Five Best Blogs: Another Term For Duncan, Obama Willing (And Able)

White House freakout sounds! Duncan tells NatJourn he'd stay on as EdSec @fawnjohnson ow.ly/e33It

Education Week: Standards Backers Seek Out Support of Parents ow.ly/e330p #5bb Win the parents, you win everything.

While I appreciate her mentioning my book, Goldstein's review of WBD is perplexingly...oh, right, The Nation ow.ly/1OEotu 

Building bridges on a minnow sanctuary@ the Rio Grande. PBL in serious effect at Ace Leadership!... @OdysseyInitiate

A frequently-displaced Chicago teacher talks about seniority placements and teacher evaluation ow.ly/e33kU

 

Five Best Blogs: It's Parent Support, Stupid

Teacher Association Sues For-Profit Rival PTO Today ow.ly/e0Wzj #5bb

Richie Rich Aces the SAT ow.ly/e0FM0 Want to improve standardized test scores? Increase Americans’ incomes. #5bb @thepropect

A reformer ponders parent choice, parent triggers, and politics @ThompsonEdu ow.ly/e0DaB #5bb

How Self-Expression Damaged My Students - Robert Pondiscio - The Atlantic ow.ly/e1hQo #5bb

How does ProPublica do it? Can it scale [in education]? ow.ly/e1hUv #5bb

National [Education] Reporters Should Learn to Be a Little Bit Ruder | Mother Jones ow.ly/e0FZ2@KevinDrum #5bb

 

Five Best Blogs: Districts Returning TIF Funds

Districts returning TIF funding over impasses with teachers, says @DFER_News Charlie Barone http://t.co/busEH1dI 

Richard Lee Colvin: A hopeful future for the National Board ow.ly/dYCb1 #5bb

Stars Don’t Back Down from Film’s Politics | Observer ow.ly/dXKIH"seems like the politics might be misinterpreted

From The New Yorker: "How is Kayli going to be class president if she won't disclose the contents of her lunchbox?" ow.ly/dYGJS

Thanks to SS for the correction on the first item.  I had it as RTTT at first.  

Five Best Blogs: Rise Of ACT Endangers Coleman World Takeover

Uncoordinated super PACs waste millions, contradict each other, says WSJow.ly/dX8Rj #5bb Sounds like some reform groups.

Charter Schools Unionize With a Bang, De-Unionize With a Whimper EIA #5bb ow.ly/dXoWI

Interest in Web-based courses is hitting a plateau rather than accelerating. ow.ly/dXmoj #5bb

Moving Families Out Of Poor Neighborhoods Makes Them Happier ow.ly/dXmcz #5bb But Doesn't Change Ed Outcomes

ACT edges past SAT as most popular test, says AP's Justin Pope ow.ly/dXaAN #5bb Serious dint in D. Coleman world takeover plan

Rejecting test scores as a core value - Los Angeles Times ow.ly/dXah8 #5bb

Five Best Blogs: Will An Educator Win A 2012 MacArthur Grant?

MacArthur "genius" grants are out tomorrow. Two education types won MacArthur genius grants last year, then before that it was 2007 ow.ly/dTVmm

Simmering contract fights in Patterson, Newark, & NYC, says TIME's @kaylawebley ow.ly/dTWn6 #5bb Dont' forget LAUSD!

If Chicago teachers *really* loved poor kids they'd go back on strike for equal funding, says CAP's Matt Millerow.ly/dTUOi#

More Chicago stats and comparisons from @NCTQow.ly/dTTRu 

Teacher Larry Strauss lists "who benefits from a failing education system?" ow.ly/dTNhR #5bb But his list is incomplete.

The influence readings in the new Atlantic rundown of ed reform groups seem high given recent eventsow.ly/dTNG0 

Five Best Blogs: There Are Never Just Five Of Them

Violence in Libya saved Obama from intense media scrutiny over Chicago strike, notes Rick Hessow.ly/dSd4c 

The Chicago strike’s silver lining ow.ly/dSciKWinning ugly reminds us of unions' ugly underbelly, argues Checker Finn 

Karen Lewis for AFT President? Numbers Don’t Add Up | Intercepts ow.ly/dSc2Z

This segment is OK ow.ly/dRxb2 but I really want video of the full Bruce Rauner union rant the Trib described...

The Schoolmaster - Dana Goldstein - The Atlanticow.ly/dSce8 

YES Prep joins KIPP in publishing its (40 pct) college success data, notes Mike Goldstein - plus some other stuff ow.ly/dSc5Q

Victoria Walker, 11-Year-Old, Wins $20,000 At AT&T Hackathon For 'Rode Dog' App ow.ly/dREen

Government School PR Group Hammers “Won’t Back Down” Movie - Kyle Olson - Page 1 ow.ly/dRrZo

Five Best Blogs: Chicago Contract Too Soft, Say Reformers

School reformers complain Chicago teachers deal too generous - Blogs On Politics - Crain's Chicago Business ow.ly/dOnFK

Fighting irrelevance with fire | The Economist ow.ly/dOaWF #5bb via @whet

Arne dances with the kids, Sen Bennet nearly goes Man Down at the :26 mark ow.ly/dOa9l #5bb via MP1

"Shame on MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, Chris Matthews, and Willie Geist" says John Wilson Unleashed ow.ly/dO6JS #5bb

Joe Nocera has no idea what he’s talking about!ow.ly/dO5Wh the daily howler #5bb

How to Fix the Schools - Nocera interviews Marc Tucker in the NYTimes.com ow.ly/dO47q via @robertpondiscio #5bb

A teacher's rant again Taylor Mali [and his famous poem, What Teachers Make]ow.ly/dNHLS #5bb

Five Best Blogs: Unions, Poverty, Pedophiles -- Yikes.

Bush: CTU Strike an Indicator of Things to Come in US ow.ly/dMr0O 

"Exactly the Kind of Compromise We Would Expect" ow.ly/dLTRS EIA's Mike Antonucci slams compromises made by CPS and CTU

The Chicago Teachers’ Balancing Act ow.ly/dMn0EAnyone else enjoying Harold Meyerson on #ctustrike?

Is Poverty a Kind of Robbery? - Tom Edsall in theNYTimes.com ow.ly/dMgPK 

Pedro Noguera: What's Missing From the Chicago Strike Debate | The Nation ow.ly/dM3mN 

Malcolm Gladwell on how pedophiles operate in plain sight - The New Yorker ow.ly/dMlO5 

Teachers' Expectations Can Influence How Students Perform : Shots - Health Blog : NPR ow.ly/dLHms

Weekend Reading: Nasty, Brutish, And Short

Not obsessed with the Chicago strike?  There were at least a couple of interesting articles that came out over the weekend -- though none of them particularly uplifiting:

A NYT article on the our kinds of teachers (in popular media): lazy, washed up, bully, saint, ow.ly/dKCub

A pretty miserable account of the life of a middle school math teacher in LA...Teaching Ate Me Alive - Salon - ow.ly/dKo62 

A Matt Yglesias / Slate post on how government programs to alleviate poverty don't get included in the official poverty numbers  ow.ly/dJOyS

Also:  NBC News announced late Friday that Mitt Romney is scheduled to appear at @educationnation later this month. 

Five Best Blogs: Only Skinny White Misogynists Oppose Chicago Strike

Opposed to the Chicago strike? You're probably white. Racial disparities in polling says Harold Meyersonow.ly/dJ728 #ctustrike

MSM is making too much of the size and vociferousness of @CTULocal1 President Karen Lewis, says @Jezebelow.ly/dJ6N5 

TFA's @wendykopp: When your neighbor's house is on fire, you don't haggle over the price of the garden hose."ow.ly/dIy0c

If Labor Dies, What's Next? ow.ly/dIqqd The American Prospect Harold Meyerson

Parent Power: The School Takeover Movement - Businessweek ow.ly/dIoTE Great images from Adelanto Desert Trails

How Computerized Tutors Are Learning to Teach Humans - NYTimes.com ow.ly/dIoIB 

Five Best Blogs: Back On The Bus With Arne

From Jay Mathews: Forget rating teachers. Think Grit 101.: The Chicago teachers strike and its focus on new ways... wapo.st/PeZ98x

NYT magazine story abt Kalamazoo tuition promise here ow.ly/1Ovic8 

Ouch. "Chicago Public Schools Celebrate Third Straight Day Without Any Student Violence" - The Onion ow.ly/dH0Ds

Autotuned Arne Begins Bus Tour Across America |ED.gov Blog ow.ly/dGZZd Cameron Brenchley

There's really just one thing left that most boys can do better than most girls -- overhand throwing.ow.ly/dGVKQ @kottke

 Kristof joins the chorus against the #ctustrike ow.ly/dGsqX WP's Meyerson is the only MSM columnist I' ...

Five Best Blogs: Silly Season In Chicago [Still Not Wisconsin]

Why some liberals "hate" teachers unions -- and why that's ok. @mattyglesias ow.ly/dFmyv

In Chicago, Teacher Standoff Built Over Two Years -WSJ.com ow.ly/dFdeK 

How Public Unions Became So Powerful - WSJ.com ow.ly/dF7Zs Paul Moreno via @Wonkbook 

Starting teachers in Chicago already make more than anywhere else; veterans top out 2nd to NYCow.ly/dFm2g @Wonkbook @NCTQ 

Harold Meyerson: In Chicago, a Democratic civil war - The Washington Post ow.ly/dF7WU 

Who Can You Trust About Educational Technology? School Administrator on edtech research, etc.ow.ly/dFcnM 

No word on EdSec possibilities in this WSJ article "Romney Team Preps to Fill a Cabinet" ow.ly/dF8spbut still interesting

Education Nation adds Romney to its Tuesday 9/25 lineup @educationnation Full lineup coming out soon, they say.

Five Best Blogs: No, You Don't Have Anything Interesting To Say About The Strike

How teacher strikes hurt student achievementow.ly/dBH9v  Washington Post

Rahm Emanuel Doesn't Give 'Two Hoots' About Romney's Take On Chicago Teachers Strikeow.ly/dBGZw Huffington Post

Chicago teacher salaries: Nominal numbers are real. ow.ly/dBDuf Ezra Klein

California's 'parent trigger' in practice - latimes.comow.ly/dByoL LA Times editorial against trigger blockers

How Ideas Can Stall - Knight Foundation ow.ly/dBFSP via @lucybernholz

Teacher Grading Off to Uneven Start - WSJ.comow.ly/dBydS @lisafleisher 

Five Best Blogs: Dem Fingers Crossed For Convention Close

Initial tenure approval rates have gone down from +90pct to -50pct, according to LA Mag article ow.ly/dwbPu @LASchoolReport 

Five bad ideas in the Democratic platform. @mattyglesias ow.ly/dwhBI #2 is collective bargaining as a jobs strategy 

NEPC unhearts recent AEI report on parent power, argues "those aren't real parents" ow.ly/dvYF

Who Will Online Higher Education Help? ow.ly/dwhza Yglesias again, I think.

Charter school in Nashville's affluent west side still serves mostly poor | The Tennessean ow.ly/dvWDI via @AnnenbergInst

WPs Nick Anderson moving from education editor to higher education reporter. Congrats, condolences.

Former LA's Promise head @McGalliard helping to create a diverse new charter for downtown LA ow.ly/dwhOi

Five Best Blogs: Excited Parents, Dread-Filled Kids

Nearly 900 Districts Set to Compete for New Race to Top - Politics K-12 - Education Week ow.ly/dnQOV

1500 districts get 20pct+funding from the USDE, says @edwriters' MZ ow.ly/dnS2P National avg is 12 pct

Is Teach for America Working? - Room for Debate -NYTimes.com ow.ly/dnR2U 

Politico has full video, speech from Jeb Bush on educationow.ly/dnwS6

Failed Effort To Limit Use Of Student Achievement In CA: After much-last minute scrambling, CA Assemblym... bit.ly/T38hjd

Professor [Petrilli?] Vows to Grade Students Based on Their Klout Scores http://ow.ly/dmj2Q  Jezebel @michaelpetrilli

Don't teach like a champion A Chicago Latino English Teacher ow.ly/dnHYl

The importance of character: Liberals don’t want to admit it, and conservatives don’t want to pay for it http://ow.ly/dnrIg  @ttoch

Picture Reddit via Buzzfeed

Five Best Blogs: Pay No Attention To The Mess In California

Is everything you’ve heard about failing schools wrong? ow.ly/dmgl8 #5bb @kportermagee via @EducationSector @KristinaRizga

Congrats to SacBee's @MelodyGutierrez@dianalambert on their new edblog #5bb via @Larryferlazzo ow.ly/dm28q

10 Stupidest California Bills That Legislators Are Trying to Slam Through at Final Hour ow.ly/dm1CC#5bb

Successful principal dodges D.C. rules: Many great principals sidestep school system regulat... wapo.st/PxSqtz

Top Ten Classroom Management Techniques from America's Crazy Teachers Jimmy Fallon via EIA http://ow.ly/dmhUW #5bb

Five Best Blogs: VA Re-Doing Its NCLB Waiver

Virginia and U.S. Ed. Dept. Agree to NCLB Waiver Do Over - Politics K-12 - Education Week ow.ly/dks68

Kids would learn more math if their parents would get over their own fear of it, says WSJ via TAW ow.ly/djPnT

College Board,and Carnegie hosting 9/13 @NYTedtech summit featuring Nick Kristof, Linda Darling-Hammond, Kaya Henderson ow.ly/djDec

From Jay Mathews: Who’s afraid of China and India?: I like the latest big report to clog my printer — a 10...wapo.st/SPQqxL

ATL Teacher Had No Choice But to Help Students Cheat:'They're Dumb as Hell' ow.ly/djPGR #nclbmadeherdoit #toogoodtofactcheck

"Debate has become... the usual suspects saying the usual things, over and over, louder and louder."  @rpondiscio http://ow.ly/dkcKF 

Five Best Blogs: Six Reformers In An RV Van In The Desert...

RT @PoliticsK12: Jeb Bush in interview said he "doesn't forsee" being Romney's Sec. of Ed. Didn't name other names, said he was superstit...

Charter schools “wreaking havoc on private education?” Not exactly. http://ow.ly/diGEr @aemerson #5bb

StudentsFirst being shaken down in CT? via @dianeravitch http://ow.ly/diGOL #5bb

Bill Nye's anti-creationism video followed by Twitter death hoax. ow.ly/dikfF #5bb

Paul Ryan Gets Hometown Send Off at His Old High School abcn.ws/Pnq5Sr @alexanderrusso

Deaf Three-Year-Old Not Allowed to Sign His Name Because It Violates Preschool's Weapons Policyow.ly/diksP #5bb

The Baltimore School Shooter's Eerie Final Facebook Status Has Already Been Shared Nearly 1000 Timesow.ly/dikWZ #5bb

Five Best Blogs: Out With The Teacher Prep Rules, Already

Facebook beef turns into first-day lunchroom shooting in Baltimore ow.ly/dgmfG

School Districts Try New Ways to Teach Foreign-Language Speakers - WSJ.com ow.ly/dgBDj

Professional derangement ow.ly/1OsZCu #5bb

Group Press the ED for Teacher-Prep Rules - Education Week ow.ly/dgBSZ #5bb @TeacherBeat

Review & Outlook: California's School Head Fake -WSJ.com ow.ly/dgBH3

Neil Armstrong's Memorable Commencement Speech - Education - GOOD ow.ly/dgvin #5bb @LizDwyer

New book about how foundations influenced foreign affairs in the 1940s might shed light on edrefrorm role today n+1#5bbhttp://ow.ly/dg4s8

Five Best Blogs: VA Waiver Angers Black Caucus

New VA Standards Based On Race And Background Anger Black Caucus ow.ly/ddl0k #5bb

Everything You've Heard About Failing Schools Is Wrong | Mother Jones ow.ly/ddlIS #5bb@KristinaRizga

ALSO: RT @SuSaw: Leaders of #school turnarounds honored@TheWhiteHouse http://1.usa.gov/eQ3163 

Furious Debate Over "Pupil Progress" in CA | LA School Report ow.ly/ddce9 @LASchoolReport #5bb

Emory University gave out false GPA & SAT score dataTIME.com @kaylawebley #5bb ow.ly/ddpzq I blame USNews&WR. Or NCLB.

Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan Differ On Standardized Testing In Schoolsow.ly/dd0DW @Joy_Resmovits

No strike to interrupt the start of school in Chicago, but the violence continues to attract national attention ow.ly/dcXQr

Educators Have No Political Party Daily Kos http://ow.ly/dcWx1  #5bb Well, not like they used to :-)

 

Five Best Blogs: As If Obama-Romney Made *All* The Difference

The Obama campaign came out yesterday with a new ad attacking Mitt Romney’s positions on education: http://ow.ly/dbEGV #5bb @wonkblog 

Obama's education reform record: worth crowing about | New York Daily News http://ow.ly/dbEkn @joshgreenman via @gothamschools #5bb

Five Things Government Does Better Than You Do http://ow.ly/dbEsi TAP #5bb Education is not one of them? 

CAP Report: How American Schools Are Short-Changing Students Of Color | ThinkProgress http://ow.ly/dbEwU #5bb

Racism Plays a Big Part in our Politics. Period. http://ow.ly/dbEDf #5bb @tanehisi 

Behind the Cover Story: Paul Tough on How Obama's Stance on Poverty Has Changed - NYTimes.com http://ow.ly/dbEPw #5bb

Five Best Blogs: Democratic Pundit Slams VA Waiver

Rotherham slams Obama admin for OKing Virginia's weak waiver expectations for low income and ELL kidsow.ly/d2Ej0 #5bb

Why Hasn't the HCZ Been Replicated? ow.ly/d2pt5[+reformers ignored it & its results weren't solid] #5bb@AmandaEAtlantic

No one hates being told their schools are mediocre & segregated as much as middle class parentsow.ly/d2pHv #5bb via @gothamschools

The Case for the Private Sector in School Reform - Joel Klein - The Atlantic ow.ly/d2pFp #5bb Not sure why I'm reading this

John Deasy says he's never read a blog. He asked me what a blog was. I tried explaining.lockerz.com/s/235603229 @LASchoolReport

Researchers developed a computer program that caught 15,000 bullying-related tweets in one day.ow.ly/d3g2C #5bb @kaylawebley

This edition of #5bb brought to you by John White.  

Five Best Blogs: States Not Happy About "District" RTTT

HechingerEd Blog | More states requiring students to repeat a grade: Is it the right thing to do? ow.ly/d1Byl

District Nein | Title I-derland ow.ly/d1zaf States not happy with USDE or districts re districtRTTT

Do the math: Too much calculus?: I don’t want to alarm students who think taking calculus i... wapo.st/S0S92G

Ed Dept’s District-Level Competition Keeps Door Open for PreK-3rd Reforms | NewAmerica.net ow.ly/d1AZ9 

Roseland, Where Obama the Politician Was Born - NYT Sunday Magazine http://ow.ly/d14XN  [also titled "Obama vs. Poverty"]

Five Best Blogs: Brought To You By "Junior Skeptic" Magazine

Hess rounds up smattering of political oppo to Common Core from around the states ow.ly/cZepk#5bb

Why Johnny Can't Learn: Texas Monthly August 2012ow.ly/cZeiQ @gothamschools #5bb

What the [School Reform Movement] Can Learn from Gay Rights - The Atlantic Wire ow.ly/cYCQd Step 1: Make them fear you.

Some rail against new teacher prep assessments, but Stanford's LDH says edTPA is better than test-based ratings ow.ly/cZdO5 #5bb

How lobbyists became Congress’s leading policy wonks ow.ly/cZdCb Calling @PennHillGroup #5bb

Five Best Blogs: What’s So Bad About a Boy Who Wants to Wear a Dress?

”Saving the School” by Michael Brick: The Fight For Education Reform in America - The Daily Beastow.ly/cY7fY

Hey, Wall Street! One pct dropout reduction means $1.5B increase in economy. You're welcome @DontForgetEd

What’s So Bad About a Boy Who Wants to Wear a Dress? NYT ow.ly/cXXTX Parents and schools addressing gender-flexible boys

LAUSD's $20B/131 school construction effort relieved overcrowding helped improve elementary achievement says UCB ow.ly/cXXp0

Administration urges justices to continue college affirmative action admissions - The Washington Post ow.ly/cXrrQ

Summer in the Hamptons now includes SAT prep, says the NYT ow.ly/cXOvh But you're still a rich kid summering in the Hamptons, so...

 

Five Best Blogs: Will There Be Education?

2012 Debate Moderators Unveiled: Crowley, Lehrer, Schieffer, Raddatz http://ow.ly/cWcOY  Will there be education?

Junk food study: school snack regulations might help fight obesity problem. http://ow.ly/cWcMP 

Too much turbulence, not enough perturberance in school reform?http://ow.ly/cWpCe 

Walmart, Walden Hold Star-Studded Benefit Promoting Education Reform Film In These Times http://ow.ly/cWi1L 

Joel Klein, Former New York City Schools Chief, Touts News Corp. Tablet Computer Education Venture http://ow.ly/cWhIl 

Gates Foundation Confusing Evidence and Politics « Jay P. Greene's Blog http://ow.ly/cWfC2 

Five Best Blogs: It's Sort Of Sad I Do This Just For Petrilli

District & state compensation rules drive skyrocketing demand for online graduate degrees by teachers says @NCTQ ow.ly/cRstK #5bb

What makes ProPublica's eye-popping for-profit college numbers a K12 problem? ow.ly/cRhJn Teacher training #5bb

Kudos to 200M Olympic champion Allyson Felix, daughter of a schoolteacher who says she plans to become one, too ow.ly/cQYtR#5bb

Bad Teachers Can Get Better, Study Finds ow.ly/cRqMS @Joy_Resmovits @EducationNext #5bb But only if they live in Cincinnatti

Louisiana Schools All Set to Become Subsidiaries of Christian Church | Mother Jones ow.ly/cR1VJ @KevinDrum #5bb

Big thanks to 2nd Grade Magnet Teacher Jen Brooks @jbro_c_c who's also one of the organizers of @EdcampHtownMD She's follower #7,100.

Five Best Blogs: Clinton At The KIPP Summit

Clinton to KIPP Summit: “This should be a moment of renaissance in education in America” « Jonathan Schorr ow.ly/cMar6

Depiction of unions, teachers more nuanced in 'Won't Back Down' than 'Waiting For Superman' USA Today @gtoppo ow.ly/cM0IP 

As TX heads towards a single statewide college placement exam, @JFFtweets says grades are a better predictor NYT ow.ly/cLTqP

Campbell Brown In Her Own Words ow.ly/cMagD

Educators don't make ed policy for the same reason cops don't make criminal law, says @AEIeducation's Rick Hess http://ow.ly/cMcXY 

Feeling the Heat, AFT's Reform Resolve Wavers @TeacherBeat ow.ly/cLB7V Includes shout out for @CTULocal1 

Tablets Trump Laptops in High School Classrooms - US News and World Report http://ow.ly/cMbxD

 

 

Five Best Blogs: Is $389M In K12 Venture Capital A Lot?

New @StudentsFirstNY donors? Hedge funder Daniel Loeb, investor Paul Tudor Jones, both 75k bit.ly/Ppbap3 via by_resmovits

Venture capital in K12 grew to $389M last year, reports says @SSimonReuters ow.ly/cH5mP #5bb Sky still not falling.

Romney et al don't believe that good luck helped them succeed, says TAP's Paul Waldman ow.ly/cH61W Ditto for reformers, I'd argue

Kim Smith leaving Bellwether to lead exotic-sounding Pahara Institute, says @PoliticsK12 ow.ly/cGVVR

National Charter-District Collaboration Conference Set for November 4-5, 2012 just outside Denver.http://t.co/tBVFZ39z

Traditional PD is often expensive and ineffective -- will the Twitter version be any better ow.ly/cGNQg My guess is no

Five Best Blogs: Pay No Attention To The Campbell Brown Kerfluffle

Critique of "loss aversion" study (& economists' understanding of educationl) from @tln's Barnett Berry ow.ly/cFCb5

It's not just Republicans who want Obama to pay some attention to the vilolence in Chicago @CarolMarin ow.ly/cFz6b 

Why companies take stands on social issues [But school reform organizations don't] TIME @kaylawebley ow.ly/cFya6 

Fall Films Tackle Tough, Politically Tinged Subjects - NYTimes.com ow.ly/cFiW9Roundup includes Won't Back Down 

The NEA convention and its "radical liberal ideology" as viewed by Phyllis Schlafly at GOPUSA ow.ly/cF0NU 

Things change dramatically for Deasy/LAUSD if Villaraigosa runs for gov, as LAT reports he's considering ow.ly/cEZRY

So much for the War on Poverty - Forbes on FOX - The Cost of Freedom - Fox Newsow.ly/cFjog

Five Best Blogs: *Every* Gladwell Articles Is About Education

Big congrats to teacher/blogger/author @DanBrownTeacher, just named as one of 12 Teacher Ambassador Fellows for 2012-2013

NY Times Enrollment Story Only Half the Picture | Intercepts ow.ly/cDKL7 

“Exit,” “Voice” & Schools via @Larryferlazzoow.ly/cDLdx [See, I told you the Gladwell article was about education]

Charity Group Offers Free Plastic Surgery to Bullied Teens | NewsFeed | TIME.com ow.ly/cDxcp

That's recent LaGuardia HS graduate Merone Tesfaye & Nassau Coliseum (Long Island) in this DFE ad ow.ly/cD6ns. Now you know.

Image via Romenesko.

Five Best Blogs: An Algebra-Free Zone

From Jay Mathews: Large study says great teachers get little respect:  wapo.st/Q7ezwD

How education reform can fight crime ow.ly/cBwBr via Wonklblogs @ezraklein

Why Can’t We End Poverty in America? - NYT ow.ly/cB0iQ Peter Edelman

Malcolm Gladwell's new article ostensibly about Alberto Salazar but really about school reform ow.ly/cBweH [like they all are, at least as i read them]

Two reports find Las Vegas to be worst city in the nation for education - Las Vegas Sun ow.ly/cB2Br

Sherman Dorn coins an acronym to describe all the other acronyms: YASBA (yet another silver-bullet approach) ow.ly/cBQyB

Merrow prescribes Comer, Core Knowledge, preschool, & early college @LearningMatters ow.ly/cBQIG Objections?

The Treacherous(?) Road to E-Learning - National Journal ow.ly/cBQtH 

Five Best Blogs: The (Mild) Wrath Of Khan

Sal Khan responds to critic - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post ow.ly/cwkFT

My ideas to make accountability better: http://t.co/iIfQaYyI  @kevincarey1

A Rare Case For Active Investing - In Public Education Reforms - Forbes Rex Sinquefield, Contributorow.ly/cwdrY

Georgia students return to school and to new Common Core Standards  http://t.co/8jmh58pQ @theuseducation 

Pittsburgh about to undergo largest teacher layoff in district's history http://t.co/7x7nyUMS @nctq 

Education headline to look forward to:  "Rahm v. Kahn"

Five Best Blogs: Cut K12 To Finance Early Childhood Funding

The Value of Pre-K Education, Take 2 | Mother Jonesow.ly/cuz4g @KevinDrum

Should we cut K-12 schools to finance pre-K?ow.ly/cuz0k @mattyglesias

Obama’s Education Hits and Misses ow.ly/1OmXLj@TakePart

Arne Duncan, Tennessee, and y1 of the new teacher evaluation -- ow.ly/cuUg4 

How Mixed Neighborhoods Could Save America's Schools- TheAtlantic theatlantic.com/national/archi… via @MichaelPetrilli 

 

Five Best Blogs: Building Another House Of Cards

Obama ed team building pretty much the same house of cards as Bush team did, says former Bush official ow.ly/csNYg #5bb

Why Social Science is so hard but still worth paying to do @KevinDrum Mother Jones #5bb ow.ly/csYZ5

Human genome sequencer Criag Venter and 16 other famous people who attended community college @HuffPostEdu #5bb ow.ly/csYnD

Don't miss out on checking out this interesting ed reform course, Yale and Columbia grad studentsow.ly/csPo0 @YaleELC

 Parent Power Watershed - WSJ.com ow.ly/csKb9

Five Best Blogs: Big Day For "Parent Trigger"

CA parents set to take over failing school Reuters ow.ly/crhx2 

Parent Trigger' Scores First-Ever Victory at Desert Trails Elementary - LA Weekly ow.ly/crh45 

New study says merit pays works ow.ly/crfb9 & that potential loss is more motivating than gain ow.ly/crfA8 

Scholastic shutters recent acquisition, 110 year old 'Weekly Reader' - Atlantic Wire ow.ly/crepT 

Jason Alexander's rant against gun control opponentsow.ly/cr762 made me wish for an ed reform version of the same

MD does best on new HEPG study, followed by FL, DE, and MA according to UPI.com ow.ly/cr6n2

America's infatuation with decline -NYMag - Reminds me of Diane Ravitch ow.ly/cr0XR  Things used to be so much better!

Concrete signs of education progress amidst all the conflict and disappointment, says Richard Whitmire in HuffPost ow.ly/cqCFy

Weekend Reading: Childcare, Like ECE In General, Forgotten Issue

Childcare costs 2x as much as public college tuition via Slate ow.ly/cpvki #thisweekined

English teacher: I was wrong about “Hunger Games” - Salon ow.ly/cpvzu #t

10 Things in School That Should Be Obsoleteow.ly/cpvd7  @KQED @MindShift #thisweekined My favorite? The computer lab.

Three thousand education & health groups join together to oppose federal budget cuts Coalition for Health Funding ow.ly/cpq7M

Michelle Rhee on NBC's "Meet the Press" this morning (nowish) msnbc.com.

I wonder which reform group will, like Nokia (WJS ow.ly/cppyt) focus so much on early success that eventually gets passed by?

Reporters (&bloggers) should say where they get their tidbits esp negative ones slipped by the other side CJR ow.ly/cpppD

US poverty on track to rise to highest since 1960sow.ly/cpw2X 

Crime is at a 40y low but nervous parents are limiting their kids' freedom to roam & it hurts urban lifeow.ly/cpvBE 

The Long Slow Death Of NCLB @kevincarey1ow.ly/cpvNj [in case like me you still haven't read it]

Find more weekend reads at #thisweekined on Twitter throughout the weekend (or at least intermittently).  

Five Best Blogs: CO Shooting Reminds Many Of Columbine

Shooting at CO movie theater full of young people brings back memories of Columbine @SSimonReuters  ow.ly/cnJnx also here.

Obama’s quiet overturn of No Child Left Behind - Michael Gerson The Washington Post http://ow.ly/cnD9q 

The Trouble With Online Education - http://NYTimes.com  http://ow.ly/cnCBQ #5bb

Why California Democrats Protect Sex Abuser Teachers - Page 1 - News - Los Angeles - LA Weeklyow.ly/cnHQp #5bb

Tiger Moms, Koala Dads, & Cosmopolitans: The case for public-school choice in the suburbs ow.ly/coaWv@MichaelPetrilli

Bold Move for Students in Colorado By Colorado State Senators Mike Johnston and Pat Steadmanow.ly/coa5a

Is teacher ed headed for a revolution? "Maybe," says this @hechingerreport recap of things you already know ow.ly/cnYBq

Five Best Blogs: Flawed "Bottom Five Percent" Focus

Waivers & Harkin-Enzi repeat flaws of NCLB, according to forthcoming Ed Researcher paper from USC ow.ly/clQki @mpolikoff

About half of doctors use electronic records, says @Wonkblog ow.ly/cmxQQ [Are teachers ahead or behind, I wonder?]

Harvard Ed School announces residency placements for first wave of new ed leadership degree candidatesow.ly/cmwBU

Ravitch (Diane) on Ravitch (Richard) re education spending blog ow.ly/cmxX7 

Three reasons lawmakers feel free to slam teachers @shermandorn ow.ly/1OjCUA

The Suburban Districts Coalesce ow.ly/cmn5R via @EducationSector

Dana Goldstein: Schools Are Not Businesses | The Nation ow.ly/1OjCBE

 

Five Best Blogs: Our Long, Fat, Stupid Summer

How Summer Is Making U.S. Kids Dumber and Fatter - Bloomberg ow.ly/ckgy7 via @Wonkblog

72 percent increase in pay for teacher's xtra degrees costs states $15B in 2009, reports @TeacherBeatow.ly/ckgV2 

People in their 40s struggle most with student loan debt - WSJ ow.ly/ckgDx  OK to lay off more 20-30 teachers of the year!

The New Complacency About Schools Is Ill-Informed | TIME Ideas |http://TIME.com  http://ow.ly/ckbqd  

From Jay Mathews: A cure for bad teaching of writing: Forty-five years ago, I married the best editor I have eve... wapo.st/NOUeaM

Stimulus Aid Saved Education Jobs, Research Group Concludeshttp://ow.ly/ckaO3  @politicsk12 

 

Five Best Blogs: "Can We Please Just Once Have A Real Teacher?"

Kevin Carey Gets It Wrong on No Child ow.ly/1OiDC0 @dropoutnation

Emily Richmond @EWAEmily corrects Rotherham's critique of her NCLB reporting ow.ly/ciQ5u

Richard Whitmire: Can Poverty Completely Explain Poor School Outcomes? ow.ly/ciIlo 

Barr announces new plan to open quasi-charter "pilot" schools in LA via LA Times ow.ly/cilyj 

Frenzy over sequester hits Capitol Hill POLITICO ow.ly/cikZT

RT @kenmlibby:A little part of me dies every time I read about union giving with no mention of private giving  online.wsj.com/article/SB1000… 

 RT @StudentsFirstCA: Natl poll shows strong support for #parenttrigger in African American community bit.ly/PdZwl0

Five Best Blogs: NCLB Is Dead. Long Live NCLB

The Long Slow Death Of No Child Left Behind @kevincareyhttp://ow.ly/cgEvW  ‪#5bb‬

Eduwonk mocks one reporter's AYP fatigue & notes persistently inaccurate descriptions of NCLB #5bbow.ly/chjtj @arotherham

From Jay Mathews: How computers can hurt schools: Those who hope 21st century technological wonders will save ou...http://wapo.st/NVl58O 

L.A. Times Writes Shockingly Good Editorial On Schools — With Convenient Amnesia | @Larryferlazzo#5bb ow.ly/chjo3

The Unlikely Triumph of E.D. Hirsch, Jr. « The Core Knowledge Blog ow.ly/chiKu #5bb@robertpondiscio

What’s so special about equality of opportunity?ow.ly/chhX1 #5bb

A teachers union's embrace of merit pay could show the way for others - LA Daily News ow.ly/chdcZ#5bb

Not adding up - Two decades of attempts to level the playing field in MA CommonWealth Magazineow.ly/chd6j #5bb

 

Weekend Reading: "Breaking Bad" Will Not Teach You Chemistry

Here are some links to magazines and sites I don't check during the week, in Twitter form (#thisweekined), plus whatever else I come across along the way or missed during the week.  Good stuff, worth the click:

Come across something I've missed? Put it in comments or tweet it out using #thisweekined and it will show up above. Links and retweets aren't necessarily endorsements, you ungrateful wretches, just an effort to give you a range of interesting news and opinion with which to challenge your knee-jerk view of the world.

Five Best Blogs: 90 Percent Of The 8 Percent Escape Poverty

First Lady Michelle Obama's Summer Appearance at a School Sends GOP Partisans Over the Cliff | K-12 News Network ow.ly/cecJT

90% of poor kids who graduate from college escape poverty as adults. WOW @michaelpetrilli pewstates.org/uploadedFiles/…

Think you know the CREDO research on charters? This Economist article suggests you probably don'tow.ly/ce4SL

Someone seeking an AA from UoP to become a teacher’s aide can expect to make just shy of $11,000/hryr EdTrust ow.ly/cdTV9 

Seeds, Bricks, and Sand: Stages of School-Reform Readiness - Sputnik - Education Week ow.ly/cecNK#5bb

Five Best Blogs: Here Comes SOS 2012 (aka Matt Damon Time)

Is Khan Academy a real ‘education solution’? ow.ly/1Ogdwn

Alexandria City Public Schools paid education reporter Carla Branch [Alexandria News] for advice ow.ly/ccc6m @romenesko

IBEW not funding Dem convention in Charlotteow.ly/cc2Sp - What are @aft and @NEAMedia going to do? 

Everyone who's anyone was at the LA premiere of TEACHED last night -- ow.ly/cc1Gi -- how did it go?

Teach for America Alums Face Off in School Board Race - Nashville Public Radio ow.ly/cc1zx

Deborah Meier, Jonathan Kozol and others announced for Save Our Schools 2012 Convention -- Aug 3-5 in DC ow.ly/cbZzX @sosmarch

Five Best Blogs: WPost's DC Reporter Leaves To Cover Campaign

There's a new superPAC for lesbians, notes the Washington Post http://ow.ly/cauzk  But still no national education [reform] superPAC

Andrew Coulson: America Has Too Many Teachers  http://ow.ly/caovW  @cato 

DC reporter leaves to cover campaign  ow.ly/caVi8 &   ow.ly/caVwZ No clear timeline on filling/ naming, I'm told.

Having even a small nest egg of their own helps kids from modest backgrounds work harder ow.ly/caSUW @DanaGoldstein  

EWA's super-secret members-only (under-used) website is finally being opened to the public next week http://ow.ly/cahF9

"The New School" ow.ly/caPBF In the NYT, @tanehisi on picking a school for "the boy," and his own school experiences 

Yong Zhao: Standardized test scores do not reflect teacher ability, school quality or a student's future @tdr ow.ly/caOXI 

All-Star game provides opportunity to mock the notion that resources don't count @schoolfinance101ow.ly/caO3c

 

 

Five Best Blogs: What If Reformers & Educators Are *Both* Wrong?

Can schools spur social mobility? Probably not as much as reformers [and many educators] think @MichaelPetrilli ow.ly/c971I

Esquire pokes a little fun at D. Brooks' column on boys needing extra help in school ow.ly/c8WAZ 

Alternet wants you to be very scared about the parent trigger, which sort of suggest to me that you shouldn't be ow.ly/c8VS7 

Should Philadelphians worry that BCG has done so much consulting for the district? The Notebook says probably not ow.ly/c8VGZ 

Proliferation of college courses on The Colbert Report suggests that, well, maybe college isn't worth it after all http://ow.ly/c97KU

Malcolm Gladwell's 2013 underdogs book to be based on girls HS bball team he wrote about and solve all our problems http://ow.ly/c97Sl 

Five Best Blogs: Back To Work But Not Much Ed News

Deasy Has Made Bold Decisions In Face Of Crisis ow.ly/c7oZY  @ChristinaHoag

NEA occas funds Rs but hardly ever challengers, while AFT rarely funds Rs but is much more challenger friendly http://ow.ly/c7ysR 

Penn. Virtual School Agrees to Give Up Charter - Marketplace K-12 - Education Week ow.ly/c7oVl

NEA Convention: GOP Teachers Balk At Obama-Centric Union Conference ow.ly/c7oNO 

@nepc reviews newish delpit book (multiplication is for white people) ow.ly/c7sWE

Tell the World Your Big Idea With NPR's 'What's Your Big Idea?' Video Contest : NPR ow.ly/c7sSh

Five Best Blogs: Men In Tank Tops - Pro Or Con?

Gloria Romero corrects @DianeRavitchmischaracterization of parent trigger repeated in Salon @josheidelson story ow.ly/bY407 

Private online teacher prep programs like UoP and Walden top the provider list, acc to this TIME mag articleow.ly/bXQfQ

Either 1,000 MN schools suddenly erased stubborn achievement gaps or someone is getting cute with the numbers ow.ly/bXOkq

NEA: “No Evidence” Teach for America Busts Unions | Intercepts ow.ly/bXKG0

Felix Salmon mocks overconfident reformers, argues against quick fixes, floats kooky anonymized data ideaow.ly/bXJ7s

Jay Mathews: How inspections would embarrass schools: If we got rid of standardized tests to rate public sc... wapo.st/MkBc1s

More, in real time, here. 

Five Best Blogs: A Million Homeless Students

 Homeless kids reach 1M, 15 states see 20 percent increases, says new report via @HuffPostEdu @Joy_Resmovits ow.ly/bV0Lt 

Educators increasingly familiar with (&liking) Common Core but public still mostly in the dark via @Achievesurvey ow.ly/bV5EW 

Randi Weingarten floats a "bar" exam for teachers at the #aspenideas festival -via The Atlantic and @EdWriters ow.ly/bV7fx 

Whew. Obamacare decision doesn't endanger current or future use of of commerce clause, says @prospect @lemieuxigm ow.ly/bV6AJ 

Sky Gallegos, latest @StudentsFirstHQ hire, might have the best name in school reform ow.ly/bV8B3

Dan Willingham explores the ridicule @valeriestraussand others heaped on the Gates "engagement" bracelets ow.ly/bV6LV 

Nobody Loves Standards (and That’s O.K.) « The Core Knowledge Blog  ow.ly/bV77s @robertpondiscio @5bb From 6/14

Pictures of the USDE-branded basketballs Duncan has on school visits? I simply must see (and share) them.