This Week In Education

LA Board Member Clarifies Views On Test-Score Teacher Payments

2013-06-17T15:39:18-04:00

When Gates-funded teacher advocacy group Educators 4 Excellence (E4E) announced they were releasing a new report about how to revamp teacher recruitment and retention in LA -- including pay bonuses based on student test scores -- they might have been pleasantly surprised at the appearance of School Board member-elect Monica Ratliff (pictured) along with reform champions Superintendent John Deasy and Villaraigosa ally Monica Garcia.

Ratliff won election to the Board as an underdog, beating Villaraigosa favorite Antonio Sanchez, and is being championed by many as one of a growing number of reform skeptics on the LAUSD School Board.

But of course Ratliff's presence at the event seemed to suggest that she was supportive of the E4E report recommendations, which the teachers union and others either refrained from supporting or came out against. And so she took to Diane Ravitch's blog over the weekend to clarify that she supports revamping teacher recruitment, retention, and evaluation but is opposed to linking things to student test scores.

Quotes: Challenging Students' Dreams - Not Denigrating Them

2013-06-17T15:28:06-04:00

I would not urge you simply to get off the PlayStation. I would urge you to understand who made the game. I would not urge you to take down your King James poster. I would urge you to think about the business that makes him possible. - Ta-Nehisi Coats

Media: NatJournal's "New" Education Site

2013-06-17T15:26:01-04:00

Here's National Journal's updated education experts site, now dubbed Education Insiders, which features a weekly blog post by reporter Fawn Johnson and responses from various luminaries (well, sort of -- I'm on the list). It's been around sicne June 2009 years now -- here's the old version -- and it's always been a little sleepy for me because of the restrictive format, predictable viewpoints, and the lack of real interactivity among respondendents. But there's always hope, and I'm glad it's there.

Weekend Reading: Can Hillary Save Universal Preschool?

2013-06-17T11:26:00-04:00

Hillary gives early childhood agenda what it needs: A public boost. | New Republic ow.ly/m4mV8

Study: Reading novels makes us better thinkers -Salon.com ow.ly/m4krN

Do Schools Know How to Spend Their Ed Tech Money Wisely? | MindShift ow.ly/m4kbz @MindShift

How online tools may change classrooms today and forever. ow.ly/m4k74

After Newtown shooting, mourning parents enter into the lonely quiet - Washington Post ow.ly/m4kMt

Uh-oh! Inspirational Text Messages Won’t Improve Teens’ Grades, according to Roland Fryer studyow.ly/m4jGY @getschooled

Sir Ken Robinson, Teachers on Creativity in Schools (Audio) ow.ly/m4k8k

Big data is not our master -TNR ow.ly/m4mYl

Trying to make separate equal | Feature | Chicago Reader ow.ly/m5hNB

From Jay Mathews: School ignores advice from learning disability experts: Stacie Brockman is the Prince George... bit.ly/13RA8qe

Did Ritalin Make Kids in Quebec Dumber? | New Republic ow.ly/m4mGH

My little future iPad addicts - Salon.com ow.ly/m4m7QWhy am I still insisting on rules?

11-year-old mariachi earns roaring ovation from NBA crowd - Salon.com ow.ly/m4ktI

Student Athlete Named ‘Creepy Smile Kid’ in High School Yearbook | TIME.com ow.ly/m4WBM

Morning Video: Obama Meets With Chicago Teens

2013-06-17T10:01:00-04:00

President Obama Invites Hyde Park Academy Boys To 'Check-in' At White House DNAI

AM News: Slow Internet, Quick IB Expansion

2013-06-17T08:36:19-04:00

Arne Duncan Calls Slow School Internet 'Morally Unacceptable' U.S. News & World Report: Education Secretary Arne Duncan (L) and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (R) read the Dr. Seuss book 'Green Eggs and Ham' to students enrolled in a Head Start program.

More US Schools Go International Wall Street Journal: An educational curriculum that originally catered to the children of globe-trotting diplomats is making rapid inroads in K-12 public schools across the U.S., boosting test results and academic readiness ...

Has Gov. Pence Just Saved the Common Core in Indiana? State EdWatch: The Associated Press notes that among the governor's six new appointees to the 11-member state board made on June 13, Pence, a Republican. has decided to keep two of the current board members.

Budget Cuts Reach Bone for Philadelphia Schools NYT: Deep budget cuts have Philadelphia school officials worrying about how to make do without aides, secretaries, counselors, monitors, coaches or money for new books or paper.

Chicago Public School System Lays Off 850 in Move to Cut Budget AP: The layoffs included about 550 teachers — from schools that are closing and struggling academically — along with teacher assistants, bus aides, custodians and others.

Chicago to hire 600 for school safe-passage routes AP:The city of Chicago, which plans to close dozens of schools this summer to save money, has received 11,000 requests for help getting children to their new schools along safe-passage routes....

New GED tests stir concerns, draw competitors EdWeek: Gone will be the paper-and-pencil tests. Students instead will take the exams on a computer and know the same day if they passed. Content will be more rigorous to align with new common academic standards for most high schools, and test-takers will receive a separate college- and career-readiness score.

Linking home and classroom, Oakland bets on community schools Hechinger Report: Now, under growing public pressure to improve student safety and achievement, the district is attempting to reinvent itself by turning its 87 schools—including Fremont—into what are known as “full-service community schools,” equipped with staff trained to support students’ social, emotional and health needs as well as their academic growth.

Graduates from low-performing D.C. schools face tough college road Washington Post: Johnathon Carrington grew up on the sixth floor of a low-income D.C. apartment complex, a building most recently in the news for a drive-by shooting that injured 13.

New Ads Still Warn A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste NPR: The United Negro College Fund's new campaign shows just how much the way we talk about and around race has changed.

Video: Elementary students' experiment is space-bound NBC: A science experiment designed by two Texas elementary school students that determines the rate of mold growth, will be replicated in space. KVEO's Marty Watson reports. (NBC News)

Afternoon Video: Google Glass Teaching

2013-06-14T17:31:00-04:00

So there's a guy named Andrew Vanden Heuvel (@avheuv) who was among the first to get the Google Glass system, and he's a science teacher, and he's blogging about it and doing videos ("STEMbite!").

Thompson: Stop the Criminalization of Absenteeism / Misconduct

2013-06-14T10:31:55-04:00

In my experience, the two main causes of educational failure are cancer and heart disease. Competing for the third spot are diabetes, mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse, and incarceration. When severe illnesses disrupt families, too many kids fall off the conveyor belt which is k-12 schooling and too few get help in climbing back on.

Rather than treat the main causes of truancy, which are the key factors that undermine families and schools, we ratcheted the blame game. Texas has taken the resulting criminalization of absenteeism, tardiness, and school misbehavior to its most brutal conclusion.

The Huffington Post’s Joy Resmovits, in School Discipline Changes Urged in Federal Complaint Against Dallas Truancy System, reports that Texas filed 113,000 truancy cases in 2012. Granted, that is more than the number of prosecutions in the other 49 states combined.

But, it is an admittedly extreme example of the more common tendency to use the legal system to address behaviors that public schools should handle.

Resmovits explains that the Texas Appleseed, Disability Rights Texas, and the National Center for Youth Law, representing seven students, filed the federal complaint against four school districts. One student missed school because of a chronic respiratory disability, while another was truant because she was caring for her mother, who had heart disease. A young mother missed too much school due to medical complications after giving birth, while another was summoned to court because her legal guardian didn't call the school to tell them that she was sick.

Of course, there are students who do not have good reasons for their tardiness and/or absences. Schools have often done as lousy of a job of enforcing those rules as they have their rules on behavior and academics. Society has a right to be frustrated by the lax enforcement of attendance and disciplinary policies. That frustration does not justify, however, the criminalization of misbehavior. The same applies to the policy of arresting students for fighting or defiance of authority.

How did we get here? Texas went beyond the bounds of rationality. But, across the nation, when dealing with all types of complicated problems, we have developed a simple regime of letting no child and no adult go unpunished.- JT (@drjohnthompson) Image via.

Quotes: What Works In One Classroom...

2013-06-14T10:27:47-04:00

Things that worked for my fifth graders at the beginning of the year don't work over here. Things that work over here with the third graders didn't work with my fifth graders. And I have a strong feeling that things that worked this year are not going to work next year.

-- First-year Chicago teacher Abby Miller (WTTW Mentoring New Teachers)*

*Disclosure: I know and have done some consulting in the past for folks at the New Teacher Center

Morning Video: Eighteen Minutes With EdSec Duncan

2013-06-14T10:05:00-04:00

Arne Duncan slams No Child Left Behind (diagnoses Congress, etc.) POLITICO

AM News: Federal Study Questions Tech Impact

2013-06-14T08:39:37-04:00

Study Gauges Value of Technology in Schools NYT: A review of federal data found that technology investments in schools had not changed the nature of education.

6 months after Newtown: Rush of gun laws, mixed results USA Today: In the six months since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, lawmakers in four key states have approved significant restrictions on access to firearms. But elsewhere in the USA, the picture is far from clear.

Obama to meet relatives of shooting victims Education Week News: President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met Thursday with relatives of the victims of the Connecticut school shooting, who were visiting Washington on the eve of the six-month anniversary of the tragedy

Private Preschools See More Public Funds as Classes Grow NYT: Across the country, states and districts are increasingly funneling public funds to religious schools, private nursery schools and a variety of nonprofit organizations that conduct classes.

Clinton Project Promotes ‘Open Badges’ Online Credentials NYT: Former President Bill Clinton announced a project on Thursday to expand the use of Open Badges — online credentials that employers or universities can use in hiring, admissions, promotions or awarding credit.

Number of young American adults with college degrees jumps 36 percent Hechinger: Almost half of young Massachusetts adults have a bachelors compared with just 20 percent in Nevada. The Lumina reportdetails graduation rates by metropolitan region and state.

Unpaid No More: Interns Win Major Court Battle NPR: A federal ruling against a major movie studio's use of unpaid interns could have a wide impact on uncompensated labor, including internships for college credit. Workers' advocates say many interns are preventing workers who can't afford to work free from entering the labor force.

Spending cuts taking toll on Head Start NBC: Sequester cuts have taken a toll on Head Start programs, leaving families without many good options. NBC's Kristen Welker reports. (Nightly News)

Turning graffiti into a public art education program NBC: Graffiti is a common sight on city structures throughout America, but the Mural Arts Program is taking what is commonly a crime and using it to change the face of city art and arts education. NBC’s Craig Melvin reports. (TODAY)

Afternoon Video: Retaining New Teachers In Chicago

2013-06-13T17:23:00-04:00

Chicago public television profiles teacher mentoring and retention efforts run via the New Teacher Center. (Teacher Mentoring)

Media: Another Media Outlet Bites The Dust

2013-06-13T16:16:00-04:00

Nonprofit news outlets seem to be popping up everywhere, but at the same time the commercial ones seem to be all falling by the wayside.

The latest example is Thompson Media Group, from which plastform Andy Brownstein and Chuck Edwards have been reporting for the past bunch of years.

I know Brownstein mostly from the Title I Monitor, a Thompson newsletter that's been around since I was on the Hill, and from Brownstein's more recent blog posts. (Click here if you want to skim Brownstein's appearances on this site.)

If I understand correctly, Thompson has been bought by LRP, a competitor, and Brownstein and Edwards are unlikely to be retained with the new, merged operation. I can imagine them writing for another trade publication, or being grabbed up by a smart nonprofit, association, or Hill office looking for deep knowledge of federal policy, regulation, and political mechanics.

Morning Video: Annapolis High School Fights to Lower Achievement Gap

2013-06-13T09:35:00-04:00

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

NBC Nightly News (School rooted in segregation raises students’ expectations)

AM News: Duncan's All-Out Effort on "Preschool For All"

2013-06-13T08:34:36-04:00

Education Secretary Arne Duncan works to sell Obama administration’s preschool initiative Washington Post: He is reaching out to Republican governors, hoping they will help him persuade GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill to embrace the “Preschool for All” initiative. But it’s a tall order for many Republican governors who are cool to the notion of new taxes.

Senate Committee Passes Democratic NCLB Renewal Bill EdWeek: On a completely predictable party-line vote, the Senate Education Committee approved a bill to reauthorize the long-stalled renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Senate committee approves bill updating federal education law Washington Post: On a party line vote, a Senate committee approved a bill Wednesday to update the country’s main federal education law by erasing some of its most punitive aspects.

No Child Left Behind Bill Passes Senate Committee, But No End In Sight For Recasting Bush Law Huffington Post: Harkin says he intends to bring his bill to the Senate floor sometime this year -- hopefully by the fall -- and would allow amendments to be made during that process. But even if the overhaul makes it through the floor vote, it is unlikely to be signed into law because the predominant legislative vision in the House varies significantly.

States Seek Flexibility During Common-Test Transition EdWeek: A flurry of education groups are staking out positions on the role tests should play in evaluating teachers and labeling schools.

New task force on Internet and learning has a controversial name: Bush Hechinger Report: The task force, which plans to report its findings early next year, is notable for its strong Latino representation in particular, as well as a focus on safety. In too many public schools and libraries, the Internet is filtered or restricted altogether and students are stopped from using cell phones because of concerns about security, predation, theft or cyberbullying, so supporting safety and digital citizenship is key to getting a wider range of students access to the benefits of learning with technology.

Aspen Institute to Look at Online Learning EdWeek: The Aspen Institute has convened a task force to study how children learn online and how to improve online education while safeguarding student privacy.

Data Reveal a Rise in College Degrees Among Americans NYT: The increase, which follows more than two decades of slow growth in college completion, appears to be driven by the recent recession and the creation of new types of jobs.

School for disabled accused of running sweatshop AP: The U.S. Justice Department has found that a Providence vocational school ran what amounted to a sweatshop involving developmentally disabled students....

Playgrounds honoring Newtown victims take shape AP: Six months after the school shooting in Newtown, 26 playgrounds are taking shape around the region, showcasing each of the victim's likes and interests - everything from the moon to flamingos....

Video: School rooted in segregation raises students’ expectations NBC News: When Principal Donald Lilley arrived nine years ago, Annapolis High School operated like two different schools where minority students failed and white students excelled. But innovative changes helped transform the school, creating a community that thrives on mentoring. NBC’s Rehema Ellis reports. (Nightly News)

Politics: Can New LA Mayor Influence School Board Leadership?

2013-06-12T15:48:53-04:00

On Friday, President Obama flew to Hollywood for a DNC fundraiser, where Mayor-elect Eric Garcetti (left) and LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy (right) were both in attendance.

What might they have been talking about?

According to this new story from LA School Report's Hillel Aron, the next LAUSD Board President -- who oversees Deasy's work -- seems likely to pass to Deasy critic Richard Vladovic rather than to a Deasy ally or a swing vote.

However, Garcetti is apparently trying to influence the leadership of the LAUSD School Board, perhaps aiming to find a compromise between the teachers union (who endorsed him) and local reform advocates. Perhaps Deasy was sking Garcetti for help.

Image via LA School Report.

Bruno: Teachers Already Use Lots of Real-World Examples

2013-06-12T12:52:45-04:00

Last week, Gallup put out a survey finding that students "who say they 'often' developed 21st century skills -- such as real-world problem-solving and global awareness -- in their last year of school are more likely to self-report higher work quality."

This is the kind of survey that lends itself to misinterpretation. At first blush, for example, you might think that students are reporting higher work quality because their teachers had them do lots of "collaboration" and "knowledge construction".

More likely, however, is that teachers are more likely to employ those "21st century" strategies with students who are already higher-achieving - and who would thus tend to get higher-quality work anyway.

What really jumped out at me, though, was the finding that fewer than 1/3 of students reported applying what they were learning to "real world problems in your community or in the world".

There's almost certainly less to that result than meets the eye.

I don't have a survey finding to back this up, but I'm still extremely confident that virtually every student in the country applied their learning to real-world problems not just in their last year of school, but in their last month of school. In fact, in their last year of school they might have done so at least once almost every day.

The examples are endless. English teachers have students write persuasive essays about current events, math teachers have students use math to optimize resource allocation, and history teachers ask students to apply the lessons of the past to today's dilemmas.

In the last month of school my 8th grade science students had to apply their knowledge of electricity to evaluate the safety and energy efficiency of their homes. My 7th graders had to use information about sexually transmitted diseases and human body systems to evaluate the safety of their own - and hypothetical - lifestyle decisions.

These aren't exceptions; they're the norm. As far as I can tell there aren't any teachers who don't tie real world problems into their classes. If students are saying otherwise, it's likely because such activities are so common that they're taken for granted or because the term "real world problem" is too vague. - PB (@MrPABruno) (image source)

Morning Video: Reading, Writing -- Republicans!

2013-06-12T10:20:03-04:00

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

MSNBC's Chuck Todd talks about the conservative attack on the Common Core. Not mentioned: lefty reform critics' attacks.

AM News: Lawsuit Against "Cruel" Texas Truancy System

2013-06-12T08:28:45-04:00

Complaint Filed With Justice Dept. in Texas Truancy Cases NYT: Advocacy groups said that school districts were violating the students’ civil rights and that the students, some as young as 12, were prosecuted as adults.

School Discipline Changes Urged In Federal Complaint Against Dallas Truancy System Huffington Post: Brown is one of 36,000 Dallas students who have faced truancy cases in the last year. In 2012, Texas adult courts prosecuted 113,000 truancy cases, more than twice the number pursued in the other 49 states combined.

Texas students to seek federal help to soften 'cruel' truancy policies Reuters: Students as young as 12 can be arrested and handcuffed at school. Once they turn 17, they can be jailed for failing to pay past fines, which can run into thousands of dollars, according to the complaint, which was drafted by the National Center for Youth Law.

DFER tells everyone to “chill” GothamSchools: Democrats for Education Reform has kept a low profile in New York since it unsuccessfully backed several downstate candidates for state office in the 2010 elections. In the years since, it has continued to expand nationally, establishing chapters in 13 states and cozied up to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Last year, it took a backseat seat to StudentsFirstNY, a once-emergent rival advocacy group that has since faded after its founding director left.

A teachers union embraces reform in New Haven, creating a model for others Hechinger Report: Unions in Baltimore, Md., and St. Paul, Minn., have used New Haven as a blueprint for their own labor contracts, and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has highlighted New Haven’s work at national conferences on labor-management collaboration.

State Test Results Released in Texas, Florida EdWeek: In the last few days, two of the five largest states in the United States by student enrollment, Texas and Florida, released results from student assessments in their K-12 accountability systems.

Boiler room explosion rattles Calif. school AP: An explosion Tuesday in the boiler room of a high school gymnasium was so powerful it lifted the building's roof and caused heavy damage inside but no serious injuries....

Coalition Demands Supports-Based Reform EdWeek: Prominent signatories to today's declaration include education historian Diane Ravitch, Stanford education professor Linda Darling-Hammond, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, and National Education Association counterpart Dennis Van Roekel. The group also includes parents, city leaders, a former U.S. secretary of labor, researchers, and educators.

Northeast DC's Educare a preschool model for the nation Washington Post: Located in the Kenilworth-Parkside neighborhood in Northeast Washington, Educare is marking its first anniversary Wednesday with a visit from Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Graduation Rates Hit New High: Good News For Everyone? NPR: National high school graduation rates have reached a 40-year high, according to a new report by Education Week. Host Michel Martin asks if this is good news for every district. She speaks one of the report's authors, Chris Swanson, and Mikala Rahn, who founded a Los Angeles charter school for former dropouts.

Video: Conservatives place focus on education MSNBC: The Daily Rundown's Chuck Todd takes a deep dive look into Common Core educational standards and the politics behind them. Emmett McGroarty from the American Principles Project joins to discuss.

Advocacy: Turning Times Square Into A Giant [Selfie] Yearbook

2013-06-11T16:04:18-04:00

As part of their never-ending efforts to make school cool, the @getschooled folks are encouraging high school students to commit to finishing their educations by displaying their Instagram pictures in Times Square tomorrow.

I know, I know. It's what every kid wants -- his or her name in lights -- "the world's largest yearbook."

And there's still time left. The best 500 submissions will get displayed and receive an e-mail of their picture in lights in Times Square. #TimesSquareYearbook

Selfies aren't encouraged but they're pretty much inevitable, right?

Photo credit: Kevin Tachman for Times Square Alliance

Bruno: School Is Part Of The Real World

2013-06-11T12:50:00-04:00

Last week Valeries Strauss published a post by Penelope Trunk arguing that schools shouldn't be so "uptight" about cheating.

Cheating, she argued, involves skills - like networking and collaboration - that are valued in the workplace and important for students to learn.

In a response (also on Strauss' blog), Elaine Power says what needs to be said about the most obvious problems with Trunk's argument.

In particular, Trunk seems to be confused about what educators mean when they talk about "cheating" and about why they discourage it. (Either that or she's spent time in some extremely unusual and cut-throat workplaces.)

More generally, I think Trunk is commiting an all-too-common edu-fallacy. The language varies, but oftentimes commentators will propose that schooling would be improved if it were made more like the "real world" and thus more "authentic".

Trunk makes this argument about cheating, but you can find it being made about all kinds of things in education, from teaching methods to curricular content to student motivation and classroom management. What unites these claims is the assumption that the more school life imitates "real life", the better.

That assumption is fallacious for at least two reasons.

First, school is part of the "real world". In practice, schools are the "real world" way that the vast majority of individuals develop many of the academic and social skills that they end up using in their adult lives. School is definitely different from life outside of school, but probably not much more so than various parts of out-of-school life - like work life and home/family life - are different from each other.

The fact is, we don't normally assume that every area of our lives should function according to the same rules, so there's no obvious reason to single out school as needing to be more like some other part of life.

Second, even if you want to draw a clear distinction between "school" and "the real world", the purposes of school are rarely the same as the purposes of other parts of life. School is often about learning things or demonstrating that you know them and work, for example, is often about producing something of value to your employer. Those goals are very different, so only rarely will it make sense to accomplish them by using the same methods and following the same rules.

So it's a mistake to assume that a change that makes school more like the world outside of school is, ipso facto, an improvement. And it's a common-enough fallacy that it probably deserves its own name. I'll take suggestions in the comments. - PB (@MrPABruno) (image source)

Quotes: Where's The Fire?

2013-06-11T11:16:00-04:00

It’s kind of like having a fire alarm go off in your house, but not knowing where the fire is. - University of Washington’s College of Education professor Charles Peck. (Hechinger Report)

Morning Video: MSNBC Juxtaposes Philly Layoffs & Prisons

2013-06-11T09:29:00-04:00

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

AM News: Texas Drops Required Tests To Five

2013-06-11T08:28:25-04:00

Texas Tests for Graduation Cut to 5 From 15 NYT: The measure was promoted as a way to give more flexibility to students who want to focus on career training, not just college-preparatory courses, and was a response to complaints from students, parents and teachers about too much testing.

High-Tech Cheaters Pose Test WSJ: Major testing companies like CTB/McGraw-Hill MHFI +0.15% and the Graduate Management Admissions Council are developing security packages to sell to schools and licensing boards.

Obama Fills Civil Rights, General Counsel Posts in Education Department EdWeek: President Barack Obama today tapped Catherine E. Lhamon, who spent a decade working for the American Civil Liberties Union in California, as the assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education.

'I'm Not Satisfied': Family's First Graduate Has Bigger Goals NPR: When Denver teenager Dajina Bell graduated from high school last week, she celebrated a remarkable academic and personal comeback. Bell's high school years were marked early on by her brother's death and a host of other troubles.

In Hamptons, Ethnicity, Class and Suicide Lead School to Reach Out NYT: An ethnic integration problem that had been festering in the background for years at East Hampton High School has been brought to the forefront by student suicides.

Video: Money for prisons, not schools, in Philadelphia MSNBC: Nearly a billion dollar in cuts in Pennsylvania's education budget has trickled down to Philadelphia, where 23 schools have been closed and nearly four thousand district workers have received pink slips. Still, the state has $400m for a new prison complex.

Quotes: Ravitch's Loathsome Non-Apology

2013-06-10T14:31:34-04:00

I apologize for calling you “loathsome,” though I do think your campaign against a hardworking, dedicated principal working in an inner-city school was indeed loathsome.

- NYU professor Diane Ravitch (in a post written to Parent Revolution's Ben Austin in which she admits she knew nothing about Weigand beyond what she read in the LA Times)

Thompson: Let Disruptive Innovations Proceed at Their Own Pace

2013-06-10T13:24:46-04:00

Clayton Christensen Is K-12 Blended Learning Disruptive? recommends five principles for school leaders pushing disruptive innovation. (Hat Tip to the Hechinger Institute's Anya Kamenetz.)

Christensen says that online courses began with credit recovery for dropouts, AP, foreign languages, and early college enrollment. He predicts that up to half of all high school courses will be offered online by 2019 .

The first step toward disruptive innovation should be a discussion of whether technology should be used to improve schools, to save money, to enrich fly-by-night corporate raiders, or to beat down teachers and unions.

If the goal is improving schools, and not just cutting costs or teachers, we should embrace Christensen's #1 recommendation. Schools should "create a team within the school that is autonomous from all aspects of the traditional classroom."

In the inner city, we need more disruption like we need another gang war.

Rather than speed up uninvited transformations, we should recruit educators with computer skills and empower them to create an innovative environment.

Given the vast potential of disruptive innovation, surely we can afford an appropriate amount of new money to fund places where new and additional teachers and students have the space to devise blended-learning systems, flipped classrooms, hybrid innovations, or whatever emerges. If we can afford autonomous football and basketball programs, can we not afford autonomous digital learning departments? - JT(@drjohnthompson) via.

Weekend Reading: Stuff You Missed (Or Wish You Had)

2013-06-10T12:16:00-04:00

NCLB Bills: A Side-By-Side Comparison - Politics K-12 - Education Week ow.ly/lQmUy

Slim chances for new version of No Child Left Behind | HechingerEd Blog ow.ly/lOZ5r @s_garl

"This Is Morally Wrong": Watch Elizabeth Warren on GOP and Student Loans | Mother Jones ow.ly/lQcKM

Power to the Preschoolers ow.ly/1XfcSr

How Adaptive Learning is Transforming Education - TIME ow.ly/lQm2k @kaylawebley

Where Unions Went Wrong on ‘Right to Work’ - In These Times ow.ly/lQcKy

Six Big Tech Trends | MindShift ow.ly/lQcOd mobile learning, open content, cloud computing, and yes -- 3D printers.

From Jay Mathews: How to survive our education battles: The latest fashions in the American education system a... bit.ly/18i6f8Z

SATs have nothing on China’s dreaded gaokao exam -Salon.com ow.ly/lQokG

13-year old with IQ higher than Einstein is also refreshingly modest - Salon.com ow.ly/lQofK

32 Innovations That Will Change Your Tomorrow - NYTow.ly/lQcHf #17 Terrifying playgrounds

Morning Video: Does Math Exist?

2013-06-10T10:04:00-04:00

Does Math Exist (the way that science exists, and is observable, etc)? via PBS Idea Channel

AM News: Ability Grouping Returns (Not Everyone Abandoned It)

2013-06-10T09:01:10-04:00

Grouping Students by Ability Regains Favor With Educators NYT: Separating the highest-achieving students from the lowest, a tactic once said to perpetuate inequality, is now seen by some educators as an indispensable way to cope with varying skill levels.

Gates Foundation looking to make nice with teachers Seattle Times: Though widely viewed as a critic of teachers and their unions, the world’s largest foundation has begun reaching out to them in new ways, sending the message it wants to be their friend — and their champion.

Arne Duncan To Launch 'High School Redesign' Competition Huffington Post: Now, after months of questions over what form that competition would take, U.S. Secretary of EducationArne Duncan is announcing the details.

To Lower Dropout Rates, Finding Potential Where Support Systems Are Lacking PBS NewsHour: It's just after 9:00 a.m. when Rachel Bennett greets her third period students. Bennett is a high school Spanish teacher here at Perspectives Leadership Academy. But this is the one class she teaches each day where nobody learns Spanish.

In Middlebury, Vt., Teens Train For Careers In The 'A.R.T.'s NPR: A successful Broadway set builder took his theater skills back to New England. At the tiny Addison Repertory Theater, a part of the Hannaford Career Center, he teaches all aspects of professional theater to students.

For Homebound Students, a Robot Proxy in the Classroom NYT: A small but growing number of chronically ill students are attending school virtually with robots, which stream two-way video to connect them to the classroom.

14Year Old Graduate Is Bound for Harvard NBC: Tennessee 14 year old has already graduated college and is now set to begin work on her Master's Degree at Harvard.

Video: Testing your commitment to education msnbc: How many teachers need to stage protests before the rest of us learn that standardized tests are not the best way to ensure our kids get educated? The Nation’s John Nichols joins Joy Reid with the political answer sheet. (The Ed Show)

Detroit Finds New Uses for Old School Buildings ABC News: Detroit finds new uses for old schools buildings, including movie theater, recording studio

Media: Massive NYT Math Score Correction

2013-06-07T11:36:24-04:00

So apparently there were some math mistakes in last week's NYT story about the challenges of raising reading and math scores. "Yup! Got to go back to math class," quipped reporter @MotokoRich