bodner079

Roger Lowenstein on the important ballot initiative on charter schools in MA: These students have big plans for the future—including college. And why not? They are learning twice as fast as their peers in traditional schools, on average. According to a 2013  study  by Stanford University's Center for Research on Education Outcomes, Boston charter students "gain an additional 12 months in reading and 13 months in math per school year." Remarkably, African-Americans in the city's charters are progressing faster than white students at traditional public schools.  Such results have made Massachusetts ground zero for the national charter debate. Due to state laws limiting charter-school capacity, 32,000 kids—most of them poor minorities—languish on waiting lists. This year the state legislature tried to craft a compromise to ease the restrictions but failed. Now it's up to voters: A referendum on the November ballot would authorize the state to open as many as 12 new...

A well-deserved honor for Dan Porterfield, the President of Franklin & Marshall College and my friend and fellow ed warrior: Dear Friends in the Education Community, I'm writing to share the exciting news that this Friday, Sept. 30, the White House will recognize Franklin & Marshall College President Daniel R. Porterfield as a "Champion of Change for College Opportunity." Please read more  here  about this tremendous honor for Dan and for F&M. You can also view a short video about F&M's work to expand college opportunity  here . We are very pleased to note that F&M friend and partner Nicole F. Hurd, founder and CEO of the College Advising Corps, will also be recognized as a Champion of Change. F&M has hosted for many years the Pennsylvania College Advising Corps, which provides college advising resources in rural and urban high schools across the Commonwealth. Dan will accept this award at a White House ceremony Friday at 2 p.m. If your schedul...

Speaking of higher ed, this is a very alarming article about a very alarming trend, drinking to blackout. A must read (especially if you have/care for kids at or near college age): I hadn't known it at the time, but this was my first introduction to the aspirational "blackout." That is, intentionally drinking with the goal of submersing yourself in so much alcohol that you can't remember what happened and the only vestiges that remain from the night before are the videos on your friends' phones. I attended that college for one year before transferring to the University of North Carolina. During that time I never got "blackout," but I was a frequent observer of it. I'm not naïve; I know that drinking is part of the college experience, you hang out with some friends, you party too hard and sometimes you pass out. But what I saw was something different. …  Of course, many college students drink, including the scholarship winners, the three-sport athlete...

Good to see: ·          Cuomo Called for 'Reboot' of School Standards. Officials Propose Tweaks Instead., www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/nyregion/new-york-state-school-standards-andrew-cuomo.html ·          Saving the Common Core in New York,  http://nypost.com/2016/09/24/saving-the-common-core-in-new-york

What a total disgrace! (and a great piece of journalism!): How Texas keeps out tens of thousands of children out of special education,  http://www.houstonchronicle.com/denied/ . Excerpt: in Texas, unelected state officials have quietly devised a system that has kept thousands of disabled kids like Roanin out of special education. Over a decade ago, the officials arbitrarily decided what percentage of students should get special education services — 8.5 percent — and since then they have forced school districts to comply by strictly auditing those serving too many kids. Their efforts, which started in 2004 but have never been publicly announced or explained, have saved the Texas Education Agency billions of dollars but denied vital supports to children with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, epilepsy, mental illnesses, speech impediments, traumatic brain injuries, even blindness and deafness, a Houston Chronicle investigation has found. More than a dozen tea...

To my NYC friends,   I'm on the board of Bridge International Academies, which runs low-cost schools for poor families in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Liberia and India.   Two of our Kenyan 8 th  graders have won full scholarships to Avenues school in NYC starting ~11 months from now, but to attend they need a host family for August 2017-May 2018. (After May 2018, the likely scenario is a classmate becomes the host family.)   Below is an email with details from my friend Mike Goldstein, who is Bridge's Chief Academic Officer.   If you or anyone you know might be interested, please contact Mike.   Thanks! Whitney   This is a chance to do a good deed, particularly for NYC families with kids....   Two Kenya 8th graders earned full academic scholarships to Avenues.  That's a terrific prep school in NYC.   Utterly life-changing for these kids.  They'll start August 2017 as 9th graders.     But Avenues (22nd Street and 10th...

John Oliver was unusually brilliant in his show this week, in which he examined the scandals surrounding both campaigns:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1Lfd1aB9YI&feature=youtu.be   Since few people will have the time to watch the entire 21 minutes, here's a summary with some of the best quotes: ·          In the first half of this show, Oliver took an in-depth look, pulling no punches, at the two major scandals that have been plaguing Hillary, her emails and the Clinton Foundation. ·          Oliver concluded: "We've spent several frustrating weeks trawling through all of the innuendo and exaggerations surrounding her email and foundation scandals, and the worst thing you can say is: they both look bad, but the harder you look, the less you actually find. There's not nothing there, but what is there is irritating rather than grossly nefarious." ·        ...

Speaking of disgraceful attacks on charter schools: 'It's Heartbreaking:' Boston Parents Ask Why Their Wealthy Neighbors Are Fighting Charter Schools , https://www.the74million.org/article/its-heartbreaking-boston-parents-ask-why-their-wealthy-neighbors-are-fighting-charter-schools :   What's the matter with Newton? That's what Dawn Tillman wants to know. Why would her neighbors in the hyper-upscale Boston suburb of Newton, located just eight miles to the west, deny a KIPP charter high school to a kid in hyper-downscale Roxbury, where she lives? Not just any kid. Tillman is thinking of her son, Brandon, who currently attends a KIPP middle school but faces dicey prospects for high school. KIPP could quickly expand its current middle school into a high school, but the current cap on charter schools prevents that. Oddly, the question on the Massachusetts November 8 ballot to raise the current cap on charter schools...

It's a total disgrace that the NAACP, which is supposed to be fighting for black families, is instead betraying them. Gee, I wonder if it has anything to do with the unions giving them a lot of money??? It reminds me of the saying, "Whose bread I eat, his song I sing."   Here are two excellent editorials in today's NYT and yesterday's WaPo. Here's the NYT, A Misguided Attack on Charter Schools :   ... sound research has shown that, when properly managed and overseen, well-run charter schools give families a desperately needed alternative to inadequate traditional schools in poor urban neighborhoods.   ... For many parents and students, a charter school is the only route to a superior education. In advocating a blanket moratorium on charters, the N.A.A.C.P. would fail to acknowledge what's happening to children who need and deserve a way out of the broken schools to which they have been relegat...

Here's what you can do: On Saturday, the NAACP Board of Directors is meeting to vote on a resolution proposing a moratorium on new charter schools. The proposed resolution would ultimately reduce opportunities for African American students, many of whom come from low-income and working-class families. Supporters of the moratorium have been directed to make phone calls to the NAACP – we need to make sure our voices are heard, too. Call 202-759-6227  now to be connected to the NAACP and tell them that charter schools are working for African American students in our country. For many urban families, charter schools are making it possible to do what affluent families have long been able to do: rescue their children from failing schools. We need to act now to protect charter schools. Call 202-759-6227  and ask the NAACP to vote against a moratorium on charter schools. -- Sent from Postbox

An important WSJ article, Predators in the Classroom: http://www.wsj.com/articles/predators-in-the-classroom-1475872085 :   Individual cases of sexual abuse by teachers receive a great deal of attention, but how widespread is the problem? Why we still know, and are doing, so little

Speaking of disgraceful attacks on charter schools: 'It's Heartbreaking:' Boston Parents Ask Why Their Wealthy Neighbors Are Fighting Charter Schools , https://www.the74million.org/article/its-heartbreaking-boston-parents-ask-why-their-wealthy-neighbors-are-fighting-charter-schools : The NAACP opposes charter schools. Maybe it should do its homework. Parents, schoolchildren and education activists rally during an event supporting public charter schools. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) By Editorial Board October 11 at 7:05 PM https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-naacp-opposes-charter-schools-maybe-it-should-do-its-homework/2016/10/11/473bbb36-8d75-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html

Good to see, as reducing class sizes is one of the LEAST cost-effective ways to help students (but the unions love it for obvious reasons): Over the years, at least half the states have used mandates or incentives to reduce class sizes, but the reductions are one of the most expensive interventions in education, and lately, some places are backing off the limits. Wisconsin, for example, is ending its program after two decades to give schools more flexibility in deciding how to improve achievement. California, which has spent at least $20 billion since 1996 to reduce class sizes, has loosened its restrictions and now has some of the most crowded classrooms in the country with 22.5 pupils per teacher, according to the National Education Association, which notes that K-3 classrooms typically have nine or 10 more students than the student-teacher ratio. Florida has spent more than $30 billion since 2003 to reduce class sizes, but st...

It's high time that schools of education, which are mostly diploma mills, are subject to some scrutiny and accountability: The U.S. Department of Education released final regulations for teacher preparation programs Wednesday that will push states to rate the effectiveness of the programs and tie access to federal grants to student success. The rules will also require states to be much more active in determining whether programs are effective, at risk or low performing -- the three levels of performance outlined in the rules. The final rules come after years of negotiated rule making and gathering of input from education interest groups, including teachers' unions and teaching programs themselves. Former Education Secretary Arne Duncan early in his tenure called out teacher preparation programs that he said were doing a mediocre job of preparing educators, largely siding with reform groups such as the National Council on Teache...

It's no surprise that Trump's hateful rhetoric, which is spreading like a cancer into every corner of the country, is also infecting our schools: "It's producing an alarming level of fear and anxiety among children of color and inflaming racial and ethnic tensions in the classroom. Many students worry about being deported," Maureen B. Costello wrote in the center's report on The Trump Effect . "Other students have been emboldened by the divisive, often juvenile rhetoric in the campaign. Teachers have noted an increase in bullying, harassment and intimidation of students whose races, religions or nationalities have been the verbal targets of candidates on the campaign trail," Costello said. The Trump Effect: Our kids and country are still being contaminated Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during the presidential town hall debate in St. Louis Sunday night. (Pool/Reuters) ...

My Tiger Mom Prepared Me for the Ultimate Sin: Not Being the Perfect Daughter By Diana Tsui http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/10/i-survived-a-tiger-mom.html A very powerful essay by the daughter of a Tiger Mom. She concludes: In his acceptance speech at the Emmy Awards this year, Master of None writer Alan Yang ended by saying, "Asian parents out there, if you could just do me a favor: If just a couple of you can get your kids cameras instead of violins, we'll be all good." It got me thinking — if my mom had applied her tiger zeal toward supporting me in what I wanted to do in life, what could I have achieved? If my friends, some of whom express ambivalence over their career paths, were given more choices, where would they be? Could we live the elusive immigrant dream, but on our own terms? If you asked me 20 years ago how I expected my life trajectory to go, I would have told you college, med school, become a doct...

In his acceptance speech at the Emmy Awards this year, Master of None writer Alan Yang ended by saying, "Asian parents out there, if you could just do me a favor: If just a couple of you can get your kids cameras instead of violins, we'll be all good." It got me thinking — if my mom had applied her tiger zeal toward supporting me in what I wanted to do in life, what could I have achieved? If my friends, some of whom express ambivalence over their career paths, were given more choices, where would they be? Could we live the elusive immigrant dream, but on our own terms? If you asked me 20 years ago how I expected my life trajectory to go, I would have told you college, med school, become a doctor. But that's not how things went. I am not the rich medical professional my mother hoped for, though I am economically more secure than my parents, and I am able to enjoy life more than she was. I'd like to say we have a good relationsh...