Sunday, March 21, 2010

SCUSD Observer: The Sup uses the word "blueprint"

The Sup uses the word "blueprint"

by Sac City Schools Observer

Editor's Note: Blueprint is the buzzword for the re-issue of No Child Left Behind.

Here is the most recent letter from Jonathan Raymond to pink-slipped employees:

March 22, 2010

Dear Colleague:

At Thursday night’s Board meeting, I was thrilled to announce that we plan to send letters out on Monday that will rescind approximately 170 of the layoff notices that were sent out last week. We hope, in the coming weeks, to rescind even more. These rescissions mark a step in the right direction but make no mistake - we still have a long way to go. I understand that this process can be confusing at times and that it can be laden with tremendous anxiety and upset, and my staff and I are available to answer any questions you might have about the status of the process.

The unfortunate truth is that there is no way to avoid some layoffs to balance our fiscal house. The exact number that will be needed is undetermined at this time, but I can tell you that I am doing everything in my power to have as few people as possible be impacted.

Discovery Premieres Stunning 11-Part "LIFE" Series Tonite - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

Series Narrated By Oprah Winfrey
Stunning Photography
"Ultimate Portrait In Animal Behavior"
See Behind-The-Scenes Video Below

From the Discovery Channel here. Excerpts:

"LIFE is a massive television event showcasing extraordinary animal behavior."

"If Planet Earth was the stage, LIFE is about the lives of the actors. . ."

"Four years" of filming in "over fifty countries"

"Ultimate portrait of animal behavior"

"Taking animal behavior to a whole different level"

Two video below:

Finally, a detailed guide to school budgets | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Finally, a detailed guide to school budgets

by Paul Socolar on Mar 21 2010 Posted in Eye on the budget

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For this year's budget season, the School District has provided for the first time in memory a detailed guide to school budgets, explaining how funds are allocated to schools.

It's a daunting read - a dense, 51-page document, including the 10 appendices. But the document reflects the complexity of the system it is trying to explain. For instance, it identifies 17 different centrally allocated funding streams to schools - such as kindergarten teachers, special education, ELL support, school nurses, school police, and food service - where the school must spend the dollars as the District dictates.

As a first step in the District's move toward a new system for alloting funds to schools, known as weighted student funding, District officials have pledged to make the existing system of school budgeting more transparent. Making the system transparent is going to require a lot of explaining, but this document is an important first step.

Natl. science ed. conference: Saturday | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Natl. science ed. conference: Saturday

by Timothy Boyle on Mar 20 2010 Posted in Boyle's law

Tags:

Before I knew I would covering the NSTA conference for the Notebook, I had planned on spending Saturday at the conference as a professional development.

I teach third and fourth grade, which entails using three different FOSS curricula. This afternoon FOSS was running two workshops: assessment and notebooking.

While four and half hours of professional development can be daunting, it was time well spent.

FOSS assessment

I especially enjoyed the assessment workshop. I know that I still have a long way to go in better assessing my students. In the midst of a young career, I have concentrated most of my efforts on the delivery of instruction. Personally, I enjoy the teaching aspect of education more than the evaluation. Divorcing assessment from instruction is not an option however.

The framework for the assessment workshop was the knowledge gleaned from theAsk Project. FOSS has spent years developing a series of embedded and formative assessments in their curricula. The formative assessment takes the shape of a pre- and post-surveys along with I-Check. I-Checks are benchmark assessments with a very precise scoring system.

I particularly like the I-Check scoring because it is designed to inform teachers and students about student understanding as opposed to achievement. FOSS Co-Director Larry Malone posited a transition from the current state of "achievement of arbitrary goals to one of student progress." His rationale for this transition is that it values the efforts of all teachers and students. Instead of NCLB style winners and losers, we could see who is facilitating children's growth the most.

A progress model also takes into account the different levels of prior knowledge students might have. I thought the point that we don't stop educating children when they accrue a certain amount of education was quite poignant. Taking into account that some of students come from disadvantaged backgrounds, but still show

Schools Matter: DC Charter Report Takes Shots at KIPP, Imagine?

DC Charter Report Takes Shots at KIPP, Imagine?

From the 2009 School Performa nce Reports (published March 2010):

...KIPP AIM's vision and philosophy is compromised when the ideas of “Work hard, be Nice” are not modeled by the adults in the building.

Hmmm...was someone not working hard, or not being nice? Maybe it was the strict learning environment and penal pedagogy...

According to the report, Imagine Southeast PCS boasts a 30% truancy rate. There's also a bit about assessment that makes me wonder if this is just a test-prep factory. Keep in mind this is a PK-3rd grade school - and they're using Scantrons. I guess DC kids need lots of practice in filling in the bubbles for later success in Rhee's testing dungeons. You'll notice the mention of not using ILPs appropriately and the failure to use formative assessments (which can be useful for teachers when used appropriately, but

Health Care Debate: LIVE Updates, Video

First Posted: 03-21-10 12:30 PM | Updated: 03-21-10 12:38 PM

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Today is THE DAY for health care reform, and this page will bring you all the breaking news, tweets, photos, and video, all in one place.

Flip through the latest major news in the slideshow below, or scroll down to the Twitter module below for streaming updates from HuffPost's reporting team as well as members of Congress, top journalists, analysts, and pundits. (Get our Twitter feed directly by following @HuffPolitics.)

Clyburn: Deal With Stupak Likely

1 of 15

Despite some last minute drama over their votes, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) predicted on Sunday that late stage negotiations would result in anti-abortion Democrats supporting the health care bill.

The Majority Whip, in an appearance on CBS’s "Face the Nation," said the issue of abortion language was not “quite settled yet.” But, owing to a proposed compromise – in which President Obama would issue an executive order upholding the Hyde amendment as the law of the land – “I think we will be by late afternoon,” Clyburn said.

“[Rep.] Bart Stupak and I spent a lot of time together last evening,” the South

Manteca Bulletin - Volunteer to help teachers in classroom

Volunteer to help teachers in classroom

http://www.ci.manteca.ca.us/survey

POSTED March 21, 2010 1:56 a.m.

Editor, Manteca Bulletin,
Any many of you know teachers throughout the state of California received “pink slips” on or after March 15. The school boards are required to send these out to notify the teachers that they might be laid off from work. Thousands went out in our great state. The boards want to increase classes from the current 20 students per teacher to larger size. The lower grades will be affected the most as kindergarten, first and second grades. This is going to create a situation where real teaching and children’s ability to learn will be greatly inhibited.

The teacher will have the choice of teaching the good students who study at home, get help from their parents, went to pre-school so have that built in advantage, speak English, are well behaved, and able to work on their own verses a child who doesn’t have those benefits. If you increase the class sizes, the slower students will be left behind and the reason is due to sheer numbers.

I went to a Catholic grade school and there were 40 students in my classroom so my first opinion was its no big deal to have more kids in the classroom. That is until I volunteered. The nuns had the authority to run the class. The classroom was quite and everyone learned. We respected the nuns. There was seldom a discipline problem. The nuns were in control. If the parents did not like it, they could send their kids to public school. There was order.

That is not the case in today’s schools. The teachers are limited in what they can do and how much control they have in the classroom. Parents can override teachers’ suggestions, even to the point of passing a student to a higher grade level when the child isn’t doing his current grade level work. The teacher’s hands are tied.

I currently help out/volunteer two afternoons in my daughter’s class. She is the teacher. Her hands are tied. She can only do so much as far as discipline is concerned. There is no way a teacher can have 30 kids in their classroom and have the kids really learn. The ability to learn is proportional to the class size and the ability to control the class. If you increase class size, learning will suffer. My daughter currently tutors several students after school on her own time without pay. She should not have to do this. She is attempting to bring them up to grade level. If parents had done a better job of preparing their kids for school, her job would be easier. In many cases where both parents have to work to provide for their families, it’s hard for them to provide the extra help needed. If our state representatives increase class size, they are destroying any chance for our kids to learn and become educated.

Schools Matter: Burn the Blueprint, Send the Billionaire Boys' Club Packing, and Start Over

Burn the Blueprint, Send the Billionaire Boys' Club Packing, and Start Over

by Jim Horn

The $4.35 billion pile that Arne Duncan is using to bribe starving states into accepting corporate education reform remains the big ed media story, even though the same corporate foundations that planned the RTTT, helped write grants for the RTTT, and will now judge the RTTT grant winners, have been busy, too, working on the new release of NCLB 2.0, known now as the "Blueprint."

Here are a few reasons to declare the Blueprint DOA. From the United Church of Christ:

What are the problems in the Obama Administration's proposals for the ESEA reauthorization?

The "Blueprint" incorporates untried turnaround plans for the bottom 5 percent of public schools. The Obama proposal requires extremely punitive interventions for 5 percent of public schools that have been unable over time to raise their test scores. These are the schools that have, under NCLB, been commonly called "failing" schools. Because these