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Call for Proposals: Coalition of Essential Schools Fall Forum 2013

March 11, 2013 - The Forum

The Coalition of Essential Schools invites proposals to facilitate workshops at its annual Fall Forum Saturday, November 9, 2013 in San Francisco, Ca.  Read about this year's theme "Making the Invisible Visible:  stories and counterstories for educational equity," get details on the call for proposals and find conference registration and program information at the CES website.  Proposals will be accepted through May 1, 2013.

Waivers, ESEA and the State of the Union

February 11, 2013 - Chris Stephens

Senate Education Committee hearings on No Child Left Behind waivers renew speculation about if, how and when the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will be rewritten.  Read Motoko Rich's analysis in The New York Times and Alyson Klein's coverage in Education Week.  Valerie Strauss shares what Diane Ravitch told Bill Moyers she would put into the education portion of the president's State of the Union speech.  The Forum offers "Guiding Principles on NCLB" here.  Convener George Wood offers suggestions for "Four More Years?" here.

Activists Take Civil Rights Complaints to Secretary Duncan

January 29, 2013 - Chris Stephens

The New York Times reports that activists from 18 cities will meet with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to air their concerns about school closings and the civil right complaints those closings have brought about.  Susan Eaton reports on efforts in Nebraska to fight re-segregation with "Diverse City".  Read Forum Convener Pedro Noguera's thoughts on "Confronting challenges in U.S. education, 'civil rights issue' of our time".

Brown addresses equity in funding, local control in State of the State

January 24, 2013 - Chris Stephens

Quoting Yeats, California Governor Jerry Brown says, "Equal treatment for children in unequal situations is not justice."  Anthony Cody and Diane Ravitch give him high marks for his comments on education in today's state of the state speech.  Read "California Governor Jerry Brown Decries Testing: "Distant Authorities Crack the Whip" and "The Best Governor in the United States is...".  In the same vein, George Wood lays out four ways for the second Obama administration to move toward 'equal treatment for children in unequal situations'.  

Teachers refuse to give MAP test in Seattle

January 11, 2013 - Chris Stephens

Teachers at Garfield High School in Seattle call MAP tests "a waste of time and money" and vote overwhelmingly to refuse to administer them.  FairTest recaps the week in testing news and a teacher raises disturbing questions about her school's approach to giving the Terra Nova test.  Forum Convener George Wood asks and answers "What's Wrong with High Stakes Testing?"

Is Data King?

January 10, 2013 - Chris Stephens

Standing out among the avalanche of data in the releases of national report cards, rankings and studies (Education Week's Quality Counts, Students First State Policy Report Card, The Gates Foundation MET study, Rick Hess's Edu Scholars) is a passing comment by wildly popular statistician Nate Silver, who joins The National Research Council, Economic Policy Institute and Math for America in expressing skepticism about using high-stakes test results to evaluate teachers.  Read Data King Nate Silver Isn't Sold on Test Scores.  The Forum encourages you to sign on to the National Resolution on High-Stakes Testing here.

Newtown: What Can We Learn? What Can We Do?

December 20, 2012 - Chris Stephens

As Newtown and the nation remember and honor the innocents lost in the Newtown tragedy, we grapple with a way forward, a way to keep violence out of schools.  Forum conveners Deborah Meier and Pedro Noguera wonder How Can We Learn From Newtown? and What To Do About School Shootings on Education Week's Bridging Differences blog. 

What Will Second Term mean for Educators?

November 20, 2012 - Chris Stephens

Averting sequestration and the loss of 1.3 billion education dollars is first on the Obama administration's education to-do list, but what about the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind, early childhood education, Race to the Top and Pell Grants? Read "Loose Ends Drive a Second Term Education Agenda", by Josh Lederman of the Associated Press and "No Child Left Behind Reauthorization Debate Likely To Continue In Obama Second Term" by Joy Resmovits in The Huffington Post. Read The Forum's guiding principles and legislative recommendations for reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary School Act here.

Election Roundup

November 7, 2012 - Chris Stephens

The results are in:  Indiana elects new superintendent, Georgia approves charter schools, (Washington's charter proposal holds narrow lead), Maryland oks the Dream Act, Bridgeport, Connecticut rejects mayoral control, Idaho rejects merit pay and teacher tenure, California passes Prop 30 and rejects Prop 38 and Florida turns down vouchers. President Obama returns to office with the great education debate still underway.

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Can a teacher be best and worst at the same time?

October 15, 2012 - Chris Stephens

Two teachers wonder how they can be "the best" and "the worst" in the course of just a day,(Education Week, Living in Dialogue) or from year to year (The Washington Post, The Answer Sheet).  Too much reliance on the results of too many standardized tests put good teachers in precarious positions.  So does the socioeconomic status of their students.  The Forum supports an end to the misuse of high-stakes standardized tests and urges you to sign the national resolution on high-stakes testing.  Forum convener Linda Darling-Hammond writes about Education and the Income Gap.

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