Monthly Archives: May 2014

What’s happening in Cleveland?

For the last few days on our Facebook and Twitter feed we’ve been seeing a lot of buzz surrounding the Cleveland Plan, specifically the suggestion that Teach for America is aggressively replacing experienced teachers with fast-tracked, less experienced ones.

As parents new on the horizon of the state of public education, we wanted to know just “what is wrong with Teach for America?” The short answer is that it’s yet another program great in theory but damaging in implementation.

Replacing seasoned teachers with less experienced ones is, once again, promoting the idea that education is failing and teachers are the problem. PARENTS, WAKE UP! TEACHERS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM.

Corporate Education Reform is the problem.

Parents getting educated, standing up, and using their voices are the answer.

Ohio DOE offers “Beach Bags” for reading skills

Geared towards grades 2-3, the Ohio Department of Education’s “Beach Bags” offer summer reading activities for kids facing the third grade guarantee next year.

Educational Community Meeting Agenda

Co-Sponsored by the Washington – Centerville Library and Centerville City Schools

Thursday, June 19, 2014 (7:00 – 8:00 PM)

Cline Elementary Auditorium

99 Virginia Avenue

 

  1. Welcome

2. Opening Comments

Dr. Tom Lasley – “Learn to Earn”

Senator Peggy Lehner

3. Presentation – Centerville Schools & Washington –Centerville Library

Third Grade Reading Guarantee

Common Core Curriculum

Why parent voices matter

Teachers are having their livelihoods tied to test scores and toeing the line. We don’t have the same restrictions. It’s our duty as parents to speak up for our kids and their teachers.

The deafening silence of teachers

Weingarten and Darling-Hammond Call for a New Accountability

Diane Ravitch's blog

Randi Weingarten and Linda Darling-Hammond have co-authored a major new statement on accountability.

They write that:

“If we assume that the goal of accountability should be better education, the test-and-punish approach must be replaced by a support-and-improve model. A new approach should ensure that students get what they really need: 1) curriculum, teaching, and assessment focused on meaningful learning, 2) adequate resources that are spent wisely, and 3) professional capacity, so that teachers and school leaders develop the knowledge and skills they need to teach much more challenging content in much more effective ways.”

They add:

“Implementing the standards well will not be accomplished by targets and sanctions. It will require more adequate and equitable resources and greater investments in professional capacity, especially for currently underfunded schools that serve the highest-need students.

“Raising standards in ways that punish children and educators for not meeting them produces the wrong responses from…

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Will Congress Commemorate the Brown Decision by Reviving a Dual School System?

Diane Ravitch's blog

Congress is about to pass new charter legislation, awarding more money to the charter sector, which will operate with minimal accountability or transparency.

The bill has already passed the House of Representatives with a bipatisan majority and will now move to the Senate.

Make no mistake: on the 60th anniversary of the Brown decision, Congress is set to expand a dual school system. One sector, privately managed, may choose its students, exclude those who might pull down its test scores, and kick out those it doesn’t want. The other sector–the public schools–must take in all students, even those kicked out by the charters.

The growth of the charter sector has been driven by a strange coalition. Charters are supported by wealthy hedge fund managers who give generously to individual charters and to charter chains; they fund political candidates who support charters. Charters are supported enthusiastically by the Obama administration, which…

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