Education | Chief Sealth to be Seattle's 1st international high school | Seattle Times Newspaper

Education | Chief Sealth to be Seattle's 1st international high school | Seattle Times Newspaper

Chief Sealth to be Seattle's 1st international high school

Chief Sealth High in West Seattle will become Seattle's sixth international school, and its first international high school, the school district announced Thursday.

By Seattle Times staff

Chief Sealth High in West Seattle will become Seattle's sixth international school, and its first international high school, the school district announced Thursday.

Sealth Principal John Boyd said the program was a natural fit for his school because it already offers courses in three languages, and has the International Baccalaureate program, a rigorous, two-year program of international education courses and exams for juniors and seniors.

Boyd said the school will work to make sure that students in language-immersion programs at nearby Concord Elementary and Denny Middle (which will share a campus with Sealth starting next fall) can continue

Seattle Schools invites input on 2010-2011 budget

Parents and other community members will have two opportunities to comment on how Seattle Public Schools should cut its budget for the 2010-11 school year.

By Seattle Times staff

Parents and other community members will have two opportunities to comment on how Seattle Public Schools should cut its budget for the 2010-2011 school year.

The school district has scheduled two meetings where staff will explain how schools are funded, and what the district is thinking about doing to fill an expected shortfall.

Portland State University professor wins Fulbright Scholar grant | OregonLive.com

Portland State University professor wins Fulbright Scholar grant | OregonLive.com

Portland State University professor wins Fulbright Scholar grant

By Bill Graves, The Oregonian

April 08, 2010, 6:06PM

Fulbright U.S. Scholar ProgramPortland State University Professor Andrew Giarelli has won his second Fulbright Scholar grant.
Andrew Giarelli, professor of university studies at Portland State University, has won a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture in the Slovak Republic next year, the U.S. State Department announced this week.

Giarelli, who also won a Fulbright senior lecturing award in 1993 to teach in Malta, will teach American literature and American studies at Comenius University, the Slovak Republic's largest and oldest university in its capital, Bratislava. He will be among 1,100 U.S. faculty and professionals working abroad next year under the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program.

Giarelli taught English at Portland State from 1996 to 2006, founded its

Elk Grove Citizen : County executive warns EGUSD of road ahead

Elk Grove Citizen : News

County executive warns EGUSD of road ahead

Photos by Cameron Macdonald - Local members of the California School Employees Association protest proposed layoffs of fellow union members before an April 6 school board meeting.

School district faces $20 million shortfall in 2011-12; parents, educators protest pink slips

By Cameron Macdonald - Citizen News Editor

Published: Thursday, April 8, 2010 5:27 PM PDT

The Elk Grove Unified School District (EGUSD) could face a dire financial future where it will not meet its financial obligations within the next three years, a Sacramento County education executive told the district’s school board on April 6.

She noted that the district’s budget reserves are down to $3 million, a very low amount for uncertain economic times.

“You are not prepared for the unexpected right now,” said Tammy Sanchez, the assistant superintendent of the Sacramento Office of Education, during a presentation.

She delivered a county perspective on the district’s financial situation during a tense meeting where several parents and educators protested proposed layoffs of teachers.

Several members of the California School Employees Association, which represents district

Remainders: State budget deal could be weeks away | GothamSchools

Remainders: State budget deal could be weeks away | GothamSchools

Remainders: State budget deal could be weeks away

by Maura Walz

• A state budget deal could be a “few weeks away,” Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said today.
• Joanne Jacobs looks at why school districts have trouble tracking their spending.
• A survey of 453 school district leaders finds bigger class sizes and less money for electives and books.
• GOOD’s blog makes a case for why healthy school lunches matter even to people who don’t have kids.
• Ms. Mimi tallies all everything from her classroom that she drags along on her vacation.
• Bloomberg is mailing cards to top political donors asking them to support his education reforms.
• One teacher challenges a re-elected Mulgrew to be more responsive to the union’s member.
• How should we define “a quality charter law”? NYCSA’s Peter Murphy takes on the union definition.
• More advice for New York State on how to win Race to the Top, this time from the city’s charter center.
• Do you teach special lessons for Earth Day? (Or maybe for Facial Protection Month?) Here are some tips.

The California Majority Report // GIVE US A BREAK, GOVERNOR – THE FACTS DON’T LIE! OUR STUDENTS ARE PAYING THE PRICE IN OVERCROWDED CLASSROOMS WHILE YOU CONTINUE TO DENY FUNDING TO OUR SCHOOLS

The California Majority Report // GIVE US A BREAK, GOVERNOR – THE FACTS DON’T LIE! OUR STUDENTS ARE PAYING THE PRICE IN OVERCROWDED CLASSROOMS WHILE YOU CONTINUE TO DENY FUNDING TO OUR SCHOOLS

GIVE US A BREAK, GOVERNOR – THE FACTS DON’T LIE! OUR STUDENTS ARE PAYING THE PRICE IN OVERCROWDED CLASSROOMS WHILE YOU CONTINUE TO DENY FUNDING TO OUR SCHOOLS

April 08, 2010 @ 5:25 PM

Today, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s spokesperson continued to make claims that have no basis in fact, denying that California’s schools are being subjected to billions in cuts. He made these claims in response to a popular viral video featuring actress Megan Fox in an over-crowded classroom suffering from the state’s devastating education budget cuts. The video is part of a campaign by the Wonderland Avenue Elementary School PTA in Los Angeles to oppose the statewide budget cuts to schools.
When asked about the Wonderland PTA’s video, Schwarzenegger spokesperson Aaron McLear belittled the messengers, claiming: "David Silver’s numbers are wrong," referring to the character played on TV by one of the spokespeople in the video.
McLear made similar claims when Education Coalition advocates delivered a pink slip to the Governor’s office on March 15, the same day that 25,000 California teachers received pink slips. On that day, McLear claimed that California’s schools were not being subjected to anycuts, and accused education experts of “fuzzy math.”

The Governor’s claims are so out of sync with the reality facing California’s schools, that no parent with a child in public school, no teacher in our classrooms (or the 25,000 that have been pink-slipped), no administrator, custodian, food service worker, school bus driver, or school board member, or any California resident who has watched or read the local news in the past year, could possibly believe him.

Sadly, in addition to the $17 billion in cuts already made to California’s schools over the past two years, and the $2.5 billion in additional cuts proposed this year, the Governor wants to renege on the July budget agreement he signed into law and its commitment to restore more than $11.2 billion to our students and schools, as required by the voter-approved minimum school funding guarantee, Proposition 98.

California’s schools are already at the very bottom of all 50 states in staff-to-student ratios, and nearly last in the nation in per-pupil spending. School libraries have been virtually wiped out, while arts, music, sports, advanced placement and other essential programs have been eliminated from the curriculum. In addition, more than 25,000 teachers have received pink slips, along with nearly 10,000 school employees and 1,000 administrators.

California’s public schools have been subjected to 60 percent of the cuts, even though education funding only makes up 40 percent of the state budget.

In case the Governor needs a refresher course on how much he has cut education, below please find a detailed chart of the $17 billion in cuts to our students:

Proposed budget would slash funds to SUNY charter authorizer | GothamSchools

Proposed budget would slash funds to SUNY charter authorizer | GothamSchools

Proposed budget would slash funds to SUNY charter authorizer

by Maura Walz

The state organization commonly cited as a national model for approving and overseeing charter schools is facing quietly proposed cuts that would slash its budget by nearly 70 percent.
The State University of New York’s Charter School Institute (CSI), which oversees charter schools from the union-run UFT School to the popular KIPP schools, is slated to lose $1.7 million of its $2.4 million budget under budgets proposed by both the Assembly and the Senate.
CSI is one of the groups that are the prime oversight bodies for the state’s charter schools. Known as “authorizers,” the groups are responsible for reviewing proposals for new charter schools, monitoring the schools they approve, and closing charters they deem under-performing. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has praised CSI for its rigor and willingness to shutter schools that don’t live up to high expectations.
“All of that takes real human resources,” said Jonas Chartock, the agency’s executive director.
The cuts are a serious threat but far from a done deal. The institute has historically been a target of politicalefforts, often supported by the teachers union, to weaken its authority to open charter schools. But the union is not supporting these cuts. Rather, the proposals appear to be more prompted by the state’s financial duress.
The legislature frequently proposes drastic cuts to agencies in initial budget proposals that are later reduced a

City schools official arrested for not paying taxes

by Anna Phillips

A city schools employee who worked in human resources was arrested today for failing to pay his state income taxes, according to the city’s Department of Investigation.
Richard Brescia, 54, the Department of Education’s Director of Performance Management and Talent Development, has been suspended without pay pending the investigation’s outcome, said DOE spokesman David Cantor.
“Stunningly, this schools official ignored his basic civic duty to file tax returns and compounded that crime by concealing it in City disclosure filings, according to the charges,” said DOI Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn in a statement.
“If true, the allegations constitute a breach of public trust that would be especially troubling given the Department of Education’s commitment to children,” Cantor said.

DOI STATEMENT ON ARREST OF DOE OFFICIAL ON TAX FRAUD AND FALSE FILING CHARGES
ROSE GILL HEARN, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation (”DOI”),

Schools Matter: RttT Trough Feeders

Schools Matter: RttT Trough Feeders

RttT Trough Feeders

by Kenneth Libby

From Rachel Monahan at the NY Daily Post:

Race to the Top funds would have meant 50G for one lucky education adviser

One high-priced consultant would have cashed in big-time if New York had succeeded in its doomed bid for millions in federal education funding.

As part of the state's Race to the Top applications, officials proposed paying an unidentified consultant $50,000 for just 10 days of work on developing "world-class prekindergarten standards."

[Continued]

Meier, Mullen, and Markets

by Kenneth Libby

From Deb Meier:

Free Market Schooling

"This is a perilous moment. The individualist, greed-driven free-market ideology that both our major parties have pursued is at odds with what most Americans really care about....Working families and poor communities need and deserve help because the free market has failed to generate shared prosperity — its famous unseen hand has become a closed fist." Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, and I, agree. But the public seems just as suspicious—if not more so—about public institutions as the private ones. Thus the relative

A new union of teachers forms over happy hours and Facebook | GothamSchools

A new union of teachers forms over happy hours and Facebook | GothamSchools

A new union of teachers forms over happy hours and Facebook

by Anna Phillips

Sydney Morris (left) and Evan Stone (right), two teachers in the Bronx, founded Educators 4 Excellence to give teachers frustrated with how they're evaluated a voice in policy debates.

New York City’s teachers union likes to say that it speaks for all teachers. But two young teachers at a Bronx elementary school are starting an organization with a distinctly different point of view.
Both in their third year of teaching at P.S. 86 in the Bronx, Evan Stone and Sydney Morris started “Educators 4 Excellence” last month out of frustration with how their work is supported and evaluated.
One of their first battles will be against the state’s “last-in, first-out” law, which forces the city to lay off newer teachers in advance of their more experienced colleagues.
“We want it to be the ostensible solution to a lot of screaming on both sides,” said Stone, 25.
Only a few weeks old, the organization mainly exists though its website, which asks teachers to sign a petition in favor of repealing the last-in, first-out law. So far, the group has 520 fans on Facebook. The organization is

Napa Valley Language Academy Honored - Year 2010 (CA Dept of Education)

Napa Valley Language Academy Honored - Year 2010 (CA Dept of Education)

State Schools Chief Jack O'Connell
Congratulates Napa School for International Honor

SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today announced that Napa Valley Language Academy was selected by the Ministry of Education of Spain as an International Spanish Academy. This is the second time a California school has received this distinction since 2005.

"I am proud that the Spanish Ministry of Education has selected Napa Valley Language Academy for this high honor," said O'Connell. "The Academy has a wonderful program that immerses students in a foreign language and cultural activities. The Academy helps students learn to embrace our state's diversity and prepares them for our hypercompetitive global economy."

Napa Valley Language Academy, in the Napa Valley Unified School District, has offered a Spanish/English dual language immersion program for 14 years. The Academy enrolls a balanced number of native English and native Spanish speakers, creating a much sought-after, vibrant, and fully integrated school community in the city of Napa. In addition to students acquiring bilingual competency, they are also given the opportunity to explore their talents in visual and performing arts through such enrichment classes as world music, ballet folklorico, hip hop, classical ballet, science, garden explorations, and multicultural art classes. A school-wide instrumental music program works in partnership with the Napa Valley Symphony called "Heart Strings" that provides weekly violin and band classes for all 700 students.

The Academy was recently invited to become a member of the prestigious International Spanish Academies that is a consortium of Spanish immersion schools in the United States and Canada sponsored by the Ministry of Education of Spain. There are 68 throughout the United States and 17 in Canada. Academy students will receive an additional certificate upon completing the sixth grade acknowledging their literacy skills in two languages.

The International Spanish Academies program is part of the California Department of Education's Memorandum of Understand with the Ministry of Education of Spain.

The Spanish Ministry offers their International Spanish Academies many benefits. These include a full-time language assistant fully paid by the Ministry, access to the double academic certification, specific teacher training activities in the United States, sister schools in Spain, participation in the International Foundation of Sister Schools sponsored by the Ministry, pedagogical guidance, development of educational projects with Spanish schools using Internet support, and, when available, classroom and curricular materials and resources. With the double academic certification, a graduating high school student may enter a university in Spain or in a European Union country.

The goals of the International Spanish Academies are to:

• Educate students in the values of multicultural education that make possible international communication and respect among cultures;
• Train students to express themselves and effectively use English and Spanish in their personal relationships as well as in the learning process;
• Facilitate and promote student access to centers of higher education of recognized academic excellence in the United States as well as in Spain, Europe, and Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas;
• Prepare students for their professional development in an international context; and
• Foster participation of different groups and segments of society in an integrated educational project.

For more information on the International Spanish Academies, please visit Estados Unidos (Outside Source).

Editor's note: The contact at the Napa Valley Language Academy is Principal Deb Wallace, at 707-253-3678 ordwallace@nvusd.k12.ca.us.

Related Content

• International - Provides information on an Exchange Visitor Program for Teachers, the Binational Migrant Education Program, and Escribo en Espanol, a literary contest for students.

Education | States push to pay teachers based on performance | Seattle Times Newspaper

Education | States push to pay teachers based on performance| Seattle Times Newspaper

States push to pay teachers based on performance

For parents and politicians hungry for better schools, the idea of paying teachers more if their students perform better can seem as basic as adding two and two or spelling "cat."

By DORIE TURNER

Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA —

For parents and politicians hungry for better schools, the idea of paying teachers more if their students perform better can seem as basic as adding two and two or spelling "cat."

Yet just a handful of schools and districts around the country use such strategies. In some states, the idea is effectively illegal.

That could all be changing as the federal government wields billions of dollars in grants to lure states and school districts to try the idea. The money is persuading lawmakers around the country, while highlighting the complex problems surrounding pay-for-performance systems.

Some teachers, like Trenise Duvernay, who teaches math at Alice M. Harte Charter School in New Orleans, want to be rewarded for helping students succeed. Duvernay is eligible for $2,000 a year or more in merit bonuses based on how well her students perform in classroom observations and on achievement tests.

"It's a reward for doing what we all have a passion to do anyway - making sure our kids master the skills they need in order to be successful," Duvernay said.

Other teachers, like Debra Gunter, a middle school math teacher in Cobb County, Ga., say teachers can't

QUICK Hits � The Quick and the Ed

QUICK Hits � The Quick and the Ed

QUICK Hits

by Forrest Hinton

Peterson vs. Ravitch: Does K-12 education need more innovation, choice, and customization or more democratic governance and a broader curriculum?(Eduwonk)
Taking out hefty loans… for public elementary and secondary education? (The Sacramento Bee)
Is a newly proposed merit pay system for DC teachers sustainable without the support of private foundations?(The Wall Street Journal)
Are you an incrementalist or fundamentalist? (Larry Cuban)
Educator Effectiveness Bill: Coming Soon to a Legislature Near You? (INDenver Times)

Race to the Top Round II: Washington's in, gov says | OregonLive.com

Race to the Top Round II: Washington's in, gov says | OregonLive.com

Race to the Top Round II: Washington's in, gov says

By Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian

April 08, 2010, 1:17PM

Ted Warren/The Associated PressWashington Gov. Chris Gregoire interacts with students at Foster High in Tukwila on Wednesday as part of an event to promote Washington's bid for federal "Race to the Top" innovation money.
Washington was one of 10 states that sat out the first round of competition for $4 billion of federal "Race to the Top" education innovation funds.

But Gov. Chris Gregoire is making it clear she wants the state to go all in during round two. She called on all 295 of her state's school districts to sign on -- something that Tennessee and Delaware both managed to pull off in round one.

Those two states won round one -- the only winners among 40 states that applied. Oregon came in seventh-last.

Just because a governor asks, however, doesn't mean school board or local teachers unions will come on board. Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski found that when he tried to get all of them on board for round one. Only 112 of

U.S. Department of Education will highlight Forest Grove High School in video

By Wendy Owen, The Oregonian

April 08, 2010, 1:17PM

The U.S. Department of Education plans to highlight Forest Grove High School in a video showcasing the school's academic achievement, especially for minorities and low-income students.

U.S. Department of Education Deputy Director John White will hold a press conference at the high school on April 15 to talk about the keys to the school's success.

Forest Grove High School is known in Oregon for its work and has been recognized at the state level four years in a row for its vast improvements in state assessment test scores for students who struggle with English and those from low income families.

The U.S. Department of Education video will include interviews with students, staff and parents, said Connie Potter, Forest Grove School District spokeswoman.

In 2002, Forest Grove High School ranked among the bottom of high schools in Washington County on state achievement tests.

About 42 percent of its students were considered low income and 14 percent were not native English speakers.

Less than half of the school's, then, 1,600 students met or exceeded benchmarks in reading and less than one-third met or exceeded

Teaching About the Web Includes Troublesome Parts - NYTimes.com

Teaching About the Web Includes Troublesome Parts - NYTimes.com

Teaching About the Web Includes Troublesome Parts

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

Published: April 8, 2010

Enlarge This Image

Heidi Schumann for The New York Times

Sixth-grade students, from left, Aren Santos, Vicky Huynh and Carlos Duran participating in an activity on digital citizenship at Anthony Spangler Elementary in Milpitas, Calif.

And they did. But to his dismay, some of his students posted surveys like “Who’s the most popular classmate?” and “Who’s the best-liked?”

Mr. Jenkins’s students “liked being able to express themselves in a place where they’re basically by themselves at a computer,” he said. “They’re not thinking that everyone’s going to see it.”

The first wave of parental anxiety about the Internet focused on security and adult predators. But that has since given way to concerns about how their children are acting online toward their friends and rivals, and what impression their online profiles might create in the minds of college admissions officers or future employers.

Incidents like the recent suicide of a freshman girl at South Hadley High School in Massachusetts after she was bullied online and at school have reinforced the notion that

Free Market Schooling Deborah Meier Homepage

Deborah Meier Homepage

Deborah Meier
Educational Reformer, Writer and Activist

Free Market Schooling

April 2010

[to comment on this column click here to go to the blog site]

Dear friends,

"This is a perilous moment. The individualist, greed-driven free-market ideology that both our major parties have pursued is at odds with what most Americans really care about....Working families and poor communities need and deserve help because the free market has failed to generate shared prosperity — its famous unseen hand has become a closed fist." Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, and I, agree. But the public seems just as suspicious—if not more so—about public institutions as the private ones. Thus the relative lack of alarm over the extraordinary shift in "ownership" of our public schools. We are witnessing more federal intervention at virtually all levels of schooling, more power in the hands of private wealth, and more "market-driven" decisions — at the same time! And there is almost no well-funded opposition, except for teacher unions who are then villainized as being anti-reform, self-interested, too protective of their bad apples.

What epitomizes the latest "true reform" is that it cuts off both teacher professional and parent/family judgment about what goes on in publicly-financed schools. Above all in urban areas, but overtime perhaps to rural and suburban communities too.


Even vouchers are creeping back; but there is no need for vouchers if the same interests and ideology can be served without any clear legislative decision to abandon "schooling as we know it." It has been slipped in—first as an experiment to shake off old habits. A charter here and there with a new idea that could appeal across geographic

The People Aren’t Stupid � The Quick and the Ed

The People Aren’t Stupid � The Quick and the Ed

The People Aren’t Stupid

by Kevin Carey

Kevin Drum cites an Economist poll finding that while the public prefers spending cuts over tax increases by a 62% to 5% margin as a means of cutting the deficit, the public also doesn’t want to cut spending in any specific area, except for foreign aid, which makes up less than 1% of spending. “Ah, the American public. God love ‘em.” says Drum. Jacob Weisberg used similar data a couple of months ago to level a broader indictment against “the childishness, ignorance and growing incoherence of the public at large.”
I think these polls actually reveal very little useful information. Everyone pays taxes and the large majority of people pay federal taxes. The benefits of most federal programs, by contrast, are either hard to quantify and personalize (national defense) or vary substantially among different groups (Social Security, Medicare). Thus, the general tax increase vs. spending cut question boils down to choosing between a certain loss (higher taxes) and an uncertain loss (some unidentified program from which I may or may not benefit). Naturally, people prefer the latter.
Nor is it surprising that the poll respondents don’t want to cut spending on specific programs. Unlike actual

Schools Matter: Dolores Umbridge gets tough on English Learners

Schools Matter: Dolores Umbridge gets tough on English Learners

Dolores Umbridge gets tough on English Learners

by skrashen

In reaction to current reports that English Learners do not score as well on tests of English as do fluent English speakers, US Department of Education Testing Czar Dolores Umbridge proclaimed that by 2014 "the gap must be closed." Umbridge proclaimed that all English Learners must score at the "proficient" level in English reading on the new Western Achievement Student Test of English (WASTE), which will be given twice a month to all students in the country. The test was designed by the Western Achievement Corporation, The former CEO of Western Achievement, Thomas Riddle, now serves as a special adviser to Ms. Umbridge.
.
At a recent press conference, H. Potter, junior scholar at the prestigious Dumbledore Institute, asked Ms.

Women's Conference Rethinking the Evolved Man

Rethinking the Evolved Man

RETHINKINGThe Evolved Man

Family + Friends

Matthew DiGirolamo, Director of Marketing and Partnerships, The Women's Conference

Post to Facebook

By Matthew DiGirolamo

When some of my female friends talk about the men they admire or find remarkable, they sometimes refer to them as “evolved.”

The logic that runs through this statement is that there is a standard-issue primitive male and then there is this whole other ideal specimen worthy of respect: The Evolved Man.

As I've heard him described, The Evolved Man is strong and sensitive, tough and compassionate.

He is a man who is comfortable with his feelings and knows how to express a full range of emotions. He listens when others talk.

In addition to sports and beer, The Evolved Man is cultured – appreciates music, art and literature – and stylish (but not too much).

He is self-aware and ambitious, but he is also passionate about a cause and acts in the service of others.

The Evolved Man respects and relates to women – and takes care of his responsibilities.

These qualities are supposed to make a man so extraordinary that a new category is