Latest News and Comment from Education

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

(Class) Size Does Matter | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

(Class) Size Does Matter | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

(Class) Size Does Matter

Once again, Claus von Zastrow at Public School Insights has written an insightful post. This one is titled “Is Class Size Really That Irrelevant?” There is a great discussion in the comments on his post, too.
In light of the ongoing elimination of class size reductions by school districts here in California to save money, it’s a very timely post.
Critics sometimes question class size’s effect on student achievement. Claus answers them in his post (you

1/5 of N.J. school districts report wage freezes or cuts | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/07/2010

1/5 of N.J. school districts report wage freezes or cuts | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/07/2010

1/5 of N.J. school districts report wage freezes or cuts

About a fifth of New Jersey school districts have reported staff wage freezes or reductions in their budget plans for the coming school year, the Christie administration announced Tuesday.
The vast majority were made to administrators' pay, with support staff coming in second. Teachers in 11 districts accepted wage freezes, while in five districts they have accepted wage reductions.
Of 116 districts statewide freezing or reducing wages, 23 were in Burlington and Camden Counties, according to state data. Gloucester County data were not available Tuesday.
Of the local districts, Florence in Burlington County and Woodstown-Pilesgrove in Salem County were the only ones mentioned for teachers' taking voluntary wage freezes. Moorestown did not budget for raises for any employees other than principals and supervisors under contract.
Last week, Gov. Christie reiterated his call for school district employees to freeze their wages to help spare jobs and programs. Districts that did, he said, would get some additional aid from Social Security and Medicare payroll-tax savings.
On Tuesday, Christie slammed teachers and their unions as failing to respond to his challenge.
"Unfortunately, these figures illustrate the obvious: that the teachers' unions overwhelmingly believe everyone else should share in the sacrifice, but they alone should be held harmless in the middle of this fiscal crisis," Christie



An Army general goes home to West Chester

When David M. Rodriguez was a senior at West Chester Henderson High School, one of his teachers wrote in a recommendation letter for West Point: "He has trouble responding to authority in school. But if you can break him of that, he will be an outstanding leader."

Remainders: Back from break, two schools are evacuated | GothamSchools

Remainders: Back from break, two schools are evacuated | GothamSchools

Remainders: Back from break, two schools are evacuated

A Tentative Contract Deal for Washington Teachers - NYTimes.com

A Tentative Contract Deal for Washington Teachers - NYTimes.com


Capping two years of rancorous bargaining, the Washington schools chancellor and the city’s teachers’ union on Wednesday announced an agreement on a tentative contract that would increase teacher salaries, establish a voluntary merit pay system and give the authorities clearer powers to move teachers out of the system based on their effectiveness rather than seniority.
Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times
Michelle Rhee, chancellor of the Washington public schools.
The agreement has yet to be ratified by union members and the City Council.
Throughout the negotiations, an intense media spotlight focused on a union famous for corruption in a city with many failing schools, and on the chancellor, Michelle Rhee, who appeared early in the talks on the cover of Timemagazine, wielding a broom to dramatize her pledge to sweep away recalcitrant teachers and the tenure system.
The tentative settlement includes some novel provisions, like partial financing by private foundations, but experts were divided about how profoundly they would change the district’s school system.
“Just modestly innovative” was the way Allan R. Odden, an education professor at the University of Wisconsin who followed the talks closely, described the settlement. He said it would leave intact both

Stony Brook University to End Undergraduate Program

Because of budget cuts, Stony Brook University will end most programs at its Southampton campus and no longer accept undergraduate applications.

National Briefing | Midwest: Wisconsin: Schools Warned Against Sex Education

A prosecutor is urging schools not to follow a new state law which requires districts with sex education programs to tell students about contraceptives.

The Best Sites To Learn About Anne Frank | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

The Best Sites To Learn About Anne Frank | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

The Best Sites To Learn About Anne Frank

PBS will present a new version of The Diary Of Anne Frank on Holocaust Remembrance Day — April 11th.
You will be able to view the movie for free online between April 12 – May 11, 2010.
The site also offers an impressive Teacher’s Guide with lots of good ideas on how to teach about Anne Frank — with or without the movie.
The story of Anne Frank is an engaging one for English Language Learners and mainstream students alike. I’ve

Michael Mulgrew wins teachers union election in a landslide | GothamSchools

Michael Mulgrew wins teachers union election in a landslide | GothamSchools

Michael Mulgrew wins teachers union election in a landslide


Michael Mulgrew has won election to his first full three-year term as the president of the city’s teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers announced today.
Mulgrew was elected with 91 percent of the vote over James Eterno, a candidate from an opposition group within the union. UFT spokesman Dick Riley said the union was still waiting to hear the final vote tally, which will be released tomorrow.
Mulgrew, 44, became union president last year, when the UFT’s executive board appointed him to serve the remainder of then-president Randi Weingarten’s term after she left to run the national union. A relative newcomer to the union — only five years ago he was a high school teacher in Staten Island — Mulgrew became Weingarten’s designated successor after winning an internal run-off race she held.
UFT presidents typically win reelection by huge margins, but Mulgrew’s win is impressive even compared to his predecessors. In 2001, the first time former UFT president Randi Weingarten ran for office, she won with 76.6 percent of the vote.
The Unity caucus, which has dominated UFT politics since the union’s beginning, won all of the seats in contention. The six high school seats on the union’s executive board, which are routinely the most contested,

Schools Matter: 13 Philly Charter Schools Under Investigation

Schools Matter: 13 Philly Charter Schools Under Investigation

13 Philly Charter Schools Under Investigation

The City of Brotherly Love might as well be re-named the "City of School Management Profiteers". The well-documented Edison debacle - one of the first experiments in privatization of public schools - is giving way to a second round of questionable education practices and profiteers, this time in the form of unregulated charter schools. Of course, one can only wonder how a public school managed to hold a bar/nightclub without scrutiny for such a length of time, but, then again, the public oversight of these private operators is about as effective as the SEC regulators looking over the securities industry.

Butkovitz is one of the few that recognizes the problem, and the man is taking action. 13 of the districts 67 charter schools -

Megan Fox slams Schwarzenegger, California education | News10.net | Sacramento, California | Education

Megan Fox slams Schwarzenegger, California education | News10.net | Sacramento, California | Education

Education News


Megan Fox slams Schwarzenegger, California education

Megan Fox slams Schwarzenegger, California education

Megan Fox and her sometime boyfriend, actor Brian Austin Green, took aim at Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, protesting California school budget cuts in a new video online.

Folsom Lake College SIFE prepares for San Francisco competition

Folsom Lake College SIFE prepares for San Francisco competition

The Folsom Lake College SIFE will showcase 13 community-based business projects on April 6 in a competition in San Francisco.

Officials hope UC Merced expansion will spur jobs

Officials hope UC Merced expansion will spur jobs

Merced officials are hoping expansion plans at UC Merced will help brighten the city's employment picture.

Humboldt State may cut entire programs

Humboldt State may cut entire programs

Among the programs that could be eliminated at Humboldt State University are chemistry, computer science, fisheries biology, nursing, philosophy and physics.

Left in the 'white room?' Parents question son's 'manhandling' by Olivehurst school staffers

Left in the 'white room?' Parents question son's 'manhandling' by Olivehurst school staffers

Terra and Jeffrey McDonald accuse an Olivehurst school of manhandling their son and exiling him to the "white room." The school, however, says that's not what happened.

Education Week: Foundations Would Help Fund D.C. Teacher Contract

Education Week: Foundations Would Help Fund D.C. Teacher Contract

Foundations Would Help Fund D.C. Teacher Contract



Signaling the endgame in a fractious and nationally watched teacher-contract negotiation, officials of the District of Columbia schools and the local teachers’ union have reached a preliminary bargaining agreement that includes a voluntary individual performance-pay program to be financed largely by private foundations.
The arrangement is believed to be the first of its kind in the country, with four foundations committing nearly $65 million in total for the performance-based compensation. In all, the contract would cost about an additional $140 million over its five-year duration.
Under the proposal, which will likely go to the Washington Teachers’ Unionmembership for ratification this month, teachers would earn more than 20 percent in retroactive pay and in new base raises over the life of the contract.
Gone from the tentative pact is Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee’s earlier proposal to create a two-tiered “red” and “green” pay system, which would have required some teachers to relinquish tenure for a year for the opportunity to win performance-based bonuses. The proposal drew nationwide attention,

Kaiser grants $1.1M to local organizations - Sacramento Business Journal:

Kaiser grants $1.1M to local organizations - Sacramento Business Journal:

Kaiser grants $1.1M to local organizations





Forty Sacramento-area organizations have been selected by Kaiser Permanente to share $1.1 million in grants focusing on community violence prevention and promoting access to health care services.

The two largest grants went to The Effort, which got $97,200 to provide health care services to 200 patients with mental illness, and $96,000 to the Sacramento Native American Health Center’s Full Circle Chronic Disease Program.

The Effort is helping to fill the gaps in mental health resources left by county budget cuts. “This grant will help to fill a critical gap in caring for people who need immediate treatment,” The Effort executive director Robert Caulk said in a news release.

The largest violence-prevention grant went to the city of Sacramento’s Office of Youth Development to continue its Street Outreach Project to connect homeless teens with education and jobs.

Kaiser also granted $20,000 to the NeighborWorks Home Ownership Center to launch a farmer’s market in Oak Park at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Broadway, where there is limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
The complete list of local grants:


Read more:
Kaiser grants $1.1M to local organizations - Sacramento Business Journal:

Pacific University professors win $554,000 grant to develop computer science camp for middle-school girls | OregonLive.com

Pacific University professors win $554,000 grant to develop computer science camp for middle-school girls | OregonLive.com

Pacific University professors win $554,000 grant to develop computer science camp for middle-school girls

By Wendy Owen, The Oregonian

April 07, 2010, 4:30PM
Three Pacific University professors have won a $554,000 grant from theNational Science Foundation to develop and run a three-year computer science summer camp for middle school girls.

The four-week camp, which starts in the summer of 2011, will emphasize mentoring as well as teaching adolescent girls computational thinking. The program will track the girls for 10 years to study the long-term effects of the camp on their lives.

The 30 girls -- a different group of 30 will be chosen each year for three years, totaling 90 -- will be taught by women and take field trips to visit women computer scientists at companies such as Vernier Software and Technology, Intel and Flying Rhino. They will also stay overnight at condominiums on the beach.

The camp, Girls Gather for Computer Science (G2CS), is free. The grant will pay for transportation costs, meals, computer equipment and software, as well as stipends for the eight instructors, who will come from universities or industry and middle schools.

The curriculum is still being developed, but lessons could include game programming, data gathering and analysis and biotechnology, said

Folsom Lake College Plans Full Slate of Earth Week Activities, April 19-23 — The Rancho Cordova Post

Viewpoints — The Rancho Cordova Post

Folsom Lake College Plans Full Slate of Earth Week Activities, April 19-23

by SCOTT CROW on APRIL 7, 2010 · 0 COMMENTS
Folsom Lake College celebrates Earth Week April 19-23 with a wide variety of FREE activities, sponsored in part by the college’s Eco Club, El Dorado Center Student Activities Club, and Student Government, along with select local businesses and many faculty and staff volunteers. The community is invited to participate in these events, which will be held at the college’s main campus (10 College Parkway in Folsom) and El Dorado Center (6699 Campus Drive in Placerville).
Events include speakers, films, and discussions on various environmental themes including food and water issues, climate change, wildlife and ecology, alternative transportation and energy systems, and a general celebration of our amazing planet. There will be a Green Machine Fair on Wed., April 21, from 11am-2pm at the Folsom campus with music, games, food, and vendors. Wednesday is also “Bike to School Day” at Folsom Lake College, featuring valet bike parking, t-shirts for those who do some combination of human-powered transit (biking, walking, skateboarding, etc.) and/or public transit, and free bike adjustments provided by REI.
The El Dorado Center will feature a “Day on the Greens” event from 11am-2pm on Thursday, April 22 with music, games, food, a free clothing swap, and

Sacramento Press / The Race to Nowhere in Sacramento

Sacramento Press / The Race to Nowhere in Sacramento

The Race to Nowhere in Sacramento

Disclaimer: the contributor of this and his wife run Movies on a Big Screen, Sacramento’s weekly screening series of documentaries, general independent film, classics and cult titles. The following is blatant self-promotion of a MOBS event .

On Sunday, April 11, 2010, at 4:00 PM, Movies on a Big Screen will present Race to Nowhere, a feature length documentary examining pressures faced by children and teens in today’s achievement-obsessed culture.Director Vicki Abeles will be in attendance for a discussion and Q&A.
The film premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October, 2009 and has been screening around the country in theaters, cultural centers and schools.
About the film:
Race to Nowhere is a close up investigation of the pressures American schoolchildren and their teachers face in our achievement-obsessed education system and culture.
Director Vicki Abeles takes viewers to schools across the country to feature the stories of students who have been pushed to the brink, educators who are burnt out and worried students aren't learning anything substantive, and college professors and business leaders, concerned the incoming young people lack the skills needed to succeed in the 21st century. The stories of several young people, parents and a teacher are intercut with scenes of family life and in-depth interviews with top experts in education, medicine, and psychology – providing a deep and varied context that underscores the enormity of a potentially looming crisis.
Today, competitive, self-assured, achievement-oriented, young people prepare relentlessly to enter a culture that demands nothing less than their personal best, all day, every day. From preschool through college, children are pressured, pushed, coached, sculpted, scheduled and reviewed, running a never-ending gauntlet towards adulthood.
What happens when personal best is not good enough? What happens when personal best changes into personal nightmare? The unintended consequences of an achievement-obsessed culture can be catastrophic for families and children alike. The mental health of young people may suffer, leading to depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, self-mutilation, and suicide – not to mention binge drinking, self-medication and drug abuse.
"If you care about the future of our country, you are going to want to see this provocative film." - Huffington Post
“[Race to Nowhere] should be required viewing for every parent, teacher and school policy maker.” – Marin Independent Journal
Sunday, April 11, 2010
4:00 PM
Admission: $12.00 general; $10.00 students through 12th grade
Location:
Movies on a Big Screen at The Guild
2828 35th St, Sacramento
Advance tickets can be purchased at http://www.rtnsacramento.eventbrite.com
Tickets will also be available at the door (cash only)
http://www.moviesonabigscreen.com

Education Notes Online: UFT Elections: The Anti-Randi Factor

Education Notes Online: UFT Elections: The Anti-Randi Factor

UFT Elections: The Anti-Randi Factor

I was at dinner recently. "I didn't vote for ICE," said one of my friends. "I voted for Mulgrew. They say he's a nice guy. He should get a chance. He's a teacher. At least he's not a lawyer," she said with a sneer - an indication that the move from Randi to Mulgrew may give Unity some breathing room. Coming from a rank and file teacher who does not often show much union consciousness, the hostility directed at our former leader is another iteration of how deep RandiWear runs in the UFT.

The anti-Randi comments emanating from throughout the union - the rank and file and internally - I truly have not heard one positive comment said about her from within and without Unity Caucus- are an indication of the total sense of defeat people in the schools feel. When you talk about UFT policy errors to union officials, you get "Randi's not here anymore." You hear things like "Mulgrew doesn't take things personally like Randi did." A good thing. Who needs the angst? Randi seemed to read everything that people on the blogs said. What a waste of time. Mulgrew doesn't seem to give much of a crap what is said. Another good thing.

From the perspective of someone who is not involved in the daily machinations of the UFT as many of us are, the logic of my friend is not off the chart because she views Mulgrew as an individual and is not aware of the Unity machine and how Mulgrew is a product of that machine - a machine that endorsed and promoted and defended every single policy

Butkovitz cites charter school profiteering | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/07/2010

Butkovitz cites charter school profiteering | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/07/2010

Butkovitz cites charter school profiteering

City Controller Alan Butkovitz's investigation of 13 Philadelphia charter schools found repeated examples of complex real estate arrangements in which charters leased or rented facilities from related non-profit organizations.
"The way the charter law is written and not enforced--there is a gigantic loophole through which people can profiteer," Butkovitz said. "This is not supposed to be a vehicle for maximizing profit for operators and related parties."
Butkovitz began his special fraud investigation of charters several months after The Inquirer reported allegations of financial mismanagement and conflicts of interest at Philadelphia Academy Charter School in April 2008.
His staff has been sharing information with the U.S. Attorney's Office, which is conducting a criminal investigation of at least nine area charter schools, according to sources with knowledge of the probe.
Butkovitz's complete report, which will include findings on the School District's oversight of 67 city charters and recommendations for tightening state law, is scheduled to be released Thursday afternoon.
The charters Butkovitz focused on include Harambee Institute of Science and Technology Charter School in West Philadelphia. Butkovitz released part of his report March 30 after 6ABC reported a nightclub operated inside Harambee on weekends.
"The fact there were significant issues at 13 out of 13 raises the likelihood you would see many o

This Week In Education Quote: What If Policy Is The Problem?

This Week In Education

Quote: What If Policy Is The Problem?

"I used to think that policy was the solution. Now I think that policy is the problem." - Richard Elmore in the Harvard Education Letter (discussed by Deborah Meier and The Line).

After schools are chosen, District discloses some Promise Academy details | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

After schools are chosen, District discloses some Promise Academy details | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

After schools are chosen, District discloses some Promise Academy details

It has taken a while, but finally, the School District has elaborated somewhat on what a Promise Academy will look like.
As schools were submitting applications last month indicating whether or not they wanted to be Promise Academies, there was little in writing about the model. When the District announced on March 30 which schools would be turned over to outside providers as Renaissance Schools and which were selected as Promise Academies, the draft press release said a fuller description of the Promise Academy would be attached, but it was not.
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Dropped out? No, pushed out

Like many 9th graders, Tiffany Burgos was excited when she entered Kensington High School for Business, Finance, and Entrepreneurship. She looked forward to her classes, relished the opportunity to study new subjects, and wanted to start the process of preparing for college.
read more