Lack of positive correlation between test scores and economies

Here is an excerpt of some of Bracey's work on the false claims about test scores from international comparisons and national economies; be sure to scroll down in this post to the quoted section from Bracey.

Rhee, Colbert. . .and all that jazz. . .

Rhee on Colbert (4th segment)

The education celebrity tour: Legend of the fall, pt. II.
The Daily Censored
http://dailycensored.com/2010/12/02/the-education-celebrity-tour-legend-of-the-fall-pt-ii/

Our Faith in a “Culture of Poverty” Never Left

[and my brief exchange with Colbert; see comment at end]

Report Card 7 from UNICEF (note, especially, pp. 2, 6, 14)

School-within-school segregation

Notice who is complaining. . .

Honors class leads to diversity debate

2 million minutes

Official web site

2MM blog

Gerald Bracey rebuttal

Lessons from Freire

Henry Giroux offers lessons from Freire

An excellent excerpt:

"What Freire made clear is that pedagogy at its best is not about training in techniques and methods, nor does it involve coercion or political indoctrination. Indeed, far from a mere method or an a priori technique to be imposed on all students, education is a political and moral practice that provides the knowledge, skills and social relations that enable students to explore for themselves the possibilities of what it means to be engaged citizens, while expanding and deepening their participation in the promise of a substantive democracy. According to Freire, critical pedagogy afforded students the opportunity to read, write and learn from a position of agency - to engage in a culture of questioning that demands far more than competency in rote learning and the application of acquired skills. For Freire, pedagogy had to be meaningful in order to be critical and transformative. This meant that personal experience became a valuable resource that gave students the opportunity to relate their own narratives, social relations and histories to what was being taught. It also signified a resource to help students locate themselves in the concrete conditions of their daily lives, while furthering their understanding of the limits often imposed by such conditions"

Duncan/Friedman's misleading use of data

Friedman's Op-Ed

My Op-Ed rebuttal at Schools Matter

More refuting data

Writing. . .and academics

The Shadow Scholar
The man who writes your students' papers tells his story

Brilliant from Walt Gardner

The Gini Index and Educational Achievement

And a piece of mine about teaching as a profession:

The Teaching Profession as a Service Industry

Responses to WfS in one place. . .

http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/19/legend-of-the-fall-snapshots-of-whats-wrong-in-the-education-debate/

http://www.opednews.com/articles/A-Tale-of-Two-Films-by-Paul-Thomas-101010-109.html

http://www.wce.wwu.edu/Resources/CEP/eJournal/v005n002/a008.shtml

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2010/10/dear_deborah_i_reviewed_waitin.html#comments

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/11/myth-charter-schools/

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/16/3108075/superman-offers-mirage-not-a-miraclehorror.html#storylink=scinlineshare

http://www.truth-out.org/the-myth-bad-teacher64223

http://www.fairtest.org/real-facts-about-waiting-superman

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2010/12/fact-checking-waiting-for-superman.html

When students speak up. . .

Brave New Voices 2010 - "Love Letter To Albuquerque Public Schools"

Teacher-led schools

A better way to run schools. . .

Follow up: Litte Rock Central: 50 Years Later

Interactive map of poverty by states

Most impoverished states @ Huffington Post

Slate articles on class, income, wealth (repost from earlier)

No free speech for teachers?

Walt Gardner's blog

Commentary on legal aspects

EdWeek School Law blog

Scholarly writing. . .writing well as a young scholar

Some examples:

Legend of the Fall: Snapshots of What’s Wrong in the Education Debate, P. L. Thomas

When Generosity Hurts: Bill Gates, Public School Teachers and the Politics of Humiliation, Henry Giroux

The Politicians Who Cried "Crisis," P. L. Thomas

Of Rocks and Hard Places—The Challenge of Maxine Greene’s Mystification in Teacher Education, P. L. Thomas

More misleading claims from WfS

Taking evidence out of context. . .

Misleading numbers from WfS

A new blog from Ravitch on "Waiting for Superman"

Truthout piece

The Politicians Who Cried "Crisis"

Freedom, decisions, consequences. . .and education

"Freedom becomes mature in confrontation with other freedoms, defending its rights in relation to parental authority, the authority of teachers, and the authority of the state. . . .It's in making decisions that we learn to decide. . . .Consequences are what make decision making a responsible process" (Freire, 1998, pp. 96-97).

Brilliant rebuttal of WfS from Ravitch

The Myth of Charter Schools

(FYI, Ravitch has historically been associated with traditional views of education, including supporting higher standards, more testing, and school choice. Recently, she has publicly reversed her stances in a controversial book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System.)

Bad teachers?

Recommended from Truthout:

The Myth of the Bad Teacher

Algebra Overkill?

From EdWeek:

Is There an Algebra Overkill? By John W. Myres

"Waiting for Superman": Misleading docu-ganda

See this challenge to the new documentary, "Waiting for Superman," from FairTest:

The Real Facts About Waiting for Superman

Good article on the errors of evaluating teachers

From The Washington Post:

D.C. schools' evaluation rules, IMPACT, can't measure all the good teachers do

The Story of Stuff

This was mentioned in class:

The Story of Stuff

Teach for America and National Board Certification

Teach for America

Teach For America: A False Promise

National Board Certification

Assessing Accomplished Teaching: Advanced-Level Certification Programs

Mid-term/self-evaluation DUE 10/13/10

Submit as an ATTACHMENT in Word format the following by the end of class 10/13/10:

(1) A 1-2 page (double-spaced, 12 pt Times New Roman font, 1" margins) self-evaluation that details your evaluation of the quality of your work so far in this course, the key concepts you have learned so far, and a letter grade for your overall performance at mid-term.

(2) Mid-term (Choose ONE):

(a) Take a position on the place of sustainability in the K-12 curriculum. Include the following:

—Provide how you are defining "sustainability," including what elements of it you are considering.

—Establish through which educational philosophy and theory you are taking your position and why.

—Offer some specific examples of how sustainability should be implemented in K-12 education OR specific reasons it should not be included.

OR

(b) Can "sustainability" be taught? Explain carefully why or why not by placing your argument within an educational philosophy and theory.

Interesting study about income distribution and equity

Per our discussions lately, and consider the Slate articles I have linked earlier:

The article is from Huffington Post, but the actual study is included and a link to the PDF is included.

Considering the coporate view of schools from TCR

Straight up Nonsense: Or, How to Diss Students with Differences

Look at the discussion of using a corporate lens to run schools and how Race to the Top funds are reinforce inequity. . .

For Friday: Milwaukee Parental Choice Program

Milwaukee Parental Choice Program

Reviews related to MPCP

Dodenhoff, D. (2007, October). Fixing the Milwaukee public schools: The limits of parent-driven reform. Wisconsin Policy Research Institute Report, 20(8). Thiensville, WI: Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, Inc. Retrieved 6 August 2009 from the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute Website: http://www.wpri.org/Reports/Volume%2020/Vol20no8/Vol20no8p1.html

CoS Support

You can download and examine the POVERTY INDEX of schools mentioned in the documentary (and all schools in SC) HERE.

See the report cards of schools mentioned in the documentary Corridor of Shame:

Ridgeland Elementary

http://www.ed.sc.gov/topics/researchandstats/schoolreportcard/2009/Elementary/comprehensive/E2701011.pdf

Britton's Neck Elementary

http://www.ed.sc.gov/topics/researchandstats/schoolreportcard/2009/Elementary/comprehensive/E3407023.pdf

East Elementary

http://www.ed.sc.gov/topics/researchandstats/schoolreportcard/2009/Elementary/comprehensive/E1702007.pdf

Allendale Elementary

http://www.ed.sc.gov/topics/researchandstats/schoolreportcard/2009/Elementary/comprehensive/E0301004.pdf

Estill Elementary

http://www.ed.sc.gov/topics/researchandstats/schoolreportcard/2009/Elementary/comprehensive/E2502017.pdf

Estill High

http://www.ed.sc.gov/topics/researchandstats/schoolreportcard/2009/High/comprehensive/H2502011.pdf

Creek Bridge High

http://www.ed.sc.gov/topics/researchandstats/schoolreportcard/2009/High/comprehensive/H3407024.pdf

Recommended

Education Reconsidered: Beyond the Death of Critical Education

Thursday 16 September 2010

by: Stanley Aronowitz, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

A critical consideration of VAM

"Value-Added" Assessment: Tool for Improvement or Educational "Nuclear Option"?

Tuesday 14 September 2010

Considering Jefferson

"The less wealthy people,... by the bill for a general education, would be qualified to understand their rights, to maintain them, and to exercise with intelligence their parts in self-government; and all this would be effected without the violation of a single natural right of any one individual citizen." --Thomas Jefferson: Autobiography, 1821. ME 1:73

"I have often thought that nothing would do more extensive good at small expense than the establishment of a small circulating library in every county, to consist of a few well-chosen books, to be lent to the people of the country, under such regulations as would secure their safe return in due time." --Thomas Jefferson to John Wyche, 1809. ME 12:282

"I think by far the most important bill in our whole code, is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness... The tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance." --Thomas Jefferson to George Wythe, 1786. ME 5:396

Considering Emerson

I invite you to read Emerson's The American Scholar, but at least, look at a few points and consider what they mean for how we committed to public education:

"In this distribution of functions, the scholar is the delegated intellect. In the right state, he is, Man Thinking. In the degenerate state, when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men's thinking."

"Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding. The books of an older period will not fit this."

"Hence, instead of Man Thinking, we have the bookworm. Hence, the book-learned class, who value books, as such; not as related to nature and the human constitution, but as making a sort of Third Estate with the world and the soul. Hence, the restorers of readings, the emendators, the bibliomaniacs of all degrees."

"Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst."

"Colleges, in like manner, have their indispensable office, — to teach elements. But they can only highly serve us, when they aim not to drill, but to create; when they gather from far every ray of various genius to their hospitable halls, and, by the concentrated fires, set the hearts of their youth on flame. Thought and knowledge are natures in which apparatus and pretension avail nothing. Gowns, and pecuniary foundations, though of towns of gold, can never countervail the least sentence or syllable of wit. Forget this, and our American colleges will recede in their public importance, whilst they grow richer every year."

Equity?

See the news article and study about how race impacts school suspensions.

Debate over single-gender classrooms. . .

The evidence and ideology are clashing concerning single-gender classrooms. . .

Read this BLOG POST at Schools Matter. . .

Groups/Topics

Group Members	Topic
Paige Davies Khadijah Burks Katie Cockrell Ashley Tucker	No Child Left Behind
Monique Ositelu Morgan Calhoun Lauren St. Louis Meredith Yingling	State Standards Compared
Kristen Layne Margaret DuBose Whitney Becker Hannah Smith	Art/Music Programs
Spencer Beamer Mollie Jenson Emily McClimon Jackie Wornom	Single Sex Classrooms
Caroline Lambert Tim Baumann Bethany Prince Hilary Dahl	Teaching Methods

Can you "read" the philosophies?

Thomas B. Fordham Institute

The Foundation for Educational Choice

Center on Education Policy

EPIC

NCSPE

AFT

NEA

What are the assumptions driving this essay?

Racialized Memories and Class Identities - Thinking About Glenn Beck's and Rush Limbaugh's America

Henry Giroux

+++++++++++++++

So are US schools really a failure because of progressive education?

Consider this article by Alfie Kohn. . .

Social Equality?

Consider:

The United States of Inequality

Introducing the Great Divergence

The Usual Suspects Are Innocent

Challenges to learning styles theories

See this article, which raises concerns about learning style theories (a topic we'll address 9/13/10)

Teacher Assignment

Look at Teaching Inequality

Recommended

A major debate in education is teacher accountability.

Read this BLOG and the subsequent comments (in which I participate) to see what people think and say about teachers.

To consider. . .

After our discussion of "Eleven," I sense some strong interest among the class about poverty and education. . .See this Op-Ed from George Will and the primary study he discusses from Barton and Coley. . .

You may also find Parsing the Achievement Gap II (Braton & Coley, 2009) valuable. . .

And see page 4 in the most current SAT data

EdWeek blog referencing my work on "miracle" schools

See this from Walt Gardner:

Role of Research in School Reform

The failure of "objectivity"

Consider this piece by Alfie Kohn in terms of what we assume about and expect from teachers:

Professors who profess

EdWeek Op-Ed on National Standards

See the link on the Furman web site for my commentary on national standards.

Fall 2011 MWF Schedule

Spring 2017 EDU 111-01

MWF 9:30AM - 10:20AM

HIP 106

Day	Class Focus/Assignments Due
	google Drive course files: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B5rkPGGYEGphVE5xdjV2MG5sOEU&usp=sharing
Jan 9-13	Week 1
M	Introduction to course; assignments (http://edu111furman.blogspot.com/2010/08/fall-2010-edu-111-assigments.html) "Theme for English B," Langston Hughes “Eleven,” Sandra Cisneros (google Drive)
W	Katherine Christie, Berea Middle, tutoring Read/discuss Course Rationale: http://edu111furman.blogspot.com/2008/02/welcome-to-occupation-teaching.html Foucault, “The Means of Correct Training” (google Drive)  Poverty and Testing in Education: “The Present Scientifico-legal Complex”
F	Groups formed, topics chosen
Jan 16-20	Week 2
M	MLK Day
W	“Banking concept”; Freire, Ch .2 Pedagogy of the Oppressed (google Drive) Topic 1: The Teaching Profession http://edu111furman.blogspot.com/2012/07/topic-1-teaching-profession.html
F	Topic 1, Freire continued
Jan 23-27	Week 3
M	Gorski book club discussions
W	Topic 2: Educational Philosophies http://edu111furman.blogspot.com/2012/07/topic-2-educational-philosophies.html “A generalized crisis in relation to all the environments of enclosure”: Deleuze
F	Educational Philosophies and Learning Theories (google Drive)
Jan 30 – Feb 3	Week 4
M	Poverty and the ideological imperative: a call to unhook from deficit and grit ideology and to strive for structural ideology in teacher education, Paul Gorski Topic 2 continued
W	Topic 3: Historical Foundations of Education http://edu111furman.blogspot.com/2012/07/topic-3-historical-foundations-of.html
F	Thomas Jefferson on Education (http://edu111furman.blogspot.com/2012/01/idealistic-and-elitist-roots-of-public.html) and “The American Scholar,” Ralph Waldo Emerson (http://www.emersoncentral.com/amscholar.htm)
Feb 6-10	Week 5
M	Corridor of Shame (http://www.corridorofshame.com/)
W	Topic 4: Diversity, Multiculturalism, Poverty/Privilege, Class, and Race http://edu111furman.blogspot.com/2012/07/topic-4-diversity-multiculturalism.html
F	James Baldwin on education (1974) “What These Children Are Like,” Ralph Ellison (http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=575)
Feb 13-17	Week 6
M	Gorski book club discussions Poverty and education, discussion continued
W	Little Rock Central: 50 Years Later
F	Little Rock Central: 50 Years Later continued
Feb 20-24	Week 7
M	Gorski book club discussions FACTS TRUTH ETHICS — In Focus LRC discussion Workshop: Group Presentations OWL APA
W	Group Presentations
F	Group Presentations
Feb 27 – Mar 3	Week 8
M	Group Presentations
W	Midterm Class discussion: Gorski's Reaching and Teaching Students in Poverty: Strategies for Erasing the Opportunity Gap But That's Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Gloria Ladson-Billings Email to professor BEFORE class 3-5 key points from Gorski with evidence (quotes and/or page numbers). Have key points in class to discuss in small groups before opening discussion to the whole class.
F	TBD Kohn: Feel-Bad Education “Well, Duh!” -- Ten Obvious Truths That We Shouldn’t Be Ignoring, Alfie Kohn
Mar 4-12	Spring Break
Mar 13-17	Week 9
M	Topic 5: Legal, Political, and Financial http://edu111furman.blogspot.com/2012/07/topic-5-legal-political-and-financial.html
W	Topic 5 continued
F	Topic 5 continued Jenny Colvin, LIBR
Mar 20-24	Week 10
M	Emdin book club discussion Topic 5 continued
W	Black Folk Hate White Tears and Blatant Racism More Than Charter Schools, Andre Perry
F	Ruby Payne, deficit perspective http://rubypayneiswrong.blogspot.com/ Return of the Deficit, Curt Dudley-Marling "What These Children Are Like": Rejecting Deficit Views of Poverty and Language
Mar 27-31	Week 11
M	Emdin book club discussion Deficit perspective continued The Truth about Effort/Education?
W	Topic 6: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment http://edu111furman.blogspot.com/2012/07/topic-6-curriculum-instruction-and.html Seven ‘great’ teaching methods not backed up by evidence
F	Topic 6 continued Evolution as Design
Apr 3-7	Week 12
M	Emdin book club discussion
W	Topic 7: Current Issues and the Future of Education http://edu111furman.blogspot.com/2012/07/topic-7-current-issues-and-future-of.html
F	Topic 7 continued ESSAY DRAFT DUE/ WORKSHOP Sample APA essay with notes
Apr 10-14	Week 13
M	Hard Times at Douglass High (http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/hard-times-at-douglass-high-no-child-left-behind#) Current Education Reform Perpetuating, Not Curbing, Inequity
W	Hard Times cont.
F	Good Friday Holiday
Apr 17-21	Week 14
M	Easter Holiday
W	Emdin discuss and response due Cited essay workshop
F	Tutoring share

Apr 24-28	Week 15
M	Virtual Schools Report
	Exam
M	May 1, 2017 Monday 8:30AM - 11:00AM, HIP 106

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