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Friday, October 16, 2015

Protesters at SRC meeting angrily call for dramatic changes

Protesters at SRC meeting angrily call for dramatic changes:

Protesters at SRC meeting angrily call for dramatic changes



Kenya Nation, who has two children in Wister Elementary, speaks abut her frustration with the school system in front of the Philadelphia School District headquarters on Broad Street.
Kenya Nation, who has two children in Wister Elementary, speaks abut her frustration with the school system in front of the Philadelphia School District headquarters on Broad Street. MICHAEL BRYANT / Staff Photographer


For more than four restless hours Thursday, anger at Philadelphia School District leaders simmered, at times boiling over.

At a School Reform Commission meeting and at a union rally held before the meeting, teachers, parents, and community members expressed anger at the district's planned conversion of three schools into charters, at its handing over substitute-teaching services to a company that has underperformed, at its nurse staffing levels, and at its overcrowding in some schools.

"Are you deliberately trying to destroy public education in Philadelphia, or are you just grossly incompetent?" retired teacher and librarian Deborah Grill asked leaders.

"You continue to mismanage our district with dishonesty and incompetence," Peg Devine, the nurse at Lincoln High, charged.

"This is personal for me," said an emotional Renita Brown, parent of a child at Cooke Elementary, one of the schools slated to be converted into a charter. "Our children are not cattle."

At one point, an amplifier blew and the microphones in the SRC auditorium went out. The restless audience filled the silence with a chant.

"Hite must go! Hite must go!" they shouted, referring to Superintendent William R. Hite Jr.

Much of the anger came over a plan Hite announced earlier this month that would, he said, move 15,000 students into better schools. The plan calls for three charter conversions, two school closures, grade changes in other buildings, and opening two new schools.

There was no mention of the new schools, but widespread



Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20151016_Protesters_at_SRC_meeting_angrily_call_for_dramatic_changes.html#xhch4MrgYyGMZ6Lj.99

MORE COVERAGE

  • Parents, teachers voice opposition to charter conversions



  • Recap: Live coverage of SRC meeting



  • "Donald're a pend * ^%" say the streets of New York - Univision

    "Donald're a pend * ^%" say the streets of New York - Univision:

    "Donald're a pend * ^%" say the streets of New York

    "Donald eres un pend*^%", dicen las calles de Nueva York



    La marca de licor mexicana “Ilegal Mezcal” lanzó una campaña contra el candidato presidencial que más ha dado de qué hablar este año: Donald Trump.
    “Ilegal Mezcal” dejó sellos por las calles de Nueva York que rezan: "Donald eres un pend*^%", refiriéndose al magnate republicano.
    Mexican liquor brand "Illegal Mezcal" launched a campaign against the presidential candidate that has been the talk this year: Donald Trump.
    "Illegal Mezcal" seals left in the streets of New York who pray: "Donald're a pend * ^%" referring to Republican magnate.
    pancartas en las calles
    Todos los carteles están en español, de forma que sólo inmigrantes hispanos o aquellos que hayan estudiado la lengua podrán entender.
    La polémica campaña también invita a que sus clientes suban una fotografía con un trago de su mezcal con el hashtag #ShotAtDonald para recibir premios.
    banners in the streets
    All signs are in Spanish, so that only Hispanic immigrants or those who have studied the language can understand.
    The controversial campaign also invites customers to upload a photo with a swig of his mezcal with the hashtag #ShotAtDonald for awards.
    Campaña contra Trump
    Además, en su sitio web se pueden conseguir camisas con el mismo logo contra Trump, informó http://www.infobae.com/.

    Trump Campaign
    Furthermore, in its site web can be achieved with the same logo shirts against Trump, he reported  http://www.infobae.com/ .

    Competency Based Learning, Online Education and Lamar Alexander’s ESEA Revisions - UNITED OPT OUT

    Competency Based Learning, Online Education and Lamar Alexander’s ESEA Revisions - UNITED OPT OUT: The Movement to End Corporate Education Reform:

    Competency Based Learning, Online Education and Lamar Alexander’s ESEA Revisions

    bloodwill (2)


    By Morna McDermott
    (A special thanks to Allison McDowell for provoking me to this research and to an amazing blog by Emily Talmage  that had mad amounts of information on this subject)
    This has been over a decade in the making. In 2000 Business Week  listed the companies benefiting from the new boon in online education stating, “Dozens of new companies are springing up to serve the emerging K-12 market for digital learning. Investors have poured nearly $1 billion into these companies since the beginning of 1999, estimates Merrill Lynch.”
    Begin with ALEC Model Legislation  called Resolution Adopting the 10 Elements of High-Quality Digital Learning for K-12
    One element which states, “Advancement: Students progress based on demonstrated competency.”
    This resolution was adopted in 2011 following a proposal crafted by Bob Wise and Jeb Bush. Tom Vander Ark, also proclaims himself an “architect of Digital Learning Now’s 10 Elements of Digital Learning”
    Tom Vander Ark was the first business executive to serve as a public school superintendent and was the first executive director for education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Mr. Vander Ark is chairman of theBoard of Directors for iNACOL, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. You can see his blog.
    Bob Wise and Jeb Bush along with Bill Gates were central to the development of the Common Core State Competency Based Learning, Online Education and Lamar Alexander’s ESEA Revisions - UNITED OPT OUT: The Movement to End Corporate Education Reform:

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