Leading Education Associations Propose Comprehensive Approach to Measuring School... | Reuters

Leading Education Associations Propose Comprehensive Approach to Measuring School... Reuters:

"WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, a partnership of 17 major national education associations released principles for tracking efforts
to turn around the nation's lowest-performing schools. Principles for Measuring the Performance of Turnaround Schools outlines how education agencies and communities can determine whether turnaround efforts are leading to both swift improvement and sustained change in persistently struggling schools."

REGIONAL: Wyland pushes for teacher merit pay, more charter schools

REGIONAL: Wyland pushes for teacher merit pay, more charter schools:

"On Wednesday, Wyland and state Sen. Gloria Romero, who co-authored the bill, held a public meeting in San Diego to talk with educators about the measure. Wyland stressed the bipartisan roots of the bill, which also calls for removing the limit on the number of charter schools in the state and allowing students at low-performing schools to transfer more easily."

Support voiced for state to hold constitutional convention - Inside Bay Area

Support voiced for state to hold constitutional convention - Inside Bay Area:

"Wunderman said as public education, prisons, water infrastructure and other vital state services teeter on the edge of collapse, Sacramento remains 'a system that's virtually in paralysis,' making California 'a national or international laughingstock.'

'It's time for California to take a serious look at itself,' he said."

Texas activists: Chavez, Marshall must be taught - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Texas activists: Chavez, Marshall must be taught - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News Sacramento Bee:

"AUSTIN, Texas -- Minority activists urged Texas education officials on Thursday to not minimize the importance of civil rights leaders Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall in public schools.
The State Board of Education heard testimony in a plan to update the social studies requirements for the state's 4.6 million K-12 students. Two members of a board-appointed advisory panel had suggested removing Chavez and Marshall from some grades' curriculum, triggering a strong backlash from civil rights groups, teachers and parents statewide."

Verizon Foundation's Thinkfinity.org

Verizon Foundation's Thinkfinity.org:

"Verizon Foundation's Thinkfinity.org
Thinkfinity.org is the cornerstone of Verizon Foundation's literacy, education and technology initiatives. Our goal is to improve student achievement in traditional classroom settings and beyond by providing high-quality content and extensive professional development training.

This free, comprehensive digital learning platform is built upon the merger of two acclaimed programs Verizon MarcoPolo and the Thinkfinity Literacy Network.
http://thinkfinity.org/about.aspx"

K-12 High Speed Network and Verizon Announce Partnership to Provide Free Online Resources... | Reuters

K-12 High Speed Network and Verizon Announce Partnership to Provide Free Online Resources... Reuters:


"K-12 High Speed Network and Verizon Announce Partnership to Provide Free Online Resources Through Thinkfinity.org to Help California Educators

Verizon Foundation Grant of $125,000 to Fund Professional Development for Teachers and Trainers"

LOS ANGELES and SACRAMENTO, Calif., Sept. 17/PRNewswire/ -- The CaliforniaK-12 High Speed Network (K12HSN), a state-funded education program, and theVerizon Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Verizon, unveiled Thursday (Sept.17) a new initiative that will provide free online resources for Californiateachers, parents and students, through Verizon's Thinkfinity.org.

Fired Inspector General Files Motion to Return to His Job - Political News - FOXNews.com

Fired Inspector General Files Motion to Return to His Job - Political News - FOXNews.com:

"Walpin insists the charge is baseless and believes his firing was the result of bad blood between him and the board over his investigation of Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, an Obama supporter, for alleged misuse of federal funds.

Walpin's office found that Johnson and his academy, St. HOPE, which received $850,000 in AmeriCorps money, had misused the funds and AmeriCorps volunteers for personal purposes, including enlisting their help in political campaigns and washing his car."

Bossmayor.com is really boss

Bossmayor.com is really boss

Have you seen the new bossmayor.com site? It is high quality. In fact it is boasts 100x more content and professionalism than SAG even approached. Heck, even the acronym is better: SAVE= “Support Accountability, Voice, and Ethics in Sacramento.” I have to give props to whomever put this web site together. There is a clear message, a clear mission, and a very logical thought process that is very difficult to refute.

September 17, 2009 Meeting

September 17, 2009 Booard of Education Meeting:


"Agenda Items:
Item 9.1 Budget Update for 2009-10

Item 11.1a Approve Grants, Entitlements and Other Income Agreements, Ratification of Other Agreements, Approval of Bid Awards, Approval of Declared Surplus Materials & Equipment, Change Notices and Notices of Completion

Item 11.1B Business and Financial Report

Item 11.1c Field Trips

Item 11.2a District Personnel Transactions"

http://www.scusd.edu/Departments/BoardofEducation/Meetings/Pages/20090917.aspx

Teacher Beat: NEA to Spend $6 Million for Teachers in High-Needs Schools

Teacher Beat: NEA to Spend $6 Million for Teachers in High-Needs Schools:

"The National Education Association plans to put $6 million over six years into 'comprehensive strategies and policies to increase teacher effectiveness in high-needs schools.' The funds will be focused on four strategies outlined in this paper, authored by Barnett Berry, the president of the Hillsborough, N.C.-based Center for Teaching Quality.

Among Berry's major recommendations, states and districts should focus on comprehensive initiatives to lure teachers to hard-to-staff schools and ensure that they grow in effectiveness while there. In other words, don't just stick performance pay in alone and expect it to work."

Education Week: Expected Turnaround Aid Has Districts Eager, Wary

Education Week: Expected Turnaround Aid Has Districts Eager, Wary:

"Those choices don’t leave school leaders much room to scale up programs that seem to be working at the local level, said Carlos Garcia, the superintendent of the 55,270-student San Francisco district.

“There can’t be a cookie-cutter approach to this,” Mr. Garcia said, particularly since any interventions will need buy-in from school staff members, parents, and the community to be successful and sustainable. “Do they think we’re incapable of creating models for transformation?”

San Francisco has had success in offering principals and teachers in low-performing schools intensive professional development, he noted. He would like to be able to consider continuing that practice with the new resources."

Education Week: No Child Left Behind Act

Education Week: No Child Left Behind Act:

"The “Differentiated Accountability Pilot Program,” launched by the U.S. Department of Education in 2008, allows nine states to vary the intensity and type of intervention they use with struggling schools under NCLB and focus their resources on those with the greatest needs. The CEP’s study focuses on Georgia, Maryland, New York, and Ohio that took advantage of flexibility under the program to help low-performing schools."

Read Full report here: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/11442518/States-Use-Increased-Flexibility-Under-No-Child-Left-Behind-Law-To-Try-New-Approaches-to-Helping-Lowest-Performing-Schools

Education Week: Harkin's New Hat Boosts His Sway Over K-12

Education Week: Harkin's New Hat Boosts His Sway Over K-12:

"Now that U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa has stepped into the chairmanship of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, he will have broad authority over both policy and money for education issues in the Senate. That puts him in a powerful position as Congress prepares to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act."

Building Successful Parent-Teacher Partnerships

Building Successful Parent-Teacher Partnerships:

"When I hear the phrase “parent-teacher partnerships,” I can’t help but think back on my first year as an educator. Fresh out of graduate school, I was very eager to meet my new students and their families. I had high hopes about the many relationships that would blossom as a result of my new position. I was fortunate enough to land a job in a large urban district in the very same city where I grew up. I knew that I would be teaching in a diverse neighborhood and that some of my students would be coming to me from low-income households. The school was not far from the building where I was raised and was directly across the street from a church I had spent a great deal of time in as a girl. I knew the area very well and wanted so much to become an integral part of my pupil’s lives."

Oakland Parents Together

Oakland Parents Together:

"GRAND OPENING: OAKLAND PARENT/FAMILY CENTER
Saturday, September 26 2009
12 Noon-3 PM
Oakland Parent/Family Center
440 Santa Clara Avenue
Oakland"

Are Blue Ribbon schools really the best? | schools, blue, percent, school, top - News - OCRegister.com

Are Blue Ribbon schools really the best? schools, blue, percent, school, top - News - OCRegister.com:

"National Blue Ribbon awards are often called the 'Oscars' for schools.

The selection process can be very competitive, somewhat subjective, and winners carry the title with them for the rest of eternity.

But for schools, other measurements – including tests scores, graduation rates, the quality of college and career preparation programs – also help identify the ones that do the best job of educating children."

Hundreds of D.C. Voucher Pupils Unaccounted For, Durbin Says at Funding Hearing - washingtonpost.com

Hundreds of D.C. Voucher Pupils Unaccounted For, Durbin Says at Funding Hearing - washingtonpost.com:

"D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, who testified at the hearing, said she supports funding charter schools and the voucher program. But she said she wants students receiving vouchers to take the same standardized tests as public school students to assess their academic progress, which isn't the case now."

Stockton Unified cuts force teachers to scramble | Recordnet.com#STS=fzpnbumv.1n47#STS=fzpnbumv.1n47

Stockton Unified cuts force teachers to scramble Recordnet.com#STS=fzpnbumv.1n47#STS=fzpnbumv.1n47:

"Stockton Unified - San Joaquin County's largest school district with 38,000 students - opened this school year with about 1,900 permanent teachers. Last year, it had about 2,000. And after having laid off about 250 teachers, Stockton Unified could not simply rescind some of those layoffs to open school at the end of July with a sufficient force of permanent teachers.

There was a legally-mandated process to be followed."

NEA Member Benefits and TeachAde Partner to Provide Educators Access to a Free Online... | Reuters

NEA Member Benefits and TeachAde Partner to Provide Educators Access to a Free Online... Reuters:

"TeachAde will be integrated into the newly revamped NEA MB Web site to help
members connect with each other, share best practices, and access invaluable
resources with a click of the mouse. The collaboration is part of the Web
site's intentional focus on the most important subjects to members: Money,
Everyday Living, Health and Wellness, Professional Resources and Travel and
Leisure.

'Our goal is to partner with the best programs and services to engage and
support our members,' said Mark Stevens, vice president of Professional & Web
Solutions, NEA Member Benefits. 'Partnering with TeachAde will help educators
connect with one another on a personal and immediate level about important
topical issues such as National Board Certification, 21st-century skills and
curriculum and instruction. TeachAde provides our members with a means to
easily share their expertise, resources and tools with colleagues across the
county.'"

Critics' attacks of President Obama are scarier than bias

Critics' attacks of President Obama are scarier than bias:

"Every American President in a furious political fight is going to be criticized, and a black President does not get a pass. It is condescending to think that a man of Barack Obama's intellect and political skills needs to be coddled.

But Carter is right on one big and important point: The pattern of attacks on Obama suggests that there are people who don't accept the idea that this man, the first black man to win the highest office in the land, is really the President.

These critics seem less interested in arguing about health care proposals than in building the case that Obama is not legitimately our national leader."

District to lay off teachers at end of month | Washington Examiner

District to lay off teachers at end of month Washington Examiner:

"Announcing the cuts three weeks into the school year 'at best reflects extreme mismanagement and a lack of transparency,' said union President George Parker.

Rhee said every school system went through the fall balancing act between enrollment and funding and that announcing cuts in September instead of October caused fewer disruptions.

Parker also questioned how reductions came to be needed after the schools hired about 900 new teachers over the summer -- a fact he called 'mindboggling.' According to the school system, principals made their final hires in July based on spring estimates of how much money they would have."

Mass. teachers union issues blistering report on charter school enrollment trends - Essex, MA - Wicked Local Essex

Mass. teachers union issues blistering report on charter school enrollment trends - Essex, MA - Wicked Local Essex:

"“Fewer than half of the students enrolled in charter high schools as freshmen are still enrolled as seniors,” according to the 50-page report, released Wednesday morning by the Massachusetts Teachers Association. “This attrition pattern can be captured by snapshot of any single year. In 2008, for example, there were only two seniors for every five freshmen in the charter schools, while there were four seniors for every five freshmen in the Boston Public Schools.”

Calling charter schools “dropout factories,” union president Anne Wass pointed to the report as proof that charter schools are “essentially a state-managed system of publicly funded private schools.”"

Read full report here: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/11431474/Report-CHARTER-SCHOOL-SUCCESS-OR-SELECTIVE-OUT-MIGRATION-OF-LOW-ACHIEVERS-Effects-of-Enrollment-Management-on-Student-Achievement

Ohio.com - Opponents transform ACORN into fuel

Ohio.com - Opponents transform ACORN into fuel:

"For months during last year's presidential race, conservatives sought to tar the Obama campaign with accusations of voter fraud and other transgressions by the national community organizing group ACORN, which had done some work for the campaign.

But it took amateur actors, posing as a prostitute and a pimp and recorded on hidden cameras in visits to ACORN offices, to send government officials scrambling in recent days to sever ties with the organization.

Conservative advocates and broadcasters were gleeful about the success of the tactics in exposing ACORN workers, who appeared to blithely encourage prostitution and tax evasion. It was, in effect, the latest scalp claimed by those on the right who have made no secret of their hope to weaken the Obama administration by attacking allies and appointees they view as leftist."

Where’s the Evidence? by Neal McCluskey on National Review Online

Where’s the Evidence? by Neal McCluskey on National Review Online:

"If you listen to advocates of national education standards — from the Obama administration to the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute — you’ll seldom hear anything about “evidence” or “research.” You’ll get plenty of assertions about the craziness of having 50 state standards, and how a modern nation must have one bar for all, but zilch about actual, empirical evidence.

So why are these folks — many of whom regularly decry the absence of “scientifically based” policymaking in almost every other facet of education — hawking national standards with nary a whisper about research showing that this monumental reform will actually work? Because there’s hardly any such research to cite. There are very few extant studies comparing educational outcomes in countries with and without national standards — in other words, studies with “treatment” and “control” groups — and what little research does exist is, at best, ambiguous."

Valley assemblyman vice-chair of education | MyDesert.com | The Desert Sun

Valley assemblyman vice-chair of education MyDesert.com The Desert Sun:

"California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, on Wednesday named Assemblyman Brian Nestande, R-Palm Desert, as vice-chair of the Fifth Extraordinary Session Education Committee, Nestande's office announced."

The committee will hold hearings through the end of the year to put California in a favorable position to compete for federal Race to the Top funds.
The U.S. Department of Education will be awarding $4.35 billion in Race to the Top funds to states for programs aimed at improving educational quality and results.

Commentary: The Latino education challenge | McClatchy

Commentary: The Latino education challenge McClatchy:

"If we don't close that gap, America's workforce will lack the high-order skills the economy demands. There's no upside to allowing such a fast-growing demographic group trail behind, unless we prefer second-tier nation status.

Fortunately, the Obama administration gets the problem, as did the Bush administration. In fact, going back to the first Bush presidency, the White House has had an initiative to improve Latinos' educational progress.

Juan Sepuvelda now heads that effort, and the former San Antonio management consultant was in Dallas last week as part of a national listening tour. He's learning what communities are doing to improve Latino success in schools and what they must do to ramp it up."

UC president says CA is building 'toll road to higher education' | 89.3 KPCC

UC president says CA is building 'toll road to higher education' 89.3 KPCC:

"Mark Yudof: 'I’m sorry. I regret it, but the state has stopped building freeways to higher education and it has started building toll roads. That’s what you have. You have a toll road to higher education. I don’t like it but that’s what they’ve done.'"

Letters to the editor - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

Letters to the editor - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial Sacramento Bee:

"While Obama is the consensus builder, trying to bring wolves to the table, expecting them to work in a polite and cooperative manner, Johnson is the wolf in Democratic clothing, allied with powerful corporate 'volunteers,' marching toward ever-greater power and demanding mindless servitude from others."

Massive fee hikes planned at University of California - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Massive fee hikes planned at University of California - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News Sacramento Bee:

"University of California employees and students chanting 'Whose university? Our university!' express outrage over planned fee hikes at the regents' meeting Wednesday in San Francisco as a plainclothes police officer, right, watches over the proceedings."

University of California regents meeting Wednesday in San Francisco said they likely will approve a 32 percent hike in student fees.
The increase would push the price of a year at UC to $10,302 for undergraduates and comes on the heels of a 9.3 percent increase approved in May.