Friday, February 26, 2010

SCUSD Community Engagement Budget and Strategic Plan Survey Results

Surveys SCUSD > Community Engagement > Surveys

Click on the above image for video of Press Conference

Budget and Strategic Plan Survey Results

Remarks by Superintendent Raymond at February 18, 2010 Press Conference:

"...We have made real public engagement – truly having our community involved in and part of the decisions about their public schools – as one of the very highest priorities of the district. We are committed to community engagement, to a transparent, open and honest dialogue with our community about what is expected from its schools." ...read more

Remainders: Gillibrand wants to train more female engineers | GothamSchools

Remainders: Gillibrand wants to train more female engineers

by Maura Walz

“New York City schools is closed!” read the sign on one school building door today.
Apparently the snow day was caused by a number of people sleeping in inside-out pajamas.
How do teachers spend their snow days? BronxTeach gives an inside look.
Kirsten Gillibrand is sponsoring a Senate bill to promote engineering education.
Arthur Goldstein parses the city’s proposals for the teachers union contract.
C.W. Arp: “Good teachers do feel their frustration as if it is the first, the only.”
An editor at EdWeek is leaving to head a union-management reform project at the AFT….
While Education Sector is looking for a new writer/editor.
A policy analyst for FairTest calls attention to value-added models for teacher evaluation “hype.”
The pre-kindergarten admissions process for soon-to-be public school students begins on Monday.
Chaz posts a DN cartoon showing Klein using test scores as boxing gloves against “the Mighty Mulgrew.”
CityPragmatist is launching a new series examining the pros and cons of charter schools.
And a TFA’er teaching in the South Bronx will be filing weekly dispatches over at GOOD magazine.

School Turnaround “Fresh Start” Teacher Seniority = Lawsuit � The Quick and the Ed

School Turnaround “Fresh Start” + Teacher Seniority = Lawsuit

This Wednesday, the ACLU brought a lawsuit against Los Angeles Unified to stop anticipated layoffs at three low performing schools that were decimated by last year’s layoffs. We will be featuring one of the schools, Markham Middle School in an upcoming report on school restructuring and know some of the details about the schools recent experience. The situation that Markham has faced over the last couple of years illustrates the need to carve out schools from collective bargaining contracts in order for school turnaround to have a chance. This concept of creating partnership zones that carves out a small group of schools from the collective bargaining agreement has been one of the key elements of the turnaround model that Mass Insight and others have been advocating, and the Markham example clearly illustrates why this is such a key element of a turnaround strategy. The federal government is about to invest $3.5 billion to support school turnarounds using one of four strategies including school closure, charter conversion, school turnaround through a “fresh start,” or school transformation.

Starting in the 2008-09 school year, Markham Middle school was given a “fresh start” after a decade of continuous failure under the federal accountability system. The school was turned over to the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, a nonprofit organization started by Mayor Villaraigosa. The Partnership was a concession after the mayor‘s failed attempt at mayoral control of LAUSD. The partnership took over

Oakland Unified Board, Administration and Labor Unions to Host “March 4th Statewide Day of Action for Public Education” Press Conference

Oakland Unified Board, Administration and Labor Unions to Host

“March 4^th Statewide Day of Action for Public Education” Press Conference

OUSD joins students, educators, teachers, staff and education advocates from across California

in protesting school funding that ranks 47^th in the U.S. and is $2,400 per student less than the national average

Oakland – February 26, 2010 – On Thursday, March 4, the Oakland Unified School District will support the “Statewide Day of Action for Public Education” with a series of events culminating in a 4:00 PM press conference at the Elihu M. Harris State Office Building (1515 Clay St. Oakland, CA). Oakland Board of Education Directors will lead OUSD Superintendent Tony Smith and the following labor unions in denouncing the crippling cuts to public education:

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 257 Morris Tatum

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 771 President Ana Turetsky
Oakland Education Association (OEA) President Betty Olson-Jones
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1021 President Mynette Theard
United Administrators of Oakland Schools (UAOS) Executive Director JoAnna Lougin

OUSD’s Board, administration and bargaining units are acting in solidarity with hundreds of other local, state and national organizations to ensure that public education is prioritized, not marginalized, and that schools receive adequate funding. The joint statements at 4:00 PM will cap a day of activities highlighting the injustice of school funding cuts and the danger they pose to California’s future. Activities include:

7:30 AM to First Bell: Peaceable leafleting and picketing will occur on school campuses prior to the beginning of class.

This is an opportunity to engage the community and:

- Inform them of the scope of education funding cuts
- Explain the impact of funding cuts on children
- Discuss structural issues (e.g., 2/3 budget passage requirement)
- Advocate for pressure on elected officials to support education

9:15 AM: Simultaneous Fire Drill at All Schools

OUSD and its labor unions are joining districts throughout California in holding a fire drill – at all schools – at 9:15 AM on March 4^th. The simultaneous fire drill is meant to symbolize the “state of emergency” afflicting public education.

All-Day: “Teach-In”

OUSD and OEA have jointly created curriculum that secondary English and History/Social Studies teachers can use to bring discussions of budgeting, educating funding, equity and political action into the classroom. The lesson plans can be downloaded from the OUSD website at: http://www.ousd.k12.ca.us/March4lessonplans.

4:00 PM: Press Conference at Elihu M. Harris State Office Building (1515 Clay St.)

OUSD’s Board, administration and unions will hold a press conference in front of the State Building to protest the deepest school funding cuts on record – reductions that leave California 47^th out of 50states in per-pupil funding for K-12 education.

OUSD and its partners are taking action to protest the education cuts enacted by the Governor and the California legislature – reductions which are unprecedented in scope. Despite schools which rank at the bottom of all states in staff-to-student ratios and nearly last in per-pupil spending, California reduced funding for education by $18 billion in 2008-09 and the first half of 2009-10. As a result, California’s schools face an average net funding cut of $470 per pupil, roughly $11,750 for every classroom. In addition to slashing budgets, the state also delayed the release of funds, restricting the ability of districts to plan and to manage cash-flows.

OUSD alone has trimmed $40 million dollars over the past 18 months, but still must make $85 million in reductions for the 2010-11 school year. In addition, the District is in the midst of cutting $100 million over three years. These deep budget cuts threaten to stifle the progress of districts such as OUSD, California’s most improved urban school district over the past five years.

While it’s true California is in the midst of an economic crisis, children are bearing a disproportionate amount of the burden for the state’s financial problem. Education funding accounts for 40 percent of the state budget, but schools have suffered 60 percent of the cuts. As a result, more than 20,000 teachers and administrators and more than 10,000 support positions have been eliminated statewide, along with countless programs like arts, music, sports, afterschool, summer school, vocational, adult education and Advanced Placement classes.

“The most vulnerable students are taking the biggest hit,” explained OUSD Superintendent Tony Smith. “Schools are where we’re creating community today and preparing for the future. Not funding children has disastrous short-term and long-term effects on the state of California.”

Event Details

Title: OUSD’s March 4^th Day of Action for Public Education Press Conference

Date: Thursday, March 4, 2010

Time: 4:00 PM

Venue: Elihu M. Harris State Office Building - 1515 Clay St. Oakland, CA

Contact: Troy Flint at troy.flint@ousd.k12.ca.us or 510.473.5832

UC Berkeley’s recipe for preparing principals The Education Report

The Education Report

UC Berkeley’s recipe for preparing principals

By Katy Murphy
Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 5:22 pm in leadership changes
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UC Berkeley’s Principal Leadership Institute faculty say they have a darn good recipe for effective, stable school leadership: finding strong, ”home grown” candidates and supporting the new administrators in their first three years on the job.

The local institute celebrated its 10th anniversary this month. It has graduated 343 school leaders, and cites a 95 percent retention rate (though I’m following up to see exactly what that means).

[Home grown, defined: Candidates to the program "should" work at a public school in the Bay Area and have three years of teaching experience; they also must commit to working four years at a California public school after they graduate.]

Who are these graduates? you ask. Here’s a list of PLI leaders now in Oakland schools, courtesy of the PLI: Read the rest of this entry »

City releases new teacher reports it says are simpler, fairer | GothamSchools

City releases new teacher reports it says are simpler, fairer

by Anna Phillips

Teachers' data reports place them in one of five categories depending on how much they were able to boost their students' test scores over the course of several years.

Reports ranking teachers on how much they were able to increase students’ test scores from one year to the next arrived in principal’s inboxes this week, and this time Department of Education officials say the reports are simpler and fairer than in years past.

First released in 2008, teacher data reports have rankled teachers who object to being judged solely on test scores and confused principals, some of whom found the reports too complicated to use. The reports released this week cover 12,000 teachers and address some of those concerns. They contain less information, are easier to read, and use a new formula to calculate teachers’ value-added scores.

This year, Chancellor Joel Klein has made it clear what should be done with the data: one in ten teachers who are up for tenure will have their reports used as a criteria in their tenure evaluations.

On Tuesday morning, principals with students in grades 3-8 — the state gives yearly math and English tests to these students — were given school summary reports. Teachers won’t receive their individual data reportsuntil next week. The vast majority work in traditional public schools, as less than a dozen charter schools

Central Falls Journal - A Jumble of Strong Feelings After Vote on a Troubled School - NYTimes.com

CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. — Like many other teenagers in this troubled city, Sheila Gomes said she found a surrogate family outside her home at Central Falls High School.

But with the school board’s decision on Tuesday to dismiss the entire faculty as part of a turnaround plan for the chronically underperforming school, some say they are losing one of the few constants in the state’s poorest city, where 41 percent of children live in poverty and 63 percent of the high school’s students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

“My teachers, they’re there for me. They push me forward,” said Ms. Gomes, a 17-year-old senior whose father is largely absent and whose mother works long hours at a factory. “My parents, they tried to, but they don’t know how. I don’t think they fully know me as a person to help me.”

This former mill town of about 19,000, where unemployment is 13.8 percent, is now embroiled in a battle over school reform similar to those that have taken place in troubled districts in Chicago, New York and Philadelphia, where officials have tried to fix failing schools by starting over with new staff members. Seventy-four teachers and 19 staff members in Central Falls will lose their jobs.

“The status quo needs to change,” Secretary of EducationArne Duncan said in an interview. “This is not the kind of stability I want. I’m looking for improvement.”

Teachers acknowledge that change is needed — the school’s

Home | Central Falls Kids Deserve Better

A great deal has been reported about the situation at Central Falls High School. The Superintendent of Schools has issued 88 termination letters at the high school - firing the entire teacher faculty - a move that is unprecedented in the United States and that threatens students just as they're showing improvement.

We felt it was important to get the rest of the story out regarding this unfortunate and unnecessary proposal.

We are the Central Falls Teachers Union, an affiliate of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals. We represent the hard working, dedicated teachers at Central Falls High School. The proposal to fire these teachers does a grave disservice to their ongoing efforts to improve the lives of the students at Central Falls High School.

The Superintendent has attempted to portray the teachers as the problem at the High School. The facts speak differently ».

Schools Matter: We're # 1

We're # 1

California Chronicle | Yee Fights Cuts to Education

Yee Fights Cuts to Education

California Political Desk

February 26, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO – Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo) joined California educators in calling on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Los Angeles) to protect school funding. Yee, who has consistently voted against all budget cuts to education, said Democrats should be as vigilant against cuts to education as Republicans have been against raising taxes.

This week, Yee again voted against a potential cut to California schools when he was one of only two Senators to vote "no" on AB 8x 5, which included up to $2.5 billion in deferrals to education. Yee is also insisting that the proposed "gas tax swap" provide a guarantee to Proposition 98 – voter-approved minimum funding for education. Over the past two years, Yee has voted against budget cuts to education that have left public schools $17 billion short.

"The state budget should not be balanced on the backs of kids and the most-vulnerable," said Yee. "I will continue to oppose all budgets that put the interests of corporations and the rich before the interests of children and families. If the Governor and his Republican colleagues are going to say taxes are off the table, then Democrats should say cuts to education are off the table. We need to stand by our principles and protect students and teachers."

"We are so proud of Senator Yee for standing up and saying no to more cuts," said Marty Hittelman, President of the California Federation of Teachers. "After all of the carnage inflicted by the governor and the legislature on education, it is a ray of sunshine to have a Senator like Senator Yee stand up for the people of California and say ´enough is enough.´ We, and the students we serve, applaud him."

The Governor´s proposed budget for

Model Middle Grades Schools Named - Year 2010 (CA Dept of Education)

"Schools To Watch™-Taking Center Stage" Model Schools

SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today designated six California schools as model middle grades schools in the Schools to Watch™–Taking Center Stage (STW™–TCS) program.

"Middle school can be a difficult time for students as they mature socially, physically, and academically. These six model middle grades schools are making great progress in improving academic achievement, meeting the needs of their students, and making changes that are leading to further student success," said O’Connell. "All the hard work of the students, their parents, teachers, and administrators are paying off and I congratulate them all and hope that other middle schools can learn from their successful practices."

The new model middle grades schools in the Schools to Watch™–Taking Center Stage program schools are:

Canyon Middle School (Castro Valley Unified School District, Castro Valley, Alameda County);
Edna Hill Middle School (Brentwood Union School District, Brentwood, Contra Costa County);
Frank M. Wright Middle School (Imperial Unified School District, Imperial, Imperial County);
John Glenn Middle School (Desert Sands Unified School District, Indio, Riverside County);
Medea Creek Middle School (Oak Park Unified School District, Oak Park, Ventura County);
Oliver Wendell Holmes Middle School (Los Angeles Unified School District, Northridge, Los Angeles County).

STW™–TCS is a collaborative effort of 12 education organizations that form the California Middle Grades Alliance. The goal of the program is to identify high-performing school models that demonstrate academic excellence, developmental responsiveness to the needs and interests of young adolescents, social equity, and organizational support. In order to be named a STW™–TCS designee, schools conducted an extensive self-study and completed a narrative application. Each site was reviewed in January by a team of middle grades experts.

The six middle grades schools named today are among 26 others selected in previous cycles since 2003 as STW™–TCS designees. Medea Creek and John Glenn middle schools have been STW™–TCS schools for six years. Despite changes in leadership in many of these schools, the vision and progress continues, as shown by the hard work and dedication of the faculty and support of the district and community.

All six schools will be formally recognized at the California League of Middle Schools annual conference in Sacramento, February 26-28, 2010. At the conference, they will have an opportunity to showcase their accomplishments and network with other middle grades educators from around the state.

For more information about the Schools to Watch™–Taking Center Stage model school program, visit California Schools to Watch - Taking Center Stage - Middle Grades.

SCOTUSblog � Thwarting the First Civil Rights Revolution

Thwarting the First Civil Rights Revolution
The Court's late-nineteenth-century decisions on race

Erin Miller | Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 4:28 pm

The following essay for our Race and the Supreme Court program was written by Robert J. Cottrol, the Harold Paul Green Research Professor of Law and Professor of History and Sociology at the George Washington University. He is the co-author of Brown v. Board of Education: Caste, Culture and the Constitution (University Press of Kansas, 2003). He is currently working on a comparative legal history contrasting the role of law in constructing systems of slavery and racial hierarchy in the Americas.

Chances are if you went to law school sometime in the last half-century you absorbed a certain narrative about race and the Supreme Court. The Court was the hero of that narrative. Its 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education cut through the Gordian knot that had long stifled racial progress in the nation. The decision, the first act of the new Warren Court, gave strength and heart to the postwar Civil Rights movement and ultimately courage to the political branches. It helped precipitate a civil rights revolution, one in which the law went from being an active abetter of American-style apartheid, Jim Crow, to being the chief vehicle for attacking racial discrimination. The Court’s school desegregation

Patient Money - Nudging Schools to Help Students With Learning Disabilities - NYTimes.com

Patient Money - Nudging Schools to Help Students With Learning Disabilities - NYTimes.com:

"WHEN it comes to special education, Becky McGee and her 19-year-old son, Kyle, feel as if they’ve seen it all."

And Ms. McGee hopes her hard-won lessons might benefit other parents.

Kyle was born with orthopedic and neurological problems. In elementary school he was found to have several learning disabilities that included severe dyslexia and attention-deficit disorder. Ms. McGee sought for years for her son to get the kinds of therapy and intervention that would help him succeed in his public school system in Yorktown, Va.

Throughout Kyle’s elementary, middle and high school years, Ms. McGee had to fight for the special services, particularly for a reading program for dyslexia that worked well for her son. She even enlisted the help of a lawyer who specializes in learning disability cases.

At one point, Ms. McGee and her husband, Chuck, decided to put Kyle in private school for two years before he went to public high school. They often paid out-of-pocket for reading therapies that schools could not or would not provide.

Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Notes from the news, Feb. 26

Submitted by Erika Owens on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 09:20 Posted in Notes from the news | Permalink

On the origin of lawsuits The Notebook blog
Len Rieser wrote about how lawsuits happen and what can sometimes prevent them, in light of "webcamgate."

See also: Laptop family is no stranger to legal disputes The Inquirer

Nutter Defends Decision to Close Phila. Schools Thursday KYW
Nutter says the forecast warranted the closure. Today the streets are snow covered and schools are closed again.

"Highly Qualified Teachers": Who's Paying for It? Philly Teacher blog
Philly Teacher used her snow day to review her grad school loans. To retain her teaching certificate, and continue to be considered "highly qualified," she had to get a Master's degree.

Please email us if we missed anything today or if you have any suggestions of publications, email lists, or other places for us to check for news.

Click here to get Notes from the news in your inbox every day.

Notes from the news

No resolution on violence at South Philly

Submitted by Helen Gym on Wed, 02/24/2010 - 15:36 | Permalink

It’s hard to look at the findings of the District’s independent investigation into the December 3 violence at South Philadelphia High School without significant shock and outrage. After all, this was an incident in which more than two dozen Asian immigrant students were assaulted throughout the day in multiple attacks, which sent 13 youth to the hospital at a school with a history of violence overall and against Asian immigrant students in particular.

THE DAILY RIFF -The World's Free Virtual School: 10 Minute Tutoring Sessions

THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

RIFFING GOOD STORIES

EDUCATION MASH-UP (Humor)

"So much cranky clamoring lately: Three major movies. Joe Scarborough, Seth Godin, even Carl Bernstein getting into the act. Who gave these intruders the stage? Don't "turn over the tables in the temple" in education!" I like the status quo. Cheers!" Dr. D.Read More