Posted on November - 02 - 2011
State:Obamatesting waiver will cost $3.1 billionOCRegister:State Superintendent Tom Torlakson has already called for Obama to provide unconditional relief from NCLB while the president and Congress work to reauthorize the law.
Fine Print: NCLB Waiver ApplicationNJ Spotlight: On the one hand, the application follows much of what theObamaadministration proposed in offering the waivers in the first place — including new labels for schools.
Kindergartners, Put Down Your PencilsSlate:Standardized testing for 5-year-olds sounds crazy. But it just might lead to a better way of assessing all kids.
Confused over accountability and flexibilityTerrell Halaska: It’s useful to ask whether accountability and flexibility can and should coexist. I
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Posted on October - 17 - 2011
In today’s Los Angeles Times, Bill Plaschke has a must-read story about a high school football player who attempted to stop the stabbing of a classmate in a crowded courtyard at his school.
It’s a well-done story that’s definitely worth reading in full:
The brave one’s right eye won’t stop twitching.
“My therapist says that will end when I start sleeping through the night,” Jorge Garcia says.
The brave one’s mind won’t stop wandering.
“Sometimes I’ll dream it was me who was killed,” he says.
Three weeks ago, Garcia, a junior guard on the football team at South East High in South Gate, was the only student who attempted to save classmate Cindi Santana when she was stabbed in a crowded school courtyard, allegedly by former boyfriend Abraham Lopez.
Santana later died.
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Posted on October - 15 - 2011
I was ready to skewer our beloved governor over his most recent attack on education.
It seemed like a slam dunk. Gov. Rick Scott got the idea that students who receive state money to attend Florida colleges and universities ought to be studying science, technology, engineering and math.
“If I’m going to take money from a citizen to put into education, then I’m going to take that money to create jobs,” Scott told The Sarasota Herald-Tribune editorial board last week. “So I want that money to go to degrees where people can get jobs in this state.”
The idea that the overriding aim of education is to be employed and that employment is dependent on technical fields of study is a double-scoop of nonsense.
After all, one of the biggest job creators in Florida has been former Walt Disney Co. chief executive officer Michael Eisner, who majored in English and wrote plays for his college’s drama club.
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Posted on September - 26 - 2011
#nclbwaiver One of the things that hasnt been discussed much about the NCLB waiver scheme is just how much districts are chomping at the bit to find ways to spend some of that SES money that theyve long complained about having to give away to tutoring companies and other outside providers oh these long years under NCLB. Thats because, under NCLB, schools and districts that dont make AYP for consecutive years have to offer outside tutoring to kids at those schools — and “give away” up to 20 percent of their NCLB funding in order to pay for the extra services. But of course even the worst schools and districts in America think that they can do better than anyone else — even when theyve tried and failed to do so in the past. And now when their states get a waiver — up to 25 of them in the next year or so, according to one CCSSO estimate in the NYT — the districts get a raise. Its brilliant politics, I have to say.
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