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More Fuzzy Math in DC Schools Bill Turque's Hoping to raise school standards, Rhee adds 13 senior managers relates that DC Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee advertised "Openings for 13 'instructional superintendents,' with annual salaries of $120,000 to $150,000" late last month on the D.C. schools Web site. Turque writes that the move, "more than doubling the number of senior managers who oversee the District's 123 public schools," is "intended to put more muscle behind her efforts to raise teacher quality and student achievement." The estimated $2 million in salary and benefits for the new hires will be "budget neutral" according to Rhee, who proposes to cut staff working under the existing six instructional superintendents to make up the difference. "Instructional superintendents directly supervise school principals, overseeing academic performance while troubleshooting personnel and student discipline issues." Turque sagely notes:
NASA Image of the Day
"Herschel’s observation of the star-forming cloud RCW 120 also revealed an embryonic star which may become one of the biggest and brightest stars in our galaxy within the next few hundred thousand years. The star already contains eight to ten times the mass of our sun and is still surrounded by an additional 2,000 solar masses of gas and dust from which it can feed." Also see: Herschel reveals the hidden side of star birth.
The scheduled launch time of 2:20 P.M. (EDT) could be ideal for teachers still wanting their students to view one of the few remaining shuttle launches on NASA TV. STS-133 and STS-134, the last two scheduled shuttle launches, are currently targeted for September and November, respectively. Atlantis will deliver an Integrated Cargo Carrier and a Russian-built Mini Research Module to the International Space Station on this mission. And Space.com's Clara Moskowitz reports in New Commercial Rocket Still Aims for May Launch Debut that SpaceX's (Space Exploration Technologies) "new commercial Falcon 9 rocket designed to haul cargo to the International Space Station is still set to make its debut launch this month...The firm already has a contract with NASA to use the Falcon 9 rocket to launch its unmanned Dragon capsule on cargo runs to the space station." On the Blogs Many of the education blogs written by classroom teachers that I follow have been a lot less active over the last few weeks. I'd attribute that to teachers being busy with testing and the final push to the end of the school year. And maybe folks are just worn out. But there were a few gems I ran across over the weekend. Vodkamom's How to render your teacher speechless in five words or less is good for a smile. New Cure for ADHD: Recess on Schools Matter is a reposting of Dr. David Katz's Attention Deficit Disorder: Ritalin Or Recess that originally appeared on The Huffington Post. He shares an anecdote that illustrates his theme:
Life Goes On (I Hope) on Jenny Orr's Elementary, My Dear, or Far From It tells of her anxiety over a change in school administration. It's something many of us have been through, for better or worse. John Spencer shares his dismay of his state's new immigration law on his Musings from a Not-So-Master Teacher blog in Power. Authority. Fear. He writes:
Sherman Dorn has a couple of interesting recent posts. The theater of basing a majority of evaluation on test scores explores the ins and outs of how a "majority of a teacher's evaluation" based on student test scores might play out in the real world. And while I am really concerned about test scores and teacher evaluation, I found his An academic's brief iPad I liked Joanne Jacobs comment in Digital textbooks pass review about California's textbook situation:
And while I usually separate out blogs from journalists from this section, Valerie Strauss's The funniest commencement speeches on The Answer Sheet just seems to fit here today. Odds 'n' Ends
Late-day meals fill empty bellies by the AP's Lisa Rathke tells of a USDA program in Vermont, 12 other states, and the District of Columbia that provides reimbursements for suppers served at after-school programs for at-risk children. And Ayala Rahimi's letter to the editor in the New York Times presents a good argument for special schools and classes that may better serve some special needs students than inclusion does.
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NASA Shuttle Launch Simulator NASA is offering a free computer simulation program that allows students "to take on the roles of NASA engineers and launch the shuttle from their own classrooms." The KLASS (Kennedy Launch Academy Simulation System) program "is based on software used for training at the shuttle Launch Control Center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida." Designed for sixth- through 10th-grade students, it gives "students the chance to monitor important shuttle systems during a launch countdown and decide whether they are 'go' for liftoff. They will work together as a team and learn about the different responsibilities behind-the-scenes of a shuttle launch." Lesson plans and interactive resources for teachers are also available. I haven't tried KLASS as yet, as it's a Windows-only application that is a bit beyond my old PC's capabilities. It sounds interesting, although the narrator of their promotional video is a bit "over the top" in her enthusiasm.
3D Brain STEM Scholarships A CSTA mailing yesterday brought news of what might be a promising scholarship program for readers of Educators' News:
About All Those Readers eSchool News associate editor Meris Stansbury has a good piece today in eBook restrictions vex users. Stansbury asks the very sensible question whether you can read a book purchased on one reader on another device you own. In answer she writes:
DRM issues and publishers not necessarily making their books available across all platforms may present real problems for schools looking to move to digital textbooks and libraries. Obviously, a common standard is needed, but the DRM issues and vendors trying to lock users into their platform stand in the way. Odds 'n' Ends Bill Turque reports in D.C. teachers contract paid for through budget cuts, reallocation of funding that D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, and District Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi said yesterday "that they have found a way to finance the proposed teachers contract" with "a $38.8 million package of budget cuts and reallocations to close the $10.7 million funding gap in the contract and $28 million in projected overspending in other parts of the school budget." Turque's description of the financial maneuvering isn't something likely to give D.C. teachers much peace of mind when considering whether to approve the contract. Education Week has several interesting items so far this week. Ron Fairchild and Jeff Smink's commentary, Is Summer School the Key to Reform, suggests "districts could make summer school an investment in improved student achievement later on—a way to extend learning, provide effective intervention, and offer enrichment opportunities, particularly for those students who have few other good options during those months out of school." Colorado District Boots Traditional Salary Schedule tells that the Harrison School District Two near Colorado Springs "will be among the first in the nation to replace the traditional salary schedule with a pay system based entirely on observations of teacher practice and student-achievement results." Diane Ravitch's A Double Standard on Test Scores concludes with the pretty dire warning, "Now, with the Obama administration firmly in the charter camp, touting the benefits of competition, expect to see a continuing effort to dismantle public education."
England Teachers Refuse to Give Tests
Teachers in England aren't shouting, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore" out their windows during thunderstorms, but they're accomplishing the equivalent this week by refusing to give the British version of high stakes school tests to students. Valerie Strauss reports in Teachers refuse to give standardized tests to kids that "the National Union of Teachers and the National Association of Head Teachers...say that there is too much pressure on teachers to “teach to the test” to get high results, and that head teachers can lose their jobs if they don’t boost results." She reports that headmasters locked up the tests and refused to give them to teachers to administer during the May 10-13 testing window. Responding to criticisms such as children’s author Alan Gibbons, "that students are no longer reading whole books as much as they used to but are instead being given excerpts to 'spot the metaphor or the simile,'" teachers are continuing with regular classroom lessons instead of administering the tests! Turnaround Funds Not Wanted Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Weber tells of a school system that doesn't want federal turnaround money in Even with lure of money, some Minnesota schools balk at 'turnaround' effort. He tells of the Butterfield School, which could add as much as $1 million in federal turnaround funds to their current annual budget of $2.7 million, wanting to fight their placement on Minnesota's list of persistently lowest performing schools. Superintendent and high school principal Lisa Shellum "said the test scores the state used to put her school on the list were skewed by extraordinary circumstances." The school's only high school math teacher was deployed to Iraq for two years and the principal couldn't find a licensed replacement. The only sign of trouble came last year, when the high school missed the Adequate Yearly Progress benchmark of the federal No Child Left Behind Act for the first time. If the school accepts the turnaround funding, it would be required to employ one of the four federally mandated turnaround strategies. "One model is to close, another is to close and re-open as a charter school. The final two options include firing the principal and some teachers while implementing several other measures." On Charter Schools Deborah Meier's Charters & Their Shallow Community Roots on the Bridging Differences blog and Jaun Gonzalez's Albany charter cash cow: Big banks making a bundle on new construction as schools bear the cost reveal some of the problems for potential corruption in charter schools. Both are good reads, but Deborah's postscript to the posting is tantalizing:
Odds 'n' Ends
While it appears that headmasters and teachers in England are getting their act together in protesting the ill effects of high stakes testing, I don't currently see the equivalent of a Howard Beale movement by America's parents and teachers in defense of our public education program that is rather quickly being privatized by Obama/Duncan initiatives and myopic state legislatures. Under the guise of education reform, we may be witnessing the dismantling of one of the foundations of our country, public education. While I could open my office window and shout, I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore, it wouldn't produce much of a response, other than the odd fisherman yelling for me to stop scaring the fish away. As "reformers" chip away at teachers and public education, teachers in general aren't voicing their concerns in any visible way. I try to do my part in alerting teachers to the dangers of the "reformers" now led by the Obama Administration by posting informative links here on Educators' News. But until the teachers of America make their views firmly known to their legislators, not much is going to stand in the way of the current "reform" steamroller. Advertisement
Since her gift to me was getting to see a Jimmy Buffet concert, the margarita bouquet seemed appropriate. Wastin' away again in margaritaville... Have a great weekend!
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and walk out. As Arlo said, 'Maybe they'll think it's a movement.' And while it won't be the 'Alice's Restaurant Halftime Massacre Movement,' there definitely needs to be a movement of America's teachers in defense of their chosen profession." 
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