Wednesday, April 14, 2010

UC Berkeley acceptances from outside California hit record high Education - San Jose Mercury News

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UC Berkeley acceptances from outside California hit record high

UC Berkeley doubled the number of admission offers to out-of-state and international students '” while cutting spaces for California residents. That's because the campus didn't get enough state funds to support California students, while it makes a profit on outsiders.

Herhold: Teen's death-by-bullying warns us about our own children

UCSC to suspend community studies program

Fisher: Giving children a gift of the stars

Stanford stress ranked #1 by those who don't know

Seven South Bay and Peninsula school districts hold mail-only tax elections

Santa Clara County schools superintendent gets mixed marks

San Jose Great Bunny Rescue was a success

Protest over 'Mount Pleasant' book: Poizner declines to apologize

Fisher: Hip-hop stars find kids' letters persuasive

How do flowers know to bloom in spring? Now humans know, too

School officials investigate Beaverton teacher who urged people to crash the Tea Party | OregonLive.com

School officials investigate Beaverton teacher who urged people to crash the Tea Party

By Melissa Navas, The Oregonian

April 14, 2010, 5:55PM

BEAVERTON -- Beaverton School District officials are conducting an internal investigation to decide whether a Conestoga Middle School teacher, who encouraged people on the Internet to "infiltrate" the Tea Party, crossed the line by using school property or time to work on his Web site.

Jason Levin, a media lab technology teacher, has come under fire from Tea Party supporters and bloggers worldwide for creatingcrashtheteaparty.org, which said it was part of a national movement to "dismantle and demolish the Tea Party by any non-violent means necessary."

Tea Party crashers should use misspelled protest signs, make wild claims during interviews or other actions that would damage public opinion of the

News10.net | Sacramento, California | Education Home

Education News

CSU Stanislaus' Stockton campus feels empty

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Class cuts and declining student interest leave some classes with a single student.

CSU Stanislaus: Palin fee paid with no public money

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Officials at CSU Stanislaus are explaining how the university is paying for Sarah Palin to speak at a June event as well as how an addendum to Palin's contract reportedly ended up in a dumpster.

Ackerman creates new 'chief' position at $180,000 | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Ackerman creates new 'chief' position at $180,000

by Dale Mezzacappa on Apr 14 2010 Posted in Breaking news

Nunery will earn more than Mayor Nutter - a whopping $180,000 a year - as chief of institutional advancement and strategic partnerships. His catch-all job description involves fundraising, promoting outside partnerships, and revamping the Intermediate Unit (IU) to provide better and more organized technical assistance to both District-operated and charter schools.Superintendent Arlene Ackerman has created a new high-level post in her administration and hired Leroy Nunery, a former executive at Edison Schools and a finalist for Ackerman's position when she was hired nearly two years ago.

As a consultant last year, Nunery helped Ackerman develop the Renaissance Schools plan, which is engaged in the "turnaround" of low-performing schools primarily through bringing in outside managers and converting them to charters.

Nunery, who founded a consulting firm called Plus Ultre, also staffed theRenaissance Schools Advisory Board. In a report prepared for the District as part of that project, he was critical of how the diverse provider model was implemented in 2002, the first time outside managers were hired in Philadelphia to run schools. The managers agreed to work without autonomy over budgets and staff and there was little community buy-in. He worked for Edison Schools as its

D.C. Schools Insider - Rhee: 'Conspiracy theorists' have it wrong

Rhee: 'Conspiracy theorists' have it wrong

I spoke to Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee Tuesday afternoon, a few hours after she told the D.C. Council that a $34 million surplus in the DCPS budget would help pay for teacher salaries under the new proposed labor contract. Rhee said evidence of the extra money--which is expected to decrease the District's reliance on private funds--was discovered by a senior aide in late February, three months after she laid off 266 teachers. The layoffs were driven, she said, by budgetary forecasts supplied to her last summer by the office of D.C. Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) Natwar M. Gandhi.

Here are excerpts from the 30-minute conversation:

BT: When did you learn about the $34 million?
MR: Late February.
BT: Did you share this with anybody? At the bargaining table? The council?
MR: No.
BT: Do you think in retrospect it might have been better to share this?
MR: Why? What do you mean?

BT: There was so much anxiety about the private funding....
MR: Let me say this. I thought it was good news. The good news was that we were going to be able to allay the fears a lot of people had

Schools Matter: Turque Interviews Rhee: Listening a Liar Lie

Turque Interviews Rhee: Listening a Liar Lie

by Jim Horn

From Bill Turque at WaPo (with my comments interspersed):
I spoke to Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee Tuesday afternoon, a few hours after she told the D.C. Council that a $34 million surplus in the DCPS budget would help pay for teacher salaries under the new proposed labor contract. Rhee said evidence of the extra money--which is expected to decrease the District's reliance on private funds--was discovered by a senior aide in late February, three months after she laid off 266 teachers. The layoffs were driven, she said, by budgetary forecasts supplied to her last summer by the office of D.C. Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) Natwar M. Gandhi.

Here are excerpts from the 30-minute conversation:
BT: When did you learn about the $34 million?
MR: Late February.
BT: Did you share this with anybody? At the bargaining table? The council?
MR: No.
BT: Do you think in retrospect it might have been better to share this?
MR: Why? What do you mean?
BT: There was so much anxiety about the private funding....

GothamSchools - Breaking News and Analysis of the NYC Public Schools

Harlem Success Academies lottery low-key, but high-tech

by Maura Walz

Yesterday evening, in a tiny room on the second floor of a Harlem school building, staff of the Success Charter Network of charter schools admitted 1,100 students for next year — in just over an hour.
Charter school lotteries have a reputation for being emotional public spectacles. Last year, thousands of Harlem Success Academy hopefuls filled the Fort Washington Armory for what was part enrollment event and part political rally led by the network’s controversial director Eva Moskowitz.
But many charter school admissions decisions are actually computer-generated, made in private days or even weeks before names of admitted students are announced at public events in front of anxiety-ridden parents. And this year, Moskowitz’s network, which currently runs four schools and is set to open three more in Harlem and the Bronx this fall, has quietly scrapped its boisterous public event. Instead, parents will be notified of the lottery’s results by mail, online and through a phone hot-line next week.
Success Charter Network spokeswoman Jenny Sedlis said the public event was abandoned because the sheer

More schools to experiment with online work, schedule changes

by Anna Phillips

Chancellor Joel Klein is expanding a pilot program that takes the experiments city schools often conduct behind closed classroom doors and brings them to other schools.

Called Innovation Zone, or iZone, the program began this year in ten schools and will grow to include 81 schools next year. At its core is a heavy emphasis on expanding online learning, a major focus of Klein’s tenure at the Department of Education.

Of the iZone schools, more than half will adopt the “virtual school” model. This involves using online

Remainders: Duncan takes flak from senators on RttT scoring

by Maura Walz

UFT prez Michael Mulgrew challenged Albany to stave off budget cuts, not change seniority rules.
While Dan Weisberg from The New Teacher Project argued against firing young teachers first.
Kathleen Parker, who just won the Pulitzer for commentary, recalls her “light master” teacher.
A TV ad from pro-charter group Education Reform Now blames unions for N.Y.’s Race to the Top loss.
La. Senator Mary Landrieu gave Duncan an earful over what she thinks is flawed RttT scoring.
Education Sector has a break-down of teacher salaries, by credential, in Washington, D.C.
The odds of admission to a charter school declined from 36 percent in 2008 to 28 percent last year.
Rick Hess argues the failure of a WI voucher program just shows we haven’t created healthy markets.
UNICEF has opened tent schools for Haitian children left without a school after the quake.
LaGuardia HS students are abuzz with the rumor that Madonna’s daughter may join their ranks.
And can the TV show “Glee” save arts education? A HuffPo blogger says it’s a stealth advocate.

Conference Call on Race to the Top – ED.gov Blog

Conference Call on Race to the Top

Secretary Arne Duncan held a 30 minute conference call with education grantmakers on April 13 about the Race to the Top Fund. The Secretary made a brief introductory statement, and then answered questions from the grantmakers about the part philanthropy can play in supporting states as they prepare applications for Round 2 of the Race to the Top competition.
Listen to the call.
ED Staff

This entry was written by jreeves, posted on April 14, 2010 at 5:48 pm, filed under News, Race to the Top. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

Congresswoman Matsui Celebrates Grand Opening of Tahoe Park Community Garden at Local Slow Foods Festival | OBSNews: Breaking Business and Politics News

Congresswoman Matsui Celebrates Grand Opening of Tahoe Park Community Garden at Local Slow Foods Festival

Submitted by OBSNews.com on Wed, 04/14/2010 - 16:12

Politics

By Mara Lee

SACRAMENTO (OBSNews.com) - On Monday of this week, Congresswoman Doris O. Matsui (CA-05) joined Sacramento City Councilman Kevin McCarty, Deputy Secretary for the California Department of Food and Agriculture David Pegos, Sacramento City Unified School District Superintendent Jonathan Raymond, and members of the community for the grand opening of the Tahoe Park Community Garden and Slow Food Festival. Congresswoman Matsui is the original sponsor of legislation in the House of Representatives (House Resolution 649), which would designate each August as Community Gardening Awareness Month. The event offered Sacramento families the opportunity to learn about community gardening, eating healthy, and the wealth of local produce available. Congresswoman Matsui’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below:

“Thanks to the efforts of Councilman McCarty and many others here, the neighborhood of Tahoe Park can finally say that they have a Community Garden! And

New info on schools sought by providers | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

New info on schools sought by providers

by Paul Socolar on Apr 14 2010 Posted in Breaking news

Six providers were named by the District yesterday to take on the role of turnaround manager for schools starting next fall. School Advisory Councils at the nine schools have until April 30 to recommend a preferred provider, with the final decision to be voted on by the School Reform Commission in May.It appears that not all of the nine planned Renaissance Schools will have more than one provider from which to choose a turnaround manager, based on new information from the provider proposals about their plans to be suitors for Renaissance School,

ASPIRA and Congreso de Latinos Unidos both expressed interest in managing the same two schools: Potter-Thomas and Stetson.

Johns Hopkins/Diplomas Now is interested in managing middle and high

Raley’s Tops List of Local Corporate Givers — The Rancho Cordova Post

Raley’s Tops List of Local Corporate Givers

by AMY DAVIS on APRIL 14, 2010 · 0 COMMENTS

in BUSINESS, VIEWPOINTS

Post image for Raley’s Tops List of Local Corporate Givers

Raley’s ranked number one for the second consecutive year among greater-Sacramento area businesses for corporate giving, with donation levels ranking the highest of companies based in the four county region in the April 9 issue of the Sacramento Business Journal.

The Journal took into account major, Sacramento-based 2009 donations, with Raley’s local cash contributions totaling to $1.9 million and local in-kind contributions reaching $3.5 million. “As a family-owned business, giving back to our communities has always been an integral part of who we are as a Company,” said Raley’s Communitarian, Jennifer Teel-Wolter.” And in tough economic times like these, it’s even more important to come together with our customers to make a difference and find new ways to meet the growing need. That’s why we’re excited about our new Raley’s Reach program,

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