Monday, January 4, 2010

Glendale News Press > Archives > Politics > Cities to lose legislative voice

Glendale News Press > Archives > Politics > Cities to lose legislative voice:

"Krekorian’s seat will be vacated for minimum of 4 months, leaving Liu on her own.
By Zain Shauk"

As California lawmakers begin forming a plan to address an estimated $21-billion budget shortfall by mid-2011, city and school officials in Glendale and Burbank will have less of a voice.

The cities, which lie largely within the 43rd Assembly District, will be without Assemblyman Paul Krekorian (D-Los Angeles), who is set to step down from his post and take his oath of office at the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday. That will leave the district’s Assembly seat vacant for at least four months, according to the California Secretary of State’s office.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger must declare a special election within 14 days of Krekorian vacating his seat. The election could be called as early as April, but may also be proclaimed June 8, to coincide with a statewide election.

Four months without a representative will leave city and school district officials with one voice in the Legislature — Sen. Carol Liu (D-La Cañada Flintridge).

“It’s certainly a difficult time when we’re in such a period of transition,” Mary Boger, president of the Glendale Unified School District Board of Education, said of the challenge of being without an Assembly representative as discussions about the expected budget shortfall unfold.

Assembly members can directly voice their perspectives on specific budget cuts or spending proposals and have a say in drafting or amending plans to address the shortfall.

Krekorian proved to be a key player in similar discussions in 2009, when he helped lead opposition to a proposal to take $1 billion in Highway User Tax Account revenues from cities and local governments.

Officials in Burbank and Glendale had lobbied heavily against the proposal, which had come out of budget negotiations between Schwarzenegger, and Democratic and Republican Legislative leaders.

Glendale City Manager Jim Starbird was especially pleased with representatives like Krekorian, whom he credited with heeding a call

Gary Yee and Christopher Dobbins to lead Oakland Board Of Education

Gary Yee and Christopher Dobbins
to lead
Oakland Board Of Education

Former Vice-President moves to Board’s top spot; Dobbins named Vice-President

Oakland – Jan. 04, 2010 – Gary Yee, formerly Vice-President of the Oakland Board of Education, was elected President at the Board’s annual meeting on January 4, 2010. At the same meeting, Yee’s colleague Christopher Dobbins was elected Vice-President. Yee succeeds Noel Gallo, who while stepping down as President, remains on the Board. Both Yee and Dobbins were elected unanimously and the two men will lead the governing board of Oakland Public Schools for the next 12 months.

“I am honored that my peers saw fit to elect me as Board President during this critical period for public education,” Yee said. “As Oakland Unified and school districts throughout the country strive to boost student performance in the midst of dramatic funding cuts, sound leadership and robust community engagement are essential. As a Board, our top priorities for the coming year are to accelerate the growth in student achievement that has made OUSD California’s most-improved urban school district over the past five years, to reduce expenditures while increasing revenue and to bring collective bargaining with our labor unions to a successful conclusion. These are challenging but important goals and we look forward to working with the residents of Oakland to fashion creative solutions for the city’s public schools.”

Troy Flint

Spokesperson

Oakland Unified School District

1025 Second Avenue

Oakland, CA 94606-2212

BornLearning.org - Home

BornLearning.org Web Site -

Danny Weil: Race to the Slop

Minnesota, Home of the Charter School Bailed Out by Taxpayers

Race to the Slop

By DANIEL WEIL

The charter school saga gets more sordid and pernicious from city to city, day by day. The new fiasco involving taxpayer bailouts to Wall Street and the role of junk bonds in financing charter school ‘start-ups’ came to light in Minnesota in November of this year; Minnesota, ironically being the home of the first charter school law in the US in 1991.

Originally, charter school funding in Minnesota offered no extra money for start-up facilities to charter schools, just general aid payments per student. Former state Senator Ember Reichgott Junge, who wrote the 1991 law, said the intent was to keep charter schools focused on education and out of the real estate business. Of course many advocates of public schools in opposition to the new law had put a jaundiced eye on the whole mess from the beginning, arguing it was the first step towards the privatization of education. Never mind, for business and charter support for a ‘lease aid program’ for charter school start-ups crystallized in 1998, after lawmakers discovered many new charter schools were operating in cheap retail storefronts that lawmakers said were unfit for young children (See “State charter schools program is 'out of control',” Tony Kennedy, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, November 29, 2009. In their largesse, they would now begin a formal private sector partnership that would prove to be devastating for Minnesota schools and their citizens.

Charter Schools, owning property and the Minnesota Law
Minnesota state law prohibits charter schools from owning property. Seedy politicians and Wall Street firms and their consultants and lawyers, found a legal loophole in the law allowing charter proponents to use millions of dollars in public money to build these schools even though the properties would remain in the hands of private non-profit corporations. Yet another brilliant scam in the ongoing yarn of the American charter school and neo-liberal capitalism.

Here is how it worked. The state has a lease aid program, which it created 11 years ago that it said would help stimulate ‘competition’ in public education by offering rental assistance to charter groups promoting alternatives to district schools. The charter proponents argued the schools needed money for new facilities due to the fact that at their inception many charters sprang up in malls or strip malls, as they were not conversion charter schools. How would they finance the construction of these new start-up charter schools? By turning to Wall Street and the money-changers, of course. According to the Star Tribune:

In the past decade, 18 charter schools have been built with $178 million in junk bonds, with financing costs on some projects chewing up nearly a quarter of the funds raised. Twelve more charter schools have taken steps to buy or build facilities, and the state projects annual spending on lease aid to reach $54 million in 2013, up from just $1.1 million in 1998 (State charter schools program is 'out of control'. Tony Kennedy, Star Tribune Last update: November 29, 2009.

In order to lure the investors they needed for new charter start-up buildings, the administration abandoned the small campus idea which stimulated the movement close to 20 years ago in favor of building large factory style schools that delight in mirroring the more conventional institutions that the families were fleeing from in the first place. Again, never mind, for that is where construction money is to be made, in large concrete buildings, whether they house kids or stock goods. With education reduced to simply a ‘commodity vehicle’ for junk bond lenders and developers the interests of students and families become secondary interests while the huge construction financing costs became paramount.

Start-up financing
It all began in the year 2000 when American Express purchased $8.3 million dollars in bonds from the state. They said the bonds would be used to convert an old Science Museum in Minnesota into a charter school. It would be called, ironically, the Minnesota Business Academy and what

voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence. - Bright and Early

I just got back from vacation and I'm raring to start reporting! Send me your tips and burning questions at emily.alpert@voiceofsandiego.org to help me get the party started again. But first, your morning newsblitz:

The Union-Tribune reports that a Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit against a labor pact on the $2.1 billion school construction bond for San Diego Unified schools, but opponents of the pact, who claim it unfairly discriminates against non-union apprenticeship programs, are appealing the ruling.
Also in the UT: Tardiness and attendance at one local high school seemed to be linked to parents' inability to pay for public transit, so one principal is seeking donations to help cover bus passes.
KPBS sums up the budget cut challenges for San Diego Unified nicely in a year-end piece.
Fallbrook high schools are settling a lawsuit over free speech in a school newspaper, which was barred from printing a news article and an editorial about sex education, with a $20,000 payment to the American Civil Liberties Union and $7,500 for the faculty advisor to the school newspaper, the North County Times reports. The two blocked pieces were printed in April.
SDNN looks at how adult education programs are faring at universities despite budget cuts.
Up in Los Angeles, teachers are vying to take control of the schools they work in, the Times reports. It's one twist in the controversial new plan to allow groups, such as charter

Education Week: 'Race to Top' Viewed as Template for a New ESEA

'Race to Top' Viewed as Template for a New ESEA

Design Principles for State Competition Signal Administration's Priorities

By Alyson Klein

Educators hoping for a glimpse at the next rendition of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act may want to take a close look at the rules for the Race to the Top program, which pushes states to adopt education redesign principles that federal officials say are likely to be the cornerstone of the Obama administration’s plans for a new ESEA.

The $4 billion Race to the Top competition, created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, aims to reward states for making progress on a series of redesign “assurances,” including turning around low-performing schools, improving teacher quality and distribution, bolstering state data systems, and improving the use of data and assessments.

Those themes are likely to inform the U.S. Department of Education’s plans for reauthorization of the ESEA, of which the 8-year-old No Child Left Behind Act is the most recent iteration, said Carmel Martin, the department’s assistant secretary for planning, evaluation, and policy development, in an interview with Education Week reporters late last year.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on ESEA from Education Week on Vimeo.

Safety of Beef Processing Method Is Questioned - NYTimes.com

Officials at the United States Department of Agricultureendorsed the company’s ammonia treatment, and have said it destroys E. coli “to an undetectable level.” They decided it was so effective that in 2007, when the department began routine testing of meat used in hamburger sold to the general public, they exempted Beef Products.

With the U.S.D.A.’s stamp of approval, the company’s processed beef has become a mainstay in America’s hamburgers. McDonald’s, Burger King and other fast-food giants use it as a component in ground beef, as do grocery chains. The federal school lunch program used an estimated 5.5 million pounds of the processed beef last year alone.

But government and industry records obtained by The New York Times show that in testing for the school lunch program, E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens of times in Beef Products meat, challenging claims by the company and the U.S.D.A. about the effectiveness of the treatment. Since 2005, E. coli has been found 3 times and salmonella 48 times, including back-to-back incidents in August in which two 27,000-pound batches were found to be contaminated. The meat was caught before reaching lunch-rooms trays.

In July, school lunch officials temporarily banned their hamburger makers from using meat from a Beef Products facility in Kansas because of salmonella — the third suspension in three years, records show. Yet the facility remained approved by the U.S.D.A. for other customers.

Presented by The Times with the school lunch test results, top department officials said they were not aware of what their colleagues in the lunch program had been finding for years.

Reading machines for students with LD - Assistive technology | GreatSchools

Reading machines for students with LD

How can reading machines help kids with learning disabilities? An expert on assistive technology looks at peer-reviewed research for answers.

What's new in the world of research related to children with learning and attention difficulties? In this summary of current peer-reviewed research, Marshall Raskind, Ph.D., shares his expert perspective in practical terms for parents like you.

The use of optical character recognition (OCR) systems combined with speech synthesis (computer-generated speech) has become increasingly accepted as a means of compensating for reading disabilities. These OCR systems, or reading machines, convert printed text to spoken language so the user can hear and see written words. These technologies are now marketed internationally (for example, WYNN^®, Kurzweil 3000^®), commonly found in assistive technology centers serving individuals with learning disabilities, frequently exhibited at LD conferences, generally considered in assistive technology evaluations for students with LD, and regularly discussed in publications on LD and assistive technology.

As OCR systems continue to gain popularity as a compensatory tool for children with reading difficulties, it is important for parents to know whether scientific studies support their use. Furthermore, parents need to be aware that selecting specific technologies for their children is dependent on the individual child, the task to be performed, and the setting in which it is to be used. Hopefully, this article will shed light on these issues by reviewing research on the use OCR combined with synthetic speech for persons with reading disabilities.

Tucson: Parents concerned about charter school run by Turkish Islamist movement � Creeping Sharia

Tucson: Parents concerned about charter school run by Turkish Islamist movement

By creeping

Last year we posted a piece from Campus Watch that raised concerns about a Turkish organization, Fethullah Gulen, possibly infiltrating U.S. schools to advance Islamism. That post has received quite a few hits and comments recently.

Now, another of the Gulen schools, one that was listed in the previous piece, in Arizona, has come under scrutiny. By Tim Vanderpool in the Tucson Weekly, Parents raise concerns that a Tucson charter school has ties to a Turkish nationalist movement:

No one can knock the numbers. In recent years, students at Tucson’s Sonoran Science Academy have secured stellar scores in math, science and other categories. The academy has earned glowing mentions in national magazines such asU.S. News and World Report, and in 2009, was deemed Charter School of the Year by the Arizona Charter School Association.

But some parents of children who attend the academy on West Sunset Road believe it harbors goals reaching far beyond academia. They suspect the Sonoran Academy of being part of a confederation of learning institutions secretly linked to, and advancing, the cause of Turkish scholar and Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen.

While most of those parents have resisted coming forward, fearing reprisal from an organization they say is known to target critics, one parent did

Education Research Report Recommendations for Healthier School Menu

Recommendations for Healthier School Menus

More fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, less sodium and a limit on calories served per meal—those are just some of the recommendations a committee of experts has made on how to improve the nation’s school lunch and breakfast menus.

A new report, “School Meals: Building Blocks for Healthy Children,” by the Institute of Medicine recommends that the Food and Nutrition Service of the USDA—which oversees the school meal programs—adopt standards for menu planning that are more in line with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Full report.

The recommended changes in school menu planning include increasing the amount and variety of fruit at breakfast and vegetables at lunch. Schools should offer starchy vegetables such as potatoes less often and provide more green leafy and orange vegetables and more legumes. No more than half the fruit should be juice.

Schools should ensure that half or more of the bread and other grain products they serve are rich in whole grains and they should reduce the amounts of unhealthy saturated and trans fats.

School meals must meet minimum calorie requirements to ensure growing children get enough energy. But given the increasing rate of childhood obesity, the report recommends that maximum calorie levels be set as well.

The amount of salt in school meals needs to be reduced given the long-term health risks associated with excessive sodium intake. A typical high school lunch contains around 1,600 milligrams of sodium, much more than the 740 milligrams recommended. Because gradual changes in food flavors are more acceptable than abrupt alterations, schools should phase in salt reductions over the next 10 years.

The report’s recommendations are based on the latest child health and nutrition science. They reflect the greater understanding of children's nutritional needs and the dietary factors that contribute to obesity and other chronic health problems we have gained since the school meal programs were last updated.

Elected officials and UFT call for changes to state charter school law - United Federation of Teachers

Elected officials and UFT call for changes to state charter school law - United Federation of Teachers:

"Urge amendments to ensure charter schools are open to all, including special ed and non-English speaking students

Proposed changes would make finances transparent, ban profiteering in publicly financed charters

State Senate Majority Leader John Sampson talks about FACT - Fairness, Accountability, Choice and Transparency - at the UFT's press conference on Jan. 3.
Citing evidence that New York City charter schools enroll far fewer of the city’s poorest students, English-language learners and special education pupils, a group of elected officials, parents and the UFT proposed on Jan. 3 a set of wide-ranging changes to New York State’s charter school law.

The changes are designed to ensure equal access to charters by all students, to increase transparency in charter school finances and operations, and to remove the ability of for-profit operators to use charters as profit centers."

Critics fear Stanislaus County charter schools have an unfair advantage - Local - Modbee.com

Critics fear Stanislaus County charter schools have an unfair advantage - Local - Modbee.com:

"When her twin daughters, Megan and Mackenzie, were in third grade, Janice Anderson noticed a shift in their school habits. They weren't motivated.

She determined it was because few of their peers were inclined to take school seriously, and their teacher seemed unable to keep everyone on task."

Many more Stanislaus County families are choosing charter schools — enough to create demand for eight new charter campuses in just the past five years.

Those decisions are changing the way education is delivered, challenging public schools to be more flexible and giving parents more choices than they've ever had.

Yet some fear that charter schools are "skimming" the most involved parents — ones such as Anderson — out of the traditional public school system, putting those schools at a long-term disadvantage against their newer rivals.

"Another educator once told me that it's like traditionals and charters are all in a race, but the state allows charters to build their race cars faster," said Bill Redford, director of Riverbank Language Academy and a former employee of the California Charter Schools Association.

In many ways, charter schools are better positioned for success. They tend to be smaller schools that give students more individual attention.

San Jose parents try to lure high-scoring charter school to the East Side - San Jose Mercury News

San Jose parents try to lure high-scoring charter school to the East Side - San Jose Mercury News:

"Their children are still in elementary school, but a group of San Jose parents who are already thinking about high school have launched an intense lobbying campaign to attract a top-performing charter school to the East Side.

On Thursday, the founders of Summit Preparatory Charter High in Redwood City will hold an information session at Foothill Presbyterian Church. In preparation, San Jose parents, many with children at the K-5 Adelante Dual-Language Academy, hope to attract a big turnout and present a petition with 1,000 signatures asking that the Summit Institute choose East San Jose for one of two expansion campuses planned for fall 2011.

'We're parents who believe in small schools,' said organizer Bernie Kotlier, who emphasized that parent interest in Summit isn't a reflection on the quality or politics of the East Side Union High School District, the system their children would attend after the eighth grade."

Hindus urge Massachusetts schools for choice in studying of religious texts

Hindus urge Massachusetts schools for choice in studying of religious texts

Hindus have urged Massachusetts (USA) schools to either allow students the flexibility to choose the religious text to study in the class instead of just mandating one religious text on the entire class or teach the texts of all major world religions.

A controversy reportedly arose recently in a Newton (Massachusetts) high school when a student refused to read passages from a religious text as an assignment because he was an atheist.

Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that opening-up the Massachusetts children to major world religions and non-believers’ viewpoint would make them well-nurtured, well-balanced, and enlightened citizens of tomorrow. It also made a good business sense to know the beliefs of “others” in a global community. Moreover, students should have knowledge of the entire society to become full participants in the American and world community.

Rajan Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, further said that a special curriculum should be prepared for students who were non-believers as an alternative to the study of religious texts, Rajan Zed stressed.

In 2008-2009 school year, there were 958, 910 students in 1848 elementary and secondary schools in Massachusetts. Graduation rate of the state schools in 2008 was 81.2 percent. Mitchell D. Chester is Commissioner of Massachusetts Elementary and Secondary Education.

Massachusetts, which reportedly leads the nation in technology, higher education, and health care; is known for Pilgrims landing, American Revolution, Martha’s Vineyard, Adams and Kennedy families, Harvard University, and home to the country's oldest high school(1635).

The Oh Decade: A new decade brings fresh hope for education reform - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

The Oh Decade: A new decade brings fresh hope for education reform - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee:

"Ten years ago, Gov. Gray Davis committed his administration to education. He personally chose a team to implement his vision for schools from a group handpicked by then-Education Secretary Gary Hart, former state senator from Santa Barbara. Well-liked and brilliant at education policy, Hart had recently retired from a respected career in the Senate where he served as chairman of the Senate Education Committee. Davis did not mince words – he said do not back down in pursuit of his expectations for schools. He wanted change. And he got it."

By 2000, state officials were implementing the public school accountability system Davis had signed into law the previous year. He created a measuring stick for school performance called the "academic performance index." Today, it defines our thinking about what it means to be a good school. Davis set the original goal of a good school on the index at 800 of 1,000 points. He enacted the high school exit exam to give a California high school diploma real meaning. His administration also deftly negotiated a voluntary program that gave more money to the lowest-achieving schools in the state if they promised to improve. If they didn't meet their goals, they faced state sanctions that included expanded school choice options for parents stuck in those schools.

It's this notion of parental choice and empowerment that has re-surfaced in recent weeks as a hot topic in Sacramento, as lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger struggle to make California eligible to apply for up to $700 million in federal "Race to the Top" funds, President Barack Obama's school reform initiative. The application is due this month, and the debate turns on the fate of schoolchildren trapped in under-performing schools. After butting heads a few weeks ago with state Assembly leaders who killed her original measure for school change, state Sen. Gloria Romero, a Democrat from East Los Angeles, is back at it with another Race to the Top proposal. It would allow students in the state's lowest-performing schools to transfer

The Educated Guess � Behind-the-scenes maneuvers on parental reforms

The Educated Guess � Behind-the-scenes maneuvers on parental reforms

A new year, same old power plays.

There likely will be action today in the Assembly on compromise Race to the Top legislation, as scheduled. But instead of one big bill, two reforms opposed by the school boards association and the state teachers union will be shoved into a separate bill, which the lobbies hope to kill. At least that’s the word I got late last night, after a day of intense negotiations.

Both reforms would give more power to families in chronically failing schools. So Democrats in the Assembly will find themselves having to choose between the interests of the union and that of parents.

When last we left it, before Christmas, SBX5-4 has passed the Senate and was awaiting action in the Assembly. It still is. The bill would put California on firmer ground in competing for a piece of the Obama administration’s $4.3 billion school reform grant program.

The two parent empowerment reforms are backed by Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, and Gov. Schwarzenegger. The open enrollment provision would give parents in the bottom 10 percent of low-achieving schools the right to choose a better school in another district, assuming there is space available. However, in response to serious questions raised at the Senate hearing about how the program would work, the bill needed to be fleshed out in detail over the Christmas break.

The parent “trigger” provision is the creation of Parent Revolution, an activist group behind the big school reform movement in Los Angeles Unified. If 50 percent of parents of students in a school – or 50 percent of parents in feeder schools, in the case of a high school – signed a petition calling for change, school trustees would have to take decisive action: turning the school over to a charter school operator, replacing the principal and majority of the staff, or taking other serious turn-around strategies. In its latest form, the provision would be restricted to the first 75 successful petitions in schools that had failed to meet federal No Child Left Behind targets for six or more straight years.

Proposed Raffle Ban in New York City Schools Is Rescinded - NYTimes.com

Proposed Raffle Ban in New York City Schools Is Rescinded - NYTimes.com:

"First, it was bake sales. Then, for a few weeks, it looked as if raffles would also be banned.

At a time when New York City schools are struggling with budget cuts, the Department of Education proposed a regulation this month that would ban parent-teacher associations from holding raffles, a mainstay of fund-raising — especially after the city effectively banned PTA bake sales in June.

Parents were furious. “Everybody’s been going crazy about it,” said Wendy Vaphides, the co-president of the Parent-Teacher Association at the Michael J. Petrides School on Staten Island, which estimates it lost $1,800 by not being able to hold its annual holiday bake sales this year, and has a raffle scheduled for March."

Class Struggle - Can D.C. teacher evaluations be too admiring?

Class Struggle- Can D.C. teacher evaluations be too admiring?:

"I am still receiving emails about my Nov. 23 column on Dan Goldfarb, the first teacher to share with me the results of an evaluation under the new D.C. teacher assessment plan, IMPACT. Goldfarb was not happy with his score, 2.3 out of a possible 4 points. He said the rules forced his evaluator to focus on trivia, like whether he had been--to quote the IMPACT guidelines--“affirming (verbally or in writing) student effort or the connection between hard work and achievement.” He said the evaluator told his principal of his complaints about the program and about D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, violating promised confidentiality.

Goldfarb had legitimate gripes. But his was a tiny sample of this innovative attempt at rating teachers. When I sought evaluations from teachers not so opposed to IMPACT, several said they would send theirs over, but so far only one has done so. That evaluation differed from Goldfarb’s in intriguing ways. The score was almost perfect, 3.92 out of 4. But the analysis seemed to me out of sync with thinking behind this program."

UTA, UNT students save cash by renting textbooks | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

UTA, UNT students save cash by renting textbooks | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News| Latest News:

"You can rent an apartment, a car or a DVD. Now add college textbooks to the list expensive items that people are renting because they are short on cash or looking for a better deal."

Students at theUniversity of Texas at Arlington and the University of North Texas can lease some textbooks through their campus bookstore, while others can find deals through a growing number of online rental sites – think Netflix for English lit and calculus.

Meanwhile, a few professors and colleges are experimenting with free online textbooks.

There's good reason for the demand. College students can expect to shell out more than $1,000 on textbooks over the academic year, according to the Southern Regional Education Board. While that's still a fraction of tuition and fees, the high cost prompts plenty of gripes.

"It comes to a point where you feel like you have to take out a separate loan just for your textbooks," said Branden Scott, a sophomore at UNT.

Scott rented a $70 textbook for his English class through UNT's bookstore. The price for a semester-long rental: about $25.

"I was in a rush to get my textbooks for the cheapest prices I could," he said

EducationNews.org - A Leading Global News Source - Education: A Debate over Dumbing Down

EducationNews.org - A Leading Global News Source - Education: A Debate over Dumbing Down:

"Question: What article is being manufactured in the above passage? Too hard? Try these selections, then. What stage of a frog's development is being described in the following excerpt: 'A new frog is like a fish. He must stay in the water.

Education: A Debate over Dumbing Down

Textbooks, using formulas for simplicity, produce perplexity

Tap, tap, tap. See me work. I make I good things. See the red ones. See the blue ones. See the yellow ones. No, no, no. I do not want red ones. I do not want blue ones. I want green ones.'

Question: What article is being manufactured in the above passage? Too hard? Try these selections, then. What stage of a frog's development is being described in the following excerpt: 'A new frog is like a fish. He must stay in the water. You may have seen a little frog as he hopped out of the water. Then you may have seen him hop back in again.' In American history, how true is it to say that former President Richard M. Nixon became enmeshed in Watergate because 'he tried to help his friends'?"

Deborah A. Gist: R.I. is ready for change in education | Education | projo.com | The Providence Journal

Deborah A. Gist: R.I. is ready for change in education | Education | projo.com | The Providence Journal:

"The sense of urgency that Deborah A. Gist brought to her job as the state’s top education leader six months ago has only intensified since then, with the new commissioner and her staff at the state Department of Education rolling out a dizzying array of reforms. Most are intended to improve the quality of classroom teachers — one of the most critical factors in student success.

In early January, Gist will launch the state’s ambitious bid to capture millions of dollars in federal grants in the competitive Race to the Top grant program, which rewards dramatic changes.

“This state is really ready to pull its education system up and be the envy of the world,” Gist said. “I see it. I feel it. I hear it from people.” Since September, Gist has visited every district except New Shoreham, which she plans to visit Monday, and has met with hundreds of educators, students, and parents."

Study Gauges Teach for America Graduates’ Civic Involvement - NYTimes.com

Study Gauges Teach for America Graduates’ Civic Involvement - NYTimes.com:

"Teach for America, a corps of recent college graduates who sign up to teach in some of the nation’s most troubled schools, has become a campus phenomenon, drawing huge numbers of applicants willing to commit two years of their lives."

But a new study has found that their dedication to improving society at large does not necessarily extend beyond their Teach for America service.

In areas like voting, charitable giving and civic engagement, graduates of the program lag behind those who were accepted but declined and those who dropped out before completing their two years, according to Doug McAdam, a sociologist at Stanford University, who conducted the study with a colleague, Cynthia Brandt.

The reasons for the lower rates of civic involvement, Professor McAdam said, include not only exhaustion and burnout, but also disillusionment with Teach for America’s approach to the issue of educational inequity, among other factors.

The study, “Assessing the Long-Term Effects of Youth Service: The Puzzling Case of Teach for America,” is the first of its kind to explore what happens to participants after they leave the program. It was done at the suggestion of Wendy Kopp, Teach for America’s founder and president, who disagrees with the findings. Ms. Kopp had read an earlier study by Professor McAdam that found that participants in Freedom Summer — the 10 weeks in 1964 when civil rights advocates, many of them college students, went to Mississippi to register black voters — had become more politically active.

School choice movement pushes for open enrollment in Missouri - KansasCity.com

School choice movement pushes for open enrollment in Missouri - KansasCity.com:

"The idea of opening enrollment across school district boundaries has some obvious supporters.

Start with the families of the 84 students since the fall of 2007 whom the Lee’s Summit School District has removed from its schools for giving false addresses.

“Some forge documents that (say) they are living with someone else,” said Jeff Miller, Lee’s Summit’s director of student services. “Some put money on a place and show a contract, then back out.”"

Should schools relax zero-tolerance disciplinary policies? - Faceoff - NewsObserver.com

Should schools relax zero-tolerance disciplinary policies? - Faceoff - NewsObserver.com:

"Maybe some of the thousands of disruptive, violent or criminal students Wake County suspends each year need a more constructive alternative than getting kicked out of school."

In-school suspensions, reform schools or community service might be better alternatives than life at home, in a gang, or on the street, away from the chance to learn.

But if Wake's school board tinkers with its "zero-tolerance" disciplinary policy, as some board members want to do, it should take care not to make matters worse for teachers and the majority of students who work hard and behave.

The job of students is to learn. The job of teachers is to teach. The job of schools is to make it happen, not to coddle troublemakers.

Granted, some troubled students need and want help. They come from broken homes or suffer emotional, developmental or learning disabilities. We must not abandon them.

And there's no doubt that some misbehaving students booted from school only graduate to professional lives of crime, preying on innocent victims and requiring still more public attention, effort and treasure. Reform school is cheaper than prison. We need effective programs to shrink the pipeline of despair.

FALLBROOK: High school district agrees to settle First Amendment case

FALLBROOK: High school district agrees to settle First Amendment case:

"The Fallbrook Union High School District will pay $7,500 to the faculty advisor of the Fallbrook High School campus newspaper and $20,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union to settle a lawsuit over a censored article and editorial.

Five Fallbrook High School journalism students and the ACLU filed the suit in November 2008, a year after Principal Rod King told faculty advisor Dave Evans that he couldn't run a student-written article in the Tomahawk's November 2007 edition about former Superintendent Tom Anthony's resignation.

Officials have declined to discuss the circumstances surrounding Anthony's resignation.

The article on Anthony was held despite Evans' 'strong objections,' according to the ACLU.

King also ordered Evans later to hold an editorial critical of the district's abstinence-only sex education program."

Nutter to focus on increasing college admissions | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/04/2010

Nutter to focus on increasing college admissions | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/04/2010:

"In the year ahead, Mayor Nutter's administration will open an office to help more city residents to and through college, and seek from area universities up to 100 new scholarships for city students.

It's part of a push to sharpen the city's focus on higher education - an area not often embraced by mayors traditionally more consumed with their kindergarten-through-12th-grade school systems.

'If we are going to remain economically competitive as a region, we have to get more kids going to college,' said Lori Shorr, Nutter's chief education officer."

HISD chief may halt alternative school program | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

HISD chief may halt alternative school program | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle:

"Some Houston ISD principals banished as much as 11 percent of their students with disciplinary problems to a privately run alternative campus last school year, while other principals sent only one or two children away.

The wide disparity in principals' use of schools run by Community Education Partners has caught the attention of HISD Superintendent Terry Grier, who questions whether schools are kicking out too many students on trivial grounds.

Texas law requires that students be sent to disciplinary alternative programs for certain reasons — such as assault and selling or using drugs or alcohol — but gives principals discretion over less serious offenders.

“Why are some schools sending so many children to CEP for what on the surface look like much less serious disciplinary actions?” asked Grier, who, after four months on the job, has ordered a comprehensive review of the Houston Independent School District's arrangement with CEP."