Latest News and Comment from Education

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Poorest Berkeley students to lose campus child care Education - ContraCostaTimes.com

Education - ContraCostaTimes.com

Poorest Berkeley students to lose campus child care

Updated: 05/13/2010 04:59:37 PM PDT




A handful of UC Berkeley's poorest students could have trouble attending school next year after the university stops subsidizing child care for parents who are unable to afford it themselves.
The school had been covering a portion of the cost of day care for children of students whose families make less than $40,000 per year. But state budget cuts made it impossible to sustain those subsidies, said Marty Takimoto, a spokesman for UC Berkeley housing services, which runs the day-care centers.
Student who already use the centers will not be affected, he said, but the centers will unable to take the children of 19 new students in the fall.
"Everyone agrees that child care's important, but there's a limited pot of money," Takimoto said. "The decision's been made."
Most parents — including students and UC Berkeley employees — pay the full cost for child care, ranging from $1,400 per month for preschoolers to nearly $1,900 per month for infants.
For preschool-age children, the state pays $680 of the monthly cost for low-income students, and student fees pay an additional $450. That leaves $270 per month that the school pays itself, Takimoto said.
Without the subsidized child care, some students will probably be unable to attend college next year, said Melinda Pilling, who graduated from the UC Berkeley law school in December. Because her husband works at the

Elk Grove Citizen : News Grand Jury calls school district’s unpaid health benefits a ‘fiscal time bomb’

Elk Grove Citizen : News

Grand Jury calls school district’s unpaid health benefits a ‘fiscal time bomb’



By Cody Kitaura - Citizen Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, May 13, 2010 5:02 PM PDT
The Elk Grove Unified School District (EGUSD) and most other districts in the Sacramento area lack funding to pay millions of dollars in retiree health benefit costs and aren’t setting aside money to do so, the Sacramento County Grand Jury claimed in a report issued this week.

The district owes $33 million in retiree health benefit costs and is paying on a year-to-year basis, while its retiree trust fund owes $214 million, the report states.

Grand Jury Foreperson Rosemary Kelley said many Sacramento County school districts signed retiree benefit contracts during better times and are now suffering.

“Unfortunately, most of the districts never actually set aside any money to pay these benefits, believing that their general funds each year would be sufficient to pay the obligations,” Kelley wrote in the May 10 report, which says the county’s 13 districts and office of education are largely ignoring the issue of how they will pay for these benefits in the future.

EGUSD is one of only three groups named in the report that provide lifetime benefits. It only pays direct health benefit costs for employees who retired before July 1, 2000 – a group of 412 retirees that will decrease over time, EGUSD spokesperson Elizabeth Graswich said.

The amount the district pays on that $33 million debt is “reviewed each year,” according to a district statement quoted in the report. The report goes on to criticize that approach.

“The problem with pay-as-you-go is that districts may not have sufficient funds to pay the current year’s retiree health benefits and also pay for necessary school programs,” the report states.

More recent EGUSD retirees’ health benefits are funded by the Elk Grove Benefit Employee

City argues appeal of closure suit before panel of skeptical judges | GothamSchools

City argues appeal of closure suit before panel of skeptical judges | GothamSchools

City argues appeal of closure suit before panel of skeptical judges

City lawyers asked a panel of appellate court judges today to overturn a lower court ruling that halted the Department of Education’s plans to shutter 19 schools.
But in oral arguments, the judges seemed warmer to the arguments of lawyers representing the city teachers union, who sued to stop the school closings.
If the appellate court overturns the initial ruling, the 19 schools could begin phasing out starting in the fall. If not, the city will have to wait to re-launch the school closing process until next year. Either way, the case will likely end up writing a sort of court-approved plan for how the city builds its case to shutter low-performing schools in the future.
The lower court ruling, handed down by Judge Joan Lobis in March, found that the city’s public process to close

Remainders: Bull market for teacher hiring preceded bust

The Perimeter Primate: An Aspire primer

The Perimeter Primate: An Aspire primer

An Aspire primer

Aspire Public Schools is a major CMO in California. The Gates Foundation just recently secured Aspire’s continued growth. It didn’t hurt that Aspire’s co-founder, Don Shalvey, started working for the Gates Foundation in March 2009. Additional information about the Oakland Aspire schools is at the end of the article.

SEATTLE — The Gates and Schwab Foundations announced Thursday they will back a California charter school network's efforts to secure $93 million in tax-exempt bonds to help them expand and serve more than 4,000 new students.
The unique financing arrangement is known as a Program Related Investment.
Both the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation have provided $8 million in unfunded guarantees to Aspire Public Schools to back the charter

Text of SJSU president's resignation announcement - San Jose Mercury News

Text of SJSU president's resignation announcement - San Jose Mercury News

Text of SJSU president's resignation announcement

Updated: 05/13/2010 04:11:02 PM PDT




Dear San Jose State University community,
There is no easy way to say this to all of you, so I will simply be open and forthright. It is with deeply mixed feelings that I announce I am stepping down as President of San Jose State University late this summer.
A unique and wholly unexpected opportunity has been presented to me beginning in the fall, an offer I have just accepted. Specifically, I will become the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ACT Inc., an international not-for-profit corporation headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa. ACT is most likely known to you as the creator and administrator of the annual ACT test for high school students. But ACT has grown into a global organization that offers a broad array of assessment, research, information, and program management solutions in the areas of education and workforce development. This opportunity is intriguing and challenging in ways that I have never experienced i

Obama Administration Supports Emergency Funding to Save Teacher Jobs – ED.gov Blog

Obama Administration Supports Emergency Funding to Save Teacher Jobs – ED.gov Blog

Obama Administration Supports Emergency Funding to Save Teacher Jobs

This afternoon Secretary Duncan sent the following letter to congressional leadership on President Obama’s behalf, supporting the legislation that has been crafted to respond directly and urgently to help states and school districts save jobs and continue serving students in the upcoming school year. In the letter the Secretary urges Congress to include in the supplemental appropriations bills $23 billion in emergency support to preserve education jobs, along with $1 billion in funds to preserve early childhood education jobs and an additional $2 billion to support public safety.
The full text of Secretary Duncan’s letter to Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid is below and here:
May 13, 2010
Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Honorable Harry Reid
Majority Leader
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Madam Speaker and Mr. Leader:
We are gravely concerned that ongoing state and local budget challenges are threatening hundreds of thousands of teacher jobs for the upcoming school year, with estimates ranging from 100,000 to 300,000 education jobs at risk. Without swift action, millions of children will experience these budget cuts in one way or another through reductions in class time; cuts to early childhood programs, extracurricular activities, and summer school; and reduced course offerings as teachers are laid off. These budget cuts would also undermine the groundbreaking reform efforts underway in states and districts all across the country.
At the very same time as schools face these challenges, budget cuts to police and fire departments threaten to undermine public safety and the emergency readiness of first-responders. All of these budget cuts threaten to cause damage that ripples through the economy as a whole. The layoffs create a new drag on the economy when – despite the recent encouraging jobs report – we still have a long way to go.
We applaud Chairmen Harkin, Miller and Obey for crafting legislation in direct response to these challenges. S. 3206, the Keep Our Educators Working Act, H.R. 2847, the Jobs for Main Street Act, and H.R. 4812, the Local Jobs for America Act, each call for $23 billion in emergency support to preserve education jobs modeled after the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) established in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This funding would keep teachers in the classroom while helping to sustain meaningful and necessary reforms in public education across the country.
We urge Congress to include this funding in the supplemental appropriations bills soon to be considered. We also urge Congress to include $2 billion in support to localities for police and firefighters to ensure that our communities remain safe, as well as $1 billion in funds for the Child Care and Development Block Grant to preserve early childhood education jobs and ensure that our youngest children do not lose the supports and services critical to their learning and overall well-being.
Thank you for your consideration of these views. The Obama Administration looks forward to working with Congress to refine this legislation as it moves through the legislative process.
Sincerely,
/s/
Arne Duncan
cc:Honorable Daniel K. Inouye
Honorable Tom Harkin
Honorable David Obey
Honorable George Miller

Reaction to Brown's departure from S. Philly | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Reaction to Brown's departure from S. Philly | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Reaction to Brown's departure from S. Philly

Superintedent Arlene Ackerman said that there is a racial divide among the staff at South Philadelphia High School. She commented after leaving a meeting with teachers to discuss the resignation and immediate departure of South Philly principal LaGreta Brown.
South Philly High students did not know about Brown's resignation until told by a reporter.
"I'm surprised with the news, but it's a good thing she finally left," said Duc Le, a 17-year-old junior at South

1,669 'i3' Applications Received by Education Department - Politics K-12 - Education Week

1,669 'i3' Applications Received by Education Department - Politics K-12 - Education Week

1,669 'i3' Applications Received by Education Department

By yesterday's 4:30 p.m. deadline, 1,669 districts, schools, and nonprofits had turned in their applications for the $650 million Investing in Innovation Fund, according to a summary document posted this afternoon on the U.S. Department of Education's website.
From a logistical standpoint, that number may be a relief for the department from the nearly 2,500 entities that filed notices of intent indicating they might apply. Such a huge applicant pool would have required a ton of peer reviewers, although more than 1,600 isn't necessarily going to make things easy.
In that applicant pool, we don't yet know the breakdown of how many want the big $50 million "scale-up" grants, the smaller $30 million "validation" grants, or the smallest $5 million "development" grants. But the Education

We Need a “GED” for College Students � The Quick and the Ed

We Need a “GED” for College Students � The Quick and the Ed

We Need a “GED” for College Students

Almost 27 million Americans, 13.6 percent of all adults, are college dropouts.* To put that in perspective, that’s 10 million more than the number who have completed associates degrees and more than the number who’ve completed Master’s, professional, and doctoral degrees combined. These are adults over the age of 25 who were once enrolled in higher education somewhere but did not finish any certificate or degree and are no longer enrolled to do so. Unlike high school, where a dropout has the chance to earn an equivalent diploma through a battery of tests, students who drop out of college get no credit. Their money, plus the taxpayer dollars invested in them, goes down the drain. To remedy this problem, higher education needs its own version of the GED.
General Educational Development tests were launched in 1942 to support World War II veterans who, upon returning from the war without a high school credential, wanted to attend college or find a job requiring a high school degree. Applicants must take a battery of five subject area tests and to pass they must meet certain

QUICK Hits

Quick Hits
Quick Hits is a short compilation of question-raising news stories, blog posts, and video clips that Education Sector team members are reading and viewing each day. The content of these Hits is not necessarily endorsed by the organization or any particular team member.

Education | College for all? Experts say not necessarily | Seattle Times Newspaper

Education | College for all? Experts say not necessarily| Seattle Times Newspaper

College for all? Experts say not necessarily

In a town dominated by the University of Missouri's flagship campus and two smaller colleges, higher education is practically a birthright for high school seniors like Kate Hodges.
Associated Press Writer
COLUMBIA, Mo. —
In a town dominated by the University of Missouri's flagship campus and two smaller colleges, higher education is practically a birthright for high school seniors like Kate Hodges.
She has a 3.5 grade-point-average, a college savings account and a family tree teeming with advanced degrees. But in June, Hodges is headed to the Tulsa Welding School in Oklahoma, where she hopes to earn an associate's degree in welding technology in seven months.
"They fought me so hard," she said, referring to disappointed family members. "They still think I'm going to college."
The notion that a four-year degree is essential for real success is being challenged by a growing number of economists, policy analysts and academics. They say more Americans should consider other options such as technical training or two-year schools, which have been embraced in Europe for decades.
As evidence, experts cite rising student debt, stagnant graduation rates and a struggling job market flooded with overqualified degree-holders. They pose a fundamental question: Do too many students go to college?
"College is what every parent wants for their child," said Martin Scaglione, president and chief operating

The Education Report California’s schools, ranked again

The Education Report

California’s schools, ranked again

By Katy Murphy
Thursday, May 13th, 2010 at 1:23 pm in test scores

Test prep. File photo by Cindi Christi, Bay Area News Group
In case you’re not already having dreams (or nightmares) about No. 2 pencils and bubbles, I’m here to bring you data on last year’s state tests. Hey, don’t blame the timing on me! The state settled on the release date.
The California Department of Education sorted schools of each type, statewide, and gave them a rank from 1 (low) to 10 (high). Those whose API scores were in the lowest 10 percent (of all elementary schools, for example, or of all high schools) are ranked 1; those in the highest 10 percent are ranked 10. About 77 percent of

John Lennon Educational Tour Bus Visits ED – ED.gov Blog

John Lennon Educational Tour Bus Visits ED – ED.gov Blog

John Lennon Educational Tour Bus Visits ED

John Lennon Educational Tour Bus Visits EDInspiring the next famous music composer, producer, or performer was the mission when ED played host to the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus on May 11th. Students from D.C. metro area school districts toured the bus to learn about the latest in music recording and production and then shared their own musical talents with Secretary Duncan, former Secretary Dick Riley, ED employees, and special guests from music organizations with a lunchtime concert on the Department’s plaza.
The Lennon Educational Tour Bus provides students with access to the latest music, audio, video, and broadcast technologies. The program works with local partners to schedule free events for middle, high-school, and college-age students to tour the bus, and experience the fascinating worlds of music production, and video and digital photography. The program is sponsored by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) as part of a project to expose students to the latest music, audio, video, and broadcast technologies.
For more information about the tour bus, visit: http://www.lennonbus.org/.
Todd May
Office of Communications and Outreach


John Lennon Educational Tour Bus Visits EDJohn Lennon Educational Tour Bus Visits EDJohn Lennon Educational Tour Bus Visits ED
John Lennon Educational Tour Bus Visits EDJohn Lennon Educational Tour Bus Visits ED

The Magic Number in Teacher Evaluations - Teacher Beat - Education Week

The Magic Number in Teacher Evaluations - Teacher Beat - Education Week

The Magic Number in Teacher Evaluations

In what is probably the most aggressive Race-to-the-Top-inspired evaluation and tenure-reform bill to pass so far, Colorado's bill passed with most of the core details intact. It includes a requirement that teachers be deemed "effective" three years running to earn tenure and a provision that would cause teachers to revert to probationary status if they have two successive "ineffective" ratings. (An appeals process will be granted to such teachers.)
New York officials, in the meantime, have struck an agreement that would base 40 percent of the evaluation on student achievement. It also specifies that state standardized-test scores won't be more than than 20 percent of the evaluation with local measures forming the other 20 percent. The state legislature still must approve it.
The New York example is significant for another reason, though. Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, but it's the only one I know of so far that's finalized a student-achievement weight that's less than 50 percent.

On Politically Favored Groups Raiding Public Coffers � The Quick and the Ed

On Politically Favored Groups Raiding Public Coffers � The Quick and the Ed

On Politically Favored Groups Raiding Public Coffers


The National Bureau of Economic Research still has a big question mark in place for the end date of the U.S. economic recession that it says began in December 2007. During the most brutally dreadful and bleak moments of this recession, not many workers in any industry were faring well—wages were mostly flat or declining, and jobs were bleeding out like an ER patient on a tawdry episode of Grey’s Anatomy.
But please take note that the public school teachers, principals, and support staff who kept their jobs (i.e., the more “experienced” workers protected by their unions) were doing noticeably better, on average, than all other workers in America, as measured by BLS’s Employment Cost Index. As a politically favored group, the ARRA pumped a lot of money their way (see red spike in graph). Now that the money has been spent and public

Janice Adams VS. LAUSD Revisited... - Perdaily.com

Janice Adams VS. LAUSD Revisited... - Perdaily.com

Janice Adams VS. LAUSD Revisited...

ladyjustice.jpg

We recently received a comment regarding an earlier post on perdaily and my own rather continuing tenuous situation at LAUSD:

"Gloria Allread's firm took a hit in the Janice Adams vs. LAUSD case where it went to trial, the jury came back unanimously in her favor, they polled the jury on each count, they were unanimous in her favor, and then the judge did non obstante verdicto- he vacated the jury verdict which forced the case up on appeal. By that time Allread's firm was out of it and had out of pocket losses on the case of $70,000." --Leonard Isenberg

In response Michael wrote:

I believe that the amount of corruption in the courts is unbelievable in this country. I think that there are a lot of back-room deals that get made, which make it virtually impossible to get a fair shake if you are a small person going up against a big corporation, or in particular a government agency.

Small fish vs. small fish, you are probably OK. Small fish vs. big govt or big business and you are screwed from the beginning.

Take the case I mentioned (I believe in Texas.) A guy was tried and convicted of murder and sentenced to death. It was discovered after the fact that the judge on the case and the prosecutor were having a sexual affair during the trial. The accused appealed to have the trial overturned and a new trial ordered owing to what was

LaGreta Brown steps down from S. Philly Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Philadelphia Public School Notebook

LaGreta Brown steps down from S. Philly

by Paul Socolar on May 13 2010 Posted in Latest news
The School District has confirmed that LaGreta Brown, the embattled principal of South Philadelphia High School resigned effective immediately. A release from the District names Otis D. Hackney, III , principal at Springfield Township High School as the new principal.
According to a teacher at the school, a faculty vote of "no confidence" in Brown was scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
The Inquirer reports that Brown's principal's certification is currently inactive. She had agreed to leave at the end of the school year, but due to the certification issue she left today.

The Sound of Eyes Opening | Intercepts

The Sound of Eyes Opening | Intercepts

The Sound of Eyes Opening

On a personal level, it’s gratifying to see articles and blog posts like these all in one week:
* “One set of numbers really jumped out – from 2000 to 2008, the number of school-age children in Ohiodecreased 6.7% but the number of K-12 teachers increased 17.7%.
* “Gov. Jim Douglas is lashing out at Vermont lawmakers over taxes and spending, saying they’ve done little to stop school property taxes from rising in an era of declining student populations.”
* “In the past decade, states and districts spent the windfall that inflated property tax rolls generated during the good times. Now that the bill’s come due, Harkin is calling for the feds to subsidize this inflated level of spending even as the economy clanks and grinds its way out of the bubble years.”
* “Teacher Layoffs May Be Linked to Hiring Spree
* “Ed Week: ‘What Goes Up Must Come Down‘”
On a policy level, it’s too late to do anything about it the painless way. It’s only human nature to wait until it’s raining to think about fixing the leaky roof. It didn’t take any special insight to note in June 2008 that “If New York

Education Research Report: Time spent in school as the critical factor driving that improvement

Education Research Report: Time spent in school as the critical factor driving that improvement


Time spent in school as the critical factor driving that improvement

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Disadvantaged students who attend Boston’s charter schools showed significant improvement compared to peers at more traditional schools and a new report released today by the Boston Foundation identifies time spent in school as the critical factor driving that improvement.

On average, a student at a charter school in Boston will receive the equivalent of at least 62 full school days more school time over the course of a 180-day school year than his or her counterpart in traditional schools, the cumulative effect of two-plus hours more instruction time per day. And that is before adding extra days in the


Behavior Game Played in Primary Grades Reduces Later Drug-Related Problems

Complete article

Awarding smiley-face stickers to teams of first-graders in Baltimore for the good behavior of the individual team members greatly increased the likelihood that the students would experience an adolescence free of substance abuse and dependence. Teachers gave out the stickers and other token rewards and penalties in the Good Behavior Game (GBG), a classroom activity designed to inculcate appropriate behavior during children's first 2 years in school.

"The GBG gives teachers an effective method of managing behavior in the classroom and of teaching children how to be students," says Dr. Sheppard Kellam of the American Institutes for Research in Washington, D.C.

AS THE TWIG IS BENT Young adults who had played the Good Behavior Game in first and second grade were less likely to smoke cigarettes or abuse drugs than those who hadn't played the game. Males whose first-grad