo’s worst 2014 education news and more here.
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Give Arne a #whatif on Twitter Right Now
Please let Arne know what you think right away!
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan invited readers on Twitter to think about “what if” and he is getting a whole lot of “what ifs” from teachers and parents.
Go to hashtag #whatif and see what others are saying, then post your own “what if.”
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False Accusations and Media Ethics
A group comprised of educators at all levels were engaged in a robust discussion on LinkedIn on the topic of false accusations, inaccurate reporting and the devastating negative impact such false accusations have on the accused, even when the accusations were recounted. They believe that there seems to be a proliferation of such accusations in the field of education.
The following is my contribution to the discussion.
False accusations and misrepresentation of one’s character should be discouraged by all leaders in any field. The media has a big role in perpetuating and sensationalizing gossip and unfounded or unverified information as was recently exemplified by the Rolling Stone magazine’s apology for printing one side of a story without the due investigatory diligence that encompasses contacting all involved parties prior to printing the information. As consumers of all forms of media, all of us are responsible for holding the media accountable for the information they print by asking the reporters if the information was verified. Bloggers should not blog about any news until they have verified the information as well because blogs keeps the unverified rumor alive. Citizens should have a right to ask Google and all search engines to remove negative and unverified information from the web. The United Kingdom has an established process to request the removal of negative information from the web’s search engines. United States and other countries should follow suit. Otherwise, the media continues to wield too much power, and to invade the privacy of everyday citizens.
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Have the Merriest Christmas and Winter Holidays Ever!
I wish you a very merry Christmas, Kwanzaa, Chanukah, and any holiday that you celebrate this wonderful holiday season!
Have the happiest holidays!
Fondly,
Ogo
Ogo Okoye-Johnson 