Reading roundup

Here's a few that have come across my desk that I'd recommend reading:

• If you've missed the New York state principals' rebellion over their new evaluation system, you can catch up on it here. Best quote:
  

  Katie Zahedi, principal of Linden Avenue Middle School in Red Hook in Dutchess County. said the training session she attended was “two days of total nonsense.”
  

  “I have a Ph.D., I’m in a school every day, and some consultant is supposed to be teaching me to do evaluations,” she said. “It takes your breath away it’s so awful.”

  She said one good thing about the new evaluation system was that it had united teachers, principals and administrators in their contempt for the state education department.

  Remember that New York set a percent that test scores would count (40%). And yes, the "building the airplane in the air" analogy is in there, too. Should you wish to join them, you can sign here.
• On entirely the other end of the spectrum, there's a good piece today about the renewed recognition in the importance of giving kids time with blocks.
• You may have caught Thomas Friedman's column regarding the findings of the Program for International Student Assessment around successful parent involvement. It turns out it necessarily what you'd think: 

  ...on average, the score point difference in reading that is associated with parental involvement is largest when parents read a book with their child, when they talk about things they have done during the day, and when they tell stories to their children.

   
  
• Seattle is reporting in on their fighting the good fight (and winning!) out there against the corporatizing of public education. Rock on, Seattle!