Finland, Schmindland
That's where all
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
School Tech Connect: Finland, Shmindland
School Tech Connect: Finland, ShmindlandYou see, international comparisons don't really matter. You can be first in the world and your schools will still suck because they are government-run.
That's where all
That's where all
Ackerman promises a new day at S. Philly HS | Philadelphia Public School Notebook
Ackerman promises a new day at S. Philly HS | Philadelphia Public School Notebook
Ackerman promises a new day at S. Philly HS
by Dale Mezzacappa on Aug 31 2010 Posted in Latest news
Things will be different this year.
That's the promise that Superintendent Arlene Ackerman made to a group of South Philadelphia High School freshmen and their parents at orientation Tuesday morning.
There will be diversity training for staff, introduction of the option to study Chinese as a foreign language, zero tolerance for violence and strict enforcement of anti-bullying and anti-harassment rules, and an Asian arts program, for starters -- all those things aimed at preventing a repeat of the beatings of Asian students by a group of mostly African American peers that made
Honig for Governor 2010 - For a new Nevada! Join the campaign today!
Honig for Governor 2010 - For a new Nevada! Join the campaign today!
Aaron Y. Honig, M.A.T., Independent Nonpartisan Gubernatorial candidate, who is also a public school teacher, has released his education plan for the Great State of Nevada to his website and the media in July. He also has been mentioned on MSNBC and other news services as one of the five Nevada gubernatorial candidates excluded from a debate on education which was sponsored by PBS, Channel 8 News Now and the Las Vegas Review Journal at the Andre Agassi Prepatory Academy with Reid and Sandoval. The 5 excluded candidates had their own debate on education August 29th from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Dolittle Parking Lot across the street from the Agassi Prepatory Academy. They also invited Reid and Sandoval to participate. Reid and Sandoval did not participate in our debate. Honig’s plan entitled, 3 Point Plan to Restore Nevada Education System to Prominence, calls for an increase in funding for education across the board. Along with increased funding, Honig proposes addressing our resources and energies around 3 points that will transform Nevada’s poor education system into one that other states and countries will look to for their own children. Please read the plan and share it with your friends and family. He is specific as to how it will be paid for if more money is needed to fund his plan. For more information, please see Honig’s education plan available at http://www.aaronyhonig.com.
Please direct all inquiries to the Aaron Y. Honig for Governor campaign.
Contact:
Aaron Y. Honig for Governor
info@aaronyhonig.com
P.O. Box 400925
Las Vegas, NV 89140
702-699-3372
At Beginning and End, Bus Tour Focuses on Civil Rights – ED.gov Blog
At Beginning and End, Bus Tour Focuses on Civil Rights – ED.gov Blog
At Beginning and End, Bus Tour Focuses on Civil Rights
Kelly Martinez, Joanna Quinn, and Mohamed Nur show their civil rights project to Secretary Duncan
The “Courage in the Classroom” bus tour started at a landmark of the civil rights movement.
And it ended today in Portland, Maine, with middle school students telling Secretary Duncan about their in-depth research project on how people in their community participated in that movement.
At the stop at King Middle School in Portland, a group of three rising 8th graders made a poster presentation to the secretary about how they interviewed local residents about their participation in marches and protests to advance civil rights.
The project, completed last spring, was an interdisciplinary effort. The students learned the history of the movement. They practiced interviewing skills with family members. They interviewed local residents. They published a book about their project.
The capstone of the project was an assembly where they presented their findings to the community, including many of their interview subjects.
“I learned that people in Portland that made a difference, not just people down South,” said Joanna Quinn, who presented about the project along with classmates Kelly Martinez and Mohamed Nur.
The Educated Reporter: Washington Monthly hits it out of the park.
The Educated Reporter: Washington Monthly hits it out of the park.:
Washington Monthly hits it out of the park.
It turns out I wound up at a good college for me, but there was nothing about my so-called “search” 23 years ago that would have ensured that. I applied early to and was rejected from a school I chose mainly because my boyfriend went there. Later, in the midst of a lengthy stretch of college visits, I was struck by how the tour guide at one school, which I knew of only because my best friend’s dad had gone there, received a never-ending stream of enthusiastic hellos. Everyone on campus genuinely seemed to be her friend, despite a look that would have belonged only to outcasts in my high school: chubby,
Eduwonk � Blog Archive � Changes
Eduwonk � Blog Archive � Changes
Changes
Quick announcement: Starting in September I’m going to write a weekly column on education issues for Time.com and occasionally for the magazine. Obviously, I’m excited about this great opportunity but as with most new things it means some changes, too.
Most notably, I will not be contributing to US News and World Report anymore. I first collaborated with them on their high school rankings, an outgrowth of this paper (pdf) showing that the Newsweek rankings favored many schools that were shortchanging kids. While not perfect I continue to think that the USN high school rankingsare the best ones out there if you care about equity within schools, achievement gaps, and advanced course-taking. That work led to a contributor relationship for several years. For that I want to thank Robert Schlesinger, a thoughtful and overworked opinions editor. And I especially want to thank Brian Kelly, USN’seditor, for the opportunities he gave me, support, and friendship. It is not a secret that these are tough times for the news and publishing business but Brian illustrates why that’s largely situational and not a reflection of the quality of people working in that field.
So you can look for the Time.com column in September and I’ll still be blogging here.
Will Race to Top Winners Help Advance Legislative Priorities? - Politics K-12 - Education Week
Will Race to Top Winners Help Advance Legislative Priorities? - Politics K-12 - Education Week
Will Race to Top Winners Help Advance Legislative Priorities?
Back before the Race to the Top Round One winners were announced, I wondered whether the Education Department would select winners from states with influential members of Congress, who might be able to help U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan move his agenda.
Of course, the selection process was set up in a way intended to assure that political influence was not a factor in determining who actually won—no state got extra points for being the home of a powerful member of Congress.
But politics could be part of the fallout, including the question of whether the Race to the Top program gets
ETS Report: Progress Has Stalled in Closing the Black-White Achievement Gap
ETS Report: Progress Has Stalled in Closing the Black-White Achievement GapNo progress for last 20 years
ETS Report: Progress Has Stalled in Closing the Black-White Achievement Gap
No progress for last 20 years
Reaching equality could take decades
- Contact:
- Jason Baran
(609) 683-2428
mediacontacts@ets.org
- Jason Baran
After a long period of progress in narrowing the Black-White educational attainment and achievement gaps, that progress has stalled, according to a new report from Educational Testing Service titled, "The Black-White Achievement Gap: When Progress Stopped." Moreover, some research indicates that reaching equality could take 50 to 100 years if current patterns continue.
It has been 45 years since Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote his landmark and controversial report on the deterioration of low-income Black families, "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action," and evidence gathered over the past several decades supports the assertion that deteriorating family structure, neighborhoods, and schools threaten to undermine the development of disadvantaged children.
This report, written by Paul E. Barton and Richard J. Coley of ETS's Policy Information Center, examines the periods of progress and stagnation over the past several decades in closing the achievement gap; looking for the factors that contributed to the progress and the reasons for why it stopped.
Coley, Director of the ETS Policy Information Center explains, "National Assessment of Educational Progress data starting from the 1970s reveal a steady narrowing of the gap until the late 1980s. The last 20 years have essentially yielded a period of stability in spite of a lot of national attention to the gap, and measures taken that were expected to narrow it. We want to know, 'why?'"
The report focuses on three time periods beginning with the 1970s and 80s during which a substantial narrowing of the gap was seen in the subjects of reading and mathematics. Next, the research shows that the decades since the late 1980s have produced a sustained period of no change in the gap. Finally, the authors go back to the beginning of the 20th Century when the gap in educational attainment levels first started to narrow with progress halting, ironically, for those born in the mid-1960s when landmark legislation such as the 1964 Civil Rights Act and th
Best Ed Books of the Decade � The Core Knowledge Blog
Best Ed Books of the Decade � The Core Knowledge Blog
August 31st, 2010
Best Ed Books of the Decade
by Robert PondiscioAugust 31st, 2010
Education Next has a terrific poll, sure to be hotly contested, on the best education book of the past decade. E.D. Hirsch’s The Knowledge Deficit is among the41 finalists. So is Dan Willingham’s Why Student’s Don’t Like School.
Other great choices made by Ed Next’s editors: Diane Ravitch’s The Death and Life of the Great American School System; Richard Kahlenberg’s
What Is Your Technique For Memorizing Student Names? | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...
What Is Your Technique For Memorizing Student Names? | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...
What Is Your Technique For Memorizing Student Names?
With the new school year approaching (and, for some, already here), I thought it might be useful to hear people’s techniques for learning student names, especially in middle and high school where we have so many to learn so quickly.
My room is set-up so it’s wide — I have four desks in each row, and have eight rows across. My
Sixth-graders at two Oakland schools working 8 to 5 - Inside Bay Area
Sixth-graders at two Oakland schools working 8 to 5 - Inside Bay Area
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LA Times Gives Teachers the Star Treatment | Intercepts
LA Times Gives Teachers the Star Treatment | Intercepts
LA Times Gives Teachers the Star Treatment
There isn’t much left to be said about the Los Angeles Times‘ teacher value-added database, but I’ll try anyway.
1) It’s not something I would have done, because the wholesale naming of teachers doesn’t, um, add much value to the story. The numbers should be used to identify schools and teachers who deserve further review, and then find out if the statistics accurately reflect what’s going on. Afterwards, the naming of teachers who are doing exceptionally well, or exceptionally poorly, is justified and necessary.
2) That having been said, the Times analysis was generated from public records about public employees. Theletter signed by the presidents of the National Education Association, California Teachers Association, and
Survey Finds Limited Familiarity, Success With Turnarounds - District Dossier - Education Week
Survey Finds Limited Familiarity, Success With Turnarounds - District Dossier - Education Week
Survey Finds Limited Familiarity, Success With Turnarounds
A new survey released today finds that few school districts are familiar with the four federal models for turning around low-performing schools and even fewer have implemented them.
More than a third of school districts reported they had no familiarity with the models that are part of the federal School Improvement Grants heading to school districts this fall in a bid by the Obama administration to change the fortunes of the bottom five percent of America's schools, according to the report from the Washington-based Center on Education Policy. And fewer than 12 percent had implemented any of the models in their schools.
"This really is a grand experiment to take the 5,000 lowest-performing schools in the country, tell them they have to follow four specific models of reform and putting a lot of money behind the reform," said Jack Jennings, CEP's president,