Making Geeks Cool Could Reform Education

Making Geeks Cool Could Reform Education

"The driving force in the life of a child, starting much earlier than it used to be, is to be cool, to fit in," Grodd told the group. "And pretty universally, it's cool to rebel." In other words, prepare for you and your netbook to be jeered out of the room. "The best schools," Grodd told me later, "are able to make learning cool, so the cool kids are the ones who get As. That's an art."

It's an art that has, for the most part, been lost on educators. The notion itself seems incredibly daunting—until you look at one maligned subculture in which the smartest members are also the most popular: the geeks. If you want to reform schools, you've got to make them geekier.

"Geeks get things done. They're possessed. They can't help themselves," says Larry Rosenstock, founding principal of eight charter schools in San Diego County collectively called High Tech High. He has come up with a curriculum that forces kids to embrace their inner geek by pushing them to create.

Why school choice plan is a bad idea for our district - LA Daily News

Why school choice plan is a bad idea for our district - LA Daily News:

"HOW can you have an education 'town hall' where the townsfolk aren't invited?

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Ben Austin staged two such events this month touting LAUSD Vice President Yolie Flores Aguilar's school choice resolution, which is up for vote on Tuesday.

Locking out those most concerned with the content of those meetings - parents, educators and the community - is a harbinger of how public education may look should the resolution pass. In fact, the closed meetings stand as metaphors for how the majority of charter management organizations work: undemocratic, top down, run by noneducators, and unaccountable to the communities where they operate.

Noting widespread public opposition to Flores Aguilar's resolution, particularly at town halls featuring LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines, the mayor and his Green Dot allies made sure their Boyle Heights and Venice meetings were town halls in name only.

The first was held midday Aug. 11. The Garfield Town Hall was hosted at Catholic Charities instead of Garfield High School, notably because Garfield's parents, teachers, and community have vehemently opposed Green Dot's ongoing hostile takeover attempts for over a year. The community was locked outside while parents bused in from other locations comprised the audience.

Those locked out were told they would have been admitted had they called to reserve a spot.
That's what many people did for the next day's town hall in Venice once they obtained a number for RSVPs. The number was voice mail for Green Dot's paid organizer and none of us were ever called back. The Aug. 12 town hall in Venice was another closed meeting. "

Stop the Power Grab at tomorrow night's City Council Meeting

Please show up to City Council tomorrow (Tuesday), August 25th after 6pm and urge the City Council to vote NO on using taxpayer resources to fix legal flaws with the "Strong Mayor" initiative.

By doing so, we could finally put an end to the power grab.According to a review by the City Attorney, there are legal flaws with the proposal. If these legal issues are not resolved before the election, there is a chance that even if passed by the voters, the initiative could not take effect.

Recognizing that its legal flaws may end up killing the initiative, proponents of the measure are now urging the Council to direct city staff to draft accompanying measures to fix the proposal's legal flaws.

Proponents drafted the "Strong Mayor" initiative in secret and without public input or oversight. Then they hired a firm to collect signatures and claimed that it was the "will of the voters" to put this measure on the ballot in its original form.

They dismissed the idea of a charter review committee that was established to do the job right. Now they want the city council to fix their mistakes and are asking for the taxpayers to foot the bill.We need to put an end to this nonsense.

Please show up to City Council in strong numbers tomorrow and urge them to VOTE NO on using city resources to fix this legally flawed initiative and let's finally put this power grab to rest!
If you can't attend the meeting please contact the City Council at

http://www.cityofsacramento.org/council/index.html or

the FAX number for all Council Members is 916-264-7680.

Patrick Kennedy

Patrick Kennedy for Council 2010

Patrick Kennedy

Former Sacramento Fire Chief Julius Cherry Endorses Patrick Kennedy for Sacramento City Council
Monday, August 24
Former Sacramento Fire Chief Julius Cherry endorsed Patrick Kennedy’s campaign for Sacramento City Council, District 5. “I am proud to support Patrick Kennedy for City Council because of his commitment to public safety and years of service to the neighborhoods of District 5,” said Chief Cherry.

City Employees Support Patrick Kennedy
Monday, August 24
The International Union of Operating Engineers, Stationary Engineers, Local 39 in Sacramento, has endorsed Patrick Kennedy for Sacramento City Council. Local 39 represents approximately 2,500 workers in the City of Sacramento and covers a wide variety of workers in the Public and Private sectors, such as engineers, water treatment plant operators, building inspectors, code enforcement officers, librarians, park maintenance workers, and sanitation workers, just to name a few.
“I welcome the support of working men and women at the City and I look forward to working side-by-side with them to make Sacramento great,” said Patrick.

Sacramento Builders Exchange Endorses Patrick
Monday, August 17
The Sacramento Builders Exchange, the largest development association in California, has endorsed Patrick Kennedy for Sacramento City Council. In doing so, the Builders Exchange has put its faith in Patrick's economic development message and the leadership he will bring to City Hall.
"Patrick Kennedy is far and away the most qualified candidate for the job. We don't often make endorsements this early, but when you get a candidate like Patrick, the decision is easy,” said Matt Hedges, Director of Public Affairs for the Sacramento Builders Exchange.

Patrick Reaches Early Fundraising Goal
Wednesday, August 05
I am proud of the broad range of support that I received from all across Sacramento. It shows the level of support this campaign is attracting from so many walks of life in every community of the City.
A big thank you for everyone who helped me reach my early fundraising goal!

School success requires parent involvement

School success requires parent involvement:

"Your children are learning the most from you – by watching you, talking to you and interacting with you. In many ways, parents are the most important teachers children will have and it’s important to support your children’s education both at school and at home."

Parents should be partners with their child’s teacher. Introduce yourself to the teacher and talk about goals, communication preferences, concerns you have about your child, etc. Talk with teachers even when things are going well with your child, not just when problems arise. If there are problems, it is easier to work them out if you already have a relationship with the teacher. You and the teacher can work together in your different roles to help your children succeed in school.

Taking Women's Rights Seriously

Gordon Brown: Taking Women's Rights Seriously

The sustained degradation and subjugation of girls and women remains the world's most pervasive human rights violation.

Today, well over 100 million are 'missing' because of increased mortality from inequality and neglect and the majority of the 2.4 million victims of human trafficking, which treats people as products, are female. In its numbers and scale, the systematic discrimination outstrips even the wholesale abuses of the 18th and 19th century slave trade, which we today deplore as an obscene example of inhumanity from another era.

Yet, in supposedly civilised and enlightened times, girls and women around the world suffer unimaginable atrocities: forced marriage, rape, mutilation and death in pregnancy and childbirth. In Sierra Leone, a woman has a one in six chance of dying in childbirth in her lifetime -- a grotesque transformation of what should be the happiest time in a family's life into one of the most dangerous. Discrimination also means girls and women are more likely to be in poverty, denied schooling, deprived of health care, excluded from political and economic decision-making and die young.

West Contra Costa teachers authorize strike - ContraCostaTimes.com

West Contra Costa teachers authorize strike - ContraCostaTimes.com:

"The vote came as a response to forced contract changes made by the district's board of education earlier this summer, after months of negotiations failed to produce a new agreement. The district made changes to seniority provisions, increased class sizes, placed caps on teachers' current and retirement health benefits and eliminated benefits for teachers' dependents.

District officials have said they can no longer afford the current health care benefits, with the cost about doubling since 2001. They say the district is spending more money than it is bringing in, and that painful cuts are necessary to avoid bankruptcy.

Schickele has said there are other ways to make cuts -- such as shortening the school year -- and that many of the imposed changes to the contract have nothing to do with cost-saving."

Hitting the school grounds running: New recruits offset shortage

Hitting the school grounds running: New recruits offset shortage:


"There are some unique issues, especially in middle school, a teacher has to deal with, she said. With class changes, teachers deal with about 130 students a day, and just as many personalities, Hubbard said.
'Maturity levels vary in the class, and they vary in the students from day to day,' she said. One day, students may act like they're 12, and the next like they're 2, she said.
On the first day of school, Purvis and her students found common ground over a story. Purvis read to her third-graders Wemberly Worried, a book about a mouse nervous about her first day of school.
When asked whether they were nervous about the first day of school last week, most of the students raised their hands. Purvis admitted to them that she was, too.
But 'they're not going to be judging you on the first day of school, just like you're not judging them, and we're going to work it out together,' Purvis said."

Privacy concerns arise over student data - USATODAY.com

Privacy concerns arise over student data - USATODAY.com:


"Privacy concerns have touched off a debate this summer about whether schools should change the practice of sharing student contact information with outside sources.
School districts and colleges nationwide are allowed to sell or share student lists that contain information such as the names, ages, phone numbers and home addresses of students.
The federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 lets schools decide how much student information they designate as public record for use in school directories, yearbooks and other school publications, says Jim Bradshaw, with the U.S. Department of Education. Outside groups have access to public record information.
'Once the data gets out, they have no real control over what happens,' says David Holtzman, a former security analyst and author of the book Privacy Lost."

Education lapses deflate economy

Education lapses deflate economy

The McKinsey report examined the economic dimensions of four distinct gaps in education: (1) between the United States and other nations, (2) between black and Latino students and white students, (3) between students of different income levels and (4) between similar students schooled in different states.

In each instance, the gap has come at an enormous cost, in the billions of dollars and even in the trillions of dollars, to the nation's economy and to its human capital. Just a narrowing of the gap in one of these four areas would mean hundreds of billion dollars to the U.S. economy.

So why aren't we paying attention? Is it because we have heard much of it before? Or is it that we are so caught up in the daily grind of this recession? Or are we hesitant because race and ethnicity are prominently figured in confronting this challenge?

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/10324805/The-Economic-Impact-of-the-Achievement-Gap-in-Americas-Schools

Charter school owes N.J. $415,938 | CourierPostOnline.com | Courier-Post

Charter school owes N.J. $415,938 CourierPostOnline.com Courier-Post:

"In October 2008, the department's Office of Fiscal Accountability and Compliance began a review of the charter school's fiscal and governance practices from 2007 through the end of previous academic year.
The charter school, which has been on a state-issued probationary status since late last year for numerous administrative problems, needs more improvements. The state report cited inadequate board of education supervision, improper bonus and hiring practices, poor petty cash management and missing bid, travel and enrollment procedures
'The review disclosed numerous deficiencies and internal controls issues in the financial operations of the charter school,' according to the report. '. . . The charter school has received shut off notices, late notices, health insurance cancellation notices and late charges; eventually the phones were shut off.'
Freedom Academy Charter School Board President Dwight Moxie admits mistakes have been made, but many issues revealed in the report have already been corrected as part of the state's probationary demands. The board is preparing an appeal, specifically the amount of money requested"

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa To Urge LAUSD To Allow New Schools To Be Privately Operated - cbs2.com

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa To Urge LAUSD To Allow New Schools To Be Privately Operated - cbs2.com:


"New schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District could soon be privately operated if Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gets his way.

Villaraigosa is expected to urge LAUSD Board Members to approve a resolution to allow 50 new schools to be operated by charter operators and other institutions for 2010-11 school year.

Those schools are planned to be opened in the next three years.

Villaraigosa said the idea will allow those most qualified to better run the schools and ease some of the financial burden from the City of Los Angeles.

The school superintendent would make the decision based on the operation and instructional plans the bidders submit.

However, opponents of the resolution met Saturday and issued a statement that states the motion: 'fails to address key issues impacting students, parents, teachers and LAUSD employee bargaining units.'"

Take Arne Duncan’s phony school reform money and run--- fast!

Take Arne Duncan’s phony school reform money and run--- fast!:

"The coast is clear school superintendents. You can come out now; non-educator emeritus, Arne Duncan is in charge of your school district even though he has never taught a class or run a school in his life. Once again people outside of education are calling the shots school superintendents haven’t got the guts to make. Hire a good writer, cook up some irrelevant statistics, hook up with ACORN, submit your Race-to-the-Top grant, then take the money and run. Your financially scrapped district can’t afford to ignore the $5 billion-dollar man’s bribe to hand over control of your community schools to the Washington D.C. Politburo. But, after he hands you the money with all the strings attached, run as far and as fast as you can from quack school reform methods that could actually do more damage than good."

In the red, US school districts cut yellow buses - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

In the red, US school districts cut yellow buses - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News Sacramento Bee:


"About 23 percent of school districts surveyed by the American Association of School Administrators say they are reducing or eliminating school transportation for the coming school year as part of cost-cutting measures. That's up from the 14 percent who considered such measures during the 2008-2009 year.
'I've seen it happening in Massachusetts, in Ohio, in Indiana. A lot of school districts are looking at in varying degrees,' said Robin Leeds, industry specialist with the National School Transportation Association.
Parents and transportation advocates say the proposed cuts will have wide-ranging repercussions - affecting everything from parents' work schedules to student attendance. Many also worry that the cuts will jeopardize the safety of students who may have to cross busy highways or dangerous roads to get to class. Deadly school bus crashes are rare, while past studies have shown riding to school in a car, walking and bicycling account for hundreds of student deaths a year."

Reform ABCs | Editorials | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California

Reform ABCs Editorials PE.com Southern California News News for Inland Southern California:

Reform ABCs

"The issues are clear. The various studies portray a school system that is overly regulated and irrationally financed, with muddled lines of authority and conflicting incentives that discourage improvement.
Changing that status quo, however, would require the state to give local districts and schools more power to make decisions, rather than dictating policy from Sacramento. The state would also have to streamline an overgrown education code that puts a higher premium on administrative paperwork than good education practice. And any reform should restructure the state's complex and inefficient financing system, tying funding more closely to need and giving local districts greater budgeting flexibility.
Districts also need to be able to offer differential pay and incentives to good teachers, so that the schools with the biggest challenges do not end up with the worst instructors. And the near impossibility of firing ineffective teachers only obstructs educational improvement.
Given the state's budget mess, focusing reform on hauling down more money is understandable, if misguided. Money will not fix California schools, and it is no substitute for systemic change."

Open Letter to Kenneth Roth

Neoliberalism, Charter Schools and the Chicago ModelObama and Duncan's Education Policy:Like Bush's, Only Worse


Neoliberalism, Charter Schools and the Chicago Model

Obama and Duncan's Education Policy:Like Bush's, Only Worse


"This is deeply troubling, for many states which do not want charter schools or have found the experiment to be less than adequate and in fact damaging to kids and funding, for traditional public schools will now be forced to choose stimulus money over policy, a form of economic extortion and increased federal and corporate control over decision making, especially at a time when many of these states are literally financial insolvent. This is another example of how disaster politics operates, only this time the disaster is not a natural disaster but an economic disaster that threatens public policies."