The Education Report In the midst of a local contract dispute, some Oakland teachers, students turn to Sacramento

The Education Report

In the midst of a local contract dispute, some Oakland teachers, students turn to Sacramento

By Katy Murphy
Thursday, May 6th, 2010 at 3:25 pm in budget, high schools, state news, students
1 Comment

About 40 Oakland parents, teachers and staff will ride their bikes to the state capitol on Saturday – in part, to call attention to the declining support for public education in California. Michael Barglow’s history class at Skyline also headed to Sacramento this week. His brother, Raymond Barglow, tells us how it went. -Katy

It’s one thing for California high school students to read or hear a lecture about how government works. It is quite another for them to experience this in person.

Shortly after 8 a.m. on May 4, a group of 45 students in Michael Barglow’s history class at Skyline High School boarded a charter bus headed for the state capitol.

Michael’s students had been preparing during the past week to meet with East Bay

GothamSchools - Hidden in the ATR pool, teachers trained for disappearing jobs

GothamSchools - Breaking News and Analysis of the NYC Public Schools

Hidden in the ATR pool, teachers trained for disappearing jobs

by Philissa Cramer

Chancellor Joel Klein likes to say that many of the teachers who’ve lost their jobs and remain on the city’s payroll aren’t trying to find new work. But a back-of-the-envelope analysis of teachers in the reserve pool shows that even if all of them doggedly pursued open positions, nearly a quarter are trained for jobs that are disappearing.
Most teachers in the absent teacher reserve — a pool of people cut from schools when they were closed or enrollment dwindled — are certified to teach core subjects that every school offers. But the most recent datashows that almost a quarter of teachers in the pool are only licensed to teach classes like swimming, jewelry-making, and accounting, among other subjects that are nearly extinct in the public schools.
The pool also includes music, dance, and art teachers for whom getting a new position will be difficult in a year when schools will have to lay off thousands of teachers.
As of November, there were 1,247 teachers in the pool, working as substitutes and collecting salaries that totaled $134 million. After announcing a deal to close the notorious rubber rooms for teachers accused of misconduct or incompetence, Chancellor Klein said last month he would turn his attentions to the ATR pool.
But the composition of the pool raises questions about Klein’s claim that its members ought to be fired because

Remainders: A student-run bank branch opens in Harlem school

by Maura Walz

• A debate is shaping up over whether Congress authorized Race to the Top. Politics K-12 weighs in.
• Capital One bank is opening a student-run branch inside Harlem’s Thurgood Marshall Academy.
• A “neighborhood schools sellout” explains her difficult decision to send her kid to a magnet program.
• It will take $4 billion a year to get nutritious school meals to America’s hungry schoolchildren.
• Britain’s Conservative Party is taking some inspiration from the KIPP charter school chain.
• Colorado’s two teachers unions disagree over whether to support that state’s new tenure bill.
• A parent tries to shield her seventh-grader against the trauma of HS admissions but it may be too late.
• Mrs. Mimi plans to blog about the “Top 100 Children’s Novels of ALL TIME.” First up: The Egypt Game.

San Diego State University Receives $1.5 Million Department of Education Grant - MarketWatch

San Diego State University Receives $1.5 Million Department of Education Grant - MarketWatch

San Diego State University Receives $1.5 Million Department of Education Grant

SAN DIEGO, May 06, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The College of Business Administration at San Diego State University (SDSU) announced today that the university's Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) received a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. This grant will be disbursed starting this fall through 2014.

The overall mission of the national CIBER program is to ensure the United States' long-term international competitiveness. The CIBER program serves to promote the nation's capacity for international understanding and economic enterprise by linking the manpower and information needs of U.S. business with the education, foreign language training, and research strengths of universities.

"SDSU CIBER has made great contributions in all areas of international business research and teaching," said U.S. Congresswoman Susan A. Davis (D- San Diego). "This new grant includes many innovative educational initiatives and displays an impressive commitment to quality, accountability and transparency."

"In the past two decades, SDSU CIBER has become a true and effective catalyst for exposing students, faculty, and business executives to international business," said Mark Ballam, SDSU CIBER managing director. "This new grant will allow us to not only continue with programs that have proven successful, but also establish new avenues of global outreach, research and education."

SDSU CIBER is one of 33 centers located at select business schools throughout the U.S. and one of the original six to be chartered in 1989.

Do you have a college degree, but no job? | OregonLive.com

Do you have a college degree, but no job? | OregonLive.com

Do you have a college degree, but no job?

By Bill Graves, The Oregonian

May 06, 2010, 5:20PM

If you earned a college degree a year ago or longer, The Oregonian is interested in talking to you about your success in finding work.

The Oregon Class of 2009 in particular graduated in the depths of the worst recession since the Great Depression in a state with one of the nation's highest unemployment rates. I would like to talk to students from this class about their experiences trying to find work in such a grim economy.

I hope to write a newspaper story about how recent college graduates have fared over the past year in the workplace as a new class prepares to join them. If you are interested in sharing your story, please complete the form below. Your contact information will be kept confidential, and I won't publish anything without contacting you first.

-- Bill Graves

Job-seeking college graduates

The Oregonian's Bill Graves is writing a story about how recent college graduates have fared over the past year in the workplace. If you are willing to share your story, complete this form.

How to Volunteer to Help with Oil Spill Response � Tangerine, Florida

How to Volunteer to Help with Oil Spill Response � Tangerine, Florida

How to Volunteer to Help with Oil Spill Response

Right now BP’s offshore drilling program is not something many of us want to support. It was with some trepidation I called the BP Volunteer Center for information. It’s a busy place, taking 60 calls a minute from all over the world.
If you’d like to volunteer to assist with the response efforts, please contact BP’s community information line at(866) 448-5816. Volunteers will not be exposed to any oil but will do beach pre-cleaning, administrative tasks, and assist with record-keeping.
The call center is needs to know your name, your location, your phone number and e-mail address. All

How to Make a Hair Boom

Materials needed

1. Pantyhose
2. Scissors
3. Hair
4. Face mask
5. Goggles
6. Gloves
7. Sawhorses
8. 2″ by 12″ board
9. Length of 4″ diameter PVC pipe
10. Duct tape

Tangerine Florida

Schools Matter: The Top Ten of the Bottom Paying College Degrees

Schools Matter: The Top Ten of the Bottom Paying College Degrees

The Top Ten of the Bottom Paying College Degrees

by Jim Horn

Yep, that's right--elementary school teachers, the ones that absorb the most abuse of the Wall Street ed reformers, they're #1. Let's make them earn that $33,000 a year. From Payscale.com:

Drama	$35,600	$56,600
Fine Arts	$35,800	$56,300
Hospitality and Tourism	$37,000	$54,300
Education	$36,200	$54,100
Horticulture	$37,200	$53,400
Spanish	$35,600	$52,600
Music	$34,000	$52,000

In nail-biter elections, one school parcel tax passes while another fails - San Jose Mercury News

In nail-biter elections, one school parcel tax passes while another fails - San Jose Mercury News

In nail-biter elections, one school parcel tax passes while another fails

By Sharon Noguchi

snoguchi@mercurynews.com

Posted: 05/06/2010 04:15:51 PM PDT

Updated: 05/06/2010 04:15:54 PM PDT

In two nail-biting elections, one Santa Cruz Mountains school district narrowly passed its parcel tax, while a neighboring district lost its bid by just over 1 percent, according to official final results.

The Lakeside Joint School District's Measure C won 517 yes votes, or 67.23 percent of the 769 votes cast.

The Loma Prieta Joint Union School District's Measure G got 1,008 yes votes, or 65.45 percent of the 1,540 votes cast. Both measures needed two-thirds approval to pass.

Both districts were seeking to boost local revenues to backfill against state cuts. The districts, which include large, sparsely populated areas covering both Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties, conducted their elections by mail.

Lakeside has fewer than 100 students, while Loma Prieta has about 400.

Both Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties posted official final results Thursday. On Wednesday, the Santa Cruz County voter registrar had encountered a software glitch that delayed the counting of provisional ballots, County Clerk Gail Pellerin said, but that was resolved the next day.

Lakeside Superintendent Bob Chrisman, who spent two anxious days waiting for returns on the district's $311-per-

Empowering the Women of Senegal

Empowering the Women of Senegal

EMPOWERING THE WOMEN OF SENEGALTo Take a Stand

Architects of Change

Katherine Schwarzenegger & Molly Melching

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By Katherine Schwarzenegger

What does your mom mean to you -- or what does it mean to be a mom? Tell us & you could win 2 free tickets to The Women's Conference Night at The Village and a copy of the book Mom: A Celebration of Motherhood from StoryCorps.

The Women’s Conference celebrates Mother’s Day with a series of blog posts that touch on the joys and challenges of raising children and being a mother.

Next Stop: Senegal

Senegal is an amazing country. One minute you feel like you’re on a beautiful beach in the south of France, and the next minute you’re in a rural slum, jam-packed with people selling handmade goods in order to survive. It was in Senegal that I first met a passionate and fascinating woman whose extraordinary work has empowered so many women to take a stand to change their lives.

Molly Melching moved to Senegal in 1974 and created Tostan, an NGO (non-governmental organization) to empower the people in Senegal who don’t have access to proper education. Tostan specifically addresses issues such as child welfare, hygiene, environment, and human rights.

Sitting together at a beautiful restaurant on the beach, Ms. Melching began to tell me about her campaign against Female Genital Cutting (FGC), which is most common in areas of Africa and Asia. FGC is a traditional or religious procedure in which the female genitals are partially or completely removed partially. It’s done with the consent of an adult, usually a parent. FGC is performed for a variety of reasons: to prohibit women from experiencing pleasure during sexual intercourse or to ensure that they remain virgins until they are married. Their husbands can choose to have part of the

Schools Matter: Vouchers Dead in Illinois: Cry Me a River

Schools Matter: Vouchers Dead in Illinois: Cry Me a River

Vouchers Dead in Illinois: Cry Me a River

by Jim Horn

Corporate ed reformers got a major smackdown yesterday as a school voucher bomb fizzled in the Illinois House. What the sponsors call "choice" focused on offering parents who send their children to crumbling public schools was a hugely discounted voucher worth a measly $3,700. From the Chicago Tribune:

. . . . Joyce could muster only 48 of the 60 votes needed to pass a bill that would have allowed students to get vouchers worth about $3,700 to switch to private or parochial schools beginning in fall 2011.

. . . .
Fighting back tears during the lengthy debate, Rep. Suzanne Bassi, R-Palatine, called on fellow lawmakers to "search your souls" to support the measure because "we have failed these kids in the inner-city schools."
"I'm pleading with you," said Rep. Ken Dunkin, D-Chicago, who represents an area with four public

Guessing at size of state cuts, city plans for drastic layoffs | GothamSchools

Guessing at size of state cuts, city plans for drastic layoffs | GothamSchools

Guessing at size of state cuts, city plans for drastic layoffs

by Maura Walz

Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed cutting 6,400 city teaching jobs today — but he said without action from Albany, the exact number of layoffs is still anybody’s guess.
The mayor’s annual budget proposal would leave 2,000 teaching jobs unfilled and lay off another 4,400 teachers. And Chancellor Joel Klein urged principals to begin preparing for massive reductions that could cause classes to grow by nearly 20 percent.
But Bloomberg and Klein emphasized that all of the numbers could change depending on what happens in Albany, where legislators are now a month overdue in setting a budget for the state.
The city based its budget proposal on the governor’s proposed state budget, which cuts nearly $500 million from school aid to New York City and is more severe than the State Assembly’s proposed plan.
“If we don’t have any specificity in Albany, we have to act on what is a conservative best guess,” Bloomberg said.
Bloomberg said even if the state passes a less austere budget after teachers are already laid off, the city might

Two Union Workers Join Berkeley Hunger Strike � Student Activism

Two Union Workers Join Berkeley Hunger Strike � Student Activism

Two Union Workers Join Berkeley Hunger Strike

by Angus Johnston

Word out of UC Berkeley this afternoon is that two university employees — a custodian and a gardener — have added their bodies to the campus hunger strike we reported on earlier this week.
The workers, both AFSCME Local 3299 members, are joining about twenty other hunger strikers who have been camped out with several dozen supporters for the last four days.
A planned meeting between representatives of the demonstrators and university administrators was called off yesterday, one activist said, because the administration refused to allow an employee to join student representatives in the sit down.
The demonstrators say they will remain in place until their demands are met, while university officials say they

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Speaking truth to power

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Speaking truth to power

Speaking truth to power

by Mike Klonsky

Diane Ravitch is an educational traditionalist. That hasn't changed. She still doesn't fancy herself as aprogressive educator. Nor is she a fan of small schools. So why do I like her so much? With the very survival of public education hanging in the balance, Ravitch has emerged as a powerful voice on the most important issues of the day. She's become a loud, clear active force against the ownership society policies of Duncan and Bloomberg. She's speaking truth to power about testing, mass teacher firings, and school closings. Plus, she's pro-teacher and for their rights to bargain collectively. Progressive or traditionalist, how can you not like that?

In today's NYT, Richard Bernstein writes:

Ms. Ravitch’s basic idea is that the education bureaucrats, the politicians, and the heads of a

Secretary Duncan Visits George Mason High School in Falls Church, VA – ED.gov Blog

Secretary Duncan Visits George Mason High School in Falls Church, VA – ED.gov Blog

Secretary Duncan Visits George Mason High School in Falls Church, VA

Secretary Duncan continued his Teacher Appreciation Week tour with a morning stop at George Mason High School in Falls Church, Virginia.
After greeting students as they arrived, Duncan joined Principal Ty Byrd on morning announcements, where he praised the Mason school community for their commitment to excellence and reminded students to take a moment to thank their teachers for their hard work.
The tour continued with a stop at International Baccalaureate (IB) history teacher Jamie Scharff’s classroom, where he thanked Jamie for his 20 years of committed service and encouraged students to pursue a rigorous course of studies. At English teacher Karin Tooze’s classroom, he challenged students to consider becoming a teacher. “Do you know how many teachers we’ll need in the coming decade?” Duncan asked. “All of us,” replied a student.
The tour concluded with a stop to congratulate French teacher and coach Julie Braven for her work to help students fulfill the Mason Mustang’s creed: Excel in mind, body and character.
On Friday, May 7, the Secretary will wrap up his National Teacher Appreciation Week tour with a stop in New Orleans, Louisiana. While in New Orleans, Duncan and Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) President Marian Wright Edelman will host a roundtable discussion honoring more than a dozen African-American men inspired to become teachers after working as Servant Leader Interns in the CDF Freedom Schools® program.
See additional photos and coverage of Secretary Duncan’s visit this morning at the Falls Church City Public Schools website.
Todd May
Office of Communications and Outreach

Colorado Unions Split on Tenure Bill - Teacher Beat - Education Week

Colorado Unions Split on Tenure Bill - Teacher Beat - Education Week

Colorado Unions Split on Tenure Bill

by Stephen Sawchuk

Oh, snap!
There's a bit of a disagreement between Colorado teachers' unions over the tenure bill making its way through the state legislature. Why? Because the state National Education Association affiliate won't support the bill but the state American Federation of Teachers, which is admittedly much smaller, has endorsed it.
The AFT has decided to throw its weight behind the bill because of new amendments, expected to pass, that would: insert a due-process procedure for teachers that revert to probationary status after poor evaluations; maintain seniority as a tiebreaker when laying off "effective" teachers; include teacher input in placement

Was Race to the Top Authorized?

by Alyson Klein

Grover J. "Russ" Whitehurst, the former director of the Institute of Education Sciences, argues in this Education Week commentary that the Obama administration's signature education policy program, the $4 billion Race to the Top competition, was not authorized by Congress.
As a reporter who covered the development of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act very closely, I found his commentary thoughtful but, ultimately, I disagree with his conclusion that the program wasn't authorized.
In making his argument, Whitehurst takes a look at the actual language in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The bill says, in a nutshell, that the fund will be used to reward states that make progress on the four "assurances" spelled out in the law. Those include teacher quality and distribution, turning around low-performing schools, standards and assessments, and state data systems.
Whitehurst notes that there isn't anything about charter schools or even common standards in the ARRA. And he's absolutely right on that score.
But that doesn't mean the program wasn't authorized. In fact, as Whitehurst himself says, Congress gave

Education Research Report: Use of Social Media in the Classroom; Findings Indicate Tools Do Not Increase Connections or Social Capital Among Students ROCHESTER, N.Y., Ma

Education Research Report: Use of Social Media in the Classroom; Findings Indicate Tools Do Not Increase Connections or Social Capital Among Students ROCHESTER, N.Y., Ma

Use of Social Media in the Classroom; Findings Indicate Tools Do Not Increase Connections or Social Capital Among Students ROCHESTER, N.Y., Ma

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

A recent study by the Lab for Social Computing at Rochester Institute of Technology indicates that the use of social media in classroom settings has little effect on building connections or social capital among students.

The research, conducted as part of a course on social media tools, examined the use of course management systems and discussion groups to enhance classroom instruction, improve communication and connections between students and translate the benefits of social media interaction to the classroom. The results indicate that the educational use of social media may not counteract poor social connections that are seen in face-to-face communication or elicit the same impacts seen in the use of social media sites such as MySpace and FaceBook.

"Many social media advocates have argued that the use of these tools in classroom settings could greatly enhance interaction and learning and assist shyer, more reserved students in becoming more involved, as has

Literary Study in Grades 9, 10, and 11 in Arkansas

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

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The purpose of this study was to find out what major works English teachers in grades 9, 10, and 11 in Arkansas public schools assign their students in standard and honors courses and what approaches they use for teaching students how to read literary texts, both imaginative literature and literary non-fiction. The authors excluded Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and other advanced courses, all electives, as well as basic or remedial classes. The authors’ interest was in the middle third of Arkansas students. The authors surveyed over 400 Arkansas teachers (of a total of about 1400 in the state) and held two focus group meetings in each of the four Congressional districts in the state in the fall of 2009 to understand better their responses to the survey. Two major findings emerged from an analysis of their responses to the survey and their comments at the focus group meetings.

First, the authors found that much has changed in the content of the high school literature curriculum for students in standard or honors courses. The most frequently mentioned titles (usually described as the "classics") are assigned in only a small percentage of courses and, overall, the texts they assign do not increase in difficulty over the grades. Second, the authors found non-analytical approaches dominating teachers’