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*Local teachers voting to disassociate from state, national teachers unions*
A county teachers association in Maryland is standing up to state and
national teachers unions that they don’t believe represent the best
interests of local teachers and educational excellence for students.
The Wicomico County Education Association (WCEA) will decide next month
whether to formally disassociate from the Maryland State Education
Association (MSEA) and the National Education Association (NEA),
monoblogue.com — a local blog — recently reported.
The president of the county teachers association ... more »
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*Are Democrats Eating Their Own Over Charter Schools?*
*De Blasio checkmated?*
Amidst all of the 24/7 coverage of the search for Malaysian Airlines Flight
370, a news story did manage to bubble up from the depths and it posed an
interesting question.Are Democrats really concerned about minorities and
the poor?Are they really looking to help them achieve success and
prosperity in life?
In a move that garnered more attention than newly elected New York City
Mayor Bill de Blasio probably expected, a decision was made to close some,
and limit the growth of other Charter schools in New... more »
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*McMaster students support Israel boycott in tense meeting*
The thorny issue of Israel and Palestine came to McMaster University
Wednesday in a heated meeting where students voted to boycott any business
with ties to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.
About 500 students voted during a McMaster Students Union (MSU) general
assembly for the union to join a pro-Palestinian movement called BDS —
boycott, divestment and sanctions.
However, the assembly did not have quorum at the vote — 633 students were
needed to have quorum, and only 518 were present — making a non-bindi... more »
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*Campus brownshirts on the march*
Jill Schneiderman is an unlikely warrior for Jewish rights. A professor of
Earth sciences at Vassar College and a lesbian activist, Schneiderman’s
political passions put her smack in the middle of the far-Left academic
mainstream.
At least they did until she decided to organize a student trip to Israel to
study water issues.
To get a sense of just how far to the Left Schneiderman is, when her
initiative ran into trouble, she contacted fanatic anti-Israel activist
Phillip Weiss to ask for his support.
Hers was not going to be a ZOA student mission... more »
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*British teachers 'intimidated' to take part in national strikes, says
union*
*NASUWT claims its members have been intimidated and threatened by NUT
supporters to take part in national walkout, as David Cameron condemns
strike action*
Teachers have been threatened and intimidated by a union to force them to
take part in strikes in which thousands will walk out on Wednesday, leaving
hundreds of schools with no option but to close, it has been claimed.
David Cameron warned that strike action being taken by the National Union
of Teachers (NUT) would put children’s education at risk.
... more »
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*English taught as a foreign language at a school in Leeds*
*British school teaches English as a foreign language to all pupils because
there are more than 50 nationalities at the community secondary*
A comprehensive school where native English speakers are in a minority is
to start teaching English as a foreign language to all of its pupils.
Teachers at City of Leeds School, a multi-ethnic secondary plan to teach
English as a second language even to its British-born pupils in a radical
attempt to improve standards at the 314-pupil secondary judged to 'require
improvement' by Ofste... more »
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*Indiana withdrawing from Common Core standards*
Indiana on Monday became the first state to formally withdraw from the
Common Core education standards in a move that did little to appease
critics of the national program, who contend the state is simply stripping
the "Common Core" label while largely keeping the benchmarks.
Indiana was among 45 states that in recent years adopted Common Core
standards spelling out what students should be learning in math and reading
at each grade level. Some conservatives have since criticized the
initiative as a top-down takeover of local schools,... more »
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*Victory for Academic Freedom: Jury Rules UNC-Wilmington Retaliated Against
Conservative Professor*
A jury in North Carolina on Thursday found that the University of North
Carolina-Wilmington retaliated against criminology professor Dr. Mike Adams
for his political and social views.
Adams, a Townhall columnist, explained last year that despite his track
record of success at the university in terms of teaching, research and
service, he was denied a promotion to full professor because of the views
he advanced in his opinion columns. He described the promotion process as
being “reple... more »
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*I'm just an ordinary boy who wants more homework... from teachers who turn
up to class on time: Pupil who went on strike at school speaks out for the
first time*
As maths problems go, it’s not a tricky one. One despairing schoolboy
minus one full-time maths teacher plus two flunked GCSE options exams
equals a classroom crisis.
When Aaron Parfitt, 14, called a wildcat walkout of pupils to protest about
poor standards in maths teaching at his Blackpool high school, he caused a
national debate about the prospects for pupils at the 416 British schools
in special measures.
Now, i... more »
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*Pupils walk out of lessons after British school BANS them from wearing
bracelets to support classmate with leukaemia*
*I once told a bureaucrat to stick his policies up his A**. Sounds like
the students below were of a similar mind*
A huge group of angry pupils went on strike yesterday after their school
banned them from wearing bracelets in support of a classmate with leukaemia.
Police were called in when 100 pupils walked out of lessons at Bilton
School in Rugby, Warwickshire, after being told they could only wear 'Team
Joel' bracelets on a non-uniform day next month.
Pupils ... more »
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*Schoolchildren as young as nine left terrified of bathroom after teacher
plays horrific clip from shower scene in 1960s Hitchcock film Psycho*
Primary school children as young as nine have been left terrified of the
bathroom after their teacher played them an audio clip from the shower
scene of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960s film Psycho.
Pupils at Eastfield Primary School, in Hull, were played the clip from the
dramatic scene as part of a lesson on how to 'establish mood created by
music'.
But Karen Kay, from Hull, East Yorkshire, has said her son Jason is now too
afraid to have a sho... more »
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*Northeastern University suspends pro-BDS group Students for Justice in
Palestine*
Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) and Americans for Peace and
Tolerance (APT) applaud Northeastern University’s decision to suspend
Students for Justice in Palestine
In a series of three videos, the APT documented its investigation into
Islamic extremism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Zionism at Northeastern
University. Professors and members of the Spiritual Life Office are shown
abusing their classes and Northeastern Holocaust Remembrance Week to
promote an anti-Israel and, at times, anti-S... more »
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*Fury at school plan to force teenagers to share unisex toilets: Girls as
young as 11 will use same bathroom facilities as 16-year-old boys*
Plans to make teenage boys and girls share school toilets have been
condemned by children’s campaigner Esther Rantzen.
The ChildLine founder said the proposal for unisex toilets at a school in
Kent was ‘one of the worst ideas I’ve ever heard’.
The move will mean that girls as young as 11 will share the bathroom
facilities with 16-year-old boys.
Parents at The Towers School in Ashford, which has 1,400 pupils, believe
the plans will remove pup... more »
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*History repeating*
*If you don't know the history, Google George Wallace or Orval Faubus*
*Crisis for Common Core: Indiana's Uncommon Ruckus Over Education Standards*
What’s wrong with public education in America today? Across the country,
just about everyone has an opinion. Very few, though, have the power to
implement sweeping reforms.
In Indiana, a driver for the Uber car-for-hire service gets his mother on
the phone for a reporter. Sharon Hurt is a 40-year veteran of the state’s
South Bend public school district. What teachers need, Hurt says, is
flexibility as individu... more »
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*Poor pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds children 'benefit most in a
grammar [selective] school system'*
Comprehensive schools prevent pupils from poor backgrounds achieving their
potential, a study has claimed.
Researchers compared reading standards in countries which have retained
grammar schools with those which have phased them out, such as the UK.
They found that family wealth played next to no part in a child’s
achievements when they were taught according to ability. But a
disadvantaged background was more likely to count against youngsters in
countries that shun selecti... more »
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*An Academic Fraud Exposed*
Emmett Tyrrell
From time to time, I put down my duties of writing about politics and other
human follies and pick up a book, often a book of poetry, often by W. B.
Yeats. The other night I read Yeats' poem "The Fiddler of Dooney." It is a
little masterpiece, but then Yeats wrote so many masterpieces. It begins:
*"When I play on my fiddle in Dooney, Folk dance like a wave of the
sea; My cousin is priest in Kilvarnet, My brother in Mocharabuiee. "*
And on it dances for a few more stanzas, delighting the eye and the ear and
the mind. Ye... more »
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*Air Force Academy Removes Bible Verse From Cadet's Whiteboard*
The Air Force Academy removed a Bible verse posted on a cadet's whiteboard
after it determined the posting had offended other cadets, a spokesman for
the academy said.
The cadet wrote the passage on the whiteboard posted outside his room. "I
have been crucified with Christ therefore I no longer live, but Christ
lives in me," the verse from Galatians read.
Mikey Weinstein, director of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation,
told me 29 cadets and four faculty and staff members contacted his
organization to complain a... more »
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*The Left Versus Minorities*
Thomas Sowell
If anyone wanted to pick a time and place where the political left's avowed
concern for minorities was definitively exposed as a fraud, it would be now
-- and the place would be New York City, where far left Mayor Bill de
Blasio has launched an attack on charter schools, cutting their funding,
among other things.
These schools have given thousands of low income minority children their
only shot at a decent education, which often means their only shot at a
decent life. Last year 82 percent of the students at a charter school
called Succes... more »
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*Two Myths About the SAT*
Since the recent announcement that major changes are coming to the SAT,
I've seen about 10,000 articles claiming that (A) the correlation between
family income and SAT scores proves that the test is biased against poor
kids and (B) the SAT is easy for the rich to "game" through test prep.
There are indeed problems with the SAT, including problems relating to
parental income. Here is a persuasive argument by Charles Murray that the
SAT should be scrapped entirely and replaced by subject tests like the SAT
II. But we shouldn't be shocked by the simple fact t... more »
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*Ditzy dame has 17 GCSEs *
*Which shows how corrupted the GCSE system became under Tony Blair*
Gemma Worrall, 20, from Blackpool, sent a tweet referring to 'barraco
barner' as 'our president'. She had been watching a news programme about
the unrest in Ukraine and decided — in hindsight, unwisely — to get
involved in the debate.
‘If barraco barner is our president, why is he getting involved with
Russia, scary,’ Gemma wrote.
It’s a corker of a gaffe by anyone’s standards. Making the most powerful
man in the world sound more like the fizzy vitamin supplement Berocca is
one thing. ... more »
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*Idaho Legislature Overwhelmingly Passes Campus Carry*
*Despite the emotional outcry from faculty and college administrators, the
Idaho House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a law enabling
citizens with an enhanced concealed carry permit to carry handguns on
college campuses*
Idaho lawmakers on Thursday approved a measure allowing concealed guns
to be carried onto university and college campuses.
The legislation, which cleared the state House of Representatives by a
50-19 vote and was overwhelmingly approved by the state Senate last month,
now heads to Governor C.... more »
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*Teen: Teachers Made Me Stand Outside In Wet Bathing Suit, Barefoot*
*She Says She Got Frostbite After Standing Outside For 10 Minutes During A
Fire Alarm*
A ninth-grader says she has frostbite after standing outside for 10 minutes
in a wet bathing suit during a fire alarm. It happened around 8:30 a.m.
Wednesday at Como Park High School in St. Paul. Fourteen-year-old Kayona
Hagen-Tietz says she was in the school’s pool when the fire alarm went off.
While other students had gotten out earlier and were able to put on dry
clothes, Hagen-Tietz said she was rushed out with just her tow... more »
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*Homeland Security Will Not Deport German Christian Homeschoolers the
Romeikes*
*Obama wins the court battle but concedes political defeat*
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has verbally informed the Home
School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) that the Romeike family, German
homeschoolers who sought legal asylum in the United States, has been
granted indefinite deferred action status, which means that the order for
their removal from the United States will not be acted upon.
As Breitbart News reported Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court had denied the
Romeike family’s petiti... more »
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*Obama Admin. Wins Battle to Deport Christian Home School Family*
Uwe and Hannelore Romeike came to the United States in 2008 seeking
political asylum. They fled their German homeland in the face of religious
persecution for homeschooling their children.
They wanted to live in a country where they could raise their children in
accordance with their Christian beliefs.
The Romeikes were initially given asylum, but the Obama administration
objected – claiming that German laws that outlaw homeschooling do not
constitute persecution.
“The goal in Germany is for an open, pluralistic soc... more »
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*The 'Investment' of Higher Education*
What do Harry Potter, Lady Gaga and Star Trek have in common? Each is the
subject of courses offered at supposedly serious American colleges and
universities. It's no wonder then that according to a recent survey by
Gallup and the Lumina Foundation, only 11% of today's business leaders
"strongly agree" that college graduates offer the skills needed in the real
business world, while 88% want more connection between the business and
college arenas. Apparently, studying the intricacies of Lady Gaga's unique
wardrobe won't support a family in the ... more »
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*With 80 Percent of Public School Graduates Unable to Read, NYC Mayor Kicks
700 Kids Out of Charter Schools*
New York City's new socialist Mayor, Bill De Blasio, has kicked 700
students out of charter schools. Here are the details from the Heritage
Foundation:
De Blasio is blocking four charter schools – run by the Success Academy
charter school network – from opening or expanding, rolling back an offer
made to the charter network by his predecessor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to
co-locate in spaces not being fully used by the traditional public school
system.
“The cumulative imp... more »
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*Strange beliefs on campus*
If college students listened to Mark Levin or Rush Limbaugh, they would
receive a better American history education than they are getting from
their professors. I recently spoke at Emory University, where one student
defended all of President Obama’s unconstitutional actions by invoking the
Elastic Clause of the Constitution.
Citing the Elastic Clause could indeed justify a wide range of
administration actions, except for one problem – it doesn’t exist.
But you couldn’t tell that to the student at Emory University who came to
my speech last week on Ob... more »
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*Conservative USC alums fight on over FCC newsroom survey*
The Federal Communications Commission's decision to shelve plans for a
study of how media newsrooms work has tamped down outrage from some
conservative quarters but some alumni from a prominent participating
university are still in an uproar.
The University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication
and Journalism was one of two institutes of higher learning the FCC
commissioned to conduct a study of how media organizations gather and
report the news. The other school was the University of Wisconsin-Madison... more »
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*U. of Iowa president apologizes for referring to human nature*
The University of Iowa president has apologized for a remark she made to
the student newspaper about sex assaults on campus.
In an interview published Feb. 18 in The Daily Iowan, President Sally Mason
said she was dismayed by the reports of sexual assaults. She said "the goal
would be to end that, to never have another sexual assault. That's probably
not a realistic goal just given human nature, and that's unfortunate. ..."
Criticism erupted over the phrase that includes "human nature."
The Iowa City Press-Citizen say... more »
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*Student Suspended Over Fishing Knife In Car*
Zero-tolerance policies continue to make zero sense. David Duren-Sanner, a
senior at Northeast High School in Clarksville, Tennessee, has been
suspended for the crime of unknowingly transporting a fishing knife onto
school grounds. Duren-Sanner's father is a commercial fisherman who uses
the knife for work and had accidentally left it in his car before his son
drove it to school. The knife was found when Duren-Sanner's car was
randomly selected during a search at school.
On Thursday, Duren-Sanner, a senior at Northeast High School drov... more »
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*Millions of Dollars Misplaced in DC Scholarship Program*
More oversight in the nation’s capital. The District of Columbia's Tuition
Assistance Grant (TAG) program, intended to help students and families pay
for college, providing up to $50,000 a year to students who attend eligible
schools, has failed to account for millions of taxpayer dollars:
Congress has allocated between $17 million and $35 million a year for the
program and at least $30 million annually since 2006. But according to the
audit, TAG officials could not document or explain nearly $10 million in
expenses since 20... more »
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*Lotteries used to break middle-class hold on British school places*
*More destructive Leftist thinking. A school is only "good" if its pupils
are. The best buildings and the best teachers will do little if large
numbers of dumb and unruly pupils are introduced to the school. Random
admissions simply ensure that NO school is good*
Tens of thousands of children face losing the automatic right to a place at
their local secondary school amid a surge in the number of comprehensives
using lottery-style admissions policies.
Figures show that around one-in-12 schools employ rules des... more »
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*Why Parents Are "Paranoid" About Common Core*
This week's award for Biggest Common Core Jerk goes to Missouri GOP state
legislator Mike Lair. Parents, teachers and administrators who object to
the government education "standards" racket -- which usurps local control,
impedes academic achievement and undermines family privacy -- have
politicians on the defensive. The only thing these Fed Ed flacks and hacks
can respond with is cowardly condescension.
Lair, chairman of Missouri's House Appropriations Committee on Education,
inserted an $8 budget line item to mock Common Core critics... more »
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*Biggest Teachers Union Slams Common Core*
The National Education Association, America’s biggest teachers union, is
now taking back its once-enthusiastic support of Common Core. These
academic standards have experienced a terrible rollout, something similar
to Obamacare!
Although the President of the union, Dennis Van Roekel, says he still
believes the standards can improve education, but he also says they need
some major changes. He does not exclude rewriting some of the standards and
revising the related tests.
Mr. Van Roekel says, “In far too many states, implementation has be... more »
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*Chinese educational achievement*
*Some of it is due to hard work but there are slackers too. Those who think
that achievement in China is due to cramming only might like to reflect
that Chinese students in Western schools also do outstandingly well *
Consider this January 2011 Los Angeles Times article in which the
celebration of China's ability to master the standardized test is lost in
Shanghai:
Reporting from Shanghai -- Chinese adolescence is known as a time of scant
whimsy: Students rise at dawn, disappear into school until dinnertime and
toil into the late night over homewo... more »
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*Cuomo Introduces Initiative to Let Prisoners Take College Courses, Angry
New Yorkers Respond*
As if alienating pro-life conservatives and gun owners wasn't enough, New
York Governor Andrew Cuomo seems determined to make everyone in the Empire
State an enemy. Meet his latest initiative: Helping prisoners get college
degrees - and asking New Yorkers to pay for it.
Cuomo announced his plan to add college courses to ten prisons at Wilborn
Temple First Church of God in Albany during the Black, Puerto Rican
Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus event. The plan, he argued, would
reduc... more »
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*University Textbook Says Reagan was Extreme, Sexist, and Pessimistic*
What is a leftist supposed to do when history doesn’t perfectly fit their
ideological narrative? Well… If you’re in charge of creating textbooks for
college students, you just write your own version of historical events. And
while you’re at it, throw in a few editorial comments cleverly disguised as
“facts”. Apparently, the end result should look something like the textbook
that a University of South Carolina student was required to read. In a
nutshell, it explained that Ronald Reagan was a sexist, that Conserva... more »
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*Obstructionism of university gun club at UNC*
Mike Adams
Dear Chancellor Miller (chancellor@uncw.edu);
After laying the groundwork in my previous correspondence, I finally have
an opportunity to respond to the sweeping claim that UNCW's student affairs
division treats student groups equally, regardless of their political
viewpoint. I will also respond to the Dean's claim that there are hundreds
of student groups on campus that have been approved without any
difficulties whatsoever. That claim suggests that those who are not
approved have somehow failed to comply with university ... more »
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*Children sue in order to learn*
Schoolchildren in Los Angeles are currently pleading in court for the
opportunity to learn. They claim bad teachers prevent them from doing so.
California’s teachers’ unions are among the most powerful in the nation.
California statutes are so skewed in favor of teachers’ job security that
even grossly incompetent educators are almost impossible to dismiss. For
instance, it can cost $250,000 to $450,000 — and years of legal effort — to
remove a grossly incompetent K–12 public-school teacher from the Los
Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Once... more »
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*Kline: Focus on Strengthening Existing Early Ed Programs, Not
Rubber-Stamping Another *
The House Education and the Workforce Committee, chaired by Rep. John Kline
(R-MN), today held a full committee hearing entitled, “The Foundation for
Success: Discussing Early Childhood Education and Care in America.” During
the hearing, members discussed the federal investment in early childhood
development, and explored opportunities to better support the nation’s
youngest citizens.
“Early childhood education and development programs can have a lasting
influence on a child, laying the found... more »
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*University of Alabama Students 'Offended' By Pro-Life Display, School
Promptly Removes It*
When the University of Alabama group Bama Students for Life set up a
pro-life display on campus, some of their classmates deemed it too
‘offensive’ for school grounds. Administrators removed it without the
slightest hint of hesitation.
So, what exactly was so offensive?
The display, which featured several abortion-related facts, pictures of
women who have died as a result of having an abortion, and two small
pictures of aborted babies, was among numerous other student group
displays. Clair... more »
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*British school BANS skirts in crackdown on 'immodest' clothes after girls
keep their hemlines rising*
A school in Norfolk has banned students from wearing skirts in an attempt
to crack down on 'immodest' clothing styles, after giving up on the
struggle to stop girls from shortening their skirts.
From September, both boys and girls at Diss High School will have to wear
trousers. following a school ruling.
The decision has been described as 'ridiculous' and 'poorly thought out' by
parents, residents and local council officials.
Diss High School, Norfolk. The school has taken the de... more »
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*Berkeley prof forces students to tweet pro-Islam views*
Students in Professor Hatem Bazian's class at the University of California
at Berkeley are required to publicly denounce Islamophobia on Twitter while
designing strategies to help Islamic groups improve their outreach efforts.
Bazian is a founder of "Students for Justice in Palestine" at Berkeley,
where he teaches in the Near Eastern and Ethnic Studies departments. One of
his classes, "Asian American Studies 132AC: Islamophobia," requires
students to tweet about Islamophobia, according to Tarek Fatah, a columnist
for the Toro... more »
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*School Choice Week Must Be a Call to Action*
Every child should have the opportunity to achieve his or her American
Dream. Sadly, right now, not every child has a fair shot. Far too many
young students are stuck in failing schools. They don’t receive the quality
of education they deserve; they lack the resources to learn and thrive.
In twenty-first century America, this is unacceptable and unfair.
As champions of school choice and opportunity, I believe Republican leaders
can play a major role in fixing this problem. Last November I travelled to
New Orleans to hear first-hand from... more »
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*California Students File Constitutional Challenge to Weak Teacher Firing
Practices*
Three cheers for a group of nine California students who are fed up with
tenure rules that protect not only incompetent teachers, but also sexual
predators.
Reuters reports California students challenge teacher employment rules in
lawsuit.
A group of nine California students will challenge employment rules
they complain force public schools in the most populous U.S. state to
retain low performing teachers, as opening arguments kick off on Monday in
a lawsuit over education policy.
The l... more »
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*Surprise: Charter Schools Lose Out on Funding in NYC*
After the celebrations and pomp ended, one of the first things recently
inaugurated New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio did was begin slashing
funding from the city’s public charter schools. As the editors of National
Review Online put it, this was a calculated and cynical maneuver by the
mayor to repay the special interest groups who elected him:
After Barack Obama gave a thousand campaign speeches on Iraq, Guantanamo
Bay, and the economy, one of his first actions upon taking office as
president was to begin gutting a tiny sch... more »
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*Federal Preschool Proposals Will Cost Billions and Have Limited Impact on
Participants*
In November, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Representative George Miller
(D-CA) introduced the Strong Start for America's Children Act (S. 1697 and
H.R. 3461), which would create a federal preschool program for all
four-year-old children from low- to moderate-income families in the
country. It mirrors President Obama's call for a new $75 billion federal
preschool program.[1]
Policymakers at every level of government should exercise caution when it
comes to establishing federal or state preschoo... more »
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*School Tells Kids They Can't Celebrate USA*
*Why would people be "offended" by celebration of a place where they have
chosen to live?*
Students and parents at a Colorado high school are outraged after
administrators turned down their request for a spirit week day honoring
America because it might offend non-Americans.
“They said they didn’t want to offend anyone from other countries or
immigrants,” a 16-year-old member of the student council told me. “They
just really did not want to make anyone feel uncomfortable.”
The student council at Fort Collins High School had proposed hav... more »
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*Kansas Middle School: Poster Listing Sex Acts Part of 'Health and Science'
Curriculum*
The father of a 13 year-old girl who was upset by a classroom poster that
listed sex acts was shocked to hear that the poster is part of her school’s
health and science curriculum.
As local Fox News affiliate in Kansas, fox4kc.com, reported Tuesday, Mark
Ellis said his daughter, a student at Hocker Grove Middle school in the
Shawnee Mission School District, was “shocked” by what she saw on a poster
on a classroom wall in school. Ellis said his daughter took a picture of
the poster and showed he... more »
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*Mr. President, We Know What’s Wrong With the Broken Job Training System;
It’s Time to Fix It *
In his State of the Union address, President Obama called for a “year of
action” that left many Americans unimpressed. As one political journalist
wrote, the president’s agenda includes “small-bore executive orders,
studies, summits.” President Obama’s lackluster to-do list was especially
evident when he announced Vice President Joe Biden would address job
training reform by merely conducting a review of the workforce development
system.
For those in desperate need of new skills and ... more »
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*Colleges and Congressmen Are Why Your Degree Is Worthless*
As the spring semester rolls around, college graduates will be thrust into
the workforce. With their pedigree from a fine institution of higher
learning, and economy ready to receive them, they will surely be able to
find employment! The American Dream, a beautiful one at that. Too bad it
really won’t apply to most graduates.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 44% of college graduates
are underemployed, or working in jobs that they don’t need a degree for.
College was originally only available to children o... more »
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*Boy, six, suspended from school for four days after he was found to have a
packet of Mini Cheddars in his lunchbox*
*Cheese is bad for you???*
A six-year-old boy who went to school with a bag of Mini Cheddars in his
packed lunch has been suspended for four days after teachers said it
contravened its healthy eating policy.
Riley Pearson, from Colnbrook, near Slough, was excluded from Colnbrook C
of E Primary School after teachers discovered the snack and called in his
parents.
After a meeting with headmaster Jeremy Meek, they were sent a letter
telling them Riley would be exclud... more »
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*Are Opportunity Scholarships the Way of the Future?*
It’s National School Choice week so it’s fitting that Jason Stverak, who is
president of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity,
argued yesterday at The Hill that it’s high-time we finally have a national
conversation about expanding educational opportunities in this country. He
writes that while young Americans applying to colleges and universities
have a wide range of options to pick and choose from, oftentimes poor
children in grades K-12 have no other choice but to attend their local (and
failing) public s... more »
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*Standardized Absurdity: A Preview of Common Core Testing, Part 2*
We shall continue with our Common Core standardized exam, provided by the
testing consortium Smarter Balanced. Recall that this is an eleventh-grade
English Language Arts examination.
"Much Ado About Much Ado About Nothing
It was the first day back at school after the holiday break. Our drama
teacher, Mrs. Kent, handed out our next assignment: an in-depth study of a
scene from one of Shakespeare’s plays. I was so excited to see that I had
been assigned a scene from Much Ado About Nothing. Finally, here was m... more »
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*Standardized Absurdity: A Preview of Common Core Testing, Part 1*
Let’s put the Common Core to the test. Specifically, let’s look at a pilot
standardized examination created by Smarter Balanced, one of the two
testing consortia formed to create exams aligned to the Common Core, the
educational regimen that prevails in forty-five states in the nation. We
shall leave aside the questions of why everyone has been so quiet about
what these tests will look like and whether states outsourcing testing to
unaccountable agencies that will in turn dictate the curricula of the
schools consti... more »
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*Only 8 Percent Aware America Spends $11,000 Per Student Annually*
Only four countries spend more money on education per student than America.
Despite being a ravenous consumer of taxpayer funds, a Rasmussen Report
released Friday revealed most Americans are oblivious of the hefty price
tag:
Voters continue to agree that taxpayers are not getting a good return on
their investment in education and are not inclined to think spending more
will make any difference.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just eight
percent (8%) of Likely Voters are aware the Unite... more »
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*BOOK REVIEW: The Story-Killers: A Common-Sense Case Against the Common
Core *
by Terrence O. Moore (Author)
Kindle
$6.40
Paperback
$13.50
"a stopcommoncore must-read." Michelle Malkin
". . . I could hardly put this book down until I finished reading it. . . .
[T]his is not a dry read. It is a shocking read." Joy Pullmann, Heartland
Institute
"It wasn't until I started reading Dr. Moore's writings that I fully
comprehended the significance of just what America was about to lose."
Heather Crossin, Hoosiers Against Common Core
What is the Common Core? How will the Common Core ... more »
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*More on Why Preschool Vouchers Are a Bad Idea*
After sending out yesterday’s School Choice Weekly, in which I bashed the
Indiana House for passing a preschool voucher pilot, I received a few
thoughtful comments in my email box.
One was from Brandon Dutcher, senior vice president of the Oklahoma Council
for Public Policy. He wanted my thoughts on whether a state that already
has universal government preschool (like Oklahoma) would be better off if
the preschool funds were vouchers. I said yes.
What’s the difference? Indiana currently has no statewide preschool
program. Since resea... more »
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*MoCo eliminates the scourge of strawberry milk*
*Don't education advocates have bigger things to be concerned with -- like
education?*
Donna St. George reports in The Washington Post that the Montgomery County
Public Schools have decided to address a serious hindrance to the education
of students in that county: strawberry milk.
In a move that seems to defy logic, the county has decided to take away
strawberry milk:
Come January, school cafeterias in Montgomery County will be missing the
pinkest offering of the lunch line. Strawberry-flavored milk is on its way
out. St. George... more »
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*Rotten to the Common Core*
Once upon a time, parents, local school boards, and states determined
classroom curriculum. Those days are quickly disappearing. Misnamed “state
standards,” the federal Common Core curriculum guidance is an attempt to
further nationalize education. Forty-five states plus DC have embraced
Common Core, although as George Will notes, they have done so in exchange
for stimulus funds or waivers from federal regulations – federal
arm-twisting at its best. Even worse, some states adopted Common Core
almost immediately after the June 2, 2010 release of the stan... more »
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* Report: Majority of Campuses Severely Restrict Free Speech*
And that's an improvement. According to a new report released by the
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a non-profit educational
organization, 59 percent of campuses around the country severely restrict
free speech. These campuses maintain restrictions on students through
speech codes and other policies. Here are the main findings from the report:
59% (58.6%) of the 427 schools surveyed have speech codes that clearly and
substantially restrict protected speech. (FIRE labels these “red light”
schools.) Anothe... more »
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*Public School Discipline and Obama's Egalitarian Society*
Claiming to protect the civil rights of minority students by condemning
good black kids from inner-city schools to classrooms with dysfunctional
and violent juvenile delinquents seems like a plan orchestrated by the
Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. However, this is the brainchild of the
Obama administration to remedy its alleged racial discrimination in school
discipline policies that do-gooding liberals imposed in the first place.
Just last Wednesday, the Department of Justice and the Department of
Education sent a c... more »
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*Politics Versus Education*
Thomas Sowell
Anyone who has still not yet understood the utter cynicism of the Obama
administration in general, and Attorney General Eric Holder in particular,
should look at the Justice Department's latest interventions in education.
If there is one thing that people all across the ideological spectrum
should be able to agree on, it is that better education is desperately
needed by black youngsters, especially in the ghettoes. For most, it is
their one chance for a better life.
Among the few bright spots in a generally dismal picture of the education ... more »
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*Obama and the Left: Enemies of black education*
*Why? Keep blacks poor so they will keep voting Democrat*
Kevin Chavous is a former District of Columbia Councilmember, mayoral
candidate, and member of the Obama education advisory committee. Now, he
is an advocate for school vouchers.
The African-American Democrat points to what some would consider a shocking
truth when it comes to which politicians support increasing opportunities
for inner city underprivileged children when he talks about the constant
fight over funding school vouchers in the District saying, “We have a 97
p... more »
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*Obama’s failure and college political culture*
Recent news stories have been commenting on the sharp drop in support for
Obama among young voters, disappointed both with his failure to live up to
their imaginings and with the reality of policies he supported (Obamacare)
or tolerated (NSA). The interesting question, going beyond the next few
elections, is what effect if any this will have on their political views.
One thing that struck us when we were visiting colleges our kids were
considering and that then struck our kids as college students was the
uniformity of left wing view... more »
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*Ideological Warfare on Campus*
Recently the University of Colorado noted that political affiliation and
orientation would be a protected category in the university's
nondiscrimination policy. What prompted this action were reports from
conservative faculty members that their viewpoints have been stifled.
While the proposal was approved, it is remarkable that this policy had to
be introduced in the first place. What it suggests is that the faculty
political outlook is homogeneous allowing little room for different points
of view. Yet, to state the obvious, the essence of education... more »
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*Obama Administration Targets School ‘Zero Tolerance’ Policies – Mostly
Because They’re Racist, Not Because They’re Stupid and Terrible*
Yesterday the Departments of Justice and Education released what they are
referring to as a “school discipline guidance package” that the media is
describing as an effort to clamp down on overzealous school “zero
tolerance” punishment policies. While it’s true this “package” discusses
how zero tolerance policies are bad policy, a lot of this guidance is all
about making sure school discipline isn’t being disproportionately applied
based on race.... more »
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*Academe quits me*
Tomorrow I will step into a classroom to begin the last semester of a
24-year teaching career. Don’t get me wrong. I am not retiring. I am not
“burned out.” The truth is rather more banal. Ohio State University will
not be renewing my three-year contract when it expires in the spring. The
problem is tenure: with another three-year contract, I would become
eligible for tenure. In an era of tight budgets, there is neither money nor
place for a 61-year-old white male professor who has never really fit in
nor tried very hard to. (Leave aside my heterodox politics an... more »
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*School Choice in 2014*
After another year of steadily increasing school choice nationwide, where
will school choice fever hit next? Look for action in Oklahoma and
Tennessee, says the Friedman Foundation’s Leslie Hiner. Oklahoma lawmakers
are discussing Arizona-style education savings accounts (ESAs) and
Tennessee lawmakers will have to decide between statewide vouchers and
those limited to urban areas.
(ESAs deposit a child’s state education dollars into an account parents
control and can use for many education resources, as opposed to a voucher,
which may be used only at one s... more »
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*10 Peculiar Things U.S. Public Schools Have Banned*
We’ve all heard stories about schools banning books or gang-affiliated
clothing, but there are many less-publicized bans in effect. Here are ten
of the more interesting cases.
1. POGS
Remember Pogs? The game featured cardboard discs printed with some kind of
design on one side (sometimes a TV show or company promo), and was played
by stacking the pieces face-down and pummeling them with a slammer (a
heavier metal piece). The overturned pogs were then kept by the player in
turn; when the face-down Pogs were gone, the player with... more »
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*Neuroscience in British education*
*"These methods need to be investigated thoroughly to dispel the ‘myths’
surrounding practices that may or may not have educational value"*
Visual, auditory or kinaesthetic; there’s a high likelihood that, as a
student, you may have been labelled as a particular kind of learner. A
student who learns best when presented with educational material in a
particular format.
However, according to a recent report from the Wellcome Trust, there is
little scientific evidence to suggest that this form of intervention in the
classroom is beneficial to stude... more »
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*Common Core and the EduTech Abyss*
Michelle Malkin
The Common Core gold rush is on. Apple, Pearson, Google, Microsoft and
Amplify are all cashing in on the federal standards/testing/textbook
racket. But the EduTech boondoggle is no boon for students. It's more
squandered tax dollars down the public school drain.
Even more worrisome: The stampede is widening a dangerous path toward
invasive data mining.
According to the Silicon Valley Business Journal, the ed tech sector "is
expected to more than double in size to $13.4 billion by 2017." That
explosive growth is fueled by Commo... more »
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*Employment and the advantage of education: The right way to count*
People with more education don't just make more money if they have jobs;
they're more likely to have jobs in the first place. As a result, the
earnings premium now greatly exceeds the wage premium. Consider the
following caricature approximation of modern male earnings:
(a) College grads with full-time jobs earn 70% more than high school grads
with full-time jobs.
(b) 95% of college grads, but only 70% of high school grads, have full-time
jobs. Everyone else receives $0 of income.
College grads in this scenari... more »
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*Rocky Horror State University*
The University of Houston-Downtown has about 14,000 students and, while
Wikipedia says UHD students are 39% Hispanic, 29% African American, 20%
white, 9% Asian American, the percentage of transgendered students is
evidently unknown.
Nevertheless, with the encouragement of “the university’s new Center for
Student Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” UHD is now creating
“gender-neutral” restrooms to accommodate the, uh, gender neutral. And this
regime is “coming soon to a college near you,” as Aleister at College
Insurrection says.
Questions:
Why doe... more »
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*It begins: New NYC schools chancellor will push ‘progressive agenda’ *
Now that New York City Mayor and far-left Democrat Bill de Blasio has
chosen Carmen Farina to become chancellor of NYC schools, city residents
can expect a sharp turn to the left on education policy.
Farina, a former teacher and long-time adviser to de Blasio, shares the
mayor’s desire to foist a “progressive agenda” upon NYC schools, she said
at a news conference earlier this week.
“This progressive agenda actually says we know there are things that need
to happen, but they need to happen with people, not ... more »
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*Pre-school ed.: Impervious to Evidence, Liberals Ride Again*
"We will restore science to its rightful place ... " So intoned a
"dismissive and derisive" President Barack Obama in his first inaugural.
It's been oft quoted in the five years since (frequently by me, I'll
confess) for its arrogance and condescension, which has continuing
relevance, but before turning to the left's latest departure from
scientific rigor, I cannot resist a fuller quotation. The second part of
this sentence from Obama's first inaugural reads " ... and wield
technology's wonders to raise health care's... more »
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*Christie Gives Undocumented Students Access to In-State Tuition*
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed landmark legislation at the end
of December which allowed the state’s undocumented high school students
access to in-state tuition at all public colleges and universities.
Under the new legislation, students who graduated from a New Jersey high
school where they had been in attendance for at least three years are
eligible to receive in-state and in-county rates at state colleges,
universities, and community college campuses.
“This is what compromise looks like,” the governor... more »
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*Obama Regulations Disenfranchise Minority, Low-Income College Students*
Education is the great equalizer. Yet, while President Obama was talking
earlier this month about how minority and underprivileged Americans need a
“decent education,” his Department of Education (ED) was pushing more
onerous regulations that would have the opposite effect. ED is finalizing
the administration’s second attempt at passing “gainful employment”
standards that place restrictions on institutions that can receive
government funding for its students.
In short, the new rules would require programs tha... more »
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*Rotten to the Core *
*Instead of ill-conceived standards, improve schools with vouchers and
competition*
Americans expect more individualization, from flexible workplace schedules
and telecommuting, to TV programs that can be watched at viewers’
convenience.
Yet American education is moving in the opposite direction toward
one-size-fits-all schooling thanks in no small part to the Common Core
national standards. Savvy education consumers should reject this growing
centralization and start demanding from education what they demand from
every other industry sector: more innovatio... more »
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*Poll: Public education seen as declining in Louisiana*
*The Mood of Louisiana was an opt-in survey made available to the print,
digital and social media audiences of The Town Talk in Alexandria, The
Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, The Daily World in Opelousas, The Times in
Shreveport and The News-Star in Monroe in early December. Five hundred
people participated in the survey.*
Public education has long been a critical backbone of community and
economic success, and a recent statewide survey shows that most Louisiana
residents put it at the top of the list of state priorities.
T... more »
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*DIY Bathroom De-Gendering Spreading at Colleges*
Students at Wesleyan University followed the lead of students at Brown
University to relabel traditional bathrooms as gender neutral. A Slate
writer defended the move, describing bathrooms as a "social construct" and
personal comfort as a "privilege."
The relabeling campaign is easy to organize: only a handful of activists
are needed to obtain some signs for free and then relabel bathrooms on
their own.
It is important to note that some places in America now require
gender-neutral bathrooms, including Philadelphia and a county in ... more »
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*The Common Core "Slippery Slope"*
The Common Core opens the door much wider for Washington to meddle in
schooling. The experience of the Bush-era No Child Left Behind Act is
instructive. Initially, NCLB limited federal authority over how states
would set standards, select tests, and improve teacher quality. In recent
years, however, the Obama administration has used its ability to issue
“waivers” from NCLB to push states to adopt the Common Core, sign onto
certain tests, and evaluate teachers in specified ways. There’s much
precedent for worrying about slippery slopes.
In fact,... more »
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*NY charter schools worry about mayor-elect's plans*
Operators of New York City's publicly financed, privately run charter
schools are bracing for changes promised by Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio —
including the possibility of having to pay rent — that they worry could
reverse 12 years of growth enjoyed under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
De Blasio has pledged to charge rent to "well-resourced" charter schools
and has called for a moratorium on allowing new charters to share buildings
with traditional schools, taking aim at a Bloomberg policy that helped the
schools grow from 17 to 183 d... more »
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*Rationing school freedom in collectivist Oakland*
You can’t have too much of a good thing—unless you mean freedom and you
live in Oakland, apparently.
Oakland Unified School District school board member Jody London says
enough’s enough when it comes to parents looking out for their own kids’
education. What does she mean?
Oakland has the highest concentration of charter schools of any city in
California, according to the San Francisco Chronicle: “This year, more than
a quarter of the city’s 49,000 students are attending one of its nearly 40
alternative public schools, far more p... more »
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*Report: Feds Struggle to Produce Timely, Relevant Education Research*
The U.S. Department of Education needs to improve the speed, transparency,
and relevance of its research, a federal review has found.
The federal Institute of Education Sciences (IES) does not, for example,
publicly report on the performance of its regional laboratories, which
consume a large portion of its budget, says the Government Accountability
Office (GAO) report. Similarly, its evaluation of federal Race to the Top
grants, which disposed of $4.35 billion, is slated to arrive after
grant-recipient states h... more »
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*Student suspended for a year for … *GASP*… hugging a teacher*
A high school senior has been suspended for a year and will not graduate on
time for committing a terrible offense…he gave a teacher a hug.
Sam McNair is a 17-year-old student at Duluth High School in Georgia. He
was suspended last week when a school hearing officer decided he violated
the Gwinnett County Public Schools’ rules on sexual harassment.
“Something so innocent can be perceived as something totally opposite,”
said McNair.
A surveillance camera caught the hug. It shows McNair placing his arms
around the b... more »
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*Liberals, Unions and Teachers Find New Uses for Dead Children*
Note: This article contains explicit language that some readers might find
offensive.
Liberals in Ohio have used the death of a 14-year-old homeschooler in order
to try to pass legislation that would require all homeschooling families to
first have a home visit by some bureaucrat or another to see if they’re
worthy enough for homeschooling.
14-year old Teddy Foltz was pulled out of school by his mother because
teachers suspected child abuse, the story goes.
The child was subsequently beaten to death by the mother's b... more »
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*College Presidents Question Obama's Higher Ed Plan*
College and university presidents (who overwhelmingly supported the Obama
campaign in 2012) are more skeptical than expected about the President's
effort to reform federal financial aid, according to a recent poll. The
most controversial part of the reform proposal is instituting a national
system of ratings and tying federal funding to highly-rated schools.
The plan itself is not recent news, but the reaction of higher education
leaders is. Inside Higher Ed provides some background:
"Obama administration officials have said... more »
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*“Bah! Humbug!”: A Dickens-less Christmas from the Scrooges of the Common
Core*
Any people is known by and knows itself through its stories. In addition to
the true story of its existence—its history—there are stories that
technically never happened. While these stories get assigned to the
“fiction” section of the library, that does not mean they are not true—at
least true to nature. The myths, parables, poems, plays, novels, and,
occasionally, epics—that are given the high name of literature—are the
vehicles through which the greatest observers of human nature explain that
human... more »
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*Why Are The Humanities Disappearing?*
I often find myself in the odd position of addressing the question "why are
the humanities disappearing?" In most instances my interrogators assume I
will say something about the desire for vocational training in an
environment where jobs are scarce. Clearly that is an answer, but a partial
and unreflective response.
Based on my experience in the Academy over 35 years, I have noticed an
evolutionary condition far more significant and far more malignant than the
rise of vocational education.
For most of my academic life I resided in a place c... more »
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*Georgetown University’s One-Way Street of Christian-Muslim Understanding*
The "more strongly you are committed to your faith," emerging church leader
Brian McLaren stated at Georgetown University on November 21, 2013, the
"more tolerant and compassionate you are." McLaren's equivalency among all
faiths fit perfectly into the conference "Muslim-Christian Relations in the
21st Century: Challenges & Opportunities," a day-long, one-sided
presentation of Islam as a pacific faith unjustly maligned by Christians
and others.
Presented by Georgetown's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center fo... more »
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*NYT: Ash blond and pimply redhead boys hogging all the STEM education,
apparently*
*The NYT below has a multitude of reasons why women and blacks are poorly
represented in mathematics-intensive subjects. They just cannot admit what
100 years of psychometic research has repeatedly shown -- that women have
less ability at math and that blacks have less ability overall. It's not
complicated at all and none of the NYT "solutions" will work. The only
solutions Leftists have ever got to work is to dumb all educational
achievement to the lowest common denominator*
Women make up ... more »
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*Obamacore: The travesty called the Common Core Standards *
This article is about the travesty called the Common Core Standards. Its
design began before Obama was elected but I and others refer to it as
Obamacore because Obama played a major role in imposing it on the country,
and like Obamacare it was passed without being read, and it involves
centralized data collection of private information. States across the U.S.
signed on to Obamacore because they were bribed with stimulus funds. As
parents became aware of the changes that were made to their children's
education many join... more »
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*'I like to see a student bossom': British headmaster reveals
'semi-literate' applications received for job at top boarding school*
A headmaster has revealed the 'semi-literate' job applications he received
from state school teachers vying for a post at his top boarding school.
Among the spelling mistake-ridden CVs received by Richard Cairns were
boasts that one history teacher liked 'to see a student bossom' (sic),
while a chemistry teacher gave his date of birth as 1053.
Mr Cairns, the headmaster at leading private school Brighton College, was
so appalled at the poor standards d... more »
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*Secondary education: learning Latin for literacy*
*I heartily agree with this. The time I spent learning Latin in High
School was certainly well spent -- JR*
At a time when the OECD report has ranked the UK as 23rd out of 65
countries for reading, perhaps it is time to rethink our attitudes towards
education. If the classicists are to be believed, learning Latin can
improve literacy levels.
Given that England is the only country in the developed world in which
55-65 year olds out perform 16 – 24 year olds in literacy and numeracy, a
return to teaching the classics could provid... more »
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*An Education in College Justice*
*Under pressure from the Obama administration, a university tramples the
rights of the accused*
By JAMES TARANTO
Joshua Strange will never forget the girl he met in May 2011.
Both were underclassmen at Alabama's Auburn University when a common
acquaintance introduced them. "We instantly became attached at the hip and
did everything together," she recalled six months later. "I rather quickly
moved into his place. . . . Everything was great until pretty much June 29."
That night, an intimate encounter in Mr. Strange's bed went wrong. She
called po... more »
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*Canadian Public school classroom bans meat, eggs and fish for “religious
reasons”*
If you’re a student at Stoney Creek Public School in London, Ontario, your
school lunches may be restricted to romaine lettuce and tofu after a letter
addressing disallowed foods was distributed to students in a grade two
classroom.
To address the influx of students with anaphylaxis allergies, the school’s
principal, Steve McCombe, signed a fill-in-the-blank letter addressing the
school’s policy on food allergens, and teachers filled in the
classroom-specific allergy portion before distributing t... more »
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*School Nannies and the Death of Common Sense*
It sounds like the opening line of a joke, “A father walked up to his kid’s
school and gets arrested…” but watch the video of Jim Howe trying to pick
up his kids from South Cumberland Elementary School in Cumberland County,
Tennessee, and you’ll sooner cry than laugh. That’s because Howe’s alleged
crime was walking into the school building and asking to take his children
now that classes were over. Howe was supposed to wait, you see. All walking
parents are supposed to cool their heels until a long line of drivers have
picked up their... more »
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*Feds' Tentacles in the Common Core: Student tracking and data collection*
In Part 1 of my series on the Common Core State Standards being infused
into 45 state public school systems, I revealed how the feds spent $350
million of taxpayer money, giving grants and waivers to muscle states and
local school districts to accept the standards. And that was after 2009,
when feds awarded, in the Department of Education's words, "governors
approximately $48.6 billion ... in exchange for a commitment to advance
essential education reforms ... including: college- and career-ready
standards... more »
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*A Textbook That Should Live in Infamy: The Common Core Assaults World War
II*
Saturday the 7th of December will mark the seventy-second anniversary of
the attack on Pearl Harbor. The commemoration of that “date which will live
in infamy” brings up memories of more than Pearl Harbor but of the entire
American effort in World War II: of the phenomenal production of planes and
tanks and munitions by American industry; of millions of young men
enlisting (with thousands lying about their age to get into the service);
of the men who led the war, then and now seeming larger than life—Ch... more »
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*New Study: Not Such a Large Head Start*
For decades the federal government has claimed that our youngest children,
particularly those brought up poor, would be best served by getting an
early jump on the formal educational process. This notion led to the Head
Start program, which serves children in the year or two before the normal
commencement of kindergarten.
Yet for years, studies have proved that the Head Start program and other
similar efforts are a colossal waste of money because the early advantage
given to these children is erased in the first few years of standard K-12
s... more »
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*‘Genderqueer’ rising: Colleges welcome kids who identify as neither male
nor female*
The weekly meetings of Mouthing Off!, a group for students at Mills College
in Oakland, Calif., who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender,
always start the same way. Members take turns going around the room saying
their names and the personal pronouns they want others to use when
referring to them — she, he or something else.
It’s an exercise that might seem superfluous given that Mills, a small and
leafy liberal arts school historically referred to as the Vassar of the
West, only ad... more »
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*The Education Earthquake In The Rocky Mountain State*
Hugh Hewitt
Voters in Colorado overwhelmingly rejected a proposed school finance reform
measure on Tuesday, one which would have raised nearly a billion dollars
for Colorado public schools. Described by local media as "a major overhaul
of education financing that would have provided nearly $1 billion in
additional revenue for Colorado schools," the measure was rejected by a
nearly 2-1 margin, with almost 66% of voters saying no.
That isn't just a defeat. It is a repudiation, and an ominous one. Set
aside the specifics of th... more »
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*Student Paper Editor Claims Mustaches are Racist*
The health and education editor of the student newspaper at one of Canada’s
most prestigious universities has advised the world that Movember — the
month-long pledge by men to grow hair above the upper lip to support men’s
health awareness — is “sexist, racist, transphobic, and misinformed.”
Let’s begin with transphobic. Which means it discriminates against women
who have themselves mutilated so they can pretend to be men.
Haddad’s complaints about Movember are many. To begin with, he says, the
concept discriminates against trans... more »
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*Fury in South Africa after schoolchildren's drama exam included question
on how they would stage the rape of a baby*
Teenage students in South Africa were horrified to be asked how they would
stage the rape of a baby using a broomstick and a loaf of bread in a drama
exam.
Outraged teachers and parents have complained to the national education
department about the question which related to a theatre play about the
gruesome rape of a nine-month-old baby.
The question, which has been described as 'downright insensitive and
immoral,' left some of the 17-year-old students in tear... more »
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*Feds Strike It Rich Indebting Our Nation's Youth*
The federal government posted a $41.3 billion profit on its student loan
business in fiscal year 2013, a higher profit level than all but two
companies in the world: Exxon Mobil ($44.9 billion) and Apple ($41.7
billion). USA Today reports:
The numbers track the entire fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. They come as
concern continues to mount about the level of indebtedness by college
students and graduates. Estimates show more than $1.2 trillion in student
loan debt across the nation, more than the nation owes on credit cards.
...
Ke... more »
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*A pro-terror rally on a Palestinian campus*
by Jeff Jacoby
THEY WEREN'T wearing swastika armbands or chanting "Sieg Heil!" during the
Islamic Jihad rally this month on the campus of Al-Quds University. They
didn't need to. Everything about the event reeked of fascism and
anti-Semitic bloodlust. Demonstrators at the Palestinian school paraded in
paramilitary gear, with massed black flags, mock assault weapons, and arms
extended in Nazi-style salutes. There were banners lionizing suicide
bombers, and hand-drawn Israeli flags on which students trod. Islamic Jihad
— long identified ... more »
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*Children of 8 are 'racist' if they miss Islam trip: British school's
threatening letter to parents is met with outrage*
Parents were ordered to send their children to a workshop on Islam or have
them labelled as racist for the rest of their school career.
They were sent a letter warning that the primary school pupils would have a
‘racial discrimination note’ put on their records if they did not go.
Families were told to pay £5 per child for the Explore Islam trip next
Wednesday to Staffordshire University, which would involve Year 4 and Year
6 children being shown Islamic artefa... more »
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*University is not the only way to success, British heads told: Leading
teacher says parents and independent schools should stop being 'sniffy'
about vocational qualifications*
Parents and independent schools should stop being ‘sniffy’ about vocational
qualifications and assuming university is the automatic route after
A-levels, a leading headteacher has said.
Hilary French, the headmistress of Central Newcastle High School, said
employers were increasingly demanding skills that were of genuine use in
the work place.
The cost of taking a degree and the introduction of low-cost on... more »
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*Arne Duncan's War on Women and Children*
Just when you thought the Obama administration couldn't antagonize America
any further, along comes Education Secretary Arne Duncan. He didn't just
attack "white suburban moms" and children over their criticism of the
Common Core "standards"/testing/data-mining program. The feds' top educrat
also managed to insult every one of the nation's minority families and
educators who oppose Fed Ed's threat to academic excellence, local control
and student privacy.
On Friday, while defending the beleaguered Common Core program in a meeting
with sta... more »
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* Common Core, Common Complaints*
All but a few states have formally adopted Common Core, the state-driven
campaign to improve educational outcomes for K-12 students by meeting
common academic benchmarks, particularly in math and English. But the
program has faced criticism across the spectrum. The basic flaw of Common
Core, according to education policy expert and Independent Institute
Research Fellow Vicki Alger, is that its standards are “weak, costly,
politicized, and unconstitutional.” In recent pieces in The Beacon, she has
focused on two problems with Common Core: the polit... more »
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*If You Want a Conservative Child*
In my last column, I proposed some explanations for why many conservative
parents have left-wing children.
In a nutshell, American parents who hold traditional American values — such
as belief in small government as the basis of liberty, in a God-based moral
code, that American military strength is the greatest contributor to world
peace and stability, or in American exceptionalism, not to mention in the
man-woman definition of marriage or in the worth of a human fetus — are at
war with almost every influence on their children’s lives. This inclu... more »
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*Common Core: “If you like your curriculum, you can keep your curriculum”*
Common Core’s primary backers have been assuring us for years that the
standards do not mandate any specific curriculum or prescribe any
particular method of teaching. However, now that states have begun to
implement Common Core, those same backers are singing a different tune.
Professor Jay P. Greene highlighted the shift at the Education Next blog.
For example, just six months ago, prominent Common Core supporters Kathleen
Porter-Magee and Sol Stern wrote in National Review Online:
"Here’s what the Co... more »
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*Anti-Semitism, academic freedom and Brooklyn College*
Does Brooklyn College have a Jewish problem?
For the second time this year, the university's political science
department has outraged the Jewish community by agreeing to co-sponsor
events hosted by Brooklyn College Students for Justice in Palestine, an
organization whose sole mission is to engage in campus activities that
demonize and delegitimize the Jewish state.
In February, the department co-sponsored a Students for Justice event
advertised as "a lecture by Judith Butler and Omar Barghouti on the
importance of BDS (boycot... more »
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*Fixing Sweden’s schools*
*Swedish pupils have fallen behind their international peers. Why? No
mention of the main reason: A big new minority of thick Middle-Easterners
pulling down the averages*
A NEW study from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
will land on the desks of policymakers around the world next month. It will
make sobering reading for political leaders in many countries. In Sweden
Jan Bjorklund, the education minister, is prepared for poor marks too.
The triennial study by the OECD, a think-tank, measures the reading, maths
and science prof... more »
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*Alabama Supreme Court Ends “Right” to College Life*
*The Alabama Supreme Court ruled 6-2 that non-custodial parents are no
longer required to help pay their child’s college expenses*
While everyone was fretting over the Federal shutdown, the Alabama Supreme
Court took the unexpected, but absolutely correct action, of overturning
Bayliss v. Bayliss. The Bayliss precedent has been used by courts to
provide post-minority support for college. It has become an expected right
for the "college life" for Alabama children.
Now, with Bayliss overturned, the choice to provide monies for co... more »
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*Tear Down this What? The Common Core on the End of the Cold War*
The ninth of November marked the twenty-fourth anniversary of the fall of
the Berlin Wall, probably the most important historical event since World
War II and the most important lesson about human freedom experienced within
the living memory of most of us.
Presumably, next year there will be more of a commemoration, but the
salient question now is how this lesson is being taught in the nation’s
classrooms. For while those of us in our forties and older remember the
fall of communism and its causes, today’s teenager... more »
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*WA: College Students Placed on Probation For Pulling Gun on Six-Time Felon*
Gonzaga University seniors Erik Fagan and Daniel McIntosh were placed on
probation Sunday for pulling a pistol on a six-time felon who demanded
money from them in their university-owned apartment.
School policy prohibits weapons "at any location on campus, or within
University residences." The school board found the students guilty of
possessing weapons on school property and of putting others in danger,
according to the student's attorney Dean Chuang.
Fagan told the Spokesman-Review they intend to appeal... more »
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*School Lunch Expansion: Another Wasteful, Unaffordable Entitlement*
Soon, all public schools will be allowed to enroll all students, regardless
of need, into a new federal entitlement: “free” school lunches. This is the
second year of a three-year rollout for the program, embedded in Michelle
Obama’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. As the 2010 law goes into effect,
families keep finding the lunches aren’t necessarily healthier, new calorie
limits can mean older and athletic kids go hungry, taxpayer costs have
spiked, and piling on new food welfare programs continues to make more po... more »
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*Idea of ‘excellence for all is nonsense’, says former private school head*
Not all children should be encouraged to attend university because the idea
of "excellence for all is nonsense”, the former head of Harrow has said.
Barnaby Lenon, who is still Chairman of the Independent Schools Council,
has argued that getting a degree is a privilege not a right, and many
students would be better off going straight into the workplace as their
degrees are not worth their value.
Mr Lenon, who has taught at Eton and was head of the £33,000 a year Harrow
School for 12 years before retiring i... more »
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*To Each According to His Disability*
Mike Adams
I'm probably too young to have so many pet peeves. The list seems to get
longer every year. So, naturally, the longer I teach, the longer my list of
class rules seems to get. In addition to rules of class conduct, I also
have to develop rules concerning over-disclosure of information in emails
and office visits. Such over-disclosure is always geared towards one goal
for the student: transforming personal deficiencies into legitimate
disabilities in an effort to attenuate workload expectations.
Whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed by t... more »
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*Obama sends kids to the back of the bus on education*
Decades-old desegregation orders on Louisiana school districts, the center
of a federal government case against Louisiana’s school choice program, are
now emerging as a major distraction for the Department of Justice bringing
the case.
The Justice Department is arguing that allowing students to leave public
schools for private schools will somehow undermine desegregation of schools
in Louisiana.
Yet, when the state in discovery asked for the desegregation orders, the
administration responded by stalling. “[S]ome of the Discov... more »
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*France Fights Public School Islamism*
Secular France wants nothing to do with religion. Yet, it has been forced
to grapple with its increasing Islamization that appears to be spinning out
of control. The French Education Minister has a new plan to push back: a
secularism charter in every public school. However, France's misguided
efforts are unlikely to solve the problem.
France is officially a secular country with separation of church and state.
There is no state religion and everyone is free to believe or not believe
as they wish. The expression of religious faith is permitted ... more »
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*Leicestershire Police criticised after disciplining schoolboy who flicked
elastic band at another boy*
A mother has criticised police after two officers were sent to discipline
her 12-year-old son for flicking an elastic band at another boy at school.
Angela Brightwell thought teachers had dealt with the minor incident
outside the schoolmates two weeks earlier.
Her son told her the band accidentally shot out of his hand and hit a
younger boy in the face and he had apologised.
However, Ms Brightwell said her son was left in tears when two officers
turned up at his home while he w... more »
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*New Report: Grads Not Only Unprepared for Workplace, But Unaware of How
Unprepared They Are*
Inside Higher Ed reported on the findings of a new survey that shows just
how flawed the education system is in America today. Half of college
students say they are prepared for the workplace, but hiring managers
completely disagree.
It is sad enough that only 50% of college students think they are prepared
for the workplace, but the fact that only 39% of employers say that the
students are prepared is even more worrisome. 77% of students, but only 50%
of hiring managers believed that st... more »
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*Brown Shirts at Brown U?*
When New York City's strikingly successful police commissioner, Raymond
Kelly, arrived to address students at Brown University, he was harassed,
booed and heckled for 30 long minutes. "Racism is not for debate," they
shouted. A university official pleaded with the goons, er, students to
permit Kelly to speak, reminding them that they would be free to express
disagreement during the Q-and-A session afterwards. "Shout him down!"
responded a man in the audience, and the crowd did.
Episodes like this are tolerated in America because college faculties,
admini... more »
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*Socialist history curriculum strides toward Philadelphia schools*
City council members in Philadelphia have given the go-ahead to a
resolution to allow a socialist historian’s view of America, via his “A
People’s History of the United States,” to be part of the public high
school curriculum.
The book, by Howard Zinn, looks at American history through the lens of the
working people, and of women and minorities, and tracks the various social
movements — including the advent of labor unions — that have shaped
government reform and policy.
The resolution passed by the local governin... more »
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*The Two Types of Child Victimization at Government Schools*
You would think the bureaucrats who run government schools would want to
focus on the basics, such as teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic.
After all, no nation spends more per pupil on education than the United
States. And based on some Cato Institute research, I suspect the OECD
estimate of about $15,000 per student is a low-ball estimate of the burden
on American taxpayers.
So what do we get for all this money? To be blunt, the results are
miserable, with Americans ranking well below average compared to our
over... more »
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*California Strips Privacy From Kids: The Co-Ed Bathroom Law*
As I wrote about recently, California is dead set on stripping away the
privacy of children - and we need to do what we can to stop the madness.
A few short months ago, California Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 1266, a
first-of-its kind law, now known as the “Co-Ed Bathroom Bill.” The bill, as
I’ve noted previously, opens girls’ restrooms, locker rooms, and school
showers to any child who ‘self-identifies’ as a girl---including boys who
decide they really ‘are’ transgender girls. The same holds true for boys—a
girl who d... more »
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*"Why Teachers' Unions Want Sex Offenders In Your Child's Classroom"*
This past week the most prominent teachers' unions made it painfully
obvious, they are on the side of the sex offender, rapist, and murderer who
has been convicted.
They are not now (and pretty much never have been) on the side of your
child.
They claim to represent the interests of teachers. Yet I am hard pressed to
find an average teacher who feels like the unions have done pretty much
anything for them. The average teacher just feels the pinch when the union
bosses take the dues from their paychecks and thre... more »
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*Common Core Equals Federalized Education*
Do you know what Common Core is yet? Here is a taste of what is to come …
Recently, parents in Maryland got concerned when their kids were “FORCED”
to take a survey with questions like, “What is your religion?” and “What is
your parents’ political affiliation?” and “What is your sexual orientation?”
When the parents asked the school about the survey, they were told no such
questionnaire ever took place—and mysteriously, the evidence of the survey
was removed from the school website. Then, the school blamed it on one lone
teacher.
This is ... more »
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*Feds Order School To Ban Packed Lunches Without Doctor’s Note...*
A school in Richmond, Virginia is following federal government instructions
by telling parents that they need to have a doctor’s note in order for
their children to be allowed to bring packed lunches to school, another
example of how the nanny state is encroaching via the public education
system.
A letter featured on the website Momdot.com instructs parents that packed
lunches must be accompanied with a physician’s note.
Dear Parents,
I have received word from Federal Programs Preschool pertaining to lunches
from... more »
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*British Liberal leader: parents 'taking chance' with children's private
education*
*This popinjay himself went to an elite school and clearly owes a lot to
the position in British society that gave him. In the usual Leftist way he
is however obsessed with credentialism. You need a piece of paper to say
you can teach and nothing will prove anything otherwise to him. I myself
had good success as a High School teacher without one minute of "teacher
training". And I am far from alone*
State schools should not be granted the same freedoms as those enjoyed by
independent schools, ... more »
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*College Students Go Out of Their Way to Mock Bristol Palin, Promote Sex on
Campus*
Fliers scattered around the University of Pennsylvania campus read that
Bristol Palin was going to be this year’s fall speaker. Penn’s Special
Events and Planning Committee had apparently made its highly anticipated
announcement and decided to host the advertised Teen Pregnancy Prevention
Spokesperson, leaving some students dazed and confused.
Those posters turned out to be a hoax. Under the Button, UPenn’s “24/7
source for all things Penn,” apparently took the time to create the fake
advertiseme... more »
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*In 23 Advanced Economies: U.S. Adults Rank 21st in Math Skills*
*Separating out white, black and Hispanic adults would be more informative*
The U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics
(NCES) on Friday released the initial results of an international survey of
adult skills in literacy and mathematics, revealing that Americans rank
21st in “numeracy” and are tied for 15th in literacy among adults in 23
advanced economies.
American adults also scored below the average in both numeracy and literacy
for all respondents in all 23 advanced economies.
Jap... more »
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*Angry mother files bill in Mass. Legislature after son was referred to
outside "gay" club by school*
*A really horrifying story. The "certain traumas" referred to obliquely
almost certainly means homosexual child molestation.*
The outrageous promotion of homosexuality to extremely vulnerable children
in the public schools -- without concern about how it affects them -- has
become legendary, particularly in Massachusetts.
This is the story about how one angry mother, with support from
MassResistance, is fighting back. She is confronting the Massachusetts
Legislature, pushing a b... more »
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*The Latest Partisan Educational Scandal: What Kids Are Learning in School
Right Now*
By Barry Rubin
These are tales of contemporary America.
It began when I visited a family with children in Maryland in my son’s old
school and the cute kid showed his school assignment. My friend took a
photograph of it and wrote to me:
“PLEASE, if you want to publicize it do so, BUT please white out the
handwritten answers, because in this age of totalitarianism, they could
easily go after/persecute the child and his family. The school might be
able to identify the child from his handwriting.... more »
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*British graduates with conceded passes get £9,000 to be teachers as number
of job applicants collapses*
Graduates who scrape a third class degree are to be offered bursaries to
train as teachers following a U-turn by the Education Secretary.
Funding for teacher training was withdrawn from anyone with the lowest
class of honours degree two years ago because Michael Gove wanted to
improve the calibre of applicants. The move put England alongside
high-performing countries such as South Korea and Finland which recruit top
scholars.
But he has had to relax the ban in maths and physi... more »
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*Five British schools where not one pupil has English as their first
language... and there are another 240 that are not far behind*
Five primary schools in England don’t have a single pupil whose mother
tongue is English.
There are also 240 schools where at least 90 per cent of children grew up
learning another language.
Earlier this year, it was claimed that Gladstone Primary School in
Peterborough was the only one without a single native English speaker, but
four more have been found in figures obtained by Sky News.
Two schools, including Gladstone Primary, each had more than 4... more »
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*New York Times Wrong about Government Childcare Delivering*
When it comes to government-run childcare and preschool, the delivery is
worth all the labor pains—so says University of Massachusetts, Amherst,
economics professor emerita Nancy Folbre in her recent New York Times
article.
Folbre’s sentiment reflects that of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi,
who insists America has an early childcare and education “crisis” that
threatens our economy. The solution, according to Pelosi and Folbre, is to
adopt President Obama’s universal government-run preschool and childcare
plan for... more »
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*The new vicious cycle of student loan debt*
Generally, the idea of going to college is not to just get a job but to
begin a career. School loans are assumed to be worth the investment because
of all the businesses waiting to accept entry-level graduates into their
companies with open arms offering salaries, health, eye, dental, and
Christmas bonuses. Of course, these assumptions were built before the
one-two punch of a heavy recession and Obamacare hit America.
As most recent college graduates can tell you: the job market is not so
flowery. A recent study out of Rutgers found tha... more »
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*Top Public Schools Demand More than Common Core*
The best U.S. public schools—including those with high numbers of poor and
minority kids—require more of students than state standards and Common
Core, and school leaders attribute their success partly to these high
expectations.
The Common Core lists what its creators think kids should know in K-12 math
and English. Forty-five states agreed to it under pressure from the Obama
administration in 2010. The Core calls itself “rigorous” and
“internationally benchmarked,” but investigation into actually rigorous and
internationally com... more »
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*'Genetics outweighs teaching': British government adviser says it is IQ,
not education, which determines child's future*
*A brave truth-teller*
Michael Gove's advisor has slammed England's schools, teachers and
universities, arguing that children's 'genetics' decide how well a child
does.
Influential adviser Dominic Cummings claims in a withering thesis that
educationists instead need to focus on how genetics affect children, and
adapt education to suit a child's IQ.
In a scathing attack, the adviser criticises most of the education
available to children in England today - from... more »
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*Racial Trade-offs hit black education*
Walter E. Williams
Trade-offs apply to our economic lives, as well as our political lives.
That means getting more of one thing requires giving up something else.
Let's look at some examples.
Black congressmen and black public officials in general, including Barack
Obama, always side with teachers unions in their opposition to educational
vouchers, tuition tax credits, charter schools and other measures that
would allow black parents to take their children out of failing public
schools. Most black politicians and many black professionals t... more »
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*Why is Violence Against Teachers Being Covered Up?*
Baltimore teacher Jeff Slattery struggles with fear every day. He literally
has to force himself out the door as he heads to his classroom. In December
2010 at Baltimore Community High School Slattery stopped a student without
a hall pass. The student got physical. Slattery let him go.
"He walked down the hallway, I turned around and went back to my classroom
and he came up from behind me and once I was on the ground, he's basically
standing on top of me. He struck me multiple times. When my jaw broke, I
went unconscious and I d... more »
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*LONG ISLAND MIDDLE SCHOOL BANS FOOTBALLS, BASEBALLS, CARTWHEELS, TAG*
The sissification of America continues: a middle school in Long Island, New
York in Nassau County has banned footballs, baseballs, soccer balls,
playing tag or doing cartwheels without a coach during recess because the
school is concerned middle-schoolers will get hurt.
CBS 2 reported that at Weber Middle School in Port Washington, all of the
above traditional games are out- and Nerf balls are in. Port Washington
schools Supt. Kathleen Maloney said there have been students injured, and
claimed, “Some of these ... more »
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*Study: Taxpayer-Funded Charter Schools Cost Less than Public Schools*
A new study done by policy group Save Our States has discovered that
publicly funded charter schools cost taxpayer less money in New York than
traditional public schools - by a margin of more than $3,000 per student.
Why the 24-27 percent discrepancy between charter schools and public
schools? The report points to teacher benefits:
Pensions and health costs for teachers and other staff are substantially
higher for the traditional, unionized public schools compared to charters,
which offer their employees 401ks... more »
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*Baltimore Superintendent Acknowledges Common Core is a Catastrophe*
Robert Small is a prophet. The Baltimore parent, who was arrested when he
questioned his district and state school leaders in violation of meeting
rules two weeks ago, tried to warn us that Common Core would be a disaster
in Baltimore County.
Baltimore Superintendent Dallas Dance wouldn’t admit it at the time, but he
obviously understood the same fact. So maybe that’s why Small was arrested?
The Baltimore Sun reports that Dance sent a letter this week to teachers,
acknowledging the “glitches” in the rollout of ... more »
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*Common Core Roundup from Tennessee*
The Tennessee legislature is holding hearings on Common Core, national
education standards and tests in math and English that 46 states, including
Tennessee, have adopted.
In 2012, approximately 16 states reconsidered Common Core. Some lawmakers,
professors, consultants, and teachers argue this would take states a step
backward, because, they say, Common Core is rigorous and internationally
benchmarked. Pairing these standards with national tests funded exclusively
by the federal government as enforcement, they say, will improve student
achiev... more »
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*GA: City schools requesting AR-15s to defend their students*
Some of the anti-gun activists have recommended we protect students in
schools with bullet proof dry erase boards and laws which criminals are
supposed to respect. But these tactics really just make the students
sitting ducks in an active shooter scenario.
Kake.com has reported that a northeast Georgia school district is asking
for Colt 6920 M4 carbine rifles, which are law enforcement versions of the
civilian AR-15. These rifles can carry 30-60 round magazines and have
shorter barrels making them perfect for tac... more »
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*Common Core: Obama is right, Bush is to blame*
The arrest of a parent attempting to ask questions of his elected school
board members regarding the controversial Common Core curriculum — uniform
curriculum across state lines that many believe dumbs down the U.S.
education system and is being implemented in virtually every state in the
nation — did more to educate people about this change than all the white
papers that could have ever been written.
Subsequently, the Baltimore County, Maryland State Attorney chose not to
prosecute the parent, but also defended the off duty police o... more »
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*RI: 7th-grader suspended for having gun keychain*
A 12-year-old boy was suspended from a Coventry middle school after his
parents said he brought a small gun keychain to school.
Joseph Lyssikatos said the keychain was in his backpack at Alan Shawn
Feinstein Middle School on Thursday when it fell out. A classmate picked it
up and started showing it to other students.
A teacher confiscated it and before Joseph knew it, he was suspended.
"This boy was the one waving it or showing it to other kids. Not Joseph.
Joseph wasn't doing that so why weren't both of them reprimanded," said
B... more »
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*AFTER BEING TOLD HE’S RACIST, UW-M STUDENT REJECTS FURTHER DIVERSITY
‘TRAINING’*
Jason Morgan, a University of Wisconsin-Madison student earning his
doctorate there, has told his supervisor he objects to the school’s
mandated diversity training for teaching assistants (TAs) because leaders
of the first session he attended essentially called him – and the whole
class – racist.
What’s more, the next session – on how to support transgender students – is
something Morgan said he cannot support, as it runs in direct contradiction
to his religious beliefs.
The letter, sent by email ... more »
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*School official tells students Trayvon Martin case proved it is 'legal to
hunt' children*
An email sent to students by a University of Maryland official that cites
the Trayvon Martin shooting as evidence "it is legal to hunt down and kill
American children in Florida" is being blasted as the latest evidence of a
left-wing bias on campus.
The email, from William Dorland, director of the school's Honors College,
starts by welcoming students back to campus, but then quickly veers into
politics.
"This year, we learned that it is legal to hunt down and kill American
children in Flor... more »
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*The College Board’s False Alarm about SAT Scores *
It’s time again for the yearly ritual: The College Board releases data on
recent SAT scores, which show some large percentage of American students
are not “college ready.” The alarm is sounded. Much hand-wringing follows.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
The Atlantic has helped move things along this time with an article
entitled “This Year’s SAT Scores Are Out, and They’re Grim.” The article
warns, “For the fifth year in a row, fewer than half of SAT-takers received
scores that qualified them as ‘college-ready.’”
Absent from the article ... more »
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*Just when you think ‘zero tolerance’ can’t get any dumber*
So-called “zero tolerance” rules have been in schools for quite a while.
In theory, they are supposed to reduce school violence. Instead, what they
often do is create a nightmare for administrators who often are forced to
inflict serious punishments on good kids who make a fairly minor mistake.
However, here lately it seems that some administrators are competing to see
who can be the dumbest about the rule. In Virginia Beach, Virginia, it
looks as if an administrator is going for first place:
Two seventh-grade students... more »
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*If Lies Don’t Work, Try Force to Shut People Up: Common core*
For all those “conservatives” who support Common Core education reform,
congratulations: Your side is acting like typical liberals. You’re lying
about Common Core and when that doesn’t work, you and your liberal allies
are willing to use naked force.
Whatever else Common Core is about, it’s not an attempt to implement
“standards.”
At least in one case, it’s a wholesale rewriting American history, the
constitution and common sense. And in another recent case, it’s about the
ability to belittle, harass, and arrest the ... more »
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*I Quit Teach for America*
*Five weeks of training was not enough to prepare me for a room of 20
unruly elementary-schoolers*
During my training, I taught a group of nine well-behaved third-graders who
had failed the state reading test and hoped to make it to fourth grade.
Working with three other corps members, which created a generous
teacher-student ratio, I had ample time for one-on-one instruction.
That classroom training was completely unlike the situation I now faced in
Atlanta: teaching math and science to two 20-person groups of rotating,
difficult fifth-graders—fifth-gr... more »
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*How the best school may HARM your child: Youngsters could do better at
worse school with less competition*
Parents who have agonised over getting their children into the best school
may have been wasting their time and effort. Surrounding a child with
brighter peers could actually damage his or her education, researchers warn.
They said constantly being outshone in the classroom by brainboxes could
shatter their confidence so much that they end up doing worse academically.
So weaker students – both boys and girls – might be better off at a less
competitive school as they have th... more »
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*GOP Leaders Demand Answers on Administration’s Attempt to Shut Down
Louisiana Private School Choice Program *
House Republican leaders today sent a letter to Attorney General Eric
Holder expressing concerns about the Obama administration’s effort to shut
down a successful private school choice program in Louisiana that is
providing hope to students and families.
Signed by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Majority Leader Eric Cantor
(R-VA), Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Republican Conference Chair
Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Education and the Workforce Committee
Chai... more »
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