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That's some hilarious propaganda right there. Right-wing extremists printing our textbooks! The horror!

Meanwhile, over in the real world, teachers are about twice as likely to be democrats as they are republicans, and over 70% describe themselves as either moderate, left, or far-left.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/artic...

Then why do I only see this racism among progressives?
It is especially hard to buy your explanation when you look into the history of progressivism. This article discusses how progressives thought it pointless to give African-Americans academic training: https://www.edweek.org/ew/arti... Most of the key thinkers who laid the foundation for modern, progressive thought on education are listed as supporting this effort.

I'd take the teacher with a master's in childhood education any day.

You shouldn't. There is very little or no correlation between advanced degrees and teacher effectiveness. Many school districts pay extra to teachers with masters degrees, but that money could almost certainly be better spent on things that actually matter.

If you'd gone to college, you might have noticed that men make up 62% of faculty.

If you had gone to high school, you might have noticed that women make up 84% of the teaching staff. Citation because you don't.

But, more to the point, failing to put this exemption into the law will open it up to constitutional challenge. Such challenges will likely be successful.

You mean like in New York?

Making an unqualified statement is not a valid argument. Pretty much all the studies that support your contention are all funded by right-wing or libertarian groups that cherry pick data.

SOURCES:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/artic...

http://247wallst.com/special-r...

Ah I get your rules now.. Only you're allowed to say your anecdotes are correct. I'm not. I forgot. Sorry. That's about the kind of logic I'd expect from a feminist or any social 'justice' warrior, really. Maybe your area wasn't the norm? Oh, oops, sorry, another failure to conform. When will I ever learn never to question?

You're engaging in the same sort of systemic shaming towards me that you would not tolerate towards women. The only arguments you've made are an ad hominem and a generalization that men are more selfish than women. Knock it off with the shaming language if you expect people to take your morality seriously.

As far as toxic environments go, school has always been a place where you are told to sit down, shut up and do as you're told, which can be good or bad depending on the circumstances. Today, though, mainly because of feminism's push in government and education to focus on women and girls at the expense of men and boys, students are encouraged to express and focus on their feelings and feminine traits (as long as they are 'positive', definition to be set by the faculty) like conformity and group awareness, instead of on objective measurements of achievement and competition. Naturally, girls respond well to this, but the boys? not so much. This cultural toxicity to individual expression and achievement (which tend to be masculine traits) has long since spread into the faculty dynamics as well. There are fewer men involved today because education isn't very rewarding to them anymore. Like the boys in class, the men are expected to behave/express themselves like dominant female space expects them to or face career-ending fallacious accusations. It has nothing to do with selfishness, not on the part of men anyway.

A quick search gave me this
http://www.edweek.org/media/po...
go to page 12, there's a graph that shows the trend from 86.
http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/d...
read under demographics.. 76% of teachers are female in 2008.

These sound about right to me. I don't know where you're justifying your 'more male teachers today than in the past' prideful patriarchy shit, but it's not in alignment with at least this cursory reality check.

I googled for "ap computer science" and this came up

No Girls, Blacks, or Hispanics Take AP Computer Science Exam in Some States

They used to track apps for education users, lied that they didn't track, got caught in federal court where they didn't have the cajones to tell the same lies to the judge that they were telling the public and only recently now say that they stopped.

Read these articles:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/artic...

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek...

They used to track apps for education users, lied that they didn't track, got caught in federal court where they didn't have the cajones to tell the same lies to the judge that they were telling the public and only recently now say that they stopped.

Read these articles:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/artic...

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek...

Google's basically giving them away for free or extremely subsidized and then tries to make money from them by snooping on the kids' email, while Apple actually tries to make a profit from them.

http://thenextweb.com/google/2...

From http://www.edweek.org/ew/artic...

The plaintiffs allege that Google has employed such practices since around 2010, when it began using a new technology, known as Content Onebox, that allows the company to intercept and scan emails before they reach their intended recipients, rather than after messages are delivered to users’ inboxes, regardless of whether ads are turned off.
Mr. Fread and Mr. Carrillo say that neither they nor any other users of Google Apps for Education consented to such practices. They are seeking financial damages amounting to $100 per day of each day of violation for every individual who sent or received an email message using Google Apps for Education during a two-year period beginning in May 2011.
While the allegations by the plaintiffs are explosive, it’s the sworn declarations of Google representatives in response to their claims that have truly raised the eyebrows of observers and privacy experts.
Contrary to the company’s earlier public statements, Google representatives acknowledged in a September motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ request for class certification that the company’s consumer-privacy policy applies to Apps for Education users. Thus, Google argues, it has students’ (and other Apps for Education users’) consent to scan and process their emails.
In November, Kyle C. Wong, a lawyer representing Google, also argued in a formal declaration submitted to the court in opposition to the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification that the company’s data-mining practices are widely known, and that the plaintiffs’ complaints that the scanning and processing of their emails was done secretly are thus invalid. Mr. Wong cited extensive media coverage about Google’s data mining of Gmail consumer users’ messages, as well as the disclosures made by numerous universities to their students about how Google Apps for Education functions.

They actually track which stores you visit to monetize ads. If you opt out then a lot of things including Google Now stop working.

http://digiday.com/platforms/g...

They even do the same thing on iOS if you use Gmail, Chrome or Google Now apps.

It is easiest for Google to conduct this passive location tracking on Android users, since Google has embedded location tracking into the software. Once Android users opt in to location services, Google starts collecting their location data as continuously as technologically possible. (Its ability to do so is dependent on cell tower or Wi-Fi signal strength.)

Android is currently the leading mobile OS in the U.S. with a 45.9 percent market share in 2013, according to eMarketer. A little more than a fifth (20.3 percent) of the U.S. population uses Android smartphones.

But Google can also constantly track the location of iPhone users by way of Google apps for iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system. IOS is just behind Android in U.S. market share with 38.3 percent of users, per eMarketer. Nearly 17 percent of the American populace uses an iOS smartphone.

When an iPhone user stops using an app, it continues running “in the background.” The user might not realize it, but the app continues working, much in the same way tabs function on a Web browser.

Google’s namesake iOS app — commonly referred to as Google mobile search — continues collecting a user’s location information when it runs in the background. This information is then used to determine if that user visited a store and whether that store visit can be attributed to a search conducted in the app. Store visits can also be tracked via Google’s other iOS apps that use location services. If iOS users open their Chrome, Gmail or Google Maps app in a store, their location can be deemed a store visit.

And they recently stopped snooping on the free Google Apps and email for Schools and even businesses after doing it for a long time to build ad profiles after they didn't dare telling the same lies in federal court that they were telling to the public about snooping on students to show ads.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/artic...

http://www.edweek.org/ew/artic...

But hey, it's Google so they get a free pass here while if MS did anything even close to that people would be shouting from rooftops.

They actually track which stores you visit to monetize ads. If you opt out then a lot of things including Google Now stop working.

http://digiday.com/platforms/g...

They even do the same thing on iOS if you use Gmail, Chrome or Google Now apps.

It is easiest for Google to conduct this passive location tracking on Android users, since Google has embedded location tracking into the software. Once Android users opt in to location services, Google starts collecting their location data as continuously as technologically possible. (Its ability to do so is dependent on cell tower or Wi-Fi signal strength.)

Android is currently the leading mobile OS in the U.S. with a 45.9 percent market share in 2013, according to eMarketer. A little more than a fifth (20.3 percent) of the U.S. population uses Android smartphones.

But Google can also constantly track the location of iPhone users by way of Google apps for iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system. IOS is just behind Android in U.S. market share with 38.3 percent of users, per eMarketer. Nearly 17 percent of the American populace uses an iOS smartphone.

When an iPhone user stops using an app, it continues running “in the background.” The user might not realize it, but the app continues working, much in the same way tabs function on a Web browser.

Google’s namesake iOS app — commonly referred to as Google mobile search — continues collecting a user’s location information when it runs in the background. This information is then used to determine if that user visited a store and whether that store visit can be attributed to a search conducted in the app. Store visits can also be tracked via Google’s other iOS apps that use location services. If iOS users open their Chrome, Gmail or Google Maps app in a store, their location can be deemed a store visit.

And they recently stopped snooping on the free Google Apps and email for Schools and even businesses after doing it for a long time to build ad profiles after they didn't dare telling the same lies in federal court that they were telling to the public about snooping on students to show ads.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/artic...

http://www.edweek.org/ew/artic...

But hey, it's Google so they get a free pass here while if MS did anything even close to that people would be shouting from rooftops.

They've been secretly building ad profiles of Google Apps for Education student users even if ads were turned off by the administrator to show them ads on other Google sites. They give schools free Chromebooks and all, but they should atleast declare what kind of profiling they're doing to the students who are forced to use the Google cloud for student email. They denied it when asked, but couldn't get their employees and lawyers to lie in federal court, silently removed language about not tracking from their site and finally a few days ago turned it off! If not for a lawsuit, this tracking would've not come to light. Couple that with massive spending on lobbying compared to Apple and MS makes me feel uneasy. The below article makes me wonder if they use paying Google Apps for Business email accounts to build ad profiles too? Anyone know?

http://www.edweek.org/ew/artic...

"As part of a potentially explosive lawsuit making its way through federal court, the giant online-services provider Google has acknowledged scanning the contents of millions of email messages sent and received by student users of the company’s Apps for Education tool suite for schools. In the suit, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company also faces accusations from plaintiffs that it went further, crossing a “creepy line” by using information gleaned from the scans to build “surreptitious” profiles of Apps for Education users that could be used for such purposes as targeted advertising."
"A Google spokeswoman confirmed to Education Week that the company “scans and indexes” the emails of all Apps for Education users for a variety of purposes, including potential advertising, via automated processes that cannot be turned off—even for Apps for Education customers who elect not to receive ads. The company would not say whether those email scans are used to help build profiles of students or other Apps for Education users, but said the results of its data mining are not used to actually target ads to Apps for Education users unless they choose to receive them." ...

"Student-data-privacy experts contend that the latter claim is contradicted by Google’s own court filings in the California suit. They describe the case as highly troubling and likely to further inflame rising national concern that protection of children’s private educational information is too lax."
"Mr. Thiele said his district has used Google Apps for Education since 2008. Officials there have always been aware that the company does “back-end processing” of students’ email messages, he said, but the district’s agreement with Google precludes such data from being used to serve ads to students or staff members. As long as the company abides by those terms, Mr. Thiele said, “I don’t have any problem with it.” In an emailed statement provided to Education Week, Bram Bout, the director of Google Apps for Education, said that “ads in Gmail are turned off by default for Google Apps for Education and we have no plans to change that in the future.”" ...

"Those plaintiffs in the California lawsuit allege that Google treats Google Apps for Education email users virtually the same as it treats consumer Gmail users. That means not only mining students’ email messages for key words and other information, but also using resulting data—including newly created derivative information, or “metadata”—for “secret user profiling” that could serve as the basis for such activities as delivering targeted ads in Google products other than Apps for Education, such as Google Search, Google+, and YouTube."

"The plaintiffs allege that Google has employed such practices since around 2010, when it began using a new technology, known as Content Onebox, that allows the company to intercept and scan emails before they reach t

Indeed, so it seems. Media says so, but i did not see this news outed officially by Google yet.

I read this at http://tweakers.net/nieuws/957...
which cited http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/...
but that lacks source, i for one did not find the original Google statement regarding business anywhere.

If true, i guess the gmail PGP they considered made it impossible to scan the emails anyway, so they might as well make a big deal out of it. First education ofcourse, it'll simplify that lawsuit and all. http://www.edweek.org/ew/artic...

There's a real problem with using Google being used in schools. See http://www.edweek.org/ew/artic.... They are collecting information that is part of a student's academic record. That looks like a violation of FERPA law. The big surprise in this lawsuit is that Google hasn't agreed not to collect that data, just that they won't use it to present ads to kids (at least, not in school. It isn't clear if Google thinks it's OK to push ads to you on your home account).

It isn't correct to make the blanket statement that there is no teacher shortage across the profession. Affluent school districts have no problem with applicants, but the rural and inner-city districts do. Also, regardless of the district, it is one thing to get applicants, and another thing to get qualified applicants.

Ohioâ(TM)s Largest Taxpayer-Funded Charter School, ECOT, Receives Bonus Check

The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) is the largest charter school in the state of Ohio. The online school is larger than the vast majority of Ohioâ(TM)s traditional school districts and received over $88 million in state funding last school year. This year that amount is expected to jump to over $92 million. On the latest report cards released by the Ohio Department of Education, ECOT continues to rank below all of the 8 large urban schools that are often-criticized by legislators and in the media for their "sub-par" performance.

15 Months in Virtual Charter Hell: A Teacher's Tale - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Last year I had a student who never showed up to class, never turned work in, skimmed by on gaming the system with a phone call every few weeks, just enough to keep from being dropped from the rosters. She called me three days after my final grades were submitted in June, desperate to find a way to graduate. I apologized, said my grades had been submitted, and offered information for the summer school we were holding. A week or so later, when I arrived for graduation an administrator pulled me aside to tell me that this student had passed "by the proficiency method" and would be graduating. Our graduation rate was so low that this was not a surprise to me, not after the year I had spent working in this system.

The 2010 Gates Foundation announcement of $1.5 billion for maternal health in developing countries over five years was welcomed, but it came heavily leveraged. Gates launched the Health in Africa Fund, through the International Finance Corporation (IFC), to establish new mechanisms to invest world health funding and national health budgets in private-sector healthcare facilities in Africa. The Gates Foundation's funding category for Global Maternal Health includes research and development in the US of technology and treatments, and also advocacy in vulnerable African nations for government policies. Since Gates believes sustainable health systems must be privately profitable, he leverages his "maternal health" funding to effectively divert investment of available in-country funds, as well as NGO funding, into private ventures that he favors, instead of into national health plans.

The Gates Foundation's Education Philanthropy: Are Profit Seeking and Market Domination a Public Service?

Gates Foundation is a funnel for corruption, and a pocket-liner for Gates' own business interests in the guise of a bureaucracy-dodging philanthropic enterprise.

Gates is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Monsanto/Glaxo Industrial Complex, making the world safe for the IMF and its participating billionaires.

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/07/the_gates_foundations_leverage.html

http://naturalsociety.com/bill-gates-foundation-buys-500000-shares-of-monsanto/

http://therefusers.com/refusers-newsroom/the-gates-foundation-connection-to-the-glaxo-drug-fraud-scandal-humanosphere/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1353287/28-billion-health-fund-backed-Bill-Gates-Bono-investigation-fraud.html

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread777028/pg0

But? If they FUND journalists and transparency foundations, then the immunize themselves from criticism by the press... It's buying coverage.

http://philanthropy.com/blogs/giveandtake/why-is-the-gates-foundation-giving-so-much-money-to-journalists/27524

http://techrights.org/2013/03/22/gates-manufacturing-a-false-image/

You thought wrong:
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2011/05/the_outrage_of_the_week.html

Sort of. The bar is being lowered in high school and middle school. Then they give the bar to universities. Universities have to keep it roughly where it is because it's never been their mission to teach students basic skills and they are still ill prepared to do so. Please see this bit of writing: a href=http://www.aaup.org/article/warnings-trenches#.UR6B5DU-tpR
This is what happens when standardized tests are the focus of education. There are much more effective ways to measure student performance and increase it, but we don't want to pay for them. Cutting costs in the short term will bankrupt our country.
Also see the article quoted in the previous link: http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teacher_of_the_year/2010/01/teachers_should_be_seen_and_no.html
Universities are forced to hold students to a low standard, and professors are typically subject specialists--not the teachers students require to help them learn how to write, read, and think critically.
You can attribute a lot of this to the mindset that schools should be run like businesses. It inevitably leads to lowering standards when success is defined as passing students who can do the bare minimum (high school) or graduation rates (college & university). Schools are much more important than businesses. Students are the product, and you can't cancel a product line that doesn't perform well or market it into relevance.

I suggest you read this before you marvel at the opportunities Americans have for education.

You know why H1Bs threaten American jobs? Because they mainly come from countries where education is better and free, so they come better educated and debt-free. Debt-free people accept lower wages and employers prefer people with a better education.

Yeesh, what an IA mess. Duplicate blog posts and comment threads across multiple blogs, duplicate author names on blog posts... and if there's an index to the entire discussion, I couldn't find it. So I made my own.

Here are all the posts and responses thus far:

1:
Anthony Cody: How Do We Build the Teaching Profession?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/07/dialogue_with_the_gates_founda.html
July 23, 2012

Ivrin Scott responds for the Gates Foundation: How Do We Build the Teaching Profession?
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/07/A-Response-to--How-Do-We-Build-the-Teaching-Profession
July 30, 2012

2:
Vicki Phillips writes for the Gates Foundation: How Do We Consider Evidence of Student Learning in Teacher Evaluation?
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/08/How-Do-We-Consider-Evidence-of-Student-Learning-in-Teacher-Evaluation
August 7, 2012

Anthony Cody responds: How do we Consider Evidence of Learning in Teacher Evaluations?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/08/responding_to_the_gates_founda.html
August 8, 2012

3:
Anthony Cody posts: Can Schools Defeat Poverty by Ignoring It?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/08/can_schools_defeat.html
August 13, 2012

Chris Williams responds for the Gates Foundation: Poverty Does Matter--But It Is Not Destiny
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/08/Poverty-Does-MatterBut-It-Is-Not-Destiny
August 20, 2012

4
Irvin Scott for the Gates Foundation: K-12 Education: An Opportunity Catalyst
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/08/K12-Education-An-Opportunity-Catalyst
August 28, 2012

Anthony Cody responds: What is the Purpose of K-12 Education?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/08/Gates_Foundation_Dialogue.html
August 29, 2012

5:
Anthony Cody asks: What Happens When Profits Drive Reform?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/09/the_dialogue_with_the_gates_fo.html
September 03, 2012

Gates response to come.

Yeesh, what an IA mess. Duplicate blog posts and comment threads across multiple blogs, duplicate author names on blog posts... and if there's an index to the entire discussion, I couldn't find it. So I made my own.

Here are all the posts and responses thus far:

1:
Anthony Cody: How Do We Build the Teaching Profession?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/07/dialogue_with_the_gates_founda.html
July 23, 2012

Ivrin Scott responds for the Gates Foundation: How Do We Build the Teaching Profession?
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/07/A-Response-to--How-Do-We-Build-the-Teaching-Profession
July 30, 2012

2:
Vicki Phillips writes for the Gates Foundation: How Do We Consider Evidence of Student Learning in Teacher Evaluation?
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/08/How-Do-We-Consider-Evidence-of-Student-Learning-in-Teacher-Evaluation
August 7, 2012

Anthony Cody responds: How do we Consider Evidence of Learning in Teacher Evaluations?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/08/responding_to_the_gates_founda.html
August 8, 2012

3:
Anthony Cody posts: Can Schools Defeat Poverty by Ignoring It?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/08/can_schools_defeat.html
August 13, 2012

Chris Williams responds for the Gates Foundation: Poverty Does Matter--But It Is Not Destiny
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/08/Poverty-Does-MatterBut-It-Is-Not-Destiny
August 20, 2012

4
Irvin Scott for the Gates Foundation: K-12 Education: An Opportunity Catalyst
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/08/K12-Education-An-Opportunity-Catalyst
August 28, 2012

Anthony Cody responds: What is the Purpose of K-12 Education?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/08/Gates_Foundation_Dialogue.html
August 29, 2012

5:
Anthony Cody asks: What Happens When Profits Drive Reform?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/09/the_dialogue_with_the_gates_fo.html
September 03, 2012

Gates response to come.

Yeesh, what an IA mess. Duplicate blog posts and comment threads across multiple blogs, duplicate author names on blog posts... and if there's an index to the entire discussion, I couldn't find it. So I made my own.

Here are all the posts and responses thus far:

1:
Anthony Cody: How Do We Build the Teaching Profession?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/07/dialogue_with_the_gates_founda.html
July 23, 2012

Ivrin Scott responds for the Gates Foundation: How Do We Build the Teaching Profession?
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/07/A-Response-to--How-Do-We-Build-the-Teaching-Profession
July 30, 2012

2:
Vicki Phillips writes for the Gates Foundation: How Do We Consider Evidence of Student Learning in Teacher Evaluation?
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/08/How-Do-We-Consider-Evidence-of-Student-Learning-in-Teacher-Evaluation
August 7, 2012

Anthony Cody responds: How do we Consider Evidence of Learning in Teacher Evaluations?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/08/responding_to_the_gates_founda.html
August 8, 2012

3:
Anthony Cody posts: Can Schools Defeat Poverty by Ignoring It?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/08/can_schools_defeat.html
August 13, 2012

Chris Williams responds for the Gates Foundation: Poverty Does Matter--But It Is Not Destiny
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/08/Poverty-Does-MatterBut-It-Is-Not-Destiny
August 20, 2012

4
Irvin Scott for the Gates Foundation: K-12 Education: An Opportunity Catalyst
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/08/K12-Education-An-Opportunity-Catalyst
August 28, 2012

Anthony Cody responds: What is the Purpose of K-12 Education?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/08/Gates_Foundation_Dialogue.html
August 29, 2012

5:
Anthony Cody asks: What Happens When Profits Drive Reform?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/09/the_dialogue_with_the_gates_fo.html
September 03, 2012

Gates response to come.

Yeesh, what an IA mess. Duplicate blog posts and comment threads across multiple blogs, duplicate author names on blog posts... and if there's an index to the entire discussion, I couldn't find it. So I made my own.

Here are all the posts and responses thus far:

1:
Anthony Cody: How Do We Build the Teaching Profession?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/07/dialogue_with_the_gates_founda.html
July 23, 2012

Ivrin Scott responds for the Gates Foundation: How Do We Build the Teaching Profession?
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/07/A-Response-to--How-Do-We-Build-the-Teaching-Profession
July 30, 2012

2:
Vicki Phillips writes for the Gates Foundation: How Do We Consider Evidence of Student Learning in Teacher Evaluation?
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/08/How-Do-We-Consider-Evidence-of-Student-Learning-in-Teacher-Evaluation
August 7, 2012

Anthony Cody responds: How do we Consider Evidence of Learning in Teacher Evaluations?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/08/responding_to_the_gates_founda.html
August 8, 2012

3:
Anthony Cody posts: Can Schools Defeat Poverty by Ignoring It?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/08/can_schools_defeat.html
August 13, 2012

Chris Williams responds for the Gates Foundation: Poverty Does Matter--But It Is Not Destiny
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/08/Poverty-Does-MatterBut-It-Is-Not-Destiny
August 20, 2012

4
Irvin Scott for the Gates Foundation: K-12 Education: An Opportunity Catalyst
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/08/K12-Education-An-Opportunity-Catalyst
August 28, 2012

Anthony Cody responds: What is the Purpose of K-12 Education?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/08/Gates_Foundation_Dialogue.html
August 29, 2012

5:
Anthony Cody asks: What Happens When Profits Drive Reform?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/09/the_dialogue_with_the_gates_fo.html
September 03, 2012

Gates response to come.

Yeesh, what an IA mess. Duplicate blog posts and comment threads across multiple blogs, duplicate author names on blog posts... and if there's an index to the entire discussion, I couldn't find it. So I made my own.

Here are all the posts and responses thus far:

1:
Anthony Cody: How Do We Build the Teaching Profession?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/07/dialogue_with_the_gates_founda.html
July 23, 2012

Ivrin Scott responds for the Gates Foundation: How Do We Build the Teaching Profession?
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/07/A-Response-to--How-Do-We-Build-the-Teaching-Profession
July 30, 2012

2:
Vicki Phillips writes for the Gates Foundation: How Do We Consider Evidence of Student Learning in Teacher Evaluation?
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/08/How-Do-We-Consider-Evidence-of-Student-Learning-in-Teacher-Evaluation
August 7, 2012

Anthony Cody responds: How do we Consider Evidence of Learning in Teacher Evaluations?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/08/responding_to_the_gates_founda.html
August 8, 2012

3:
Anthony Cody posts: Can Schools Defeat Poverty by Ignoring It?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/08/can_schools_defeat.html
August 13, 2012

Chris Williams responds for the Gates Foundation: Poverty Does Matter--But It Is Not Destiny
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/08/Poverty-Does-MatterBut-It-Is-Not-Destiny
August 20, 2012

4
Irvin Scott for the Gates Foundation: K-12 Education: An Opportunity Catalyst
http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/08/K12-Education-An-Opportunity-Catalyst
August 28, 2012

Anthony Cody responds: What is the Purpose of K-12 Education?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/08/Gates_Foundation_Dialogue.html
August 29, 2012

5:
Anthony Cody asks: What Happens When Profits Drive Reform?
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/09/the_dialogue_with_the_gates_fo.html
September 03, 2012

Gates response to come.

No, that is a myth.
But people keep perpetuating it. It has nothing to do with the farm.
Any farmer can tell you the vast majority of the work happens in the spring and fall.

Summer vacation exists because two things:
1) Kids do NOT want to sit in a hot building in the summer. A/C has only been common in schools for what, 50 years? If that? and there's STILL many schools that don't have it.
2) Summer vacation came about from the emerging middle class families being seeking to escape the heat. IE, to "take a vacation".

One of many sources of info on this: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/sarameads_policy_notebook/2010/07/can_we_please_put_the_agrarian_roots_of_summer_vacation_myth_to_bed.html

Actually it's a common issue talked about in higher education. While not currently being updated http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/whyboysfail/ covers the issues. And btw most people don't want the opposite, they want rough equality.

There are a lot of reasons to be physically present at a "brick and mortar" university with an instsructor in the room with you.

  To the extent that universities want to break from this model, it isn't about education at all. It isn't even about making an education cheaper; it's about extracting money from suckers.

  So, good for Khan Academy for doing what they're doing and giving it away for free. All the bottom feeders (including Bill Gates) who want to charge money for this stuff have nothing useful to offer and are just trying to game the system in one or another way for a buck.

The only problem i see with his best side is that many of the projects end up generating more money to people involved. By chance some common causes are nudged ahead too, but still. http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/07/the_gates_foundations_leverage.html

She and her husband continue to show the best side of capitalism.

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/07/the_gates_foundations_leverage.html

Essentially, the foundation makes donations to organizations both it and the Gates personally own stock in or have other investments with.

If you think that the B&MGF makes donations purely out of the goodness of their hearts, then you a)are naive and b)have no idea what 95% of most celebrity/rich-people foundations are for. Celebrities do it for personal marketing and tax shelters. Sports players do it to employ relatives and tax shelters. Rich people do it for social status and essentially write off the cost of their parties, aka tax shelters.

Tax-writeoffs for charities need to end - you shouldn't get to short the government on infrastructure and stuff that benefits everyone, just to benefit your personal cause. Why should a bunch of rich white asshole golf players get to make a donation to a charity in their hometown where the median income is the highest in the entire state, which goes to benefit waterfowl...and then not pay that money to their state, which paves their roads and pays for the homeless shelters and healthcare services for the poor?

Here's an article not related to contraception, but related to Gates foundation. It would be insightful read, since no one bothers anymore to research any topic by himself, before he forms an opinion..

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/07/the_gates_foundations_leverage.html

Not to be pedantic: The State of Arizona had little to do with one school district canceling Mexican-American studies. That was a course taught at a few schools in Tucson, and the school district shut it down. There are reasonable arguments both ways on that call.

Huh? You are completely wrong. Maybe you are trolling and this is meant to be "meta", but here are the actual facts.

It was a popular Tucson program that was ruined by Republican state lawmakers from outside Tucson. There was a state law passed that specifically targeted Mexican-American studies at TUSD. You can read more here. There were 1400 kids in Mexican American studies in Tucson before the state started targeting it. The state threatened to withhold 10% of TUSD's budget - millions of dollars for a cash-strapped school district - unless they cancelled Mexican American studies. TUSD appealed the decision and lost a court case, and only then voted to end the program.

An audit the state commissioned found that the program was successful and not illegal, but the Republicans ignored their own audit and insisted the program was illegal.

I feel like you've already made up your mind about this issue, and I'm just wasting time typing. Still, I guess it doesn't hurt to try.

What, prey tell, is the "existing system" - the ability to turn oxygen into CO2 year after year appears to be the only system in place once a teacher makes tenure.

It's really not that easy. Criteria for "continuing contract" vary from state to state and district to district, but it is usually some combination of

1) Years experience in total and in the district
2) Level of education, frequently a masters
3) Approval by administration

I received a continuing contract by completing my masters and undergoing several evaluations. At any point, the administration could have decided to NOT offer me continuing contract. As an alternative, they could have chosen to fire me. The only thing the law prohibits them from doing to stringing me along year after year, which I think is fair.

I think its fair, because continuing contract (mislabeled "tenure"), is not a "guarantee of lifetime employment." I can easily think of several things I could do to get fired and/or laid off, and I personally know of several teachers (new and old) who were let go for various reasons. Continuing contract merely means that I can't be fired without some due process. I can't be fired just because a new principal doesn't like me, or a student claims I screamed "fuck" in class, or a handful of parents have it in for me. If you think about that, that's also tremendously fair. Some kind of "paperwork trail" is required in dismissal at many jobs, and if you don't have that at your job, maybe you ought to look in to forming a union!

Since I've gotten continuing contract, I work just as hard now as I did before I got my "magical firing shield". Ditto for all of my colleagues. In fact, I'm hard pressed to think of a colleague who isn't putting in whatever it takes to help their students succeed. The only people that I can think of who didn't put in their best are people who got fired.

Then explain charter schools where student success is either the same or better with a student population choosen by random chance and the schools have fewer resources than public schools?

The data is charter schools is far more mixed than you suggest. Yes, there are success stories, as there should be. Charter schools were initially intended as "test tubes" where innovators were free to try new ideas, and filter the good ones back into public schools. There are also charter schools that are very successful, but also spend a tremendous amount of money per pupil and offer a battery of services in addition to education (see Harlem Children's Zone). I would personally LOVE to see that kind holistic of model spread, but I don't think we have the political will to spend a minimum of 15k per student to offer all those services.

Unfortunately, there is a sizable number of charter schools that operate simply as money-making ventures, and the results show

Be very careful jumping on the "everything must be measured" bandwagon. When deciding on weather something should be measured you need to determine the impact it has on the final product, the accuracy of the measurements and how much it costs to measure.

I tend to think that teaching tends to fall into a category that makes it extremely difficult to measure.

That doesn't mean that we completely give up however! Take a look at this article: http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/teacher-quality/

That shows a number of things that seem to improve teacher quality. Experience is one, and is especially noticeable in the first 5 years, depth of subject knowledge is another. If we focus on things to help "season" teachers faster and increase their depth of knowledge we will get better teachers. Teacher mentoring is big trend right now (just google it when you have a few spare hours) and seems to be well worth it. I'm not a huge fan of No Child Left Behind, but it's attempts to require more "highly qualified" teachers is at least heading in the right direction. It might be the best part of that bill actually.

Sometimes instead of focusing on measuring quality, you just need to focus on doing the things that you know will increase quality.

You've gotta be a bit humble when focusing on teacher quality though. While it is a factor in education, home-quality still blows it out of the water in terms of overall impact. That includes nutrition as well. WIC/food stamps and the school lunch program do far more to increase the quality of our education than all the teacher quality you could ever get. The best teacher in the school may not be doing anywhere near as much good as the school lunch lady is!

I can't find the exact image -- it's a Facebook photo of a friend-of-a-friend (possibly visible here) -- so this Tumblr image will have to suffice. Lately I saw a college professor complaining about how badly in debt his students are and how their lives will start with crippling burdens. Yet for all that, I heard no consideration for the part they played in this drama. Did they offer to take a pay cut? Find a more economical way to teach? The college-for-all movement has heightened costs (expanded the number of instructors required, added facilities and administrative staff) while not materially changing the overall worth of a degree.

Supposedly, the main reason for getting a college degree is the bump in lifetime earnings, but not all degrees are created equal. Engineering, math, and the hard sciences dramatically pull up the averages for everyone, while the humanities languish. It was this way when I was in college back in the 80's, and it's only gotten worse since. If you're slaving away to get that PhD in medieval literature and racking up $150,000 in debt, you might want to revisit that life plan.

First, in regards to the campaign contributions: based on that list you cited, it looks like one should be more concerned about tribal gaming than the NEA. While NEA was #1, the various tribal gaming donors were #2, #3, #4, #8, and #9. Combined, they squash teacher interest.

Now think about this for a moment, because I think this is incredibly important. What do you consider more important to our society, gambling or public education? What should we be fighting to preserve more? A little news for you: Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of our country, fought tooth-and-nail to establish a public educational system in this country, as he understood that it was one of the most important methods of preserving our form of government. "I have indeed two great measures at heart, without which no republic can maintain itself in strength: 1. That of general education, to enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom. 2. To divide every county into hundreds, of such size that all the children of each will be within reach of a central school in it." --Thomas Jefferson to John Tyler, 1810. ME 12:393. And that's just one quote. You can read another whole fist-full here.

Considering how vital education is to our country, I think a national educators union deserves to spend whatever it needs to preserve the interests of public education, which sadly has been under attack from various businesses, philanthropists, and other institutions over the last few decades. Which leads me to my second point...

You do get what you pay for, and the teacher's union (NEA) are the single largest campaign contributors in the United States.

Then explain to me why No Child Left Behind is so vehemently opposed by teachers at large? It received widespread, bipartisan support when it was passed and renewed in Congress, so why were teachers and the unions so against it? If we were truly getting what we paid for, then I think you would see legislation that was more supportive of unions, rather than trying to undermine them and work against them. (And while NCLB was bad, it doesn't hold a candle to what Duncan and Obama are trying to push through the pipes with the latest "Race to the Top." And remember, the NEA backed Obama during the election, so why such opposition?)

Rather, I believe the NEA is spending that much money to do the best that it can to fight such radical undermining of public education.

I'm a teacher. And I will admit, there are problems with public education. Some of those are coming from outside, and some from within. Long has the unions ignored the problems with permitting poor teachers to stay on the payroll and do nothing to help them improve in their teaching skills, it has created a subgroup of individuals with no motivation to improve. But creating a punitive system that stands to bring down an entire school due to poor performance of a student population at large on invalid assessment methods is no way to fix the system. Replacing elected school board officials with unilateral tyrants who are not accountable to the public is no way to fix a the system. Teachers know better than anyone what makes a student learn, and we're so overwhelmed by all these biased and/or misguided individuals, politicians, and businesses who all fighting to take charge of a system that they have no idea how to operate, it's like letting a three-year-old into

I understand your point and personally believe two people in marriage should pay the same identical taxes as if they were single, but just to stimulate the contrary side of why to consider taxing married people less, and government motivation:

- Married people are less of an overall burden on society due to being healthier (not that marriage in and of itself necessarily improves health). So, why not tax them less?

- Less overall risk due to higher statistical stability of someone married, as seen by lower insurance rates. Government loves a stable populous paying their taxes, and less likely to revolt or cause other issues, thus less statistical need to pay for any legal enforcement for them.

- Married people often have children. A country wants children for the sake of competing with other countries in terms of economic nationalism. In fact, gay people whom may not conceive through whatever means may adopt abandoned children in society, actually helping out overall.

Again, I agree with you, but I acknowledge their could be a purpose to encouraging marriage through taxes or however.

And when the employees steal all of these computers, and then resell them, that'll help boost the economy!

Mr. Packer said the decision was made principally because of demographic considerations.

Only a tiny fraction of the members of underrepresented minority groups who take AP exams take the tests in one of those four affected subject areas, he said.

The College Board has made it a priority to reach such students, including those who are African- American and Hispanic.

They also cut Italian, Latin literature, and French literature.

As a college teacher, I'm uncomfortable with the place that AP exams now occupy in our educational system. When I went to college, it was considered unusual to take AP exams, and nobody had ever heard of a GPA higher than 4.0. Now, with AP classes counting +1 on the GPA, Berkeley is turning away a sizable fraction of all students with 4.0 GPAs. In other words, you essentially can't get into the flagship schools of the UC system unless you have a lot of AP exams to puff up your grades. In one way this is good, because the old system encouraged kids not to take challenging coursework in high school. But a lot of rural and inner-city high schools don't offer AP courses, or don't offer more than one or two, or they offer them, but they're not at a high enough level to prepare you for the exams. There's something horribly wrong with a system of government that taxes working-class people in order to support public education, but effectively excludes their kids from getting the full benefit of the system they're supporting with their taxes.

Looking over the contents of the CS exams, I can't help getting the impression that this is vocational education masquerading as something more academic. It all seems to be focused on the OOP fad, and on being able to code in Java. Stacks and queues are only covered on the AB, not the A level!?!? The hardware part seems pretty lightweight, and there's virtually no theory AFAICT.

Mr. Packer said the decision was made principally because of demographic considerations.

Only a tiny fraction of the members of underrepresented minority groups who take AP exams take the tests in one of those four affected subject areas, he said.

The College Board has made it a priority to reach such students, including those who are African- American and Hispanic.

live in Georgia:

http://www.edweek.org/media/2006/06/19/41s-pipelin e-c2s.jpg

The fact that I'm having a child in this state scares the hell out of me.

http://www.edweek.org/media/2006/06/16/dcfinal_1s. jpg

Don't credit the midwest too much - the majority of the population in the US is along the east and west coast. Having said that, also keep in mind that the US grade school education system SUCKS.

http://www.ratemyteachers.com/

I live in Georgia:

http://www.edweek.org/media/2006/06/19/41s-pipelin e-c2s.jpg

The fact that I'm having a child in this state scares the hell out of me.

My point is, using a computer, earning enough to have discretionary spending money and finding any value in a java enabled mobile phone versus a new car requires some degree of intelligence. This is an uphill battle for most people in the US, who are regarded as "resources" by anyone with an MBA and as the unwashed masses by anyone doing very well.

http://www.edweek.org/media/2006/06/16/dcfinal_1s. jpg

Don't credit the midwest too much - the majority of the population in the US is along the east and west coast. Having said that, also keep in mind that the US grade school education system SUCKS.

http://www.ratemyteachers.com/

I live in Georgia:

http://www.edweek.org/media/2006/06/19/41s-pipelin e-c2s.jpg

The fact that I'm having a child in this state scares the hell out of me.

My point is, using a computer, earning enough to have discretionary spending money and finding any value in a java enabled mobile phone versus a new car requires some degree of intelligence. This is an uphill battle for most people in the US, who are regarded as "resources" by anyone with an MBA and as the unwashed masses by anyone doing very well.

For a number of years, this ruling was used to justify federal regulation of just about anything. In more recent times, however, courts have somewhat limited this authority. The gun free schools act was overturned in 1995 when the supreme court ruled that the government had overstepped it's authority regarding interstate commerce regulation. Although courts have traditionally sided with the federal government in issues of regulatory authority, there have been exceptions, so it's hard to say what will happen in this case.

The detective is to be applauded for his creativity in finding the culprit. And let's also have some sympathy for him, 'cause you know this outcome has got him seeing red:

The prankster confessed, and this week pleaded guilty to a single count of making bomb threats. He's not expected to spend any time incarcerated. "They're going to try to come up to some sentence that will put him on track to be more productive," says Keck.

I'll bet five bucks the kid is in the "in crowd". Football season's over, and he's sitting in "gimme an 'A'!" shop class with the other jocks, figuring out what to do after they're done lifting the cheerleaders' skirts. "Hey, I know, let's call in a bomb threat. They'll strip search the geeks while we laugh our a$$ off!"

Here in Texas, 15 year olds who aren't in the "in crowd" get sent to jail for life, and nobody even seems to care. And there are plenty of ridiculous examples of innocuous behavior being punished by schools.

And this kid, a serial terrorist, is going to get off with a suspension -- probably because he's some bigwig's son, or else he's on "the team". What a load of crap.