Friday, February 5, 2010

Substantial Increase or Funding Cliff? � The Quick and the Ed

Substantial Increase or Funding Cliff? The Quick and the Ed

As the budget came out last week with the details this week, I expected that some in the education community would take the glass half full approach and talk about how the education community should be thankful for the 6 percent increase in funding at the same time that the President is proposing a domestic spending limit. While others would take the glass half empty approach and talk about the pending fiscal cliff that schools will face as the stimulus funding for special education and Title I run out and schools face federal funding cuts. What I did not expect was for the same person to be saying both. But, that speaks to the flexibility of NEA lobbyist Joel Packer.

Last week he was congratulating the administration for the substantial funding increase for education in the new budget, and this week commenting that federal funding cliff is a serious problem. What changed?

News: The Emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution - Inside Higher Ed

WASHINGTON – The number of institutions officially recognized by the federal government as “Hispanic serving” is set to rise dramatically in the coming years, according to a comprehensive study of Latino enrollment in higher education.

In the 1980s, the designation Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) was created by the federal government to directfunding to nonprofit colleges where at least 25 percent of the full-time-equivalent students are Latino. On Thursday, Excelencia in Education, an advocacy group for Latino students, released a report identifying the growing number of institutions that do not meet the HSI enrollment threshold of 25 percent but that fit its definition of “emerging HSIs” – meaning that they “are within the critical mass range of 15-24 percent and have the potential to become HSIs in the next few years.”

Using data federal data from 2006-7, the report states that there were, at that point, 265 HSIs; another 176 institutions were on the brink of becoming HSIs and met its definition of “emerging.”

“Emerging” HSIs were located in 20 states. The highest concentration of these institutions was in California, which had 52, followed by Texas, which had 42. Still, Deborah Santiago, the report's author and vice president for policy and research at Excelencia, said at a discussion accompanying the report’s release on Capitol Hill that these institutions are “not just in those places where we expect to see Latinos.” For instance, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Oregon and Utah are among the states that had one such institution.

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - CNN Fact Check: Student loans � - Blogs from CNN.com

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - CNN Fact Check: Student loans - Blogs from CNN.com
CNN) – President Barack Obama says the federal government is wasting money by paying banks to offer student loans, and wants to cut out what he calls "middlemen" who cost taxpayers billions, and to use the savings to expand other financial aid programs.

"It turns out that right now a lot of the student loan programs are still run through financial institutions and banks. So you got this middleman, and they get billions of dollars per year managing loans that are guaranteed by the federal government," Obama said at a New Hampshire event Tuesday. Obama said those middlemen "are essentially taking no risks, and yet they're still extracting these huge profits."

Read the facts and the bottom line after the jump:

CNN Fact Check: Would cutting student loan subsidies save taxpayers billions?

– The Obama administration says it can provide student loans far cheaper by eliminating the loan

New Analysis Suggests Teachers' Voices Do Not Have A Strong Influence On The Policy Agenda | Public Agenda

WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 26, 2010) — Educational reformers of all stripes have focused tremendous energy on thinking of ways to identify effective teachers and in turn recruit, retain, compensate and support them. But what do teachers think of their ideas? The Retaining Teacher Talent study, a nationwide study conducted by Learning Point Associates and Public Agenda suggests that what teachers think are good indicators of effectiveness—and what they think will make them more effective—are not always aligned with current priorities in education policy.

This third release of data from the Retaining Teacher Talent study, Convergence and Contradictions in Teachers' Perceptions of Policy Reform Ideas, seeks to draw teachers into the debate, to bring nuance and experience to the conversation. This report describes the implications of the results of the nationwide survey for policymakers and teachers who want to influence policy.

“As we enter this new decade, teachers stand at the center of this policy vortex,” said Sabrina Laine, Ph.D., chief program officer for educator effectiveness at Learning Point Associates. "Democratizing the national policy conversation by getting teachers involved provides a bridge between policy and practice. Ultimately, grounding this debate with the voices of experience and evidence is of critical importance. The success of these reforms rests in large part on the support of those who will be most directly affected—teachers.”

“There’s a conventional wisdom that teachers uniformly resist the idea of measuring teacher effectiveness, but in fact, teachers are open to a number of different ways of doing it, including looking at how much their own students learn compared to other students. And most teachers agree that making it easier to take ineffective teachers out of the classroom would improve education,” said Jean Johnson, director of Education Insights at Public Agenda. “It’s way past time to get teachers themselves involved in these crucial discussions about how to judge teacher effectiveness.”

College Inc. - Coffee with Pomona President Oxtoby

College Inc.- Coffee with Pomona President Oxtoby:

"I had coffee this morning -- tea, actually -- with David W. Oxtoby, president of Pomona College.

Pomona, founded in 1887, is the top liberal arts school in California and one of the best in the nation, with a record 6,700 applications this year for 380 seats in the freshman class. It's the founding member of the Claremont Colleges consortium. Students can swim in the Pacific Ocean in the morning, then drive to the mountains and ski.

('Must be rather tiring,' as television's Basil Fawlty once observed.)

He was on his way out of town ahead of the 'high-impact storm' bearing down on us.

Oxtoby has been president of Pomona since 2003. He is a well-known physical chemist, trained at Harvard and Berkeley, previously Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences at the University of Chicago. He still teaches a course in environmental chemistry."

Learn NY: The Buffalo News: David Steiner: New York’s application bids for urgently needed help

Learn NY: The Buffalo News: David Steiner: New York’s application bids for urgently needed help:

"With a statewide graduation rate of only 70 percent and below 50 percent in many low-income communities, and too many high school graduates unready for college, we must work urgently to deliver the promise of educational opportunity for New York State’s 3 million school children. Keeping the promise requires that all schools have truly effective teachers and principals, rigorous curricula, well-designed assessments and a clear mission of achieving ambitious educational outcomes for every child.

This is the core of successful K-12 education and the foundation of New York’s Race to the Top application. Race to the Top is a fierce competition that awards federal funds only to those states willing to make bold changes to ensure all children succeed."

Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee

Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee is serving as Claims Administrator for the case: LEHR, ET AL. V. SACRAMENTO COUNTY, ET AL.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA CASE NO. 2:07-CV-01565 MCE GGH

DID YOU LOSE PROPERTY DURING THE PERIOD FROM AUGUST 2, 2005, TO DATE TO SACRAMENTO COUNTY SHERIFF’S, PARK RANGERS, OR OTHER COUNTY EMPLOYEES WHILE YOU WERE HOMELESS IN SACRAMENTO COUNTY? If so, you may be eligible for monetary compensation.

DOWNLOAD THE NOTICE OF CLASS ACTION

A class action lawsuit is presently pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.
If the proposed partial settlement described below receives final approval, homeless persons whose property was confiscated and/or destroyed by Sacramento County Sheriffs, Park Rangers, or other Sacramento County employees from August 2, 2005, to date, will be

3 Reasons Why Learning by Computer Alone is Not Enough - Teaching, Learning & Technology in Higher Education -

While I am convinced that technology combined with excellent instruction can allow the creation of new and powerful learning experiences for students, I am also convinced that "learning by computer" alone will never adequately prepare students for the complex challenges they will face as adults. Here's why...
Reason #1 - Learning is socially situated, and computer-mediated social interactions are a narrow approximation of human interaction
James Greeno (Stanford University) and numerous education researchers agree that learning is socially situated. The behaviorists of the 1920's were only partly right, it turns out. For example, learning to read a book is an important skill (behavior). But while reading a book by yourself engages your mind with the author's mind, it's only a one way street. Reading a book with others, and discussing it, then (in some cases) putting it to practice, brings the learning to new levels.
This is why I'm currently underwhelmed by current attempts to replace textbooks with electronic textbooks. While there is an obvious cost saving potential from eliminating the printing costs (and with open resources, the cost of content itself) and the backpack weight reductions are much appreciated, the exciting breakthrough will be when the electronic book does MORE than a printed book.
At Carnegie Mellon, Professor Ananda Gunawardena has shown what is possible through his "adaptive book" research. This electronic textbook system allows for the annotation of electronic text, but more importantly, the annotations are can be SHARED. Imagine margin notes that can be traded among study partners, and the ability download "expert commentaries" that can be revealed while reading. In essence, the textbook moves from a "solo learning experience" to becoming the foundation for shared conversation - and a new form of assessment.

Help Wanted: i3 Judges - Politics K-12 - Education Week

In a sign that the final regulations for the $650 million Investing in Innovationcompetition are just about ready, the Education Department has put out a call for peer reviewers. The deadline for those interested to apply is March 1.

In many ways, the i3 competition is a much bigger logistical problem for the department than Race to the Top, which has higher stakes. For Race to the Top, only states (and D.C.) could apply, limiting the number of applications. But i3 is open to all school districts, of which there are thousands across the country. Plus, within i3, there are three levels of grants, creating mini-competitions within a larger competition.

It will be difficult for the department to find i3 judges who are knowledgeable enough to judge all parts of an application. Since a big chunk of i3 is about providing evidence that a program does or might work, the Education Department will have to find experts in statistics, experimental and quasi-experimental models, and general research principles. Thus, the department is looking for people who are experts in at least one of these areas: education reform and policy, evidence, innovation, strategy, and application review as defined below. Likely candidates will be preK-12 teachers and principals, college

Sacramento Press / SCUSD reaches out to Hmong families to secure voice in budget, strategic plan

In an effort to ensure the greatest participation possible in two historic surveys, the Sacramento City Unified School District is teaming up with the Hmong Women’s Heritage Association (HWHA) to assist parents and students in completing questionnaires about the district’s budget and strategic plan from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 5 at the Association’s offices, 2245 Florin Rd.

The first-of-its-kind endeavor to involve Sacramento residents in improving their public schools involves a pair of surveys on school improvements and the district’s budget. Every Sacramento community member—including parents, teachers and other employees of the district—is being asked to respond to the surveys that will yield for school board members and the superintendent a treasure trove of information about the community’s needs and priorities for public schools.

SCUSD Superintendent Jonathan Raymond said, “We have a valuable and important partner in the Hmong Women’s Heritage Association, and we greatly appreciate their assistance in reaching out to an important and vital part of our community.” He added, “We want to make

A National K-12 Virtual School? Not Likely. � The Quick and the Ed

A National K-12 Virtual School? Not Likely. � The Quick and the Ed
A National K-12 Virtual School? Not Likely.

One of the big recommendations from “Expanding Choice in Elementary and Secondary Education,” the new Brookings Institution report, is to help establish national virtual schools:

To support the development of that sector of schooling, we recommend that Congress authorize the establishment of accrediting bodies for online K-12 education, incentivize states to participate in these accrediting efforts, and extend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act provisions for school choice for students in low performing Title I schools to virtual schools. Thus students in persistently low performing schools would be able to avail themselves of accredited virtual education at the district’s expense.

Not Gonna Happen.

Think supplemental education was controversial? There is no way that Congress is going to pass what amounts to a national voucher program, where money from Johnny’s local district goes directly to Kaplan Online. More importantly, Title I deals mainly with elementary and middle schools, where there almost certainly needs to be ongoing adult supervision. Thus, most full-time virtual schools at this age level require significant parental involvement–something unavailable for many of our most disadvantaged students during the working hours. Without strong student supports and local, on-the-ground partnerships and adults, it’s hard to see how this really works for but a few kids. And let’s not even get started on the many potential problems with a program modeled on higher education accreditation.

Wanted: Another Education Secretary for California - State EdWatch - Education Week

Wanted: Another Education Secretary for California - State EdWatch - Education Week:

"What is it with the ed. secretary gig in California?

For the fourth time since Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor in late 2003, his appointee to the position is stepping down. That's some heavy turnover.

This time it's Glen W. Thomas, whom the Republican governor tapped to be his top education adviser little more than a year ago. Former Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, had three different secretaries during his nearly five years in office. Why the revolving door?

Could it be that the job is all title, no power? The stage is certainly crowded for K-12 honchos in California.

There's the elected state superintendent of public instruction, who is the chief executive of the massive state department of education. There's the appointed (selected by the governor) state board of education, made up of 11 members, which sets major K-12 policy in areas like standards and school accountability"

Potomac students get fliers saying therapy turns gays straight - washingtonpost.com

Potomac students get fliers saying therapy turns gays straight - washingtonpost.com:

http://www.thinkb4youspeak.com/

"Some Montgomery County high schools passed out fliers this week from an organization that contends gays can become heterosexual through therapy, and the schools say they cannot prevent the use of their distribution system by such groups.

The fliers, from the group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, were distributed Thursday alongside report cards by teachers at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac. The group says it delivered them to about half the county's high schools this week and plans to do the same at the remaining high schools at the end of the school year.

The schools are required to distribute literature that isn't deemed hate speech from any registered nonprofit organization four times a year, the result of a 2006 lawsuit, said Dana Tofig, a spokesman for the Montgomery County Public Schools."

Race to the Top grant competition has 'a very high bar,' Education Secretary Arne Duncan says | New Orleans Metro Education News - - NOLA.com

Education Secretary Arne Duncan lavished praise Thursday on the Louisiana system that enables the state to tie student test scores to the teachers who taught them and to the education schools that taught those teachers.

But Duncan, in an interview with a roundtable of reporters, said that doesn't necessarily mean that Louisiana is a shoo-in to win the high-stakes competition between states for a share of the new education grant program known as Race to the Top.

Forty states and the District of Columbia are competing for shares of the more than $4 billion Race to the Top money that has become the centerpiece of the Obama administration's expanded efforts to spur education reform and innovation nationwide.

Asked whether he wasn't, in effect, tipping his hand about Louisiana's chances in issuing the latest in a series of kind words from the administration about education reform efforts in Louisiana, Duncan said, "No, I don't think I've tipped my hand at all ... good things are going on in other places."

"All of this stuff is going to be peer-reviewed," Duncan said of the Race to the Top applications.

He said he will only get a sense of what was in the applications once they've been analyzed by "people a lot smarter than me" who will present him rank-ordered results. Then, Duncan said, the states with the best entries will be asked to make presentations to his office, probably in March.

There are no set number of awardees, he said, only that "there are going to be more losers than winners."

"We have no idea (how many states will receive money)," said Duncan. "We're just going to have a very high bar."

The key to a successful application, he said, will be the courage and commitment to innovate, and the capacity to get it done.

Despite his disclaimers, it has become clear that education officials in Louisiana and in the Obama Education Department are on the same wavelength, not to mention the fact that Paul Vallas, the superintendent of the Recovery School District, used to be Duncan's boss in the Chicago schools.

On Jan. 19, the Louisiana Department of Education submitted a 263-page application seeking $300 million in Race to the Top money.

That same day, President Obama, in remarks at a Virginia elementary school, cited Louisiana as one of the states adopting effective school reform policies, particularly in encouraging the growth of charter schools.

Over the weekend, Duncan, in an interview on "Washington Watch with Roland Martin" once again praised reform efforts in Louisiana, albeit in a manner that required him to apologize.

Describing Hurricane Katrina as "the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans," he explained that, before the storm the

voiceofsandiego.org | Trying to Be There, but Unsure if He Will

voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence.
Trying to Be There, but Unsure if He Will

Rafael Ocampo looked at the long list of names and sighed. He had been planning to meet with them all that week, the dozens of kids with Fs and spotty attendance who raise red flags. But it was already Friday and the guidance counselor was swamped, barely able to carve out time to wolf down Mexican takeout for lunch.

It was early afternoon, and the day had been a blur of therapy-on-the-go at Roosevelt Middle School. First Ocampo met with the vice principal to deal with the boy who yanked chairs from under his classmates, then squelched a spat between two girls. He talked to a parent whose child had been bullied, tried to cheer up a girl who was downcast and stopped to talk to a boy caught harassing girls. And lunchtime was like a "telenovela" -- a soap opera -- a swirl of preteen drama to sort through.

Still boyish himself, a twentysomething with spiked hair and a soul patch, Ocampo is the kind of guy who raps easily with preteens, who hurried up to confide in him as he crisscrossed the

Were you a part of Education-Twitter history? � EducationCEO's Blog

Were you a part of Education-Twitter history? EducationCEO's Blog

Were you a part of Education-Twitter history?

February 5, 2010

Tonight I had the pleasure in taking part in a ground-breaking chat on Twitter that focused on issues facing Black children and their families. BlackEd, as it has been coined, is an opportunity for parents, graduate students, educators, administrators, and community organizers to meet and discuss strategies on addressing the opportunity gap (we are rejecting the term ‘achievement gap’ as it implies that students cannot learn or are responsible for not learning) that exists for Black students, regardless of whether they are from low-income neighborhoods, single or two-parent families.
More importantly, BlackEd was born out of a desire to move past ‘blaming the victim’ e.g., students, and start focusing on feasible solutions. What can we, as communities

The Educated Guess: L.A. teachers, parents vote early – and often

The Educated Guess

L.A. teachers, parents vote early – and often

On Saturday, parents, teachers, students, neighbors – truth is, anyone who feels like it – will have another chance to vote on who should take over 30 Los Angeles Unified schools.
If the balloting is anything like Tuesday’s fiasco at the polls, Superintendent Ramon Cortines should take all the votes and shred them. That chaotic exercise in democracy threatened to discredit the district’s bold experiment in school choice.
In a move that has drawn national attention, last fall the school board agreed to open up 12 failing schools and 18 new schools to bids from charter schools, community organizations and in-district groups of teachers and administrators. It’s the first round of a multi-year process that promises to transform the nation’s second largest district – and one of the nation’s most intransigent. (Read more and comment on this post)

Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Notes from the news, Feb. 5

Submitted by Erika Owens on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 10:04 Posted in Notes from the news | Permalink

Can a Renaissance happen without the community?Notebook NEWSFLASH
The Renaissance Schools plan relies on community involvement, but at a recent school meeting, not many parents showed up.

School district looking for support-service applicantsDaily News
Support applicants for Renaissance Schools do not need to have experience running a school.

Telling it like it is South Philly Review
Report on last week's hearing on school violence.

See also: Tepid response to attacks against Asians is nothing newThe Notebook
The Other Way to Respond to School Violence Young Philly Politics blog

Breakfast at Meade - Inside a Renaissance Alert School The Notebook blog
Ron Whitehorne found that Meade is "not a failing school" in spite of being on the list of lowest-performers.

Schools Matter: Teacher Describes KIPP "Teacher Slave School"

Schools Matter: Teacher Describes KIPP "Teacher Slave School":

"KIPP Academies are teacher slave schools. They require teachers to work from 6:30-7:00 at night---and then have phones on till 10:00 at night for students/parent questions. They talk about the extra pay but really in the hours they work they are not getting any overtime are working so many extra hours that they are not even getting paid minimum wage. They profess their outstanding academics but"

SCUSD Observer: Strengthening our perimeters

Strengthening our perimeters

The recent case of Gary Tudesko, the Willows student who was expelled (then reinstated) for having hunting guns in his pickup truck (parked next to his high school campus) referenced the question of whether school officials have the authority to enforce what goes on beyond the school's sidewalk.

Today's protest by Westboro Baptist Church zealots on the edges of the McClatchy and Rosemont high school boundaries brings up the same question. Does the state's education code need

Latino groups urge US to hold Hub funds - The Boston Globe

Latino groups urge US to hold Hub funds - The Boston Globe:

"Several local and national Latino organizations are urging US Education Secretary Arne Duncan to withhold potentially millions of dollars in aid from Boston schools until the district complies with federal and state laws for programs that teach students who speak limited English."

In a letter sent Wednesday to Duncan, the organizations said Boston has done little over the last six years to remedy its lack of services and equal educational opportunities to thousands of the students.

“The problems to which we allude are longstanding,’’ wrote Roger L. Rice and Jane E. López, attorneys with Multicultural Education, Training & Advocacy, a national organization with offices in Somerville that works on behalf of multilinguistic children. “Boston has resisted facing up to its obligations and continues to do so.’’

The organizations are targeting money from the “Race to the Top’’ fund, a competitive program created by President Obama for states that pursue innovative educational improvements and overhauls of failing schools. Massachusetts, which submitted an application last month, is hoping to receive $250 million.

Education secretary says Robert Bobb is a 'breath of fresh air' | detnews.com | The Detroit News

Washington -- Robert Bobb, the emergency financial manager overseeing a massive overhaul of Detroit Public Schools, got a major boost in his quest for academic control of the district as the nation's top education official said he supported Bobb's reform efforts.

"I think that'd be a big step in the right direction," Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said during a roundtable with reporters on his department's plans for nationwide school reforms.

Duncan's comments come as state lawmakers consider changing Michigan's emergency financial manager law to expand Bobb's purview from fiscal matters to those of academics as well. Detroit's elected school board has fought against such a change, suing Bobb in court and testifying at education committee hearings in Lansing.

Control over academics is unresolved, even as Bobb moves forward to implement sweeping academic reforms. Some of those efforts include new requirements for high-schoolers to take Advanced Placement courses that can help move them ahead with collegiate studies, pre-algebra curriculum for sixth-graders and a new program that would pair pre-kindergarten students with reading tutors to help them get an early jump on basic skills.

Many of those reforms fall in line with Duncan's nationwide reform efforts. Over the past year, the federal Department of Education has announced new funding efforts to offer schools districts incentives to devise innovative ways to educate students who might otherwise slip through the cracks.

Academic issues were highlighted by low scores by fourth- and eighth-graders on a national test. Most of Detroit students taking the test scored below basic on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Duncan called the scores a wake-up call.

"Detroit was so far behind everybody else, it was staggering," he said. "It was stunning."

From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100205/SCHOOLS/2050364/1409/METRO/Education-secretary-says-Robert-Bobb-is-a--breath-of-fresh-air-#ixzz0eg3Os3xb

Teachers resist increasing pressure to accept pay cuts - Friday, Feb. 5, 2010 | 2 a.m. - Las Vegas Sun

CARSON CITY — Teachers, long a popular and protected political constituency, face increasing pressure to accept pay cuts as lawmakers try to decide how to trim $881 million from the state’s budget.

Democratic lawmakers, a longtime ally of the teachers union, and school administrators are urging educators to renegotiate their contracts to avoid layoffs and cuts in the classroom.

Clark County Superintendent Walt Rulffes told the Interim Finance Committee on Thursday that he’s trying to minimize the effect on students and prevent layoffs. To do that, he said, “involves a small sacrifice by everyone.”

Absent that, achieving the required $150 million savings would involve laying off more than 2,300 teachers.

Legislators also heard from a defiant president of the Nevada State Education Association, who said teachers are not willing to reduce their salaries. Lynn Warne, association president, told legislators to show “leadership and courage” and look at raising taxes.

“The choices seem clear and stark,” she said. “You can lay off teachers, shorten the school year or raise revenue.”

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