Sunday, February 14, 2010

Voters can end dysfunction at State Board of Education

Instead, the board largely has become a national embarrassment that serves to promote stereotypes of Texas as a backward state more focused on basic skills than technology and advanced sciences — a state preoccupied with pushing a cultural agenda with requirements that schools teach the biblical theory of creation (or intelligent design) alongside evolution.

It's a board largely blinded to certain realities as witnessed by its move to establish abstinence-only sex education in high schools in a state with one of the nation's highest teenage pregnancy rates.

While reviewing standards for social studies, board members recently made an embarrassing decision to remove a popular children's author, who they mistook for someone who wrote about Marxism.

Then there is the fact that some current board members have made clear their distaste for public schools, electronic textbooks and ethics rules banning cronyism in the management of the school fund.

March 4 National Day of Action to Defend Education

Written by The California Coordinating Committee

Friday, 18 December 2009 20:50

As people throughout the country struggle under the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, public education from pre-K to higher and adult education is threatened by budget cuts, layoffs, privatization, tuition and fee increases, and other attacks.

Budget cuts degrade the quality of public education by decreasing student services and increasing class size, while tuition hikes and layoffs force the cost of the recession onto students and teachers and off of the financial institutions that caused the recession in the first place. Non-unionized charter schools threaten to divide, weaken and privatize the public school system and damage teachers’ unions, which are needed now more than ever. More and more students are going deep into debt to finance their education, while high unemployment forces many students and youth to join the military to receive a higher education. And all of the attacks described above have hit working people and people of color the hardest.

In California, students, teachers, workers, parents, and faculty have taken action against these attacks. They took to the streets in a one-day strike on September 24th, organized strikes and actions across the state during the University of California Board of Regents meeting from November 18th to 20th, and have called for a state-wide day of action on March 4th. These actions have created a broad mass movement in California, drawing in students from all over the state to create a powerful struggle. As the effects of the economic crisis continue to spread into the education system nationally, it’s time to join our voices with students and workers in California and draw inspiration from their example.

We support each group or coalition organizing in the manner and for the duration of their choosing. In solidarity with those in California, we the below-signed individuals and organizations call on students, teachers, workers, parents, faculty, and staff across the country to join together on March 4th to Take A Stand For Education!

Visit the Web site for more details at http://www.defendeducation.org.
Endorse the call at the bottom of the page or by sending an email tomarch4nationaldayofaction@gmail.com .
Find us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=213637229312.
To join the national discussion, please visit the March 4th Google Group athttp://groups.google.com/group/march4thaction.

Can a school board rewrite history? � The Quick and the Ed

In my church this morning, we read the Old Testament lesson from an historic Bible that belonged to one of our former communicants–George Washington. So there is no question in my mind that Washington was a Christian. But did he and the other Founders intend for this country to be a Christian nation?

That’s the essence of the fight going on in the Texas State Board of Education and detailed in a terrific article in today’s New York Times Magazine. It outlines the messy process by which a bloc of ideologically-driven school board members have managed to inject their answer to that question into the state’s history standards.

A group of educators and content experts developed the standards. But Texas gives its state board unprecedented authority to make amendments. And amend they do–voting, for example, that while former House Speaker Newt Gingrich passed muster as a “significant American,” Senator Edward Kennedy did not.

Cynthia Dunbar, an attorney who is a member of the Texas board, sums up the goal in her 2008 book One Nation Under God. “The only accurate method of ascertaining the intent of the Founding Fathers at the time of our government’s inception comes from a biblical worldview.”

Americans tell pollsters they support separation of church and state. But in a 2007 survey by the First Amendment Center, 65 percent said they agreed with the statement that “the nation’s

Closing schools is wrong - The Reporter

Closing schools is wrong

PUBLISHED BY THE REPORTER

Posted: 02/14/2010 09:54:11 AM PST

I am a former English teacher at the university level. I currently have two children who are open enrollment students at Orchard Elementary School in Vacaville. I go to the school twice weekly as a parent volunteer in both classes. I proctor STAR reading tests and help out with the Accelerated Reader program. I also hang out with the kids during recess and other activities.I have two major points to make about school closures:
• If the school board elects to close a school, it seems a foregone conclusion that class sizes in kindergarten through third-grade will go 30-to-1. This is the worst possible scenario for a child's education. Time and time again, I have seen a child's reading ability calcify by second-grade.
If you put a child in a kindergarten of 30 students, a first-grade of 30 students, a second-grade of 30 students, etc., and you will be passing on kids from grade level to grade level with fair to substandard reading skills. And reading skills have been shown to be one of the biggest indicators of a child's educational success in all subjects.
In addition, if you close a school, you will be effectively saying: schools in Vacaville are going to stay at 30-to-1 permanently, and it is the students who will suffer.
We can't just go back and "reopen" that school.
• How does the Vacaville school district expect to draw students if it closes a school and goes 30-to-1? My neighbor home-schools her four children, and when she heard that the
district was considering closing a school and going 30-to-1, she made the comment that if she ever considered Vacaville public schools, she and her husband surely wouldn't now. These are the

Schools face big budget holes as stimulus runs out - Latest News - sacbee.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- The nation's public schools are falling under severe financial stress as states slash education spending and drain federal stimulus money that staved off deep classroom cuts and widespread job losses.

School districts have already suffered big budget cuts since the recession began two years ago, but experts say the cash crunch will get a lot worse as states run out of stimulus dollars.

The result in many hard-hit districts: moreteacher layoffs, larger class sizes, smaller paychecks, fewer electives and extracurricular activities, and decimated summer school programs.

The situation is particularly ugly in California, where school districts are preparing for mass layoffs and swelling class sizes as the state grapples with another massive budget shortfall.

The crisis concerns parents like Michelle Parker in San Francisco, where the school district is preparing to lay off hundreds of school employees and raise class sizes because it faces a $113

Glenn Beck, Texas Textbooks, And The Erosion of Separation Between Church and State. � SpeakEasy

I wrote last week about the pseudo historian David Barton who was called on for testimony during the Texas Board of Education hearings to discuss the writing of the textbooks that will not only be used in Texas but across the country.

Turns out that Barton’s got bigger ears to fill than just the Texas School Board’s. Glenn Beck who has been scheming up a conspiracy-laden next “great awakening,” called “The Plan,” set to be kicked off in DC on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, draws on Barton’s ahistorical accounts of the US founding. Here’s a segment from Keith Olberman’s show that account’s not only Barton’s rewriting of history but Beck’s plans for our nation’s next 100 years.

In tomorrow’s New York Times Magazine, Russell Shorto has a story that looks at the battle over the soul’s of the Founding Fathers and how the Texas School Board and affiliated organizations (the Legal Right) work to establish that not only was the country founded on Christian principles but that the US’ laws are Biblical in origin. Barton makes an appearance, below. In the article, Shorto writes that like last year’s battle over “intelligent design,” th

Public Participation and Smart Planning Under Attack | California Progress Report

By Tracy Sheehan
Planning and Conservation League

Under the guise of helping to plug the current budget hole, Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed a dangerous new policy that would undermine the ability of communities to participate in decisions that determine how their neighborhoods grow and allow new developments to be built without the benefit of adequate planning and accountability.

Four identical bills have been recently introduced to enact the Governor's proposal:ABX8 37 (Calderon&Nestande), AB 1805 (Calderon&Nestande), SBX8 42 (Correa & Cogdill), and SB 1010 (Correa & Cogdill).

If these bills are passed, the Secretary of the Business, Transportation, and Housing Administration could select 25 projects each year for the next 5 years and grant them judicial immunity from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). That means that local communities, cities, and counties would not be able to ensure that the environmental review process, enshrined in the Environmental Quality Act, is conducted according to the law for any of the 125 projects.

Eliminating the ability to enforce California's premier public health and environmental law could lead to new polluting power plants and waste facilities located next to schools and neighborhoods. It would eliminate the ability of communities to hold developers accountable for the impacts a new project has on air and water quality, traffic congestion, noise and open space. It wouldn't be good for small businesses either; the process of selecting the 125 projects would likely be very political, with well-connected developers winning out over smaller competitors.

For the past four decades, community involvement in the environmental

THISWEEKINEDUCATION.COM

Twitter: Latest Updates

Weekend Reading: Kindergarten Sexual Harrassment: Sexual harassment settlement for Brockton boy costs city $180K:... http://bit.ly/drTLwa about 18 hours ago
Performance pay for journalists not working out so well at Bloomberg Newshttp://is.gd/8j5z3 phaps ed reporters should think about this? 1 day ago
Duncan: A Poison Valentine For Teach For America: It's seemed to me for a while now that Teach For America was, f... http://bit.ly/9iqp2m 1 day ago
RT @lgoldrick25: RT @TeacherBeat: R.I.'s Race to the Top Plan Tackles Teacher Assignment:http://bit.ly/9LZjib [& sawchuk is single!] 1 day ago
Competitive grants are OK for states and districts but not for TFA, acc to WPost http://is.gd/8fqu3Too much uncertainty! 1 day ago

Reconstitution: There has Got to Be a Better Way - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Reconstitution: There has Got to Be a Better Way

By Anthony Cody on February 14, 2010 1:12 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Over the past month I have posted two guest blogs authored by Los Angeles history teacher Chuck Olynyk (here and here.) Chuck has shared his experiences and feelings as his school undergoes the process of "reconstitution." At Fremont High School, staff members are given the option of applying to stay, or transferring to another school in the district.

A large number of teachers there have signed a pledge that, on principle, they will NOT reapply, leading to the rather strange circumstance of administrators begging the very people that have been blamed for the school's failure to apply for their old jobs. Parents and students have joined protests calling for the superintendent to reconsider his plan. This photo shows a recent rally, where more than 200 people marched to protest the closure. The two young women are graduates of Fremont who have been teachers there as well.

Here, police line the entrance to Fremont High, to make sure teachers, parents and students protesting keep out. A permit to hold the rally on school grounds was canceled by the superintendent.

In Brooklyn, New York, plans to close schools there drew hundreds of protesting parents, students and educators who recently stayed until 3 am trying to convince the governing panel to spare their schools this fate.

This process has taken on new significance now that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is proposing that 2000 schools across the nation should be restructured (the fourth pillar of Race to the Top.) The protests from parents, teachers and students indicate that this is a highly disruptive and painful process. Does it have to be so? According to Chicago turnaround specialist John Simmons there is a better way.

In this interview in Public School Insights, Simmons describes the process his

voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence. - Pressing Labor for Cuts Triggers 'Surreal' Shakeup on School Board

voiceofsandiego.org | News. Investigation. Analysis. Conversation. Intelligence. - Pressing Labor for Cuts Triggers 'Surreal' Shakeup on School Board:

"By EMILY ALPERT

After another plan failed to dig up enough savings, San Diego Unified is now under even more pressure to squeeze employees to balance its budget.

The prolonged budget crisis has put some board members at odds with the same unions that helped to elect them -- and jumbled the usual dynamics of the politicized board.

Longtime labor ally Richard Barrera is seeking deeper concessions from the teachers union, along with John Lee Evans, who was elected on a pledge to protect teachers. John de Beck and Shelia Jackson, who have often disagreed on labor issues in recent years, are both pushing the idea of progressive salary cuts that fall harder on employees who earn more.

And Katherine Nakamura, who is often at odds with the teachers union, called deeply cutting teachers' salaries 'unconscionable.'

'It's almost surreal,' said Bruce McGirr, director of the union that represents principals and other administrators. 'It's like it flipped.'

Barrera, Evans and Jackson were fierce critics two years ago when Nakamura, de Beck and then-board member Mitz Lee warned hundreds of teachers of possible layoffs to handle a"

Marisa Constantinides - TEFL Matters

Marisa Constantinides - TEFL Matters:

Gapers Block : Mechanics : Chicago Politics - A Bad Year for Teachers, a Bad Year for Public Education

A Bad Year for Teachers, a Bad Year for Public Education

This is going to be a bad year for public education.

After the State of the Union address and GOP response, there was a lot of back and forth about different policy points and the challenge the President laid down and the people standing behind Bob McDonnell and the number of times the President used certain words. What nobody commented on was that the two men agreed enthusiastically on exactly one thing: the need to privatize public education.

The take away from that night is that the American political duopoly supports the privatization of public education. They honestly believe that injecting the profit motive into education is the way to make sure that all American children get a decent education. That is a major policy shift that is so harmonious with the corporate policy tune that no news operations expressed any surprise or outrage.

But, of course, it is an outrage. The privatization of schools is sold as "ingenuity" and as a way of "leveling the field" by offering that cornerstone of free market fundamentalist mythology, "choice". Give parents choice and all problems go away. Because education is like used cars.

Forget that there is exactly zero evidence that charter schools work. Forget that vouchers take as an assumption that children from more difficult backgrounds should be allowed to fail. Forget that the history of American education demonstrates that expansion of public schools and professionalization of the teaching profession--and civil service, collective bargaining protection for teachers--tracks perfectly to the improvement of American education.

Why are we making teachers the sole enemy? And why are we suddenly comfortable with the idea that less democracy is a good thing?

Chicagoans enjoy a precious democractic power we unfortunately flunk more often than we ace: local school councils and their power over school improvement and principals. Charter schools are exempt from rules that establish local school councils, and now the very concept of LSCs is under attack, because it places some democratic control over the bosses in the schools.

Local News | Wash. House lets schools raise more through levies | Seattle Times Newspaper

Local News | Wash. House lets schools raise more through levies| Seattle Times Newspaper:

"The Washington state House on Saturday approved a measure that lets cash-strapped school districts ask voters for additional money.

On a 55-41 vote, the House passed the measure lifting the levy lid that currently limits how much school districts can seek, and how often, from 2011 to 2017. The measure now heads to the Senate for further consideration.

Gov. Chris Gregoire has promised help to struggling school districts, and the bill would help them make up for school budget shortfalls. The bill would allow school districts to ask for more money and would let them go back to the voters for more money in the middle of a levy cycle.

'I wish we had better state funding. I wish we had the option to do that,' said Rep. Sam Hunt, D-Olympia. 'But we cannot ignore the needs of our local schools. We can give them this extra capacity.'

The levy lid law took effect in 1979 and sought to limit levy revenue to 10 percent of a school district's state basic education allocation. It had a grandfather clause, however, and allowed some districts to exceed the 10 percent limit."

'$leazy 6' of rubber room - NYPOST.com

'$leazy 6' of rubber room - NYPOST.com:

"Taxpayers are on the hook for more than $540,000 a year in salaries for six rubber-room teachers who have been legally cleared to return to class -- but will never go back because the schools chancellor believes they're too dangerous.

All six public-school teachers have been benched for years over alleged sexual misconduct.

Overall, the city Department of Education has put some 550 fully paid teachers in limbo, crammed into 'rubber rooms' as they wait for their misconduct cases to be adjudicated, costing taxpayers $30 million a year.

But these six have either completed their punishments or had their cases dismissed -- sometimes on technicalities -- and remain on the payroll. The DOE says such tenured teachers are almost impossible to fire."

Enrollment of black students in prestigious city schools drops 10% during Bloomberg reign

Enrollment of black students in prestigious city schools drops 10% during Bloomberg reign:

"Fewer black students are attending the city's most elite public high schools than when Mayor Bloomberg took over the school system about seven years ago, a Daily News analysis has found.

The percentage of black students dropped at all but one of the city's eight schools that require specialized exams for entry between the 2002-03 school year and this year, according to city data.

And the number of black students at the eight prestigious schools fell overall, dropping to 1,042 this year from 1,160 in 2002-03.

The lack of progress didn't come as a surprise to Beatrice Lors, who graduated from the prestigious Brooklyn Technical High School in 2005, which has seen the percentage of black students drop from 18% to 12%."

The Best Teacher Resources For “TED Talks” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

The Best Teacher Resources For “TED Talks” | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...:

"I’ve written several posts recently about TED Talks, and thought I’d pull together a short list of resources that would be helpful to other teachers (and me) as we consider how to use them most effectively in our classes.

I’m going to start off with a quote from their website explaining what these “things” are:

“TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

The annual conference now brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes)."

Roundtable: Do Charter Schools Worsen Inequality of Two-Tiered Education System, or Help Address It?

Roundtable: Do Charter Schools Worsen Inequality of Two-Tiered Education System, or Help Address It?:

"Roundtable: Do Charter Schools Worsen Inequality of Two-Tiered Education System, or Help Address It?

We host a roundtable discussion on charter schools and the controversial closing of ninetten New York City public schools with New York State Senator Bill Perkins, one of the most vocal state lawmakers against lifting the cap on charter schools in New York; Seth Andrew, superintendent and founder of the Democracy Prep charter school in Harlem; Daniel Clark, Sr., the field director of advocacy group Parent Power Now!; and Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters. [includes rush transcript]"

Guests:

Bill Perkins, New York state senator representing Harlem. He has been one of the most vocal state lawmakers against lifting the cap on charter schools in New York.

Seth Andrew, superintendent and founder of the Democracy Prep charter school in Harlem.

Daniel Clark Sr., field director of “Parent Power Now!.” His son is an eighth grader at the Democracy Prep charter school in Harlem.

Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters. She also edits the blog NYC Public School Parents.

Schools Matter: Texas Charter School Operator Blazes Trail of Corruption

Schools Matter: Texas Charter School Operator Blazes Trail of Corruption:

"Here's a headline and intro from a recent story about the El Paso School of Excellence, one of four charter schools operated by the Rylie Faith Family, Inc (article via KFOX14):

El Paso Charter School Reportedly Threatened To Be Closed

Dena Richardson/KFOX News Reporter

EL PASO, Texas -- According to the superintendent of the El Paso School of Excellence, a local charter school, the owner of the charter has threatened to take action that would essentially close the school.

Superintendent Jack Ammons told KFOX the family that owns the charter has threatened to return the charter back to the state.
...

Yes - the family that owns the charter is now threatening to shut down one of their privately run schools after more than ten years of shoddy bookkeeping, nepotism, cheating, and corruption. This isn't your run-of-the-mill charter scandal - it's almost as if they're trying to vie for the title of 'America's Most Corrupt Charter School' chain (although the Imagine Schools folks probably have that title safely in their hands)."

Extracurriculars costing parents extra | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/13/2010

Extracurriculars costing parents extra | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/13/2010:

"At Marple Newtown High School, parents were used to coughing up $100 to booster clubs for things such as team T-shirts and jackets, not to mention buying umpteen hoagies and pizzas at fund-raisers.

But this year, they had to shell out an additional $75 if their children wanted to take part in any school activity, from football to French club, to help the cash-strapped district meet its expenses.

Marple is among a growing number of school districts that are charging families for all the extras that they have come to expect but that shrinking school budgets cannot afford.

While the classroom experience is still free - except for those darn school taxes - schools are asking families to chip in for the cost of clubs, activities, and sports.

At Radnor High, students need more than a good voice to be in the spring musical. Cast members of Beauty and the Beast had to pay $35 for T-shirts and a preshow dinner."

NYSUT takes on charter schools : Home: The Buffalo News

Amid fierce controversy, New York State United Teachers slowly is making headway in unionizing charter school teachers.

The outcome will depend in considerable measure on NYSUT's ability to convince charter school teachers that it can stand up for their interests while representing teachers in practically all of the state's roughly 700 traditional public school districts.

More broadly, the unionization effort will go a long way toward defining wages and job protection for charter school teachers, and ultimately determining just how charter schools will differ from traditional public schools.

Statewide, 21 of about 140 charter schools have unionized.

In the Buffalo Niagara region, seven of 16 charter schools have teachers unions: Westminster Community, South Buffalo, Community, Oracle and Buffalo United, all in Buffalo; the Charter School for Applied Technologies in the Town of Tonawanda; and Niagara in Wheatfield.

Westminster's contract is a modified version of the Buffalo

Education chief touts scholarship bill: Legislature | adn.com

Education chief touts scholarship bill: Legislature | adn.com:

"JUNEAU -- Beyond simply helping kids get to college, Gov. Sean Parnell's scholarship proposal is about culture change, according to state Education Commissioner Larry LeDoux."
By giving all Alaska students an opportunity to earn in-state college tuition or vocational training if they take tougher classes and finish with good grades, the program could transform the state's underperforming education system and promote a culture that values learning, he said.

As the program goes forward, LeDoux said, communities will demand "that their districts, their superintendents, their principals deliver a quality program. And I believe this program will restructure schools in this state."

If the governor's scholarship bill passes, the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education estimates 2,300 out of about 8,000 graduates in Alaska's high school class of 2011 will use it.

As is, about 1 in 3 Alaska students who reach ninth grade do not graduate, according to the Department of Education, and half of the University of Alask

Latest News and Comment from Education