Let Landrieu Lose

from NYTimes today:

WASHINGTON — Senator Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana pushed hard on Monday to round up votes for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, part of a last-minute effort to help her survive a close runoff and one of the toughest battles of her political career.

ClassDojo: Another Insecure Child Labeling, Shaming, and Tracking Device

If your town has 9 schools, there is a teacher in three of them using unsafe software that can be used to publicly shame your child while making money for the company that sells the app.  The banking model of education just got a whole lot more lucrative, and the total surveillance society just got a bit closer still. 

The NYTimes has a piece on the latest cutesy version of the KIPP paycheck.  In this digitized and cutesy one that uses children to become complicit in their own monitoring and labeling, ClassDojo seeks to get rich by collecting and sharing data.  Below is a screen grab of one of their demos.  Now when their paid teachers talk about having more points added than points deleted, ask them how you get points added for "Late to Class."

And yes, they have a privacy policy, but here is the money shot of the policy below.   

Read it and decide if you want your kids monitored, labeled, and tracked using another non-secure piece of shit software:

. . . . We work with third party service providers to provide website and application development, hosting, and maintenance as well as other services for us. To the extent it is necessary for these service providers to complete their contractual obligations to us, these third parties may have access to or process your personally identifiable information. Generally, our policy is to make these disclosures under limitations comparable to those in this policy, although certain large service providers, such as large hosting providers, do not expressly agree to such limitations in their contracts with us or their other customers. Many third parties who we provide your Personally Identifiable Information authorize certain government and law enforcement agencies access to information stored by such third parties without providing notice to us, in some cases as required by law and in other cases voluntarily, and we have no control over such activities.

We may make certain automatically collected and other aggregate non-personally-identifiable information to assist such parties in understanding our users’ interests, habits, and usage patterns for certain programs, content, services, promotions, and/or functionality available through the Service.

We may also disclose your information if required to do so by law, such as in response to a subpoena or where a parent requests copies of Children’s Personal Information, or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with state and federal laws (such as U.S. Copyright law), or in response to a court order, judicial or other government subpoena or warrant, or to otherwise cooperate with investigative or law enforcement activity.

We also reserve the right to disclose your information that we believe, in good faith, is appropriate or necessary to take precautions against liability; to protect us and others from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful uses or activity; to investigate and defend ourselves against any third party claims or allegations; to assist government enforcement agencies; to protect the security or integrity of the Service; or to protect our, our users’, and others’ rights, property, and security. 

Lily in Nashville to Declare Common Core a "state initiative"

NEA President, L. E. Garcia, was in Nashville today trying to pump life back into the rotting corpse of Common Core.  

Ravitch will there on the 19th follow up.  

From Andy Spears:

Garcia says she was initially a Common Core skeptic. But says she reviewed the standards for 6th grade, which she taught, and found them to be reasonable. She said Common Core is and should be a state initiative. 

Bottom 90 Percent Prove to Be Slackers

from the NYTimes:

The Erudite Faction and the TFA Corps

Saw Divergent last evening.  If you haven't seen it, you should.  

Kate Winslet (Jeanine) plays the sci-fi version of the scarier Wendy KIPP Kopp (Wendy).

from the Erudite Manifesto:

Ignorance is defined not as stupidity but as lack of knowledge. Lack of knowledge inevitably leads to lack of understanding. Lack of understanding leads to a disconnect among people with differences. Disconnection among people with differences leads to conflict. Knowledge is the only logical solution to the problem of conflict. Therefore, we propose that in order to eliminate conflict, we must eliminate the disconnect among those with differences by correcting the lack of understanding that arises from ignorance with knowledge. 

As for Teacher for All?  It's TFA gone global.  The Erudite search is now world-wide.

Petition Demands Haslam Choose an Educator as New TN Commish

Haslam's army of TFA cult members are combing the Broad Foundation databases in search of someone with as little education knowledge, leadership, and social skills as Kevin Huffman.  Inside reports indicate no luck yet. 

Meanwhile, a petition is circulating urging Huffman to do what neither ideology nor politics tells him do:

We stand with Tennessee Strong, a network of education advocacy groups from across the State of Tennessee, and ask that you appoint a Commissioner of Education who exhibits transparency, inclusiveness, and open communication with all stakeholders in Tennessee. It is imperative that the next Commissioner of Education work openly with teachers, school leaders, parents, students, and communities to improve public education across the state. We ask that the next Commissioner appointed be a certified Tennessee public school teacher, with a minimum of 10 years experience including experience in the classroom, from a TN public school. 

The next Commissioner must focus on the critical work of creating a culture of open communication around all educational policy and potential education reform. The Commissioner should implement policies that foster the physical, behavioral, emotional, psychological, and educational well-being of all students in Tennessee. 

The ideal candidate for Commissioner will be proactive in promoting community schools and wrap-around services for all students and will strive to improve the morale and working conditions of Tennessee teachers. These taxpayers, parents, teachers, and community leaders in Tennessee respectfully ask you to appoint a Commissioner of Education who will strive for excellent public schools for every child in Tennessee.

Tennessee Strong includes:

Advocates for Change in Education (Hamilton County)

Concerned Parents of Franklin County (Franklin County)

Decoding Dyslexia Tennnessee (Statewide)

Friends of Oak Ridge Schools (City of Oak Ridge Schools)

Momma Bears (Statewide)

Parents of Wilson County (Wilson County)

SPEAK-Students, Parents, and Educators Across Knox County (Knox County)

Strong Schools (Sumner County)

Tennesseans Reclaiming Educational Excellence/ TREE (Statewide)

TNBATs (State branch of National BATs)

Williamson Strong (Williamson County)

Distancing Parents from Children's School Work

Gary Rubenstein posted this shot of his first grade daughter's Common Core math homework.  Could there be any more effective way of putting distance between parents and their children's work?

IPS, Marian, and the Free-Market Jesus

by Doug Martin

With the hedge fund Democrats for Educational Reform’s Mary Ann Sullivan, the Marian Academy for Teaching and Leadership-trained LaNier Echols, and others mentioned in my book Hoosier School Heist now on the IPS School Board, the profiteers are gearing up to cash in on even more tax money in Indianapolis.  On Tuesday, the IPS School Board will vote on placing Marian University –trained leaders in various schools in Indianapolis. 

Marian and IPS leaders plan a $2 million deal with Marian University’s Marian Academy for Teaching and Leadership to train up to 90 “school leaders” in three years for IPS.  IPS will pay $50,000 yearly to the program, which will run from January 2015 to December 2018,  The rest of the money will come from unnamed private investors.

Marian University’s Academy for Teaching and Leadership has been funded and supported by shady millionaire-sponsored school privatizing groups from day one.  The Kern Family Foundation started the funding for the Marian leadership program and worked hand-in-hand with the Sagamore Institute, a group promoting school privatization and religious work which used to be led by Mitch Daniels’ sister. 

I wrote about the Kern Family Foundation several years ago.  Based in Waukesha, Wisconsin, the Kern Family Foundation is the product of Robert and Patricia Kern, owners of Generac Power Systems, a generator company. The Kern Family Foundation has pumped money to the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO), Betsy DeVos’ Alliance for School Choice (which, in turn, bought Indiana Republican lawmakers), and several other corporate school reform projects. It is also known for Friedmanite Greg Forster’s directed American History, Economics, and Religion grant program supporting free-market, religious indoctrination with the American Enterprise Institute.  In laymen terms, the Kern Family Foundation is a  right-wing Christian, free-market Jesus propaganda machine which has played a national role in in corporate/theocratic/work force training school reform movement for years.

And let's not forget:  Marian University is ran by Dan Elsener, a state board of education member, former employer of Tony Bennett's wife, and past worker for millionaire Christel DeHaan whose charter school's grade was changed by Tony Bennett. 

If all of this is not enough to send warning signals to IPS teachers, parents, and students, Marian Academy later picked up support from the George W. Bush Institute’s Alliance for Reform in Educational Leadership, which promotes the school privatization agenda nationally, as well. 

The IPS/Marian/private $2 million program is vague in the least.  Here are a few things the plan doesn’t answer:

1.  It does not say how student learning and achievement gains are going to be assessed.  Will this include more testing? 

2.  How is teacher effectiveness going to be assessed and what specific formula will be used in the IPS/Marian plan?   

3.  In the IPS/Marian document, discipline assessment is mentioned on several occasions, but there are no details on what specific discipline is going to be assessed and if the data will be broken down by race, sex and income.  

4.  With the tracking of new data which the IPS/Marian plan calls for, will students, parents, and teachers' personal information be protected?  Will parents be able to opt out of data collection on their children?

Cash-strapped IPS doesn’t need to join a Catholic university program supported by right-wing free-market millionaires.  If IPS leaders need trained, do it in-house.  IPS parents, students, and teachers should be outraged that IPS is even considering handing over money to a Catholic University ran by Dan Elsener, one of the main players behind the corporate/theocratic assault against public education in this state. 
 

The Haslam-Huffman Legacy: Arrogant Mediocrity

Haslam is taking this opportunity of dumping the caustic TFA cult member, Kevin Huffman, to spin Tennessee's corporate education failures that began 30 years ago.  

Here and here are a couple of posts to remind us there is nothing for either Haslam or the Tennessee Taliban who run the Legislature to brag about.

This Is What Union Power Looks Like in MA

MTA members show union power; DESE rescinds proposals linking licensure to educator evaluation

MTA President Barbara Madeloni and Vice President Janet Anderson sent the following message to MTA members on Friday, November 14:
 
We did it! In recent days, thousands of you have contacted state education officials to express your opposition to linking your license to your evaluation. MTA members sent e-mails, spoke out at DESE’s “town halls,” organized building meetings and made plans to attend upcoming DESE meetings in Malden and Bridgewater.

Today, the commissioner of education released a letter that says: “… we are rescinding the draft options that link licensure to educator evaluation.”
Our message — Union Strong — is making a difference.

While the immediate threat is lifted, there is much more to be done to make sure state officials hear what educators think we and our students need.
Here's the background on the licensure story.

Twenty-five days ago, MTA received notice of licensure changes proposed by DESE that would connect performance evaluation to license renewal and advancement. These proposals and the façade of voice given within the DESE “town halls” exposed the deep disconnect between educators and the department. Union members spoke out resoundingly. Several members of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education joined us in telling the commissioner they opposed this licensure plan.

The decision announced today is a good start, but other aspects of proposed licensure changes are still unsettled, and the disconnect between educators and DESE remains.

The commissioner has invited us to “continue the conversation.” Let’s do just that by showing up in Malden on Nov. 19 and Bridgewater on Nov. 20 to tell our stories, speak our truth, and reclaim public education.

Here are the details of the meetings next week:

DESE-sponsored Town Halls on Licensure

Wednesday, November 19
4:30-7 p.m. (arrive at 4:15 p.m.)
Malden High School
77 Salem Street
Malden

AND

Thursday, November 20
4:30-7 p.m. (arrive at 4:15 p.m.)
Bridgewater State University
Crimson Hall – Dunn Conference Room
200 East Campus Drive
Bridgewater








Even as we move forward with our plans to make our voices heard, this is a moment to celebrate our strength and acknowledge the hard work of our members on this crucial issue. So thank you, and let’s keep up the fight!

In solidarity,
Barbara and Janet