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Thursday, March 18, 2010

Look For Your Census Form In Mid-March 2010 Census

2010 Census

Thursday, March 18, 2010

We Can't Move Forward Until You Mail It Back.



The Questions on the Form

One of the shortest forms in history - 10 Questions in 10 Minutes

Look For Your Census Form In Mid-March

Each question helps to determine how more than $400 billion will be allocated to communities across the country. Text only version of interactive form.

LAUSD board member looks to modify transfer policy after outcry - The Daily Breeze

LAUSD board member looks to modify transfer policy after outcry - The Daily Breeze

LAUSD board member looks to modify transfer policy after outcry


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    After an outcry from parents, a Los Angeles school board member said Monday he would push to partially overturn a new policy on transfer permits that could force thousands of students now attending South Bay schools to return to LAUSD campuses.

    LAUSD board member Steve Zimmer, who represents Westchester, said through a representative that he would seek to let 10th- and 11th-grade permit students attend through graduation at their non-LAUSD campuses.

    "Steve's concern is that students who are already in high school should be able to finish high school," said Zimmer's chief of staff, Sharon Delugach. "It's not really so much the emotional turmoil, but how it's going to affect them into college. It would be too disruptive."

    Zimmer was traveling in Washington and could not be reached for comment.

    His move comes after a Feb. 9 vote in which the board gave Superintendent Ramon Cortines authority to end inter-district transfer agreements in a bid to save money by keeping students in Los Angeles Unified. The item was discussed briefly and generated almost no attention.

    Cortines later reported to board members in an internal memo that the move would raise

    $51 million in enrollment-related state funding for the district, which is facing a $640 million budget gap. The superintendent estimated
  • Remainders: In the UFT election, still campaigning against Randi | GothamSchools

    Remainders: In the UFT election, still campaigning against Randi | GothamSchools

    Remainders: In the UFT election, still campaigning against Randi

    Sacramento Press / SCUSD to create ‘Superintendent’s Priority Schools’ for six most academically troubled schools

    Sacramento Press / SCUSD to create ‘Superintendent’s Priority Schools’ for six most academically troubled schools



    SCUSD to create ‘Superintendent’s Priority Schools’ for six most academically troubled schools
    Bold leadership, effective teachers, additional resources for more than 4,600 students
    By Gabe Ross
    March 16, 2010 – Sacramento’s six most academically troubled schools will be put into a special grouping of schools—the Superintendent’s Priority Schools—with innovative principals, additional assistance and resources Superintendent Jonathan P. Raymond announced today.
    In a first-of-its-kind effort in Sacramento to intensely focus on improving underperforming schools, the Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) will create the Priority Schools to help more than 4,600 students in six schools—Oak Ridge Elementary, Father Keith B. Kenny Elementary, Jedediah Smith Elementary, Fern Bacon Basic Middle, Will C. Wood Middle and Hiram W. Johnson High. Oak Ridge was identified by the California Department of Education last Monday as among the state’s “persistently low-achieving” schools, but Superintendent Raymond said the five other SCUSD schools also have not served children adequately.
    “We must take strong, decisive action and include our school communities to help these schools vastly improve how they educate our children,” Raymond said. “Tinkering around the edges of the problems at these schools won’t work. We need bold leadership, more effective teaching and a plan to provide the support our teachers and principals desperately need. We also need more resources to help 

    Parents and children defend homemade treats at City Hall rally | GothamSchools

    Parents and children defend homemade treats at City Hall rally | GothamSchools

    Parents and children defend homemade treats at City Hall rally


    4443487159_e43e2070c3
    Chloe Leon and her mother, Leigh Anne O'Connor, man the home-baked treats stand at the "bake-in."
    “Viva el cupcake!”
    That was a battle cry of parents and children protesting outside City Hall today against new rules that restrict what foods can be sold at school bake sales. The regulation, passed last month by the Panel for Educational Policy, limits bake sales to packaged foods that are pre-approved by the Department of Education.
    Parents and students who oppose the new regulation say that it won’t accomplish the city’s goal of reducing childhood obesity and will instead cost parent and student groups dearly needed funds. ”It’s an ill-considered policy,” Public Advocate Bill de Blasio said today, over cries of “NYC DOE: Read our lips, no more chips” and “Hey hey, ho ho, junk food has got to go.”
    At the center of the rally, which drew well over 100 parents and children, were two tables featuring homemade baked goods, including tofu empanadas and carrot muffins, and the packaged foods that the city requires.
    Chloe Leon, a third-grader at the Earth School who was monitoring the “banned” sweets table, said she prefers baked goods made at home. “A lot of ingredients are more fresh and organic,” she said. “It just tastes better.”
    Her mother, Leigh Anne O’Connor, said without the funds raised by bake sales, the Earth School is

    Their Future Is Now! http://www.savecupertinoschools.org/

    Their Future Is Now!



    State budget cuts are undermining the Cupertino Union School District's quality of education. The District must now make cuts to core instructional programs. Among the actions planned, we will lose up to 115 teachers in Kindergarten through 8th grade across the district. (This is equivalent to losing 4 schools!) Students in every grade level at every school will be impacted.

    The time to act is now! With a $375 contribution per family - about $2 per day of instruction - we can save our excellent school programs together!

    Time left before our May 15th fund raising deadline.
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    Sacto 9-1-1: Sacramento police union backs Hammond, Kennedy in local races - Capitol and California - fresnobee.com

    Sacto 9-1-1: Sacramento police union backs Hammond, Kennedy in local races- Capitol and California- fresnobee.com

    The Sacramento city police union has endorsed Councilwoman Lauren Hammond in her campaign for the state Assembly's District 9 seat.
    In the race for Hammond's replacement in City Council District 5, the union is supporting Patrick Kennedy in the June election.
    In a statement released today, Hammond said the police union support is "priceless."
    "Government's first job is to protect our citizens," Hammond said. "In the state Assembly, we must be more creative in our efforts to balance our budgets in a way that doesn't hurt public safety and doesn't punish our dedicated law enforcement employees."
    Hammond is running against fellow City Councilmember Kevin McCarty, county Supervisor Roger Dickinson and Chris Garland of the California Faculty Association.


    Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/03/18/1863979/sacto-9-1-1-sacramento-police.html#ixzz0iZVQkVZP

    Education Research Report: ESEA Reauthorization: The Feds Leverage Their 7.5 Percent;

    Education Research Report: ESEA Reauthorization: The Feds Leverage Their 7.5 Percent;

    ESEA Reauthorization: The Feds Leverage Their 7.5 Percent;

    *
    The U.S. Department of Education's "Blueprint for Reform of Education" makes the case for a dramatic rewriting of national policy. In a new issue brief from The Century Foundation, Gordon MacInnes concludes that the Blueprint features some worthwhile and needed changes to the current law, but that it contains some serious problems that Congress should correct before it reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Act (ESEA), formerly known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

    In "ESEA Reauthorization: The Feds Leverage Their 7.5 Percent" (the entire brief canalso be found at the end of this summary) MacInnes, a fellow at The Century Foundation, supports the U.S. Department of Education's (USDE) efforts to redress some of the most notable problems with NCLB. They include:

    - A proposal that states agree on a new set of clear, strong, and relatively fewer standards, followed by cooperatively developed assessments that go beyond multiple choice;

    Edu-Job: Master Educators The Quick and the Ed

    The Quick and the Ed


    Edu-Job: Master Educators

    March 18th, 2010 | Category: Teacher Quality



    The District of Columbia seeks Master Educators to serve as third-party evaluators of teacher performance and to provide teachers with targeted support. Important implications for the city’s new teacher evaluation program.

    Posted by Chad Aldeman at 4:34 pm | Tags: , , | No Comments

    TV debate places union friends and foes in a blame game | GothamSchools

    TV debate places union friends and foes in a blame game | GothamSchools

    TV debate places union friends and foes in a blame game

    The head of a national teachers union and the former U.S. Secretary of Education squared off on a televised debate program this week over the question of whether teachers unions are to blame for failing schools.
    Called Intelligence Squared, the program airs on NPR and Bloomberg TV next week, but the transcript (a full 45 pages) of Tuesday’s teachers union-themed debate is online now. The program had six panelists debate the power of teachers unions to influence what goes on in classrooms and how much responsibility they should have for the outcomes. Going by the audience votes at the end of the show, the anti-union panelists swung undecided voters to their side — at the beginning of the program, 43 percent of the audience thought unions were to blame for failing schools and by the end 68 percent did.
    Among the three pro-union panelists, there was a California superintendent, a Massachusetts elementary school teacher, and Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers. The opposition included a Lo

    Schools Matter: NJ's Bully Governor Will Not Be "Bullied:" Declares War on Teachers

    Schools Matter: NJ's Bully Governor Will Not Be "Bullied:" Declares War on Teachers

    NJ's Bully Governor Will Not Be "Bullied:" Declares War on Teachers

    New Jersey consistently ranks among the top performing state education systems in the U. S. in terms of student performance, and it has a very strong union. Maybe it is just coincidence, or maybe it has something to do with the morale, self-efficacy, and performance of teachers who have basic human needs met, such as health insurance, retirement plans, and a decent living wage. Whatever the connection, none of it seems to matter to the corpulent Governor Christie, who appears to have gone on an eating binge since his election as he plans war against the NJEA.

    Having just announced slashes of over $800 million to the state education budget as a way to force concessions from the teachers (see video), Governor Christie has left untouched the budget lines for the cheap non-union charter chain gangs that provide an increasing amount of the penal pedagogy used in containing and segregating children of the urban poor:
    In his address to the annual conference of the New Jersey Charter Schools Association in Long Branch, Christie said he largely left the funding for charter schools untouched when he introduced his controversial budget on Tuesday.

    "We will do many good things for charters schools. In fact, I’ve held charter schools harmless in this budget because you already pay enough,’’ he said, "There are going to be more charter schools a year from now than there are today."


    Who are the 6 Democratic senators poised to kill student loan reform?

    Graduating from college is a great feeling. Not so great: being saddled with $23,200 in student loans, the average debt owed by graduates of the class of 2008, according to the Project on Student Debt.

    Reforming the for-profit student loan system, which allows finance giants like Virginia-based Sallie Mae to make virtually risk-free returns thanks to government subsidies, was a top priority of President Obama. His idea, supported by most Democrats, was to take out the middle-man: Instead of subsidizing private lenders, the feds would completely take over origination of student loans.

    The result: The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which the Office of Management and Budget estimated would save over $80 billion over 10 years (critics point out the number is inflated, because it didn't include money lost from defaults; but that's neither here nor there, because the government currently absorbs private losses anyway). Savings would be plowed back into Pell Grants -- much easier on students on the long-term -- and other higher education initiatives.

    But as The New York Times writes today, this week six senate Democrats have threatened to derail the Act, writing in a letter to senate majority leader Harry Reid that "provisions of contemplated student lending reform that could put jobs at risk."

    Obama effigy hung at RI school with fired teachers | Raw Story

    Obama effigy hung at RI school with fired teachers | Raw Story

    Obama effigy hung at RI school with fired teachers

    By The Associated Press
    Thursday, March 18th, 2010 -- 3:08 pm

    cetralfallshighschool Obama effigy hung at RI school with fired teachersCENTRAL FALLS, R.I. -- A teacher at a failing Rhode Island school where he and all his colleagues were fired hung an effigy of President Barack Obama in his classroom, apparently in reaction to Obama's support of extreme measures to ensure accountability in schools.

    The teachers union on Thursday condemned the effigy, discovered Monday in the teacher's third-floor classroom at Central Falls High School, saying it was wrong and cannot be condoned under any circumstances.

    The effigy was found in the unidentified teacher's classroom by Superintendent Frances Gallo, Nicole Shaffer of the Rhode Island Department of Education told The Associated Press. Shaffer said the department would not have any further comment.

    Gallo did not immediately respond to calls from the AP seeking comment, but she told CNN that the foot-tall Obama doll that she saw Monday was found hung from its feet from a white board and was holding a sign that said "Fire Central Falls teachers."

    FULL STORY FOLLOWS BELOW

    Early Ed., Community College Initiative, Facilities Aid Out of Student Loan Bill - Politics K-12 - Education Week

    Early Ed., Community College Initiative, Facilities Aid Out of Student Loan Bill - Politics K-12 - Education Week

    Early Ed., Community College Initiative, Facilities Aid Out of Student Loan Bill

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    Mixed news for some Obama administration and Democratic priorities on the student loan front.
    It looks like student loans are indeed hitching a ride with the health care overhaul legislation. And Congress, indeed, is on the brink of requiring that all loans be originated through the Direct Loan program, in which students borrow right from the U.S. Treasury. This would effectively end the Federal Family Education Loan Program, which uses subsidized lenders. Subsidized lenders would compete to "service loans."
    The unfortunate news, from the perspective of some education advocates? It appears the Early-Learning Challenge Fund, which was intended to help states expand and bolster prekindergarten programs, didn't make it into the bill. Neither did new money to help revamp community colleges, or dollars aimed at school facilities. The programs were in the version of the bill passed by the House of Representatives last fall.
    By the time the bill made it to legislative prime time, there just wasn't enough money left over to pay for those programs, in part because of the high demand