Sean James and Al Joyner respond to the Tebow Super Bowl ad

Former college and professional football player Sean James and Olympic gold medalist Al Joyner respond to the Focus on the Family Super Bowl ad, featuring Tim Tebow and his mother.

Education | Judge: Seattle schools' choice of math texts needs more review | Seattle Times Newspaper

Education | Judge: Seattle schools' choice of math texts needs more review | Seattle Times Newspaper:

"Judge: Seattle schools' choice of math texts needs more review
A ruling by a King County Superior Court judge could send Seattle Public Schools back to the drawing board with regard to its controversial new math curriculum.

By Seattle Times staff
A ruling by a King County Superior Court judge could send Seattle Public Schools back to the drawing board with regard to its controversial new math curriculum.

Calling the choice of the Discovering series 'arbitrary' and 'capricious,' Judge Julie Spector on Thursday ordered the district's board to further review the choice of its math curriculum.

A group of parents who object to the Discovering series had sued the school district, its board and Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson."

Closing the Achievement Gap Workbook - Year 2010 (CA Dept of Education)

Closing the Achievement Gap Workbook - Year 2010 (CA Dept of Education)

New Tool to Help Close the Achievement Gap
by Improving School Culture and Climate

SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today announced the availability of a new resource to help close the achievement gap by improving the culture and climate of the teaching and learning environment at schools.

The Workbook for Improving School Climate & Closing the Achievement Gap is designed to give teachers and school leaders step-by-step guidance on how to interpret and respond to the results of their state-sponsored school climate surveys, in order to make changes that can help close the achievement gap between higher- and lower-performing groups of students.

"There are many factors that go into effective teaching and learning," said O'Connell. "If students feel disconnected from their teachers or unwelcome at school, these factors can interfere with learning and contribute to the achievement gap.

"To give schools more insight into conditions and issues related to race and the achievement gap, we expanded and improved the state's school climate surveys for students and staff. And, I am pleased to announce today that we have created a guide to help schools interpret these results and make beneficial changes. Our school climate Workbookcan help foster crucial conversations at schools and districts that can lead to changes that will help all students feel safe and supported in their schools and better engaged in learning."

O'Connell called for an intensive effort in 2007 to close the state's pernicious achievement gap that exists between higher-performing subgroups of white or Asian students and their lower-performing African American or Latino peers. He charged his California P-16 Council with providing recommendations on what the state can do differently to assist local educational agencies in closing the gap.

The P-16 Council identified several areas of concern, including one that focuses on school culture and climate. This is based on an understanding that a student's ability to learn and a teacher's ability to educate occurs within the context of the values, beliefs, and rituals of the school, community, and larger society.

The P-16 Council made 14 recommendations in its 2008 report on Closing the Achievement Gap. One recommendation was to conduct a climate survey that would assess the educational environment and overall school well-being. This recommendation was implemented by expanding the existing California Healthy Kids Survey for students and the California School Climate Survey for staff. These surveys are currently administered in 7,648 schools in 833 districts in the state, with the results publicly available on the survey. They constitute the largest effort in the nation to provide schools with their own data to guide efforts to create positive learning and teaching environments that promote achievement and well-being. Both surveys were augmented to provide schools with better data on issues relating to students' and staff's race, culture, school conditions, and supports that impact the achievement gap, as well as the needs of migrant education and special education programs.

This led to the Workbook that is a collaboration between the national nonprofit research and service agency, WestEd, and the California Department of Education. The goal is to produce a valuable and user-friend document that recognizes the importance of creating a positive school environment to support students and teachers.

Schools may use the Workbook to gain a deeper understanding of the data collected in their Surveys to assess what is working and build on those strengths in the classroom, school, and district. The Surveys may also help identify aspects of the school climate that need improvement. Then the Workbook offers strategies to address those needs, helping them link data to practice and policy.

There are three sections of the Workbook focusing on various aspects of the achievement gap: 

(1.) closing the racial achievement gap, (2.) closing the achievement gap between special education students and others, and (3.) the gap that often leaves students in migrant education programs behind. The Workbook is available online at Working for Improving School Climate & Closing the Achievement Gap  (Outside Source; PDF; 20MB; 152pp.). Survey reports are available at CHKS: Home (Outside Source) and CSCS | Welcome to California School Climate Survey -- For Staff(Outside Source).

For more information on O'Connell's Closing the Achievement Gap initiative, 

please visit State of Education Address, February 6, 2007 - State of Education. 

For the P-16 Council, please visit P-16 Council - Initiatives, Projects, & Programs. 

For WestEd, please visit WestEd: Home (Outside Source).

Schools Matter: Congressman Miller: Will You Now Sponsor a Bill to Protect Children from Testing Abuse

Schools Matter: Congressman Miller: Will You Now Sponsor a Bill to Protect Children from Testing Abuse

The Honorable Congressman touts his work on stopping abuse and seclusion of children:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House Education and Labor Committee today passed bipartisan legislation to make classrooms safer for students and school staff by preventing the misuse of restraint and seclusion. The Committee passed the Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act (H.R. 4227) by a vote of 34 to 10.

A U.S. Government Accountability Office report released last spring exposed hundreds of cases of schoolchildren being abused as a result of inappropriate uses of restraint and seclusion, often involving untrained staff. In some cases, children died. A disproportionate number of these victims were students with disabilities. In some of the cases GAO investigated, ropes, duct tape, chairs with straps and bungee cords were used to restrain or isolate young children.

“This bill makes clear that there is no place in our schools for abuse and torture,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. “The egregious abuse of a child should not be considered less 

SN&R > Editorial > Strong mayor, RIP > 02.04.10

SN&R: Editorial Strong mayor, RIP 02.04.10:

"SN&R has published both news pieces and commentary about Mayor Kevin Johnson’s crusade for city charter reform to include a “strong mayor.” It was one of the issues he campaigned on. But there’s been much to consider on the subject in the 15 months since Johnson was elected.

First, there was Johnson’s quick move for an initiative to put the “strong mayor” plan on the ballot, with very little public discussion beforehand. He attempted, as we noted in these pages, to do an end run around the more reasoned (and, we might add, collaborative) approach that the other city leaders were willing to take.

Roughly a year ago, though, Johnson stopped the petition circulating for his strong-mayor initiative, citing it as a distraction from more pressing issues facing the city—specifically, the budget crisis and looming layoffs of city workers. We applauded the mayor for doing so. Next, the city council established the Sacramento Charter Review Committee, a body commissioned to examine the city charter and offer suggestions for its improvement, including a possible switch to a strong-mayor form."

UC System Provost talks budget with UCSC staff, students - Santa Cruz Sentinel

UC System Provost talks budget with UCSC staff, students - Santa Cruz Sentinel:

"SANTA CRUZ -- Quality of education, access to that education and affordability were the common threads a top University of California official heard after meeting with students and faculty at administration at UC Santa Cruz on Tuesday.

In Kerr Hall, under high security after the December student occupation that damaged the building, interim UC Provost Dr. Lawrence Pitts met with various groups to discuss what budget cuts might mean for a university system with a soaring number of applicants for next year, but with fewer spots to put them in.

'If the University of California loses quality in some demonstrable way, the entire university will sag. If we don't do everything in our power to preserve quality, it will change the face of the university, and it will be hard to recapture or regain in any short amount of time,' he said to a group of UCSC student reporters."

SCUSD Board of Education Meeting 2-4-2010

SCUSD  Board of Education Meeting 2-4-2010

Regular Meeting
Date:	Time:	Location:
February 4, 2010	4:30 p.m. Closed Session 6:30 p.m. Open Session	Serna Center 5735 47th Avenue Sacramento, Ca 95824 Community Room
Meeting Documents:		Online meeting Video/Archive
Agenda	Minutes	During a Regular Board of Education meeting: Click HERE to watch the meeting live from outside the district network. Click HERE to watch the meeting live from a district site Click HERE to watch the archive video of the meeting PLEASE NOTE: This video service is designed for high speed internet access.
Agenda Items:
Item 9.1 - Budget Overview and Update Item 11.1a - Approve Grants, Entitlements and Other Income Agreements, Ratification of Other Agreements, Approval of Bid Awards, Approval of Declared Surplus Materials and Equipment, Change Notices and Notices of Completion Item 11.1b - Annual Adjustment to Bid Threshold per Public Contract Code §20111 Item 11.1c - Approve Staff Recommendations for Expulsion #1 and #2 2009/2010 Item 11.1d - Approve High School Course of Study: 1st Level American Sign Language 1P-2P Item 11.1d Part 2 - 2nd Level American Sign Language 1P-2P Item 11.1d Part 3 - 3rd Level American Sign Language 1P-2P Item 11.1e - Approve Board Committee List for 2010 Item 11.1f - Approve the Board of Education Meeting Minutes for September 23, October 1, and October 15, 2009 Item 12.1 - Business and Financial Information		This meeting of the Sacramento City School Board is being videotaped in its entirety and will be cablecast without interruption on Metro Cable 14, the government affairs channel on the Comcast and SureWest Cable Systems.  Today's meeting will be replayed Saturday, February 6 at 1 p.m. & Monday, February 8 at 6 p.m Members of the audience wishing to address the Board should fill out a speaker identification form located in the back of community room and give to the Clerk.  Please speak into the microphone when addressing the Board, and state your name for the record.

10 amazing finalist: #1 Cathy Speck , Davis, CA

10 amazing finalist: #1 Cathy Speck , Davis, CA

One of five in her family impacted by ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's Disease; Cathy was diagnosed only months after losing her brother to ALS. Having lost her mother to ALS at the age of 13, Cathy is well educated about the disease and has spent a lifetime coping with its devastating impact. While caretaking for her brother she began to recognize symptoms that he was experiencing in herself. Knowing that her family could not cope with losing her too, she kept her suspicions to herself.

Once diagnosed, Cathy became the biggest advocate ALS has ever seen! From teaching junior high school students to educating her co-workers at the Davis Food Co-op, Cathy shares her story with all who will listen. Honestly, it's not hard to listen either. Her spirit is kind. Her voice is soft. And her words eloquently deliver the powerful story of the disease that is so devastatingly killing her motor neurons and will ultimately lead to her passing.

Cathy knows that her days with us are limited and her biggest concern is for her wife Linda, who she is struggling with leaving behind. Federal laws don’t recognize their union, so Linda will not be able to receive her social security checks. They live in a one-bedroom apartment, have been living paycheck-to-paycheck most of their relationship (more than 16 years), and Linda has no family to support her. Cathy is also very worried about her other siblings, each of whom have a 50% chance of inheriting the gene mutation that leads to ALS.

Cathy insists that future generations of children should not have to endure the ravaging effects of ALS. Her courage and strength is unprecedented as she loses mobility with each passing day. Together with Linda, Cathy is often times found performing (music and singing are her passion). Whether it's at a local Farmers Market or a holiday party for other patients facing this disease, she uses this medium to share her words of 

• Cathy Speck
• Davis, CA
• The ALS Association

One of five in her family impacted by ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's Disease; Cathy was diagnosed only months after losing her brother to ALS. Having lost her mother to ALS at the age of 13,...

Learn more about Cathy

vote for Cathy

S.F. City College cancels summer session

S.F. City College cancels summer session:

"Thousands of students who expected to make up missed courses or simply move their education forward will have to put those plans on hold this year because City College of San Francisco is canceling its popular summer session."



The cost-cutting move has angered many students who say they were depending on summer school this year in particular because the college cut hundreds of courses during the fall and spring semesters, and they have been unable to get into basic classes they need.
"It's messed up," said Giselle Rouede, 18, who wants to be an emergency medical technician. She tried to take the EMT course in the fall, but it was full. It was full again this semester, so she planned to take it over during the summer.
"I was really disappointed," Rouede said. "If people want to be educated, they should be able to take classes."
College trustees axed the $4 million summer school program to help close a budget gap expected to top $12 million. All but some state-mandated vocational classes will vanish, leaving more than 2,000 City College students wondering what to do

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2010/02/04/MNGF1BS143.DTL#ixzz0ebYplLUC

Teacher pension fund lost $9 billion last year while costs rose | GothamSchools

Teacher pension fund lost $9 billion last year while costs rose | GothamSchools

In Albany this week, UFT President Michael Mulgrew floated a plan to save the city money by letting teachers retire earlier. But a new report on the health of the city’s teachers pension fund suggests that Mulgrew’s proposal would only compound the fund’s potentially crippling budget crunch.

The fund’s annual report, released last week, shows that it lost 29 percent of its value, more than $9 billion, last school year, even as the portion the city is required to pay reached unprecedented heights.

The mix of rising costs and declining value raises serious questions about how the city will be able to afford to pay the pensions it has promised in the future without major concessions by the teachers union.

The fund, called the Teachers Retirement System (TRS), is a collection of investments paid for with a combination of taxpayer dollars and teacher salaries. Every year a chunk of it is used to pay retired teachers and principals the pensions state law says they are owed.

Last year’s financial crisis sunk the fund to its lowest level in more than 15 years, effectively erasing all of the gains made in the past decade’s bull market, according to a database of TRS’s financial reports. Over that time span, the fund’s value, adjusted for inflation, has shrunk by more than $11 billion.

This leaves a $15 billion gap between what the fund expects to pay out in the next 30 or so years and what it will have saved by that time, according to the TRS’s preferred accounting method. Another way of calculating these “unfunded liabilities” used in the private sector puts the number even higher, at $27 billion.

“It’s not a crisis. It’s a long-run big problem: The pension system is 

Sacramento Press / California Masons Team up with Sacramento Catholic School

Sacramento Press / California Masons Team up with Sacramento Catholic School

The Freemasons of Eureka Lodge No 16 of Auburn attended St Philomene Catholic School in Sacramento on Parents Day and provided FREE Kids ID thumbprinting and photo identification for all the children. The lodge also donated free stuffed animal toys for the appreciative students, while parents received an identification sheet that includes space to record child's height, weight, eye, hair color and space for a DNA sample. This sheet will be extremely valuable to authorities if a child ever becomes missing or abducted.

The California Mason's Kids ID Program gives parents the peace of mind that they are prepared for the unthinkable. Each year approximately 725,000 children are reported missing in the United States. Since the Masons started this program, more than 800,000 California children have received this important documentation. Freemasons provide this free service in communities throughout the state.

Democrats for Education Reform: UCLA Civil Rights Projec

Democrats for Education Reform released the following statement on the newly released Civil Rights Project report on charter schools: "The UCLA Civil Rights Project seemingly wants to block minority parents from choosing to enroll their children in better schools simply because it feels those schools aren't white enough. What's up with that?"

PTA Takes Action: Public Policy

Public Policy

PTA Takes Action

Legislative Alerts and Updates • Current Legislation • Key Votes • Capitol Hill Basics

	Action Alert President’s Education Budget Eliminates Sole Federal Parent Engagement Program On February 1, 2010, the Obama Administration released its FY 2011 Budget Request, which included an unprecedented $3 billion increase for education.  While PTA applauds the historic investment in education, we are greatly concerned about the consolidation and proposed elimination of the Parental Information and Resource Centers (PIRCs). There is at least one PIRC in every state and territory. This program elimination affects all PTAs and parents. Under this consolidation, the sole funding stream for family engagement would be redirected to charter schools. Placing PIRCs under this fund means that there is no longer a dedicated funding stream for family engagement and PIRCs will not be able reach all families with children in public schools.   Elimination of PIRCs negatively impacts PTAs, schools and parents.   Why PIRCs matter:   They provide schools and districts with tools to effectively partner with parents. They empower parents to advocate for their children and school reform. They provide training and professional development on effective family engagement to districts and school staff. They collaborate with state PTAs to engage all public school parents in their children's education. They train family engagement coordinators in schools. They convene parent leadership academies to equip parents with skills needed to help their children to succeed.   Annually, PIRCs served over 16.4 million parents by connecting them to their schools to improve their child's education. Parents need PIRCs. You can help! Please urge the Obama Administration, both of your Senators and Representative not to eliminate PIRCs. Take Action 1 COMPOSE MESSAGE Message Recipients:  Barack Obama (D), President  Your U.S. Senators  Your U.S. House Representative  Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, Secretary Delivery Method:  Email  Printed Letter

How to Address Corporate Political Spending After Conservative Supreme Court Ruling

How to Address Corporate Political Spending After Conservative Supreme Court Ruling

In Citizens United v. FEC, the Supreme Court late last month ruled that corporations are permitted to spend unlimited amounts of money on independent political advertising in U.S. elections. While conservatives and libertarians are cheering the ruling as a victory for free speech, many progressives are warning of a coming flood of corporate money buying elections, and pushing for a legislative response.

The Court’s ruling is simple: Laws that prohibit corporations from buying political advertising, simply because they are corporations, violate the First Amendment. Hence, the63-year-old law prohibiting corporations from making “independent expenditures” expressly advocating the election or defeat of a federal candidate, as well as the prohibition of corporate “electioneering communications,” enacted by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, were struck down.

Corporations are now permitted to spend as much as they want to say whatever they want about candidates, at any time and in any medium, provided they do not coordinate their efforts with a candidate. The Court’s holding applies with equal force to the mirror-image laws that had limited the electoral spending of labor unions.

Because the Supreme Court has the final word on whether a law violates the Constitution, Congress cannot simply undo Citizens United. Only a future Supreme Court, or a new constitutional amendment, can take political speech rights back from corporations. It is difficult to predict how much of an effect Citizens United 

Spoonful of Sugar: An Equity Fund for ESEA Title I, Part A

Spoonful of Sugar: An Equity Fund for ESEA Title I, Part A

Download this memo (pdf)

Report: Bitter Pill, Better Formula: Toward a Single, Fair, and Equitable Formula for ESEA Title I, Part A

Interactive Graphic: Title I Education Spending

It’s never easy for Congress to revise the way a popular federal program is funded, but sometimes a “formula fight” is inevitable. This may be the case for Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act—also called Title I-A—which is already overdue for reauthorization. Some actors may relish a fight for its own sake, but there are constructive reasons for Congress to revisit the way Title I-A funds flow. Appropriations for Title I-A have grown by more than 60 percent in real terms since Congress last tackled this challenge in 1994, well before any accountability system tied the use of Title I-A funds to expectations, results, and consequences. It seems right and prudent to consider evidence that the program is shortchanging some schools before making further investments in it.

Current allocation patterns are hard to reconcile with the purpose of the program: to enhance the educational experience for children living in areas of concentrated poverty. Consider, for example, South Carolina’s Greenville County School District, which received $1,700 per low-income child served for fiscal year 2009, while its Calhoun County School District received only $1,266 per low-income child. Calhoun serves a higher concentration of low-income students than Greenville, so it seems clear that the four formulas currently driving Title I-A funds could better target school districts serving concentrations of low-income students. This example illustrates the formulas’ bias against small school districts. Other examples also show a bias toward wealthy states, especially those spending a relatively modest fraction of public revenue on elementary and secondary education.

"The Future Is Now" In Education Advertising - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

"The Future Is Now" In Education Advertising - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

The following two video ads are not paid ads, nor are they endorsements of any sort. Also, The Daily Riff has no affiliation with these companies.  With that being said, the commercials are  good:

The first one- minute video below is from Kaplan University (a Washington Post Company and also related to the Kaplan test-prep business).  What we liked was its relevance and its "the future is now" message.  We saw a Kaplan ad during "Meet The Press" this weekend.

The second one-minute video below is by the New Zealand Lottery . . . just fun.
Reminds me how much I like the Kiwis (been there and is a great country).